Try Walking A Mile In That Dress

One of my most lasting memories of our visit to the Middle East will always be the warmth and sincerity in the way that people greeted us, and asked us questions about our lives back home. In the back of my mind, I guess I truly believed that I might be turned away or treated poorly by Arabs who dislike Americans when visiting the UAE.

That was NEVER the case. In the course of the week, not a single one of us was treated badly or disrespected because we were American. As women, Yoko, Rumbi, Rene, Krista and I all dressed very Western. Although we did observe the Muslim customs as much as possible, and we did keep our shoulders covered out of respect, the only time we actually put on traditional clothing was when we entered the world's largest mosque in Abu Dhabi.

Why didn't we get the cold shoulder? I was expecting it. I have seen so many FOX News shows talking about the rampant hatred that all Muslims inherently have for Democracy, as if it's instilled from birth. Could it be possible that we might be getting some bad information through our media and stereotypical views?

Well let's take a minute to see what Islam actually says about people who are different:

Allah does not forbid you respecting those who have not made war against you on account of (your) religion, and have not driven you forth from your homes, that you show them kindness and deal with them justly; surely Allah loves the doers of justice. - the Qur'an

Oh, but wait!

The US has made war against countries in the Middle East, on more than one occassion for multiple reasons, many which are justified and some which are not. And yet, we were still welcomed with open arms.

People often spoke to me about American tv shows [including Jersey Shore. Please God, don't let Snooki be our ambassador of culture throughout the world.], and even Al-Qaeda.

A man I met on our last night in Dubai said, "The media talks about Al-Qaeda. No one here in Dubai or Saudi Arabia knows anyone in Al-Qaeda. We're not related to Al-Qaeda. It's like you hanging out with someone in the KKK. Or a neo-Nazi group. Do you? Are they your neighbors, or your friends?"

Nope. They're not.

But I'm sure someone with a whacked out perception of people or reality does live somewhere near me, and there's probably more people living here with a bias against Muslims than the opposite in Dubai about Americans.

Don't believe me? OK, try this.

If you are a female, put on traditional Muslim black dress, and go all the way - all the way up to wearing a shella with just the eyeslits open. Then wander down to your local American mall. Here in Atlanta, head down to Lenox Square.

Wander around for two hours and see how people treat you.

Do you feel welcomed? Stared at? Looked down on? Is anyone laughing?

You and I both know that if I wandered into Lenox Mall dressed that way, people wouldn't be running up to me with open arms. Yet, there I was in the Middle East, dressed obviously Western and acting incredibly, loudly Western, and not a single person had anything nasty to say. Not even a dirty look. Not once, in an entire week.

We like to believe with all of our freedoms, and money, and "opportunities" here in the United States, that our culture is the best in the world. That's what we tell ourselves through media, politics and educational B.S. every day.

Well, I hate to say it, but if your culture is one that makes others feel less than or unwelcome because they dress differently than you, or have a different faith than you, your culture is not better. And if that's how you act as an American, you aren't adhering to the value system that this country was built on.

Some fantastic thoughts to consider are below. You may not agree, but that's not the point. The point is simply to think.

Any piece of clothing can be sexy with a quietly passionate woman inside it. - O Magazine

God wants us to pray for the people who have hurt us, but it's really hard to pray for people you hate. And you have a really hard time hating someone that you're praying for. - Joyce Meyers

What you have when everyone wears the same playclothes for all occasions, is addressed by nickname, expected to participate in Show And Tell, and bullied out of any desired form of privacy, it is not democracy; it is kindergarten. - Miss Manners [...or a fraternity - Lisa]

Human Resources Headquarters: Dubai Knowledge Village

Dubai Knowledge Village is a development project of TECOM, an investment branch of Dubai Holdings. Knowledge Village houses 450 HR services providers that have helped this city grow exponentially by sourcing talent to staff their ever-increasing number of jobs.

With 80% of the population coming from another country for work, Knowledge Village has played a critical part in redefining Dubai's major strengths as service-focused professionals instead of oil.

Dubai KV is staffed with highly educated, professional people who offer free consulting to help develop human resources businesses. The staff also helps business owners and managers to navigate the governmental labor requirements, assisting with visa approvals and securing space for offices, etc.

We heard from several of the key personnel at Dubai KV, but I most identified with Naima Shaikh, the Executive Director of Applications/Group IT. Naima shared two of her team's key initiatives with us, which included the development of a localized CRM system and an intranet platform that was user-friendly and customizable.

