How strategic is your strategy?

Synergy, Leverage, Though Leadership, Strategy, Transformational change, ...these are used and abused words in everyday corporate life. More often than not when the word strategy is used the speaker does not actually refer to strategy in its true sense of the word. Sometime then mean tactics, action plan, thinking, effort, intention...but rarely real strategy.

So I though maybe would be interested to have a quick look at what strategy is and what it is not in the context of tourism development.

Strategy:

• can be a) evolutive or b) visionary but both are based on a clear sense of how I see myself or my company in quite some time, say 5-10 years. Strategy is the answer to the question of Where I want to be? and How am I going to get there?  This can be answered through a) a precise plan which has a shorter horizon and follows the direction of the vision (but is not laying down the route all the way through) - which is an evolutive approach or b) can be a bit less detailed but marking the milestones all the way till the endorsed vision - visionary approach.

• implies more losers than winners on the short term (1-3 years) and more winners then losers on the long term (5+ years). In other words strategy is focus. Spreading thin and being everything for everybody is not strategy. It can work in certain context but it's very tactical and certainly not achieving long term impact.

• is discipline. For the reasons above strategy (especially if is wrongly managed) tends to be annoying for the environment, it can come across as stubbornness. Think of all the visionary people who have achieved long term impact, they all had their doubt war to fight, and those who stayed afloat marked their names and thinking.
• is a living process. Especially the evolutive approach assumes a constant revision and adjustment, but along the same lines. And this is the key, you can adjust and be all over the place, or you can adjust by keeping your course.
• is sustainable. It can be executed and followed systematically without special circumstances that are at risk.
• can be expressed simply in  few words and few numbers. The more you need to talk to explain your strategy the less are your chances of execution.

Strategy is not

• a good speech or a circular the top executives send around on all staff emails.
• a document prepared by expensive consultants, approved and then forgotten.
• a catchy tagline or mission statement.
• a recipe or sheet music that tells you what you need to do to comply with the plan.

Maybe you will recognize some if these in your work, and hopefully you'll have a chance to do something about them.

Eid Mubarak.

Traction for Attractions: what would work for Oman?

It seems that the public sector is shifting one gear up on its efforts to boost tourism.  In this favorable context, I thought it would come handy a few thoughts about attractions in general spiced with some random ideas. 

First of all I would challenge the idea of a tourist attraction and emphasize the concept of a visitor attraction: locals, I mean all residents, are and will be key to the sustainability of any attraction in such a seasonal country like Oman. So what are these places of interest that carry value which motivate people to spend time and money visiting them?  Natural or man-made, cultural or adventure driven, experiential and educational.

I know this is a far bigger and more exiting topic to cover in a post, but let’s just highlight some main types of attractions that would have traction among local and visitors alike.

a) Action, Sports and Fun – Adrenalin treats, thrills and spills.  Water parks, theme parks, extreme sports parks, sports facilities, riding tracks, rides etc.  They are very divers in size, from park rides to complex extreme sport centers or multimillion visitor water parks. Some relevant examples for Oman:

• Sea Soul Water Park –  certainly not a small replica of a Dubai one. Details in an earlier post.
• E-Quest Academy – a state of the art equestrian center to activate the heritage of the Royal Cavalry Oman and equine culture of Oman.
  
• All-Wheel-Park  - take your wheelers off the road at various levels of difficulty and fun in a controlled, facilitated environment. Cars, dirt bikes, quads, or just mountain bike, they will al find a track inhere to remember.
• Extreme Sports Center – to teach and test you. Your mind and your body. A range of attractions that will engage kids and adults alike.
• Ocean Sport Center – complimentary to what Oman Dive Center and Oman Sail has to offer, a dedicated complex for all kinds of water sports. From Kite boarding, to water paragliding, Water skiing, Jet ski tracks to test your skills and many more.  All and everything about balance, power and skill on waves and flat water.

b) Culture, Heritage, Religion – a collection of attractions that convey the essence of the Arabian and Omani culture and its heritage.  This a very versatile and complex category, here are just a few examples:.

