Dubai, United Arab Emirates — September 30th, 2009 — Boris M. Riek, Germany’s leading personality coach for entrepreneurs, confirms negotiations between German entrepreneurs and a United Arab Emirates (UAE) government corporation.
In these times of crisis, German entrepreneurs are searching for new markets and for innovative opportunities to expand their existing strengths. For a growing number of German entrepreneurs, one possible solution lies in the Middle East.
“Despite all the prophecies of doom,” asserts Boris M. Riek, who even before the advent of the global financial crisis was in demand to ‘cover the backs’ of entrepreneurs, “markets in the Middle East are still growing.” Even if the German business community in general is more conscious of prestige projects in the luxury hotel and real estate sectors, according to one Lower Saxony-based market leader in the healthcare sector, describing his perception of an on site presentation in Abu Dhabi, “in many Middle Eastern states, the real prestige projects” are being created in “much quieter steps.”
Zones Corp., a government corporation created by royal decree by His Royal Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu Dhabi, is currently developing a project known as ‘specialised economic zones’. From the viewpoint of the 50-year old entrepreneur from Lower Saxony, it’s like a “land of plenty for business.” Abu Dhabi, he continues, is planning to offer foreign companies whole industrial zones more or less tailor-made for the entire value chain in the form of a collection of ‘dormitory towns for businesses’.
Kamal Siada, Vice President of ‘Abu Dhabi Basic Industries’, the company presenting the plan, lists the specific benefits, “State-of-the-art infrastructure, consolidation of the entire value chain in one location, no duty on importation of machinery and raw materials, etc., etc.” Riek relates his client’s perception that, at first glance, this looks “to have nothing in common with the usual outsourcing of production to East Europe – it seems almost paradisiacal in comparison with the experience of German entrepreneurs in particular.” The Zone Corp. industrial zones are just twelve minutes from the airport and just fifty minutes from the port of Jebel Ali, one of the largest freight ports in the world.
Kamal Siada sees the vision for Abu Dhabi as one of economic diversification; they plan to become “the new gateway to the world.”
Nevertheless, Boris M. Riek warns against premature euphoria. “The importance of the ability to overcome intercultural differences is still all too often underestimated,” is Germany’s leading personality coach for entrepreneurs’ take on the requirements for “doing business in booming, but highly competitive Middle Eastern markets.” An increasing number of entrepreneurs are realising that strength of personality is a crucial factor in realising international business goals. Riek currently accompanies German entrepreneurs who are active in countries including the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Knowledge of behavioural differences and differences of mentality is important even when dealing with business partners from your own culture, notes Riek. Nonetheless, “intercultural development when dealing with negotiating partners from the Middle East is obligatory – otherwise the whole transaction is sunk from the outset.”
About Boris M. Riek
Boris M. Riek, who came to the attention of a wider audience in 2005 after being named in the media as “Germany’s most expensive mental trainer” with hourly rates of upwards of € 1,200. The coach has now been active in the Middle East for two years and well over a decade in his field of coaching. As Germany’s leading personality coach for entrepreneurs, Boris M. Riek looks back on a client list spanning four continents – from young entrepreneurs in Germany to the owner of a global Korean consortium employing more than 180,000 people worldwide. Since 2007, the businessman, author, and coach is the Head of Faculty, coordinating the coaching, training sessions, and onboarding of new faculty members.
About entrepreneur academy
entrepreneur academy is a global coaching firm specialized in empowering entrepreneurs through systematic personality coaching and training since 1997. With offices in London and Berlin entrepreneur academy builds individualized, exclusive, and strictly one on one coaching teams around every single client.
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