Challenging days for GCC business leaders (page 4 of 4)

The future is bright in terms of the pool of future managers."

Rahimi agrees that there are some bright young stars emerging - although he warns that the real talent is almost exclusively to be found in the financial services arena. He cautions that, in other industries, there are some young managers with excellent industry skills, but too few with general management and leadership skills. This is partly thanks to the traditional reluctance of Gulf CEOs to delegate - without delegated responsibility, how can today's junior managers learn to become tomorrow's senior managers and business leaders?

So much for the future. Back in the present, it is clear that today's CEOs face a difficult time in coming years - especially with ambitious young stars waiting in the wings to take their place if they slip up. Against this challenging background, who would want to take the job? In reality, there is no shortage of takers: Bayt reports that it received more than 2,000 applications for one general manager position it advertised recently.

Executive pay is clearly a major incentive. The starting salary for a CEO is around $120,000, plus benefits including free housing, schooling and car. Most earn far more. Increasingly, though, Gulf CEOs have to earn their corn. Sophisticated, target-based packages are more and more common, and Gulf companies are now quick to show the exit door to under-performing leaders. It's tough at the top in the Gulf today - and it's only going to get tougher.