United Arab Emirates (UAE) – Umar Saleem - Communicating with Other Cultures
Rafael Pinto
Manager of International Business Development | Consultant of Training | Cross-Cultural Communication Specialist | Director of Internationalization | Networking | Entrepreneurship
Following up on the first post of my newsletter on LinkedIn, I am sharing this week’s article with a summary of the interview I did with Umar Saleem, from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Umar Saleem, originally from Pakistan, has been living in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), for nearly 30 years. He co-runs a Middle East based boutique advisory firm with business partners, focusing primarily on projects in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
The firm is called Maven Investment Partners, comprising of senior industry veterans with extensive experience in Corporate Finance Advisory, M&A Advisory, Transformation & Restructuring Advisory, Interim & Crisis Management and Corporate Governance Initiatives. They partner with shareholders and management teams to help them achieve their strategic objectives.?
The article below is only a short summary of the conversation I had with Umar, but in the recorded video, you will gain insights into the unique dynamics of the majlis, traditional social gatherings held in an open-house format where locals often discuss business. Umar also explores the impact of the UAE’s large expat population on interactions between foreigners and locals. With nearly 30 years of experience living and working in Dubai and the region, he shares valuable lessons and perspectives. Read and/or watch the video to learn more.? Don’t miss out on Umar’s full interview on this direct link.
For more information about Umar, and his work, you can reach him through these links:
Company website: www.mavenip.net
Maven's LinkedIn Page:
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As I mentioned in the first post of this newsletter, all the international interviewees will be asked the same 7 questions.? The objective is for us to learn new insights on the most effective way to communicate and understand different cultures when doing business in the specific country where the interviewees work at.?
This will help the foreign businessperson who wants to enter a new market to increase empathy and cultural understanding with their international colleagues, clients, or partners.?
We will be publishing the fully recorded interviews on our recently rebranded and relaunched YouTube Channel.?? I will share a summarized version of each of the interviews through a new article in this newsletter.? ?Don’t forget to subscribe to the YouTube Channel and receive updates of the future interviews we will be organizing.?
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So, let’s begin!
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The 7 questions, and Umar’s answers, are the following:
1.?Tell us more about you and what kind of work you do.
Umar works at Maven Investment Partners (www.mavenip.net), based out of Dubai.?
The firm has 3 verticals:
A.???? M&A work, with buy side and sell side transactions.? They help their investors buy and sell businesses, along with support in fundraising, both for debt and equity.
B.???? Transformation and restructuring work across family offices and portfolio companies of private equity firms.? They help improve the bottom line and EBITDA performance of these companies. ?
C.??? Corporate governance initiatives.? They help companies with their Board Charters, Committee Charters, along with taking on independent board positions, and preparing companies for an IPO or listing on one of the exchanges in the region.?
Umar arrived in the Middle East region in 1996, almost 30 years ago.? Therefore, he is quite familiar with the local traditions and culture of doing business in the region.
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2.?What are some things you recommend people to do or say when first meeting and speaking with a person with whom they might initiate a new project or business opportunity together in the UAE?? What should someone not do or say?
Umar starts off by emphasizing that the Middle East is a more relationship driven society than a transactional society.? One should always start with pleasantries.? When first meeting someone local, you should say As-salamu alaykum, which means, peace be upon you.?
And if someone says that to you, you can respond by saying, Wa alaykumu s-salam. ?This will go well with the local business community, Umar says.
Before speaking about business, or the transactional part of the meetings, as is more common in the Western side of the world when you enter a meeting for the first time, Umar reinforces that you should first establish a personal connection with the locals.
In the UAE, people are more reserved and slower, in the sense that people prefer to get to know you better first, instead of diving into business talk immediately.? Umar recommends you spend a bit of time understanding the other person.? Where they come from, and their background.? Ask about their family.
What you should not do, according to Umar, is to talk about religion, or about things that are sensitive to Islam, for example.? Avoid talking about alcohol, pork, or other significant things that are not accepted in the religion.
Dress appropriately.? If you a man, do dress in a more formal business attire during meetings.? If you are a woman, it is best to dress more on the conservative side.?
When exchanging handshakes, it is acceptable to shake a man’s hand when first meeting him.? However, when meeting a woman, it may be best to let her extend her hand first.?
