Metin Mitchell

'Dubai is our 73rd international office, explains Regional Managing Director Metin Mitchell, formerly Managing Director for France. 'Dubai is an international city and alongside the vibrancy of Dubai we will leverage the Arab Diaspora around the world.

'This is the most obvious pool of talent available to the Middle East. These are people with Western education and experience and a multi-cultural approach.

'But we are not out to import Western culture. These people have formed their own experience from their Western education mixed with their own cultural background. We prefer to see it more as a reverse of the brain drain.

'It used to be that the best and brightest students from the region went to the US and stayed there. Now they are coming back for better opportunities and an improved lifestyle.'

Korn/Ferry specializes in recruitment of top staff positions in financial services, large family trading houses, airlines, telecommunications, oil and gas, education and healthcare. Indeed, the firm has been recruiting for positions in the region for 30 years, and only now finds it necessary to open a regional office.

'The region's rapid economic liberalization and increased commitment to leveraging its human capital have convinced us of the need to have a physical presence in the region,' says Mr. Mitchell. 'Being based in the Dubai Airport Free Zone is ideal for travel around the GCC.'

Things are clearly changing in the Middle East. Mr. Mitchell cites developments such as the Dubai International Financial Centre and Dubai HealthCare City as exciting projects that will be good news for his company.

'Take healthcare, at present a Qatari national travels to the Cromwell Hospital in London for treatment. In the near future, the same individual will be able to come to the DHCC for world-class treatment, and we will help staff those facilities.

'In some ways we have to be ambassadors for the region. Selling its better lifestyle and quality of life and educating people about advantages such as a better social interaction of families. That is very much part of what we do to convince them to relocate here.'

However, Mr. Mitchell believes compensation packages will also need to include far more of a performance element in future in order to attract the very top job candidates.

He notes that too often local groups spend a fortune on management consultancy studies only to find that they do not have the people to implement their recommendations, partly because bonus systems are not in place to reward performance.

'We also offer a diagnostic tool to CEOs that enables them to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their Human Resources balance sheet. Then we look at remedial measures that can move grade B people to become grade A.'

At the end of the day, Mr. Mitchell concedes that the most talented people are always in short supply. 'This is a simple fact of market economics but creating a greater liquidity in the HR market will fix that.

'We see huge potential in the Middle East. In the 1970s one famous Saudi Minister said the region was having its moment in the sun. Well this is its second moment in the sun! It is a tremendous opportunity for economies to invest and diversify.'