Guess what? Dubai Knowledge Village uses Salesforce.com as their CRM solution! I was thrilled about this because I have been an expert administrator of the Salesforce platform for almost 10 years now, and I am a HUGE HUGE fan.

The main goal of the Dubai KV sales team is to help businesses find available space in their multiple office complexes, and Naima's team has customized their version of Salesforce to show property openings in real-time, as the listings are dynamically tied to the contract applications. And the best part is Salesforce.com gives the Dubai KV sales team visibility across the entire customer lifecycle.

I was so glad to learn that the IT team of 70 employees [who support more than 3000 users daily] had opted for a third-party SaaS solution instead of building their own CRM tool in-house.

Those days of "build your own" are long gone, and any IT team that insists on doing so is simply wasting your company's time and money.


The second project that Naima discussed was TECOMTalks, the intranet tool they have developed for employees to share internal information. TECOMTalks is based on a Sharepoint/Outlook platform, again, with the purpose of leveraging a third-party solution in lieu of creating their own from scratch.

I also met Brendan Vyner, Brand Manager for Dubai KV's Education Unit. Brendan hails from Australia and came to the Middle East nine years ago on a whim. Somehow it turned into a fantastic career for him, and he is thrilled to be part of Dubai Knowledge Village! Brendan was an all-around great guy, and he gave us the scoop on local hangouts for Western expats, including Bar 360 which is on an island that you can only access by golf cart across a bridge. If I ever come back to Dubai, I'm coming to find Brendan for a night out on the town!

Dubai Knowledge Village was full of all kinds of good stuff. And, it was fun to geek out with Naima and crew for the day before heading out to explore the town again that evening. We greatly appreciated all of their kindness and hospitality.

On a personal note, I'm hoping to connect with them again in reference to my other business, www.ShopMyResume.com. A whole new world of opportunities exists for SMR in Dubai!

Abu Dhabi Day!

We left early on Wednesday morning for the 1-1/2 hour drive to Abu Dhabi because we had an appointment to meet with representatives from the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce & Industry.



Our guide through the government office was Noora Al Hashimi, who is a Business Consultant for the entreprenuers and business managers that frequent the facility. Noora was excited to meet us, as our KSU class has a lot of women who are majoring in business. Noora has a special place in her heart for helping women succeed, both in Abu Dhabi and in other places around the world.






Noora's kindness was evident in the way she treated us like visiting dignitaries. The official photographer appeared out of nowhere to commemorate our visit with a picture for their newsletter, and we were served Arabian coffee in the Director's office as Noora's team answered our questions on the requirements for doing business in Abu Dhabi.






We were even introduced to representatives from the Australian Chamber of Commerce who were visiting Abu Dhabi to establish trade connections and business relationships.









And, there are considerable incentives for businesses around the world to trade in Abu Dhabi. The city has established Free Zones like Dubai created several years ago. Free Zones are places where businesses can set up shop without paying taxes and in those areas, they often receive office space for FREE.






Two of Noora's team members who spoke with us are also college students. The Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce frequently offers jobs to local business students to give them more access to real-world lessons while they complete their studies. The Chamber is a fantastic place for college students to work, because they are given flexible hours and also allowed to leave early for class, even skipping work during exams without any penalty. It's a very supportive environment for both promising students and opportunistic entreprenuers.


One of the most interesting programs that the Chamber has established is one that is meant to encourage women to set up their own businesses in Abu Dhabi. We met one of the program participants, a clothing designer who specializes in creating wonderfully unique embroidery for women's burkas. She showed us some of her wares, and they were striking. Equally amazing was that this lady was pregnant, and running a profitable business from her own home.





We asked Noora if it was common in Abu Dhabi for women to work after they were married or had children. The ladies around us laughed and said, "Of course, we are ALL married and have kids!" One stereotype bit the dust that morning, and I was glad to see it go.




Another stereotype that went up in flames was our closed-minded opinion that Americans are the only ones who understand and use social media. Noor and her peers had a great laugh with us as we talked about uploading pictures from the visit to Facebook, and Tweeting about each other after we left. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are all commonly used in Abu Dhabi. After working in Europe two years ago, I believe these social platforms are even more popular in the Middle East than they are in some parts of Switzerland, Italy and France.




We told Noora that we'd be blogging about our visit, and she asked us to share the link to their website in case you'd like to learn more about the programs available through the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Here it is: http://www.abudhabichamber.ae/English/Pages/Default.aspx

Is Potato Salad Arabic?