•  Sailing and Maritime Heritage Harbour – Dhows and dhow making manufacture. Fishing village feel,
  
  where you can  experience throwing a fishnet, or experience the feel of a 10 kg tuna on the other end of your line.
• Pilgrim Paths - The spiritual trails, a collection of sites with religious relevance that can be accommodated for a form of pilgrimage. Apparently there are quite a few such sites in Oman.
• Fortlife  -  a selection of forts that are converted as themed hotels/lodges with elements of reproducing the fort like living.
• OmanCraft – a number of accredited workshops and manufactures where visitors ca experience various forms of traditional craft making (e.g. pottery, weaving, rose water manufacturing, dates processing etc.)

c) Health & Wellbeing – as healthy living and lifestyle is becoming and increasing aspiration for many, related consumption is ever popular (perhaps to compensate for the lack of fundamentally accommodating a healthier life). Spas, Wellness hotels, Holistic health centers to name the soft ones, up to surgery and medical treatment driven dedicated clinics and  hospitals.

• Scents and Senses – parfumes or Arabia visitor center. Amouage to take their visitor center to a whole new level…
• ShifaSpa – A destination spa in a signature location based on local traditional healing methods and treatments. Condense the essence or Arabian natural healing, body and soul pampering.
• Fit farm – lifestyle and nutrition boot camp, for those who want to start respecting their body. Make a name that resonated to Dubai and beyond. Build on the exotic, rugged and natural perception of Oman.

d) Education & Entertainment – one can hardly separate this from b) Culture and Heritage, however certain visitor centers, museums, theaters can have a strong educational element besides entertainment.

e) Nurture the Nature - natural attraction often attract more people then man made wonders. Oman has plenty of such places they just need to be properly packaged and managed.

• HajarHikes  – guided trails in the Hajars Mountains for all abilities and skills.
• WadiWonders – like it says explore the best of the hundreds of Wadi and provide informational content besides the visual and tangible experience
• and many more…

Some of these elements are already available in a way or another, and they only need a boost in terms of concept or size or both. The key in the overall offering is to have a balance that suits the seasonality constraint of Oman as well as the mix of foreign and local demand.

Nice challenging task for tourism planners but definitely worth addressing.

Share and rule: Qatar and the FIFA World Cup

Qatar is under a sort of international media siege for an alleged deal it made with the FIFA executive committee members to obtain the right to Organize FIFA World Cup 2022.

The press demands no less than FIFA to take the right back and implement a new, clean bidding process. Well, I am not sure that will happen as it would result in way too much embarrassment for both parties. A solution that would mitigate a big part of the problem is to actually share the right with the rest of the GCC countries.

I have written about this back in 2012 and I think this proposal is still one worth consideration. I thought at the time "Doha plus another Qatari location could host the opening, two groups, one quarter final, one semi finals and the final, while Dubai/AD, Kuwait City, Manama, Muscat and perhaps Riyadh could take one group each and some quarter finals and one of the semis.

This would result  in a more balanced event, culturally more interesting experience and above all totally sustainable legacy and impact for the whole region. A region where the most popular sport is by far the football."

Sport diplomats, think again.

World's young sailing elite in Oman

It is now over a year that OmanSail has won the right to organize the Laser World Championship in three categories: Standard, Masters and Radial Youth. The Radial Youth Championship started on the 27th December 2013 and will last until Friday the 3rd of January 2014.  I have been covering the news of winning the bid to host the event back in the summer of 2012.  At the time I  was quite exited about the great work they have done in securing these world class events. I have also came up with some ideas how to make the event more appealing to the local audience.

Well since the venue is only a 45 minute drive from Muscat it did make sense to start the year with a trip

down to Mussanah to see for myself the world's elite under 18 sailing squad in action. Approximately 80 sailors from over 25 countries.

Al Mussanah Sport City and the Millenium Resort, hosting the championship is just optimal for such  events. Apart of the fact that it is a bit secluded (which I found ideal for corporate away days and outings, but that is a different post) the sport base is very spacey, clean and well maintained. The event and race management was smooth and professional. Proper signage, spares shop, media center, gym, event tent, etc. It seems that with will and skill things do fall in place properly.

To be fair there is still a lot that could be done to enhance the visitor experience, bringing the action and the frill of sailing closer to new fans, creating a bit more buzz around the sport base, but let's not be inpatient, those will also come in he future. It was great to see however that Oman is making steady steps towards promoting sailing as a national sport, and hopefully soon the world elite will have Omani kids in the fleet as well.  It already took a lot of work and resources to place the country on the international sailing map, which not doubt has happened. It will take more time to create the sustainability for this. Patience from officials is key, as such initiatives yield fundamental results only on the long run. So keep up OmanSail and hope to see these guys back in a few years as Olympians.

