Reflections From Dubai...

Timeframes & Lenses

#ChangeJourneys

I have been in Dubai only for 2 days, joined Step Conference 2016 and met with people in IBM cloud services who are the driving force of IBM to launch start up ecosystems connecting governments and independent local partners all around the world to design and apply innovative and sustainable ecosystem transformations for both start up & corporate players.

This post though is about a high level reflection of my personal experience which is also a confession. Let me start with saying that; I was wrong about Dubai and the region overall. Why?

I always had a prejudice to come here, even after doing many years of working with my clients in this region, since 2007. Making business happen remotely was my choice in several companies I was running, after all this region was authentic to many colleagues already, they were happy to work in Dubai, I was happy to stay in Istanbul. My prejudice was spesifically about the fear of being trapped in an environment which would be highly uncomfortable for a woman, dictating how to talk, act and dress. Honestly, Dubai is as comfy as a European city, and far more advanced in attitude towards women compared to Turkey.

Secondly, I always believed; the ambition of this region would be to follow up Turkey as an example in business, social and cultural life. Wrong. Just by reading everyday news, enviously I realize how advanced the region is in the way they present news to readers, treating them as educated and aware individuals with all the structured storytelling, proof of data and being visionary human centric the way they take the ‘individual development’ as the core focus of all issues (from economy to politics, from culture to sports).

Here is an example of how they treat digital transformation in education quoting Dr Ali Al Nuami; ‘Teachers need to understand that today’s children understand technology better than they do. So it’s up to educators to catch up with them, and then use these smart devices to make learning enjoyable and engaging.’ Quite the opposite approach of many leaders in Turkey where digital has been reflected as the core, as if human factor was not a significant component.

Read the rest of the post here.