The answer would be no, but it's readily available in Dubai. Neither is a traditional English breakfast or Cheetos or KFC but all of that is everywhere here too.

Surprisingly, Lebanese and Iranian food are the most prevalent cuisines found in the AED, as many early settlers came from these countries. You can also enjoy traditional Emerati food that is eaten with your hands, but be forewarned: it includes camel meat. [Not losing a whole lot of sleep over missing out on that, by the way.]

80% of the current population hails from another country, and especially due to the huge influx of immigrants from other parts of the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia, you'll find Pakistani food, Indian curry, Bangladesh restaurants and pretty much anything else you could imagine here.

Needless to say, our breakfast at the Sheraton Four Points Dubai has been incredible. I generally start off with apricots, black cherry yogurt and a Coke and/or hot tea, along with Swiss cheese, hummus, taboullah, veal bacon [no pork here, folks], and either an Indian curry dish or a traditional Lebanese breakfast treat - Foul Madamma. [Foul is not literal, and it's pronounced differently in Lebanese - "fool".] No lie, breakfast here is generally the biggest and most exciting meal of my day.

Did you know Middle Easterners have different names for some of the fruits we love in the States? Cantaloupe is called Rock Melon, Honeydew is Sweet Melon, and Passionfruit is known as Dragon Fruit.

With all that and more, I guess that's why going to the supermarket has been so much fun. It's just part of the adventure...sans camel meat.

Can't wait for the buffet in the morning! Our flamboyant breakfast maitre 'd, Mandy, will be there, with bells on!

SKI Dubai: Snow Abounds In The Middle East

TV shows around the world have featured SKI Dubai's outrageous indoor snow extravaganza as an example of the extraordinary emphasis that the Emirates place on being the biggest and the best at everything. There are 64 indoor ski parks worldwide, but SKI Dubai is the biggest and most profitable, even during the recent world recession.

Jack Nesgos, Deputy Operations Manager for SKI Dubai, graciously took us on an insider's tour of the facility and told us all of their dirty little secrets about making snow, conserving energy and handling up to 8000 guests per day.

Jack is originally from Australia, but spent years in the UK and Scotland so his accent is an interesting blend of influences, and highly entertaining as he shares his excitment and endless ideas about ways to grow the SKI Dubai brand.

Any skier who understands snow fever will recognize the signs of someone who succumbed to it. I couldn't help but admire and identify with the love Jack has for his little snow-covered part of the world.

SKI Dubai's base snow depth averages 40 cm, and the top layer is continuously scraped off and replaced with new snow every evening after the park closes to guests. The 400-meter run has two levels, one for beginners and another for experts. I'd rank the inclines as Green and Blue for US skiers.

If you're big into skiing like I am, you won't want to spend the money on SKI Dubai unless you want the notoriety of saying you skied in the Middle East. A full-access pass to the park costs 285 AED, around $85 USD, and the snow [for ski conditions] is best described as overly-groomed, packed powder with a healthy amount of crunch. Yuck.

But for Arabs and others who have never seen snow a day in their lives, it's a freakin' winter wonderland complete with a kitschy chalet, igloos, tubing runs and ski instructors to help you snowplow down the hill.

The park has a full wall of windows at the end where passersby in the Mall of the Emirates can look in, and several restaurants surround the complex so you can enjoy dinner while watching Emiratis have a garage sale on the side of the hill. {that's a joke for skiers...if you've ever had one yourself, you know what I mean!}

Obviously, no one in Dubai except expatriates has ski gear laying around the house. So SKI Dubai provides full gear for guests, but you have to buy your own gloves and hats if you want them. That's probably a wise choice as the inside temperature averages -4 Celsius.

Think about the mountains of laundry that must pile up through the day as guests leave! We got to see them for ourselves, along with the biggest washing machines I've ever encountered. SKI Dubai washes and dries every outfit before recycling it back out to visitors. We're hoping ours were freshly laundered. :)

Want to see more? Check out this home video I swiped from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34A18CtfVaY

Everyone loves WalMart, even if you call it Carrefour

One of the most striking aspects of Dubai is the audacious materialism that underlies every architectural project and the vehicle choices of every Emirati. Ferraris and Maseratis are the norm, with Mercedes, BMW and Porsche coming in as a close second.

