Great leaders understand that a diverse workforce is the breeding ground of innovation. On 31^st May 2018, Global Learning Industry Voices at SP Jain’s Dubai campus invited Mr. Nasif Kayed - also famously known as the ‘Arab Culturalist’, a global entrepreneur with 25 years of experience & over 45 businesses under his wing for an insightful, thought provoking and interactive workshop to understand the Middle Eastern business and cultural etiquette.

The session covered how to do business in the UAE & Middle East with an overview of cultural norms and differences between different regions, and the dos and don’ts of successfully navigating and succeeding across cultures and multi-cultural environments.

With the rate of globalisation, it’s important to realise the intricacies of how culture plays a role in business, especially with a multitude of cultures coming together to accomplish a common objective. Dubai is one such environment fostering nationalities from across the globe, welcoming all.

Mr. Nasif also gave the students a few guidelines to engage with people of different cultures. The first and foremost being not to judge. The session questioned what was considered as norm, if it really needed to be so, ridiculed stereotypes, sensitised the students to different cultures & highlighted business norms in the UAE - all strung together with humour and great presentation.

 *This event update was written with inputs provided by Chris John (Student, Master of Global Business, Intake of September 2017)