Rooted in the Future

What does it mean for a nation to forge a legacy?

In a place where entire landscapes can change in months, legacy clearly does not live in buildings and infrastructure. In a place that is home to millions of individuals from hundreds of nations, it’s also not limited by ethnicity. For a nation that embraces its past while boldly blazing a path into a global and even extra-planetary future, that legacy is not restricted by space and time.

When it comes to the UAE, I believe its legacy lies in infusing the same ethos and values that founded this nation into every person and organisation that calls it home. That sheer sense of possibility, of vision made reality, of strength in unity, compassion, true hospitality and flexibility, is in this nation’s DNA. It is the UAE’s living legacy.

Legacy at work

Some of my earliest memories of the UAE are the same ones shared by many in the broader MENASA region. For many of us and our families, the UAE was an oasis, a haven of safety and security, a place that welcomed us, encouraged us to dream big and helped us achieve those dreams. It was then, as it is now, a place that opened the future to us while allowing us to retain our roots.

This is also true for business. Whether we first established on the banks of the creek or in the newer business hubs, we have all benefited from Dubai and the UAE’s proactive, pro-business traditions. Dubai’s heritage and prowess as a trading hub, driven by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and his father before him, has given us the example and confidence to foray further and further afield into new trade relationships around the world and into new sectors and industries.

In its championing of entrepreneurs and SMEs, it has also patterned for us how to work together, how to expand the ecosystem and create a bigger pie rather than share ever-smaller pieces of the same pie. In its willingness to break new ground, it has challenged us to keep pace with and exceed the best in the world; in its support of private-public partnerships at home, it has given us a template for how to operate outside its borders. It has, in short, rooted us in the future.

Lessons in leadership ?

For all of us who call the UAE home, it’s clear that the nation’s legacy lives and thrives because of its leadership. Just as many long-term expatriates have fond memories of the late HH Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum and HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, I hope I will never forget how, in the early and confusing days of the pandemic, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan reassured every citizen and resident of the UAE – all those who make the UAE their home – of the nation’s protection and provision.

This, like the expansion of long-term residency and citizenship to those who share the UAE’s heart, is true hospitality and compassion.

How do we as individuals and businesses honour and continue this legacy? For us at Majid Al Futtaim, we have made a start, thanks to the vision and stewardship of our founder and the efforts of countless individuals who delivered and expanded on that vision in the last 26 years. ?

We are firmly rooted in the UAE’s legacy and strive to carry it forward into the future in all that we do. We are honoured to be able to provide homes and communities in a place that has been our home and our community. We seek to build up the people and the future of the nation that built us up and gave us a future, as individuals and as an organisation. We take risks, dream big and work hard because we’ve been raised on a steady diet of ambition and accomplishment. We endeavour to create great moments for everyone everyday because of the great moments we have been given and continue to experience here.

We endeavour to lead, regionally and even globally, because we want to mirror the leadership we have been rooted in and inspired by.

50 Years – Just the Beginning

As we mark UAE National Day, let’s remember that this is the start of our 50th anniversary celebrations and not the end. Throughout this year, we will share more of the countless memories we have of this fine nation and how it has enabled us to be ‘Rooted in the Future,’ and I welcome you all to do the same.

To the people and organisations of the UAE, to all of us fortunate enough to be part of its legacy, and from all of us at Majid Al Futtaim – Happy UAE National Day!