A note from Creation Business Consultants Managing Director – Reflections in 2020

Like everyone else, my initial thoughts when I reflect upon 2020 is “who could have seen that coming”. 

Throughout the world we have seen things we have long taken for granted suddenly take on a new value.

For me personally, perhaps the biggest realisation has been that whilst my family in Melbourne is only a 14-hour flight away, that can be a very long way if you can’t fly. Sounds simple, but it took a pandemic to remind me of it. 

FROM A BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE, THERE HAVE BEEN SO MANY TAKEAWAYS AND LESSONS LEARNED. IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER, HERE ARE A FEW OBSERVATIONS:

• The “Paperless Office” was first coined in 1978. I still remember learning about this at university in the ‘90’s, hearing how everything would be in digital format soon. That didn’t really take off so well. Enter COVID. Suddenly, digital was the new black. The urgency to always hold documents was circumvented by digital signatures and Zoom calls. For Creation, this led to incorporating companies and corporate bank accounts remotely which helped SME’s either start-up or expand during the toughest of months in 2020.
• Meetings and business travel – For many years, living in Dubai has meant a lot of flying for business. Endless hours of airports, airplanes, hotels and taxis. My last flight was back from Riyadh in January. This is the longest I’ve been in one country since I made the move to Dubai back in 2008. It is a generally accepted practice now to hold virtual meetings which will make many wonders. Will we ever return to the days of old where people simply had to fly everywhere? Personally, I think once vaccines become more wide-spread we’ll see business travel return, but it will take a while to see the levels of yesteryear. 
• Business resilience – the economy of the UAE has perhaps surprisingly, seemed a little insulated from what is happening around the world. 2020 certainly hasn’t reached the bullish predictions we had in mind this time a year ago. However, given we are living through a once in a millennium event, it is fair to say the market could have been worse. There were those industries that got extremely battered, from travel to tourism, F&B, events, there were a number of casualties. Yet, as happens in every down market, some winners emerged. E-commerce businesses flourished, logistics grew, video conferencing and online learning was catapulted forward (Zoom share price increased nearly 700% in 2020). 
• Legal changes in the UAE – The introduction and implementation of Economic Substance Reporting was big news in 2020, as the Ultimate Beneficial Owner reporting. These changes moving towards a greater framework of regulation and disclosure are welcomed by many (scorned by a few). However, probably the news that made the biggest waves came from the announcement that foreigners could now own 100% of a mainland company (removing the requirement for a local partner). Whilst this will have a large impact moving forward, there are little tangible changes today as the law takes time to be fully understood and implemented. 

As a wrap to the year “The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow” Rupert Murdoch. We look forward to seeing what 2021 will bring and wish you a safe and healthy new year.