Working as a woman in the Middle East

Working in the Middle East, namely Dubai is an eye opener for any person who has spent their entire working life in the United Kingdom, but for a woman in Logistics it is that little bit harder or should I say challenging.. a positive attitude always helps where ever you are in life.

Dubai is home to 202 different nationalities in their workforce so to get yourself heard and noticed you must firstly understand who you are dealing with, what nationality, how they approach business and any religious beliefs and traditions that you must follow so as not to offend. Woman of course are also not always accepted by some nationalities however with others are welcomed as a breath of fresh air.

My first challenge upon arriving in Dubai was to understand the Arab culture, our English ways make us wary of offending and in this belief makes us nervous to step forward too quickly. However upon closer relations, I soon discovered that the Arab people, male and female are extremely warm and welcoming and are as interested in our beliefs as we are in theirs. This grounding helped me to understand that my lack of knowledge was a tool I could use to show interest in another’s culture and by listening and learning I was opening up my own warmth and personality to another person, another company and at the same time earning their trust. This I channelled into a marketing / advertising tool to be able to assist clients and build the business for Allseas Global Logistics here in Dubai.

Running a business in Dubai therefore means we encounter various nationalities also running their own business, of course this is nothing new to an International logistics company, however I have found that a common problem for companies here is communication and speed of response. Countries outside of the Middle East, believe all companies within the GCC to be notoriously slow in communication, some fail to remember that our weekend is different to the majority of the world, our weekend falls Friday/Saturday and of course the time difference is there also, however questions on email can also be mis-understood due to misinterpretation or just not reading things correctly due to language barriers and therefore many mails can go to and forth without the question being answered appropriately and therefore resulting in extreme frustration in both sides.

Since my arrival I have analysed the above greatly and believe we have solved this issue a few ways, firstly by actually reading or listening to the question correctly, this may appear simple but you would be amazed as to how frequently this is not done here, secondly we have employed 3-4 different nationalities so far as every nationality likes to speak to their own country from time to time, even as a British citizen I need to be able to converse with British every so often to get that feeling of home, thirdly we employ male and female’s so we can assess our clients needs should a male/female be more suited to the client, and lastly we structure our business in a way so we can pre-empt questions, be proactive and learn from problems that happen so we can guide clients to the right solution rather than letting them make the same mistake time and time again.

I like to feel little by little we are changing the difficult way logistics is being done in the Middle East to make it easier for all. Customer service is and always has been first and foremost for our company.

Dubai is certainly a city where customer service comes first in hotels, shops and restaurants however within the logistics industry it appears to have been lost somewhat, myself and my team are changing this, our clients stay with us due to this reason and we will only grow stronger in this market with a good sustainable growth.

Paula Bellamy - Regional Manager at Allseas Dubai