Another important point brought up by Umar is to be prepared for negotiations.? Do not start with your walk away price.? Always add more value to the price so that there can be room for negotiation.?
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3.?We recognize that it is important to have a deeper cultural understanding of a local place when doing business there.? What cultural aspects might be considered when doing business in the UAE?
A strong emphasis on cultural understanding is essential to build trust and to foster long-term success in the UAE, Umar states.
One important cultural aspect to consider is the prayer schedule for the Muslims in the country.? For 5 times a day, but during working hours it can be up to 3 times a day, you should be considerate when the locals step away (from a meeting, for example) to pray. ??Be respectful for this practice.?
Related to religion as well, there is the holy month of Ramadan. ?People fast from sunrise to sunset.? You should avoid asking for coffee or tea in business meetings during the day.? Avoid chewing gum, for example, so that it doesn’t show you with something in your mouth during this fasting period.?
Another interesting aspect from a cultural standpoint, Umar describes, is to consider the hierarchy and decision-making process. ?It is important to respect the hierarchy during the meetings.?
When sitting in front of family members, the management team, and others related to the business team, it is still essential to first acknowledge and focus your attention on the patriarch (head) of the family sitting in the room.? Even if he may not be a key decision maker or may later delegate things to the management team or the younger members of the family.? Umar shares that these younger members of the family are usually called the G2 or G3, which means second generation and third generation, respectively.
Umar also mentions that in that part of the world, from a cultural perspective, people generally avoid saying no.?
If someone does not want to continue working with you, perhaps they are not convinced with the investment idea presented, or anything else, they may typically say, inshallah, which means, God willing.
They will not say directly to you that they do not like the opportunity, or that they would like to decline the project for the following reasons, etc.? That would not be the most culturally appropriate way of doing things in the UAE.? They are very polite.?
They may say inshallah, or that they will think about it and get back to you soon.
People come out of these meetings thinking that they had a good meeting, but it is not always the case. ?It is important to read body language, and this indirect communication can say a lot.? You need to be observant of this as well. ?Read between the lines, Umar recommends.?
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4. If someone does not speak Arabic, what do you suggest a foreigner do to be able to communicate more successfully with locals in the UAE, and to be able to do business there?
After almost 3 decades living and working in Dubai, Umar confidently states that around 95%, if not 99% of the people in the business community, speak and understand English.? They might not be completely fluent, but they will speak well.?
The younger generation is almost fluent, Umar says.? The older generation can communicate well and are very well-traveled.
Its rare to come across people that you would interact with in a normal business environment that would not speak English well.?
In the case that you do meet people who are not comfortable speaking in English, although they may understand it, they would prefer to answer in Arabic.? In this scenario, take someone with you to the meeting that does understand Arabic and can help translate if needed.?
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5. To get better results in visibility or sales, what are your recommendations on the most effective ways to do marketing for products or services in the UAE?
Umar begins by explaining that it depends on the product or service that you are offering, as a foreign company looking to sell in the UAE.?
If it is a product, it is similar to anywhere else in the world, where you develop some standard marketing tools and marketing channels.?
For a service, Umar highlights that it is a little different.? In reference to professional services, which is the business he and his partners are involved in, it is more based on word-of-mouth recommendations and connections.?
Umar provides the 80/20 rule as an example.? That approximately 20% of the businesspeople control around 80% of the businesses.? And in general, people talk to each other to learn from each other’s experiences dealing with certain companies or business involvements in the past.
There is a strong culture in the Middle East of majlis, which are social gatherings in an open-house format.?
Most large families will have a majlis in their own home in the evening, where anybody can literally walk in. ?There is limited or no security at all.? No formal invitation is required.
The head of the family will go and sit in his masnad, between certain hours, from 7 pm to 9 pm, for example.? This could be in the back garden or somewhere inside the house.?
Everyone sits in a U-shaped setting and people will come in, pay their respects to the family hosting the majlis, and proceed to talk amongst themselves.?
If you hire a particular advisor for a mandate you are seeking to obtain for a business opportunity, for example, then the person will sit with his friends and other colleagues in the majlis and discuss this opportunity.?
It’s a very open society, and people tend to feel more comfortable chatting amongst their peers in this kind of environment (in a majlis).?