Real estate prices in Dubai doubled every year for the past 10 years leading up to the global economic crisis of 2009-2010. Today, a two-bedroom apartment in Dubai easily runs $2500/mo and that is half of what the price was two years ago.

However, the entire world was impacted by the economic crisis and Dubai was no exception. The Palm Jumerai, the famous man-made island off the coast of Dubai that is shaped like a palm tree, is lined with multi-million dollar houses, many of which were acquired by foreign investors. When the first phase of The Palm went up for sale, houses began at $900K. A few years later, they were selling for $10 million apiece. Then the real estate crash hit in 2009, and houses are now back "down" to $4-5 million.

Because of the crash, thousands of people in Dubai lost their shirts, along with everything else they had invested in local real estate. Many of them gave up and left the country when they hit rock bottom, driving themselves to the airport for a one-way ticket back home. As a result, more than 4000 abandoned cars were discovered parked at the Dubai airport on a SINGLE DAY in 2009, with the doors unlocked and the keys still in them, as people pulled up to unload their suitcase and simply walked away.

It's no wonder that now the Wal-Marts of the world are just as popular here in Dubai as they are everywhere else. Wal-Mart doesn't have any stores in the Middle East, but the French chain Carrefour's is a similar concept and is wildly successful.

We wandered through a Carrefour yesterday that is connected to the famous Mall of the Emirates where SKI Dubai is also located. It was like a huge KMart special had broken out all over the store. People were going nuts, diving into bins of shoes and running rampant up and down the aisles. But that's just a normal day...

Carrefour's also has a grocery section that is much more like a fresh market in Europe. So fresh in fact that whole fish were laid out on beds of ice just like you would buy from a fishmonger. It sounds exciting but really all that means is the entire store smelled like raw, dead fish. Yes, you heard me right, most of the store smelled like DEAD FISH.

I skipped the fish but loaded up on all kinds of strange and bizarre food to take home to friends. If you happen to be pet sitting for me this week [Hi Charissa!], you're going to have one hell of an interesting care package. :)

Hope you're hungry!!

Ernst & Young Dubai: MENA Headquarters Visit

Our first official business trip in Dubai was to Ernst & Young, one of the big 4 accounting firms in the world. Their Dubai office serves as the EY headquarters for the Middle East and North Africa, and has 526 employees of which there is not a single American.

{We think we're such a valued commodity as workers in the US, but I have to tell you, there are so many talented people across the world -- don't fool yourself.}

Several EY associates met with us to share a day in their work life along with stories of client engagements. Our presenters hailed from Pakistan, India, the UK, and also included two brothers who are Palestinian in descent but were raised in Dubai and attended the American University.

Haitham El Masri was one of the brothers, and he works as an Assistant Manager in the Assurance & Advisory Services divison. This means that he runs an Auditing team. One of his favorite stories was being called outside of town for an assignment, and driving far into the desert, dodging camels to get to his destination. When he arrived, all he saw were large earthmovers and piles and piles of sand. He asked someone what he was there to audit, and they told him, "We need you to count the sand." Seriously! The land was being developed for the forthcoming new Dubai International Airport [different than the one we flew into].

Suzan Doerr, a consultant in Advisory Services who hails from the UK, also presented. Suzan shared her story of working with a hospital in Abu Dhabi with the goal of reducing patient wait times. She and a colleague visited the hospital, sitting in the waiting room timing the patients as they arrived until they were seen, and then met with healthcare workers across departments to determine what factors were impeding service. They discovered the core of the problem was that doctors were arriving late, whenever they wanted, and in order to fix the problem, the healthcare system had to change their policies for physicians. [And we thought we only had issues like this in the US!]

E&Y, as you might imagine, is incredibly hierarchial. After the presentations, Vilu Ramprasad from HR gave us a tour of their three floors of offices. Associates comprised the 26th floor, Directors resided on the 27th floor and Partners had offices on the 28th floor.

All of the desks on the 26th floor were "hot desks", meaning no one was allowed to have any personal items or leave anything on the desk at the end of the day. This was probably due to the confidentiality of working with client financial information along with the need to rotate seating based on field assignments.

The remarkable part of listening to these EY associates was that if you closed your eyes and only listened, they could just as easily have been young professionals embarking on their careers in NYC or Atlanta. They were polished, driven and excited about their work and their clients. The only exception, I believe, is that their world view far exceeds that of most young professionals in the US.

So, the moral of the story is....If you want to be competitive on a global level, get off your ass and get over to the other side of the world to see it for yourself!!