Does your HQ listen, understand, appreciate how business is done in the Middle East?

Autonomy, the excitement of new and novel challenges in a fast changing market, no tax, truly multicultural and polyglot workplaces – no doubt you have your own.

But what about the flip side of working here? 

And I’m not talking about DIFC traffic at 1745, last-minute bank holiday calls or waiting for lunchtime lifts in tall towers. 

Fourteen years in and I’m very much in the glass-is-way-more-than-half-full category myself, but in that time there’s been one bugbear that has consistently featured as the primary bête noire for fellow expat professionals.

It’s being listened to, appreciated and understood by head office when it comes to how business is done in this part of the world; that the recommendations you’re making and the decisions you’re taking are based on a firm appreciation of the laws, customs, factors and features of the local market; it’s the acknowledgement that these conditions are inherently different from elsewhere in the world, and therefore will require a different approach.

We’re in a fast-moving market where vital things can and do change by the day – witness the raft of new social, labour, and investor rules over the last year – and the understanding and application of these changes can be varied and delayed… which is why our local perspective is so important on how to navigate, implement, and manage things.

One particularly frustrating refrain doing the rounds at the moment perfectly exemplifies the issue, regarding office requirements in the UAE in the age of working from home. 

Now we all know that we don’t actually need 30 desks for 30 employees when staff are only in for three days per week; we’d also like to downsize commensurately. 

But we also know that we cannot due to the regulatory requirements and fixed space-to-visa ratios required across most jurisdictions, that don’t really yet recognise the WFH phenomenon. 

Having to invoke the nuances of UAE-specifics like MoHRE, Ejari, visa quotas etc. – things that that colleagues in head office should not be concerning themselves with – feels unnecessary, but it’s where the conversation inevitably leads.

So, how to bridge the gap and find that delicate balance of ‘just enough’ of the ‘right’ communication in order to get through and be understood? 

Firstly, it’s about little and often. Rather than hitting HQ colleagues with a tsunami of market news, make sure that you capture updates on the business and regulatory environment in your regular weekly updates and monthly reporting, building a full picture over time. 

Secondly, share third party data and intel – things like lawyers updates, reports from consultants – that help illustrate what you’re saying and put a different and objective voice in the room. 

And thirdly, see if you can find an advocate in HQ who perhaps ‘gets it’ more than others – for example, someone who’s worked in the Middle East before, or even a colleague who’s managed another global office where they might have faced similar challenges too.

It’s a fundamental part of the role for leadership in this part of the world to advocate, educate, and foster an understanding of the region’s idiosyncrasies, challenges, and vagaries in head office. 

Whilst that can be frustrating it’s absolutely worth taking time to address how best to approach this when the corporate competition for budget, resource and priority means that you, and the Middle East business, stand to lose out if you don’t.

Joe Hepworth is the Director – Middle East of OCO Global