All eyes on Qatar

All eyes on Qatar

 

Qatar is the richest nation on the planet. It processes fifteen percent of the world’s gas reserves. Its government has been aggressively investing in infrastructure and is working towards diversifying its economy. It is experiencing a boom in construction that is providing jobs for hundreds of thousands of expat workers from around the world.

In July, international property services company DTZ issued its second quarter review of the Qatari real estate market, concluding, "Robust economic and population growth continues to drive demand for real estate across all asset classes."

This is superb news for the PR industry. All of the world’s major PR firms have their sights and investment budgets set on Qatar. London’s Blue Rubicon has launched its first Middle East office in Qatar this year and the majority of the established GCC players are there. The opportunities for PR practitioners are plentiful. Those with expertise in natural resources or corporate and financial PR should be thinking about Qatar as a career move. The nation’s success in winning the World Cup bid for 2022 and its focus on investing in the hospitality, tourism and retail sectors means that there is also an increasing demand for consumer PR practitioners too.

Justin Kent - Managing Director

Dubai deserves Expo 2012

Dubai deserves Expo 2012

 

For months the phrase ‘Expo 2020’ has been seen on street corners, highway billboards and inside malls around Dubai.

 

The World Expo is one of the world’s biggest events in terms of its ability to deliver a lasting economic and cultural impact on the host city. Dubai is a front-runner for the World Expo 2020, competing against Brazil, Russia, Thailand and Turkey.

There is a strange feeling in Dubai that it will win. The city is in great shape – it has a truly world-class infrastructure. It has been ranked as having the 34^th best infrastructure in the world by the Mercer City Infrastructure Ranking – the only Middle East city to appear in the list. It beats Madrid, Melbourne, Geneva, Brussels and many more. In 2013 the government of Dubai allocated 35 percent of its budget for further infrastructure investment. The economy and recent surge in jobs growth also puts Dubai in pole position.

The government of Dubai announced in December 2012 that it would increase public spending by six percent in 2013 whilst also bringing down its deficit to below 0.5 per cent. The figures are impressive. Besides the statistics, the fact is that Dubai ‘feels’ right. It has a strong message of optimism. It is attracting world-class talent, foreign direct investment and it is increasingly seen as a major player in the development of renewables. It is a force to be reckoned with.　 The fact that the sun always shines also helps.

 

Dubai has worked hard to shake off its economic troubles. It has rebounded quickly. It’s a superb place to live, a safe place to raise children and a place that offers better job security than the struggling economies of the west. Dubai is a rare find in these difficult economic times – confident, established and growing at a steady and sustainable rate. It’s a great place to build a career and it deserves to win the Expo 2020.

 

 

Justin Kent - Managing Director

The key to economic success? Sunshine

"It’s the economy weather, stupid."

I have the key to economic success. Whilst George Osborne hurries around Downing Street pulling levers and trying to squeeze pennies from taxpayers, it has suddenly become patently obvious to me what the answer is: sunshine.

After several miserable summers dogged by constant rain, grey skies and consistently negative economic news; all of a sudden the UK’s economy has jumped by 0.7 percent in Q2 of 2013. Is it pure coincidence that the UK has had its best summer for years and now house prices are skyrocketing and unemployment is dropping? Look back to the winter of 2009 – the start of the recent cold winters – the economy nosedived by 0.5 percent. So my theory scientifically is: good weather = GDP+. Bad weather = GDP-.

Economists and the media also support my theory. The Guardian recently reported that retail sales grew by 1.1 percent as shoppers ran to shops in their thousands to buy arm loads of sun cream and bikinis. Now, if we could only create a new bikini-making industry we could create thousands of jobs and really get the economy moving. One thing is for sure – the gorgeous British weather is already creating more jobs in the world of PR!

So there it is – it’s official. The key to economic success is sunshine. Now I just need to work out what is happening with the weather in Greece and Spain…

Tim Court - Director

　

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Your career prospects for 2013

2013 could be a defining year!

 

The Good

If the Eurozone settles and allows for a pick up in confidence, then all that money sitting on company balance sheets could start to be invested and we could see a real and exciting upturn in the global economy. Companies around the world have plenty of money to invest, they have been lean since the crash in 2008 and have increased cash reserves as a result. Upturns in economies are driven by the private not public sector, so if confidence returns then we can expect significant growth in the job market and potentially a global explosion of demand for talent.　

 

The Bad

Carrying on as we are and maintaining the wait and see status quo will make an already slow market even worse. Career opportunities will slip away dramatically. As we have seen in 2012, the majority of organisations are recruiting only to replace, few are making investment hires. The fewer the number of jobs available the less the general public is likely to spend, making companies invest even less as they see and consequently contribute to an ever shrinking economy. This is all well reported in the newspapers of course but it makes the reality of the status quo quite frightening.

The Ugly

In plain terms the ugly is a collapse in the Euro, with either Greece dropping out of the bottom or Germany popping out of the top. The latter being the lesser of two evils in the opinion of many economists. Either solution will cause a complete collapse and run on the markets and banks, which will affect every economic zone in the world, no-one will escape.　 Ironically it could see the world pick up quickly again as countries can devalue and throw off their shackles, but the initial fallout will not just wipe out career opportunities it will lead to a swathe of job losses across the world. A desperate scenario.

 

So which way 2013 will go is anybody’s guess. Our prediction is somewhere between the good and the bad. We see no movement in Europe, modest growth in the Middle East and solid growth in the Far East. Career opportunities are out there for skilled individuals and we are now talking to more and more people looking to leave Europe to further their careers. The youth of Europe is very much on the move. After a century of settled populations we are back to an era where people will move to where the work is and populations once again become fully mobile through job migration.

 

Justin Kent - Managing Director

Why good grammar is still ‘bang tidy’

What on earth has become of us? Amazeballs, oojamaflip and frape are just three of thirteen new additions to the dictionary - http://t.co/wDdWEJes.

I must confess, if I speak to people in their early twenties there are times when I question whether I need a formal translator. Where I would describe someone as a great laugh, the youth of today might say they are “bare jokes.”

Yes, language is constantly changing, but that doesn’t make grammar unimportant. Increasingly I am seeing CVs which contain grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.

How you write can say a lot about you and your abilities. No matter how qualified you are the lack of attention you pay to drafting and editing your CV can be your downfall. Poor grammar, typographical mistakes, and incorrect or weak vocabulary can get your job application rejected just as easily as the lack of relevant skills or experience. Silly mistakes say to an employer that you might be uneducated, lazy, or in a hurry and didn’t give the CV the proper attention it deserves. And, for better or worse, people judge you if you can’t tell the difference between their, there, and they’re. With the advent of mobile texting and social network sites some people have forgotten that there are certain rules when writing professionally.

I’m sure we have all heard stories about CVs being ripped up and thrown in the bin without being looked at for more than ten seconds. The reason we’ve heard these stories is that they are true.
Granted, putting together a CV is often something that people do in more of a rush than they’d like. Equally, I am here to try to catch those mistakes before they are passed on to potential employers. But when it comes down to it the message is clear: your CV is supposed to be polished and formal. If it has not been written, read and edited properly you will be putting yourself at an immediate disadvantage.

That is most definitely not fandabidozi.

Tim Court - Director