Emaar Properties Founder likes to hire Indians
Abu Dhabi, May 5: Founder and Managing Director of Emaar Properties Mohamed Alabbar likes to hire Indians because of their work ethics.
He stated this at an event here in United Arab Emirates (UAE) while talking about the importance of hard work, discipline and the kind of business culture that helps companies survive repeated crises.
“The harder you work, the luckier you will get,” he said while emphasizing his preference for Indians in his businesses.
Alabbar was speaking at the ‘Make it in the Emirates’ Summit in Abu Dhabi where he underline that companies that want to grow through disruption need teams that keep moving, keep checking their work and stay close to risk when conditions change.
“I always tell people, from my own perspective, my IQ is average, but my hard work is the best,” Alabbar said.
“There’s a saying, hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard, and this is why I like to hire Indians, because they answer the phone even at one o’clock in the morning.”
Crises and Opportunities:
Alabbar referred to the recent conflict in West Asia during which UAE was affected badly due to Iranian aerial bombings and said it was another reminder that companies need to build resilience before a disruption happens.
He said one of Emaar’s first steps during the recent crisis was to reassure employees that the company would not cut jobs or salaries.
“In the first week, we sent emails to everyone, all the employees. We told them, we are not laying-off any one of the workforce. We are not cutting their salaries,” he said.
The decision, he explained, came from lessons learned during previous crises and from the responsibility that businesses in the UAE feel toward employees, society and the country’s leadership.
In this context, he recalled the 2008 global financial crisis and the 2020 Covid pandemic and said businesses need to learn from each shock and turn those lessons into operating discipline.
“When you learn from 2008 and from Covid, you have to build an agile and resilient business that can handle these circumstances,” he said.
The difference now is that many UAE businesses are more comfortable operating through uncertainty because they have already been through several cycles of disruption, the Emaar chief said.
