It goes without saying that knowledge in local culture is not luxury for executives. This knowledge could easily mean the difference between your name among the top 100 CEOs in your region, and a way-too-early goodbye party in your company. But when it comes to the GCC region, this becomes even more imperative.

Year: 2008. Place: Abu Dhabi. I was involved in a local training program that later turned into what we now know as Tawteen. The company I worked for had imported cutting-edge training programs from top tier providers in the world. In a discussion with the colleague who headed the soft skills training department, I asked her why trainees were learning western business etiquette. Her answer was: They call these best practices for a reason. Most trainees back then failed their first job interview.

It may sound like a self-serving statement for an Arabic content professional to advise PR agencies to outsource their Arabic content to, well, his own company. But I do get this question a lot from clients, current and potential: Why would it be better to use a professional Arabic content provider than to hire our own team?

As a high executive, your responsibilities will surely include speaking for your company, whether to the media or directly to final audience in conferences. While many executives in Dubai and the UAE in general master public speech to varying extends, speaking to the media, especially TV studio interviews, remains a major challenge. The good news is, it does not take much training to master the basic skills you need to be able to express your knowledge in a well-organized and structured manner.