Enough of words now, let the images tell the story.

Event tent at the marina

Race office

Sunrise over the boat park

British team to start rigging first

Others to follow

Around the committee boat

More than 50 boats at the startline

Jury watching for jump starters

Everything seems in order

...until wind starts to play around and race is canceled. 

...good time for a nap.

or some tactical discussions

...a chat with the team mates.

Sailing is serious business.

Coaches at work

Downwind action after the new start

The fleet though the leeward gate

The Hungarian sailing in a dominant lead

Some action at the leeward bouy

It is not chaos, they all know what they are doing

German-UAE battle...

...or rather friendship.

...all sorted.

The Finish girl in the lead

...rounding the bouy

Norwegian to follow...

...in style.

Japaneses and Qatari girls in action.

The Hungarian crossing the finish line first in the boys fleet.

And the Norwegian in the girls fleet.

it takes fitness to sit like this for hours

Winner's smile

A very good investment for Oman

A bit of an unusual post for this blog, but these thoughts were chasing me for some time.

There is a lot of talk and some actions as well on strengthening the employment in the private sector, enhancing the SMEs, creating an Omani labour force that will play a major role in the sustainability of a non-oil economy. This is all good and encouraging. There is one aspect thought, that - in my view - will have a massive impact on the future of the country and that is parenting.  Education and pedagogy as an activity carries a major paradox that of trying to prepare kids for the future, a future that is unknown for the educators themselves.  Parenting is somewhat similar.  We are all trying to educate our kids for their 20s, 30s 40s and beyond; not really knowing what will be challenges they will face in 10, 20 or 30 years time.

One thing for sure, we as parents have a window of 10 to 14 years when we can set the grounds for the development of their personalities.  After that the high school friends, the sports club buddies, coaches, often the boarding school teachers abroad, or the street ‘gangs’ themselves are the educators with most of the influence. All we can do is follow the events and give an opinion eventually try to intervene when things go off track, or we think they do.  In some cases we are very vocal in expressing our opinion in some others we try to be more persuasive given explanations and examples, but no matter what we think, our teenage kids will still consider it just an opinion. The last time I remember really taking away my parents advice I was around 10-12.  But is not just our communication with the kids, and the pieces of wisdom we want them to remember, it’s the whole experience of home, spending time with Mummy or Daddy. Seeing how they relate to each other, how they solve a conflict (do they solve it of just swipe it under the carpet), how they encourage their child. The patience they show and the trust they put in their development. The determination to curb things that are seen as wrong and the creativity of enforcing the good. There is a whole range of situational and contextual information that shapes their personalities and values.

Now this might seem all boring parenting textbook, but here’s the thing.  Most families are heavily relying on nannies, or even worst, maids that are asked to work as nannies. Now think of all these aspects above in the context of being raised by a nanny that unfortunately more often than not is just doing a job.  An underpaid, under motivating, often frustrating job. She cannot behave as a parent for obvious reasons, she is not a mere baby sitter as a full time nanny, and often times she has her own child back home.  Therefore a whole generation could grow up under a very loose and particular parenting environment. A generation the country will have to rely on.

I don’t really know what is the solution to this, but parenting in Oman  - and everywhere else for that matter - definitely needs more investment.  Investment from the scarcest resource 21^st century people have: time.

Small ideas to boost the urban appeal of Muscat

The perception of a city is influenced by many factors such and transport and traffic, cleanness, architecture, green areas.  One of the most important factors is a general visual appeal of public areas and their suitability for leisure use. This stands for shopping streets, walking areas, parks, squares/piazzas and terraces.

While the first impression and appeal of Muscat and its mountainous backdrop is not bad, it can be significantly improved by some projects that could be considered along the current major infrastructure spending. Here are a few ideas:

Qurum beach & the “Love road” –  Qurum beach needs a general re-thinking and a revamp. Period.

