Sky High and Sea Deep

Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Chairman, Dubai World

“A good leader is one who can connect a bird’s-eye view with a worm’s-eye view of the world.” That’s how N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chief Mentor, Infosys, describes leadership. Having spent 12 hours with His Excellency Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Chairman of Dubai World and its subsidiary companies at sea level in the Algerian port of Djen Djen and at 45,000 feet aboard this private jet, I am qualified to say he is someone with a very good view of the world from any altitude or angle.

Dubai World insiders say that the group operates as ‘state within a state’. With over 100 subsidiaries in diverse fields such as logistics, tourism, various kinds of real estate projects and offerings, private equity, ecommerce, media, energy and natural resources, it is not hard to understand why the ‘state within a state’ tag sticks. “We are a very diverse group but whatever we get into we have to be the best,” Bin Sulayem says while multitasking with his Macbook Air.

Surely there asks to be a favourite amongst the 100 of companies he heads? “Logistics is close to my heart,” he says. “It’s what we started with and what I spend a lot of time engaged in.”

A graduate from Temple University in Philadelphia, Bin Sulayem was recently awarded an honorary doctorate from the Middlesex University in recognition of his “dedication to excellence and commitment to the economic development of the UAE and the Arab World, and his inspiring community leadership”.

The key factor in Dubai World’s success according to Bin Sulayem is its knowledge capital. “We have consultants but we try our best to gain as much in-depth knowledge ourselves before we get into anything.” And when he says “in-depth” he means it literally too! “Before we started work on the Palm, I took my core team of designers and engineers diving at the site to get a better understanding,” he recalls.

Bin Sulayem likes to fit horse riding into his hectic schedule. In fact, he arrived in Algeria straight from Malaysia where he competed as part of the UAE endurance team. The team claimed the only medal that was missing from their list of achievements – the team gold in a World Endurance Championship. Bin Sulayem finished third in the individual tally. He is also a bronze medalist at the Doha Asian Games.

Not bad considering that he took up riding only eight years ago. A sound example that when he says Dubai World “has to be the best in everything it does”, he means it from all angles.