There continue to be a number of compelling business story lines emerging from our global neighbors in the Middle East, many of which have more to do with commerce than with war. One such example is the contrast in cultures, strategy, and environmental factors we see emerging in the neighboring cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Both are cities in the United Arab Emirates. Most of us are more familiar with Dubai, a city that not too long ago identified it was operating on borrowed time with respect to its rapidly diminishing oil reserves, and launched a full-scale frontal assault on diversitying its economy toward tourism, commercialism, and what many of us westerners might refer to simply as "bling." The photo to the left is of Dubai's indoor ski slope (yes, skiing in the middle of the desert) at Dubai Emirates Mall. The city has been given a lot of credit as an example of a municipality that did a true situation analysis and then implemented an aggressive strategy to reach newly defined objectives.
Enter Abu Dhabi, stage left, which boasts 10% of the world's oil reserves and a per capita net worth of $17 million. It's considered to be the richest city in the world and sits only two hours away from its neighbor Dubai. These days, in a storyline that somewhat mirrors a battle between two of the West's industrial giants, Abu Dhabi appears to be attempting to one-up its neighbor. Even though Abu Dhabi has plenty of oill to last into the foreseeable future, they have watched closely how Dubai has proceeded and are convinced the time has come for them to also diversify. However, they are less pressured by short-term goal horizons and appear more concerned about doing things the right way to position themselves for success in the long haul.
I can't help but wonder if any of us here in the U.S. are learning any lessons from the approaches of these two cities. While both appear to have made a lot of progress in the last five years in taking control of their respective destinies, it will be interesting to see in the long run whether "reacting to crisis borne out of the urgent" or "planning ahead while still in a position of strength" is the more effective incubator for success. See Fortune's article from earlier in 2007 for more background on this developing story:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/03/19/8402357/index.htm