I am not only thinking about replacing the corroded hay umbrellas and cleaning up the beach.  It is the most centrally located beach. The rocky bay on the right it confers a dramatic and interesting feel. Unfortunately the whole ares just does not connect organically to the city. The public which rather drives around at 5km/h on the beach road then take possession of the space and populate it for leisure activities. Would be an exciting master planning exercise to solve this disconnect and create an active beachfront along the so called “Love Road”. Some ideas would be to activate the lower level of the beach along the road for pedestrian access, creating some bays that are accessible by stairs from the road. The other would be to minimize the traffic there and create more pedestrian areas on the "bridge".  The creation of two main attractions on both ends of the road could activate the areas in between. There could be water features and/or small squares with benches, public space furniture etc. Using the marshlands behind the coffee shops as a paddling lake can also add some appeal to the area.

Shatti Al Qurum shopping area – The area between Oasis by the Sea and Jawarat al Shatti is very popular with locals and tourists alike. It is almost the place you want to be on a mild breezy evening, to have a coffee, ice cream or just a walk on the beach. There is so much additional potential in that area which could be unlocked by just moving the parking out towards the tennis courts. (Maybe a -1+2 level parking house could be considered.) The space created could be converted in a blend of green and paved areas for restaurant terraces, water features, and space for events and entertainment.

Mutrah Cornishe - is another main attractions of the city which yet has to step up from its past. Again a higher emphasis could be given to pedestrian areas (car traffic can be reduced significantly, eventually diverted trough a road at the back of the Souq). A more uniform and nicely designed retail outlet signage that is better suited to the architecture of the area could give a major boost to the appeal of this strip. In fact the signage issue could be a nice project on its own applicable for the whole city.

[On a side note I have just seen at the Muscat Hills Caddie Shack two terribly looking Ruwi like signage boards indicating ‘Coffee Shop’ above the entrance to the restaurant and Sports ‘Equipment Retailer’ over the entrance to the Pro Shop. Apparently it’s a municipal rules.  I know the Caddie Shack is all temporary but I’d like to see what Intercontinental will have to say when the hotel will be ready and they will want to put this signage on the new clubhouse.]

Seeb cornishe – another totally underutilized area, which massive catchment areas and already high traffic.

Urban master planning is a complicated discipline but there is plenty of expertise available among the engineering and design consultancies present in ME.  It’s time for the city to take this to a next level.

PS: If you can think of any similar public space, which once improved could have a massive impact on the appeal of the city, drop it in the comments. Thanks.

Pictures are sourced from: Tripadvisor, Maqwa on Fotki and Andy in Oman

Is there any impact of the week-end shift on tourism in Oman?

Every major policy decision has a macroeconomic impact.  These impacts can be modeled fairly accurately.  Econometrics uses the so called input output tables to quantify the impact of certain decisions.  Such modeling can be applied to assess for instance the cost benefits of hosting the Olympics in a city, that of introducing VAT or other taxes, or the impact of a visa policy on tourism. The macroeconomic implications of changing the week-end from Thursday Friday to Friday Saturday can also be assessed.  If you have the right economic and statistical data, by applying a proper modeling it is actually possible to estimate the increase/decrease of total economic output, that of the GDP and job creation as well.

I am sure there have been a lot of considerations given to the recent week-end change and the benefits far out weight the costs especially in the context of SMEs and job creation in the private sector.

Let’s have a lighter look on the possible impacts on tourism and the hotel sector in Oman.  It is important to note that I have not performed any input-output modeling on this; therefore I am not in the position to give any quantitative impacts.  My intention is only to identify some soft considerations. It remains to be seen if they will turn valid or not on the short and medium term. Perhaps some entrepreneurs and hoteliers can work towards making full use of the advantages and mitigate the potential draw backs.

1. The yielding week-end: from May 1^st there will not be a spread of domestic week-end demand for hotels between Thursday-Friday and Saturday. Leisure demand will peak on Friday and Saturday creating more occupancy on these days and the ability for hoteliers to drive (increase) the rate and yield better. This logic will apply for short haul airlines fairs as well, more people wanting to travel at the same time. (+)

2. Busier Dubai: Perhaps by having the same week-end we won’t experience a calm-working-day-Dubai on Thursdays any more. This perhaps will encourage some people to spend the week-end at a domestic destination as opposed to up in the “city of life”. (+)

3. More alignment with sender markets: I know tourism and especially hotels are a 24/7 business but still, sales and marketing teams, agencies etc. are having their regular working hours. With the new week-end they will be able to work one more day in line with the agencies of the main European sender markets of Oman. This would have some positive impact in service and perhaps in volume as well. (+)

