This past weekend, I spoke at a conference at Harvard on business in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Other speakers included the COO of Mubadala, Goldman Sachs’ Head of MENA Investment Banking, and the founder of McKinsey’s Dubai office. The first of its kind, the weekend-long event was a great success with over 400 participants.
The most powerful message of the conference was not the content presented, but the confidence with which the region was showcased.
Speaker after speaker touted the scale and dynamism of opportunities in the Middle East. Reflective of the business environment, discussions focused almost entirely on the Gulf – the most promising business cluster, despite its small population relative to North Africa and the Levant.
Newfound confidence, especially in regional and local firms, was especially evident in two aspects of the conference: the roster of speakers and the list of firms actively recruiting young talent.
The closing keynote speaker (and, arguably, the most anticipated of the conference) was neither a Nobel Laureate academic nor a partner at a top-tier global consulting firm: it was Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi, COO of Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Company. Attendees and Al Muhairi himself had every reason to be confident in Mubadala – the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority had, after all, just made a $7.5 billion capital injection into Citigroup while many other leading investment firms have run for the hills due to the subprime financial crisis.
Throughout the event, representatives of top-notch local firms – including Dubai’s Istithmar and Abraaj Capital, Bahrain’s Investcorp, and Kuwait’s Agility – held equal billing to their counterparts from global banks and advisory firms. And speakers from local firms in many ways generated greater “buzz” amongst attendees.
The Career Fair component of the weekend featured an impressive number of 18 leading firms. As one would expect, McKinsey, Goldman, Booz, and Monitor – traditional participants in Harvard recruiting events – were well represented. More remarkable was the fact that 11 of the 18 firms (including Saudi Aramco, Etisalat, Mubadala, Istithmar, and more) were local or regional companies. For the first time, “blue chip” consulting firms found themselves competing on their home turf with these Gulf-based firms for top MBA talent.
(For more on recruitment strategies for Gulf businesses, see Chapter 7 – “Building Your Team: Human Capital Strategies for the GCC” – of Dubai & Co.)
Just a few years ago, such a prominent showing of Gulf and MENA firms at Harvard would have been unimaginable. Today, however, firms in the region increasingly represent some of the most exciting opportunities in global business. As long as the Gulf’s “opportunity formula” – sustained prosperity, attractive demographic shifts, and ongoing regulatory reform – remains in place, expect to see the international confidence of its leading firms grow.