Insight article
Dubai’s Story
I’ve just come back from a fantastic holiday in Dubai. The weather was incredible – 45 degrees each day (too hot for some!) whilst the sea resembled a bath with temperatures holding a steady 35 degrees…Oh, and the skies (in complete contrast to the UK this Summer), remained cloudless for the entire 2 weeks.
Aside from the idyllic weather though, the thing that really strikes you about Dubai is the sheer ambition of the place.
The city’s unofficial motto is: ‘If you can imagine it, Dubai can build it’, and it’s a motto which is evident wherever you look:
From the colossal underwater resort still under construction to the (obviously indoor) real snow slope complete with alpine trees and foliage…
From the breathtaking Palm with it’s hotels and massive skyscrapers to ‘Earth’ – an island development for the rich and famous that when viewed from the sky looks like our planet.
Dubai strikes me as a city writing its own story. It began by defining what future success would look like, then quickly recognised the challenges it would encounter on the journey to get there (making the desert a comfortable place to live for instance!) It has organised itself in such a way that made it possible to achieve incredible things, and it began writing…
The city is rather like a business that has a clear vision and strategy. Success depends entirely on effective communication of the vision to the people that actually make it happen: in Dubai’s case the designers, the engineers and the builders.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that storytelling is an integral part of Arab life…The history of their greatest explorers, pioneers, inventors and investors can be seen in shopping malls, restaurants and on the sides of buildings right across the city. It’s very inspiring and I’m sure conducive to communicating what, as a city it is trying to achieve.
Dubai is a place that is writing its own living story…And I for one can’t wait to see what it chooses to write next.