4. Less net holidays: By aligning the private and public sector holidays, at least based on recent articles, public sector workers will benefit from less statutory days off than before. This could have a negative impact on domestic tourism, hence local hotels restaurateurs.  This impact could be slightly balanced off by the foreign corporate hotel demand on those working days which initially were holidays. (-)

5. More Omanis in tourism sector: Another one on the positive side would be the initial intention of the measure, namely to present private sector jobs as more competitive and to attract more local labor to such businesses, like hotels. (+)

6. The one extra day when shifting: a once off benefit would have to do with “transition Thursday” being a day off which could result in a slight positive impact for domestic tourism, balanced off to some extent by less hotel demand from corporate guests on that particular day.

Overall I estimate the shift will not have a massive impact on tourism and hotels, but if any it will have more positives than negatives.

Any other consequences you can think of?

Picture source, slightly modified.

Most popular Omani blogs

It's been a while since I posted. No excuses, just travel, work and lack of inspiration.

A fellow blogger and social media professional (if there is such a term) Maurizio, who is running the Omani Collective Intelligence blog on social media and PR issues in Oman, has recently posted an updated ranking of Omani blogs.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Omanly qualifying as 19th on the list of 46. Given that I usually cover a rather narrow set of topics and my posting intensity is more or less in line with the pace of life in the Sultanate, I am proud of this result.

Thanks all of you for your interest. In case you work in a tourism related area and find anything  relevant inhere, and more over, you perhaps can even use it in your work, well then I have certainly achieved my goal.

The season is soon over, with a bit of well deserved rest to come for everybody. Once this is done, let's shake up the brain cells and come up with fresh new things to make this country excel in originality and appeal of its tourism offering.

Vocational job creation

So here we are in 2013.  Sure with lots of plans, hopes and resolutions.

Just saw that the government aims to create 56,000 jobs forOmanis this year:  36,000 in the public sector (of which 20,000 in military) and 16,000 in the private sector. Wow! That’s over 1000 freshmen every week of the year.  There is certainly a challenge in the volume and also the relatively short period over which they have to be achieved. One might think this will not encourage quality in the selections.

Perhaps on the longer term, some more consideration could be also given to the qualitative, vocational aspects of job creation.  It is hard to believe that all those 20,000 who will be newly employed by the military, do see their carriers as soldiers or support staff. Perhaps a lot of them yes but more likely not most of them.

May sound a bit like leapfrogging some stages of labor market development, but I think employers should have an increasingly vocational perspective towards new hires. Even when it comes to quotas.  Asking people why they are going for that job should not only be a checklist interviewing question. Add on  how do they imagine a day work in that position looks like, and what they see themselves doing in five years, and you’ll pretty quickly get all parts of the puzzle.

There is nothing more disappointing than seeing a service person hating his/her job. Especially in the hospitality and tourism related service areas. It’s not only about service level and quality. It’s also about the sustainability of employment figures. Those people forced in their jobs, sooner or later will feel frustrated and quit, or survive day by say doing a crappy job and discouraging others who might like what they do and want to be good at it. The labor market does not really work on a meritocratic basis (at least not for the Omanis) and in most of the cases, if you have the nerves you can hold onto a position for quite some time without really excelling at it, to say the least. As a result you would be better trying to choose something that you feel some vocational call for.  Assisting youngsters in a vocational job selection is something would do a lot of good in this country. A combination of high school programs and more conscious hiring practice would certainly yield results in the medium to long term.

The other extreme is having your hobby as your job and be lucky enough to a make a good living out of it. Where are you on the scale…?

The bottom line 2012

Let's just have a quick look back on 2012 and see where the tourism offering of Oman has moved in a year. I am not talking about hard facts not announcements and press releases. What do we have more compared to 2011 that attracts more tourists? Off the top of my head:

• Almouj Golf officially opens including the par 3 floodlit golf course
• Ghala Valley Golf Club opens full 18-hole grass course
• Best Western opens Premier in Muscat
• Duqm sees torrent of new hotels: Veronica Floating Hotel and City Hotel Duqum with Crown Plaza just missing the line to open this year
• Salalah Beach project progresses with the opening of the Marina and the Juweira Butique Hotel
• Other openings which are arguably tourist attractions but might ad to the mix: Opera Galleria, MGM, Go Cart track, Amouage's new factory and visitor center etc.

