Snow to Sand

Over the last couple of days, a column by a former MIT student, Keith Yost, has been going around the internet.  Keith was hired as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group in Dubai, where he worked for a year, and his column tackles the challenges of living in Dubai, providing professional services to Emirates, and the issues that may lead to the collapse of the city.

Overall, a really interesting look at life in the Middle East.   There are a lot of similarities with Saudi, particularly around the caste system, lack of local talent, and half hearted desire to succeed.  One of the best quotes from the series of articles is:

Their empires are not built for power, they are built for image. When you are born with everything, the one thing that you cannot buy is the sense that you earned your status. But it is counter-productive to try and scrub off the image that you lucked your way into wealth — trying to overstep one’s limitations only highlights them.

In his last column, Keith argues that Emirates should invest their oil revenue in funds and education, as opposed to building out industry.  In Saudi, this is a bit of a different issue – with 25MM people, half of whom are under 18 years old, the Kingdom needs to build a sustainable economy to support its population.  That requires building industries, and hopefully driving the local population to work in them.

Check out the column here, it’s a great, and enlightening read:

http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N16/dubai.html

http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N17/dubai.html

http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N18/dubai.html

http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N19/dubai.html

~ by Adrian Grabicki on April 13, 2010.

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