To win such mandates, from a marketing standpoint, Umar explains that you need to do a good job in presenting the opportunity.? Deliver on what you promised to deliver in terms of information and explanation of the business prospect and then let the word of mouth do the marketing.?
Umar concludes this question by reminding us that in this part of the world, to check credibility and do a client “background check,” so to speak, people just pick up their phone and call their network of contacts.? By calling some of their friends or other business associates that have done business with this new client, you can learn if this client pays on time and other business clarifications.?
It also helps to determine which mandates that a businessperson in Dubai is likely to accept or decline, based on feedback and history that their contacts in the country have had with the foreign company, for example.? ???
On the other hand, in the Western world, it is more common to do credit checks, or identify who their client is and if they have the ability to pay for the services, etc. ?
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6. If a business partner in the UAE wants to get to know you better, and invites you to a local coffee / tea place, restaurant, or wants to do a “virtual happy hour” via Zoom, what are the kinds of topics people in the UAE like to talk about, and that is not related to business, for example??
By looking at the demographics in many of the countries in the Middle East, including in the UAE and in Saudi Arabia in particular, you can see that there is a significant portion of an expat population living there.?
Therefore, the locals in these countries are accustomed to working and living alongside expat populations.? In Dubai specifically, there are approximately 150 nationalities living in the city, Umar mentions.?
The locals are curious, Umar says.? They are well educated and have traveled around the world as well.? So, they do want to understand and learn more about other people’s cultures.? Where they come from and so on.? Many locals have been to the different countries where these expats are from, so they have a lot of common things to talk about as well.
If a local does invite you to a local coffee or tea shop, then it demonstrates that they are willing to spend more time with you and learn more about you as a person, because establishing a relationship is far more important than the transaction.?
They are always looking for long-term relationships and they want to be able to judge you and make sure they can trust you for a business opportunity.? They want to get to know you at a deeper level.?
People in the region are generally very hospitable, Umar points out.
It is not like the more “common” and standard western cultural where work meetings happen during working hours and then afterwards, people tend to go back to their homes or hotels (if they are coming in from another city).?
In Dubai, it is assumed that after the work discussions are over, it is normal to be invited to dinner to continue the relationship building exercise.?
The locals in Dubai love to learn, and they want to understand more about your culture and your background.? What interests do you have??
The younger generation are keen to learn more about technology, or about the crypto space, for example.?
Sports is a very popular topic to discuss with the locals.? In Saudi Arabia, there is a big push on golf, tennis, and there is a growing Saudi football (soccer) league.? Formula 1 is a hot topic in the region, because there are some races in the calendar of Formula 1 hosted in some of the countries there.
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7. What one word should everyone learn to say in Arabic, and why??
The one-word Umar stressed for everyone to learn is, Shukran, which means, Thank You.
It is a polite gesture, thanking other people for their hospitality.? Thanking them for their time and for listening to you.?
It makes the other person feel appreciated.??
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Umar ends the interview by reminding everyone that the region comes out in the media for the wrong reasons at times. ??There are things he has seen in the media that are far from the truth, regarding the UAE or the region.? ?The region is robust, the region is growing, and there are a lot of expats moving into the different cities and countries there, especially to Dubai.?
There is a lot of potential, from an investment standpoint.? He welcomes anyone interested in participating in the boom of the Middle East, especially in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.? He is seeing it happening now, with clients coming from all over the world, who are looking to set up operations in the region for a number of reasons.? These include safety, security, the tax environment, and even avoiding the trade war that is going on between the East and West.?
Umar also mentioned that recently he read a report that quoted that more than 600 millionaires moved to the UAE in the last 12 months alone.
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I hope you enjoyed this summary of the conversation with Umar, and don’t forget to watch the full interview with his through this direct link, and subscribe to our recently rebranded and relaunched YouTube Channel for more content on cross-cultural communication tips and lessons learned to share with everyone.?
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Would you like to recommend someone for us to interview from a specific country?? If so, write to us at, [email protected], for us to learn more about this person.
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*Please note that the answers provided by Umar are based on his own experiences and knowledge of the local culture.? There is no intention to generalize all the citizens from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to any specific behavior mentioned in this interview. ?
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Shukran, Umar
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