In terms of sweet talk, promotion and softer type issues there was much more. Here are a few:

• Muscat Arab Tourism Capital for 2012 - and all the nice buzz around it
• An agreement to develop a Kempinski Hotel The Wave was signed by a consortia of investors
• A new Intercontinental was announced for Muscat Hills (since the one in Shaati will be replaced by a W hotel)
• Alila hotels signed up to manage the future Omran Hotel in Jebel Akhdar
• Oman Sail has waved the country's name all over the sailing word this year, wining the Extreme Sailing Series, tourism promotion awards and bids to organize international sailing events
• And of course Sheraton managed to stay closed for another year.

The above suggest to me that perhaps we need to remind ourselves of the basics: visitors are coming for attractions. The better they are packaged the more will come. Hotel are just services, parts of the package but are rarely the attractions themselves. I am really looking forward to new tourist products in the coming years that act as attractions rather then just services. Here are a few with some potential: The City Walk Muscat could finally be proper master planned activation of beach areas, The Oman Convention & Exhibition Center,  The Alila Resort in Jebel Akhdar, The Club Med in Salalah, and the de-industrialized and leisure focused waterfront regeneration in SQ Port in Mutrah etc. Insha'Allah.

Omani success...through sports again

I have been enthusing over the role of sports in building a competitive mind set and subsequently economy for some time now. I know the link might seem pretty  remote at the first glance, but put in a cultural and strategic context it does make sense to me.

So here's another success of Omani sportsman that should encouraging, inspire and drive kids to take up  various sports and if suits them to engage in professional performance pursuits.

The Oman Sail teams in the Extreme Sailing Series have finished the championship in top position.  The Wave (skipper Leigh McMillan) has won the gold by a narrow margin ahead of a French team, while Oman Air (skipper Morgan Larson) clinched the podium in a tight and exiting last race, literary winning on the last meters.

This is a huge result for Oman and Oman Sail, a timely justification of the strategy they took some years back.

What will be important now, it to provide proper media coverage to Hashim Al Rashdi (@hashim_alrashdi) from The Wave Muscat team and Nasser al Mashari from team Oman Air to talk about how much work and dedication is needed to achieve these levels.

To tell the story of the journey that took them from aspiring young dinghy sailors to members of the best sailing teams around the word. They should not forego this opportunity and act as inspirational figures. Having the professional backing of OmanSail behind this might be an easier task than for many other promising athletes in Oman.

Health camp or lancet?

I have read the other day in the Hi magazine's readers comments section on ways  to improve the domestic tourism.  If you have been following my tourism related mumbles inhere, you know I  emphasized a few times the importance of domestic tourism and means of improving it.
A new thought is related to health tourism. This is normally associated to wellness, spas, thermal water, nutrition, holistic light treatments (non-intrusive). Not to be confused with medical tourism (dental, plastic surgery etc.).

I have a couple of surgeon friends in Muscat and they always amaze me. Not just their ability to save lives and improve conditions of living, but also of how much they have to work on obesity related malfunctions. And these are very costly interventions most of the time covered by the patients themselves. So there is a whole lot of disposable income available for painful interventions with the hope of quick and sustainable result. These are certainly quick and in most cases result in noticeable  improvements,  however they are all but sustainable. For that it would take change of habits, mentality, the proof of results through nutrition and lifestyle. No lancet can do that.

But, there might be an opportunity for some retreat programs aimed at changing your lifestyle, nutrition, exercise habits achieving sustainable results and a healthier population. Maybe it sounds naive but it's actually not. There are several examples of such 'fit farms'  where guest partake in a 7-10 days strict retreat type programs, living in  a remote "hotel" which resemble more like a camp. It's not an all inclusive, all you can eat health resort with some light morning stretching followed by beach pose all day long pretending you are recharging. It's more like a boot camp that once you sign up and pay the expensive fee they guarantee you will walk out as a different person. With more self confidence, more healthy nutrition habits, being aware of how to push your limits, and perhaps with a bit more inner balance. The best such example is The Ashram (in California and Spain) and perhaps the Canyon Ranch in US.

