OVER THE OLD OTTOMAN EMPIRE — I said years ago that the airport lounge has become the Walden Pond of my generation. It is for me anyway. It’s a place for respite, relaxation and forced reflection. (The two big British fellows putting away a bottle of white a 7h30 this morning might not agree.)
I recognise that I may not be part of a big constituency of people who really look forward to the goat stew in the Emirates lounge at Dubai airport. But for me it is the food of thought.
Dubai is a twitter, I can tell. I haven’t even landed there and I can feel it already. The long arm of promotion reaches out even here. The new Metro in Dubai will open on 09.09.09, I can tell you already. Through some miracle of promotional serendipity. And the city is bathing in the proletariatness of the whole thing… “Out of your cars and into the crowd…”
The supreme ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed has also managed something quite impressive today. The “most elegant” page on Facebook. According to the paper I have just read. Amazing.
What a world we live in. I shall friend him as soon as I get to my hotel. How cool is that?
I’ve also managed to tuck into a complimentary copy of HBR that was sitting lonely in the magazine racks on the plane (next to Stuff.). And it sets the mind racing again. Talking about competitiveness. Niall Ferguson, the best Scottish promoter of America’s historical economic empire that walks this earth. He’s saying that global competitiveness will return to the US landscape. While other in the Harvard Business Review seem to disagree. (Which is a feature of HBR that I rely on; its ability to see both sides of an argument.)
What I love about the question of America’s competitiveness is probably the same thing I love about Dubai’s ability to add extra emotional and promotional value to every undertaking. The underlying reality is that the future is in the hands of people who build competitive advantage with their brains, not just their hands.
Management and our ability to connect, support and motivate people in the new world economic order, is the key to future success of countries that can no longer rely on production or natural resources.
I love that. Because it’s an almighty challenge. And one that my company knows more about than just about anyone else.
/df
