10 Things I Know
Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, group chairman and CEO of DP World
On Dubai’s founding vision, building free zones from nothing, and why listening is an amazing art.
Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem is Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DP World and Chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation. Global Innovation Magazine Founder James O’Flynn travelled to Dubai to interview His Excellency.
The first time I ever heard the word ‘innovation’ was in 1987 from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid during a Ramadan gathering. He said: ‘I need people with vision and innovation to be part of my team. These are going to be the leaders of tomorrow.’
His Highness answered smilingly: ‘I meant that all of you must change your pattern of thinking towards positivity, you must break away from defeatist thinking, and you should accept that there is no such thing as a deadlock. My team has no room for whoever can’t behave like this.’
Dubai is a small place; if we didn’t opt to go vertically then our children would never see nature, as the whole place would have been covered. When I talk about Dubai and what I did, you can characterise it in blocks of ten years.
I was involved with the free zone, the Jebel Ali free zone, which I started in 1985, and DP World in the 1990s. A lot of things that have happened in Dubai evolved from necessity, and necessity is the mother of invention.
Through customs, ports, airports and free zones, we process about 18–19 million documents a year. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed wanted to establish an electronic Government. He managed by example.
Innovation has come from within the organisation, rather than from the top. In airport customs, they come up with amazing initiatives out of necessity — not because we were pushing them, but because they found a way that takes them less time to do their job with precision.
The way I lead is that I want people to challenge ideas and talk to me without hesitation. I like to hear other opinions. What happens then is that ideas can be refined and adapted to find another way.
When I have an idea I try to convince people. As a boss, you can always just tell people to do things, but if it fails they will just say, ‘I wasn’t convinced.’ When a person is as passionate as you are, they will achieve the goal.
Much of our success comes from our employees, and our customers. When you listen, you learn so much. Sometimes people want to talk, they want to hear themselves talking, and they miss so much. Listening is an amazing art.
"You must break away from defeatist thinking, and you should accept that there is no such thing as a deadlock."
From the Archive — This interview was originally published in Dubai Special, May 2016 (May 2016). Roles, titles, and views expressed were accurate at the time of the original interview and may have since changed.
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