Obviously there are thousands of variations from a sports and endurance focus to weight loss, from detox and nutrition to body and soul balance etc. The bottom line, with people struggling for a healthier lifestyle and willing to spends thousands of rials on surgeries there must be a case for such programs and facilities.

The asset called employee contd' - Motivation

It is not difficult to differentiate between a job done by a motivated and a non-motivated employee. Lack of motivation can hardly be compensated even by the most of experience there is. Sooner rather than later the sings of ignorance and apathy will be show on the job done.

In contrary when we are dealing with a motivated team, the sky is the limit, even if the sky is actually never really reached.

While there are many elements to it, I found that there are three major things that make or break employee motivation:

1. 1. Job security – How much effort you’d put in a work knowing you might not be around next month, or next year to witness the consequences. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean a job for life and that you cannot be dismissed even if you are clearly not doing your best to perform. I mean an environment where team members are not sent away without a clear explanation, where before somebody is sent away is given clear messages about his performance and given the chance to change and improve, where if somebody is fired there is subsequent communication to the team on explaining the main reasons (without discrediting the ex-employee) of his/her departure.
2. Sense of direction and progress – it is difficult to push hard without knowing what are you pushing for. Letting people know where is that they should be heading and how is that relevant for the team progress as a whole, is key. Same as the appraisal of where we are on our route to those goals (or where we think we are).
3. Recognition and reward – even the best steering can only get you that far without the fuel for the engine. A pet on your back can do much more than most managers think. Let alone some modest but clear words of praise (avoid being cheese, that sometimes does more harm than good, especially in front of peers). Finally a good asset’s worth and paycheck has to be in balance. You cannot defy the market value for too long (some employees are mastering this skill though.)

Notice, I put the money in the third group. Not that I would not welcome a raise and it would not improve my motivation, but in general there is a whole lot that can be achieved before giving a pay raise. Provided the other conditions (job security, sense of direction and progress and recognition) were not met before.  You would often hear people saying that “I am a mercenary and I am here for the money but…” this and that…

I always take this with a grain of salt. The explanations that usually follow relates to elements under 1 and/or 2. Obviously this might not apply to everybody but in my experience of working with superiors or team members, they typically proved to be the reasons for lack of motivation. What about you?

Photo by: Helder Almeida

The asset called employee contd' - Aquisition

Like with any asset let's start with the acquisitions, recruitment that is. It is probably the most difficult HR decision for an employer. No matter how many HR professionals are around you equipped with an arsenal of tests and interviewing techniques, it still remains more often than not a shot in the dark. The more sophisticated the assessment tools, the more books and blog posts are written in how to "read and trick" them if you are an applicant.

I noticed that in case of companies and organization in Oman a nice CV with the right buzzword and professional acronyms will do most of the job. Probably there is an overreliance on the academic and professional track record of the candidate, and less emphases on it's personality and non-technical, soft skills required for the task at hand.

Of course I am aware of most factors that distort the process such as, quotas to follow, wasta etc. but some of those you'll find in other economies as well.

I have interviewed for a junior and mid level position around 70-80 people so far and hired around 8-10 in the last 16 years, in my various earlier positions. I can say that in perhaps two cases I was absolutely certain it was the right hire. In most of the other it was the least doubtful choice and in one case we went for a risky approach but did not really paid off.  I learned that the best approach for me is trying to understand the candidate from the following three perspectives:

• 1. motivation - is (s)he really up for this, would  this job  put him/her on fire, at least for the first 12 months or so. How does this position fit in the candidate ambitions etc.
• 2. ability - does (s)he have the skill set required to perform the job. And I don't only mean the background, as most of the technical knowledge is not learnt in schools anyway, but more the essential soft skills, personality, social skills (especially when it comes to sales or team work), learning skills (are they systematic learning by doing persons or quick learners - learning by watching types etc.)
• 3. fit  - do you as employer feel comfortable spending more time with this person than with most of your friends or even family? Is there a natural click, a "kind of like this guy" feel? This is probably the most sensitive one. Rationality should be put aside and instincts should be at play here.

Anyways, no matter how hard we try it will remain -more often then it should- a trial and error game.  One thing for sure, do not let your HR do all that work for you, get involved from as early as you can. As team leader you will bring in the real perspective and look at the candidates as potential colleges not as people to fill positions.