Dubai World Managers participate in unique management program designed by Wharton Business School

The participants will hone their managerial skills and re-learn how to operate in varied work cultures. They will visit key strategic sites in these countries as a part of their Global Learning Journey class in order to facilitate greater knowledge exchange between these different companies.

The course, which has been tailor made for Dubai World's specific needs, is designed in such a manner so as to immerse participants in issues of a similar nature to those that their action-learning project confronts them with, but to do so in a cultural, institutional, and organizational environment that they are unfamiliar with. This enables participants to challenge certain underlying assumptions they may have of varying work cultures and to understand that cultural difference may not be as vast as some may make them out to be.

Chairman of Dubai World, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, said that the company's collaboration with the Wharton School of Business will propel the national workforce towards becoming future global leaders in the world of business and to make their mark in the international business arena.

"Dubai has been at the forefront of encouraging young talent and our collaboration with Wharton Business School underlies our commitment towards honing our skilled workforce by enabling them to achieve world-class leadership qualities. The Dubai Leaders program will not only boost Dubai World's growth by intensifying efforts towards cultivating new generations of young leaders but will also encourage talented people to participate in the emirates' economy."

Under the program, an ambitious and comprehensive tailored management development plan in keeping with Dubai World's specific strategy and overall objectives has been formulated. The program addresses three different levels of executive educational needs: organization-wide business management skills, operating unit-specific skills, and individual skills.

The latest leg of the program provides one or more new frames for the task or project and thus an opportunity for participants to re-frame their assumptions towards working in a particular approach. The Global Learning Journey, together with the new concepts that participants acquire in the classroom, constitutes a source of new frames through which participants can approach their Action-Learning Projects. The Global Learning Journey, then, through a process of observation, questioning and collective reflection, helps to shape the set of background assumptions that will guide participants' work on their Action-Learning Projects.

Some of the participants in the programme include Mariam Al Suwaidi, Nakheel; Tariq bin Khalifa, Ports, Mohammed Al Jassmi , Jafza; Abdul Raheem Al Qassim , DPA and Abdulla Belhoul from the Technical and Civil department.

The candidates will be travelling to Singapore and Hong Kong this month where they will be assigned company specific tasks through which case studies relevant to Dubai World will be examined and studied through a hands-on approach. The program constitutes a commitment by participants with respect to how they will spend their time in the host country. The visits and interactions with host-country individuals, institutions and organizations, have to be arranged and appointments made by themselves. The program culminates with a final report being presented to Dubai World at the end of the program and the candidates being certified by Wharton for their participation.

Similar training programmes are being planned by Dubai World in the near future in order to develop their employees talent further.