Page 277 - Aamir Rehman - Dubai & Co Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States-McGraw-Hill (2007)

Getting Things Done: Operations Strategy and the GCC 259

TABLE 9.2
Time Differences

Saudi Arabia, China,
Qatar, Hong Kong,
New York London Bahrain, UAE, Singapore, Japan,
(EST) (GMT) Kuwait Oman India Malaysia Korea
9:00 a.m. 2:00 p.m. 5:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m. 7:30 p.m. 10:00 p.m. 11:00 p.m.

shorter by an hour, as there is no daylight savings time change in
the GCC countries.
Thus even on days when offices in both places are open, plan-
ning transglobal conversations for times during which it is possible to
talk is difficult. Staff in the United States begin their day just when
Gulf offices are closing—those on a 9-to-5 schedule have no overlap
time in the winter and one hour of overlap in the summer. From
Europe, the time difference is much more manageable, as the bulk of
the working day overlaps. This convenience, along with the relatively
short travel time, is one reason why many US-based multinationals
have had the Gulf region overseen by their European offices rather
than the global main office. Flying from New York to Dubai or Abu
Dhabi, even on a direct flight, consumes an entire day when travel
time and the time difference are combined. Aflight leaving New York
at 11 a.m. will arrive around 8 a.m. the next morning. On the way
home, though, the time gained is a real blessing—leave Dubai or Abu
Dhabi at 2 a.m. and you can land at JFK around 7 the same morning.
Coordinating with the GCC from the United States is therefore
a logistical challenge, usually requiring one or both of the parties
involved to be inconvenienced. One solution adopted by some
American firms serving clients in the Gulf is to fly staff out from the
United States on a Sunday, have them work 10 days straight, and
then fly them back on a Thursday for a 4-day weekend. This sched-
ule is grueling and difficult on families, but it has been one way to
ensure that staff have at least two solid periods off in a month while
smoothing out, to some extent, the issue of misaligned weekends.
Coordinating with the Gulf is not, of course, impossible—but
it does require careful planning. Project plans should take into