Mohamed Alabbar, founder and chief executive of Emaar Properties, one of the largest developers in the Middle East and globally, said he likes to hire Indians because of their work ethic. Speaking at the ongoing Make it in Emirates Summit in Abu Dhabi, Alabbar said he believed in hard work.
The importance of hard work
According to Alabbar, hard work is not only about long hours, but also about studying every opportunity, knowing when to take risks, bringing the right people into the business and carefully monitoring the implementation.
About hiring Indians
“They say hard work beats talent when talent fails and that’s why I like to hire Indians because they pick up your phone even at one in the morning,” Alabbar said, according to Gulf News.
Founded in 1997 by Alabbar and having developed key projects such as Downtown Dubai, Dubai Marina and the iconic Burj Khalifa, Dubai-based Emaar Properties has over 8,000 employees, mostly based in the Middle East.
India is the future of the world
In an interview with Bloomberg, Alabbar said he is confident about India as a market.
“I spent two weeks in Mumbai last week. India is stunning. India is the future of the world; that’s what I can tell you. We are so ignorant (about India), so I am inviting my board to the next board meeting in India to see the incredible story of India,” he said.
On the impact of the war between the US and Iran
Alabbar also spoke about the ongoing crisis in the Middle East due to the US-Iran war, saying that companies in the region have become resilient due to past crises, including the 2008 financial crisis and COVID-19.
“It was a hard lesson for everyone. We had some hard lessons during the COVID pandemic and other crises,” Alabbar said.
“When you learn from 2008 and from COVID, you need to build an agile and resilient business that can handle these circumstances,” he added.
Alabbar expressed confidence that the region would bounce back within months and credited the resilience of the UAE leadership.
“What happened recently was not expected and our country has shown its steadfastness and resilience to plan according to the directives of our leadership, so we managed to survive successfully,” he said.
