Page 260 - Aamir Rehman - Dubai & Co Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States-McGraw-Hill (2007)

242 Dubai & Co.

fundamental to creating prosperity in the Gulf region. The Gulf
states have, over the past three decades, had every incentive and
means to develop world-class infrastructure.
The world-class infrastructure of the Gulf stands in sharp con-
trast with less-business-friendly emerging markets and has several
major implications for multinationals. The ease of transporting peo-
ple in and out, along with the strength of business support systems
such as telecommunications, adds to the attractiveness of basing
offices and holding corporate events in Gulf cities. The ease of
transporting goods has caused global leaders like Sony to use Gulf
ports as a central staging ground of their global operations. Further,
the abundance of industrial inputs and support for industrial activ-
ity—not to mention a booming consumer market—has inspired
firms like Kraft to see the GCC states as an attractive place in which
to establish manufacturing facilities.
While the strength of the Gulf’s infrastructure makes opera-
tions convenient, there are operational complexities that detract
from this convenience. The GCC weekend, for example, occurs on
Friday and Saturday or Thursday and Friday and is not aligned
with the Saturday and Sunday weekend norm observed by other
markets in the world. Running a business in the region also typi-
cally involves a significant amount of bureaucratic paperwork, for
which dedicated compliance and government relations staffs are
needed. Multinationals need to factor in these issues when design-
ing their operational strategies for the region.
Leading firms such as Nestlé and Honda have identified the
Gulf as important to their global operations, and in the years ahead
many other multinationals will likely follow. The Gulf’s advanced
infrastructure and operations advantage have also fueled the push
toward the global expansion of GCC-based logistics and transport
firms such as Dubai Ports World and Emirates Airlines, propelling
those enterprises to the forefront of their industries worldwide.
When crafting their overall Gulf strategies, operations is an area
that savvy multinationals cannot afford to overlook.

INFRASTRUCTURE EXCELLENCE
GCC countries, particularly in their major business cities, have
reached an impressive level of infrastructure sophistication. I use