Over the last few months, I worked with a leadership team to develop and implement a change management program. We made good progress, but I noticed increasing nervousness within the team towards the execution stage. I have seen this in a number of organizations and it stems from the realization that change, whether individual or organizational, […]

I know of many Pakistani and other South Asian businesses who have built significant operations in the GCC over the past three or four decades. For many of them, the Gulf offered something rare in this region. International scale, opportunity to derisk from their volatile native environments, and a perception of political stability. The economic […]

A senior business leader recently complained to me that he has no time to think. He goes from meeting to meeting and from one crisis to the next. It made me realise that most businesses today feel like emergency rooms. Everything is urgent. Everything needs attention now. And slowly, without noticing it, the organisation becomes […]

This time of the year is the annual performance review cycle for many organisations. Having witnessed and participated in these reviews over three decades, I sometimes wonder about their actual contribution to performance improvement. What happens in most performance reviews? We do a self-review and then sit across the table with our supervisor. A form […]

Growing up in the 70’s and 80’s, I remember the first air conditioner to arrive at our house was this heavy “window type” model. People from my generation would remember, since it was the only model around at that time 😊 It lasted forever without gas leakages every 5-6 months, unlike today’s models, and we […]