One of the great things about Fuqua is the extent to which alumni are willing to ‘give back’ to the school and the alumni network at large. Yesterday, we had an alumni career panel with two gentleman who graduated from the daytime program, as well as an Emirati gentleman in charge of HR at a large multinational corporation. While the intent of this panel was to talk about the opportunities for Duke graduates post-MBA, given that most of us already have jobs (Executive MBA and all), the general direction of the panel quickly turned to doing business in the Middle East. I think this unintentional turn was probably the best learning experience I’ve had thus far across both the London and Dubai residencies.

One thing that struck me about the panelists were how honest they were about the business climate. When asked about gender roles, ethnicity concerns in business, or even laws against personal contact in public, I found that each panelist was candid in discussing the issues. Even better though was that none of them were apologetic or politically correct in stating their views. After sitting through the two hour marathon Q&A session, I feel like I’ve got a much better handle on how business is conducted in the Middle East (or at least in the UAE).

If I had to pick one lesson that I learned as the most important, it would have to be that there is no implied social contract between employers and employees. Reputation is key for both parties, but at the same time, the company isn’t there to make your life better, nor are you expected to have high company loyalty. To the extent that you can provide a useful service to the company, you will be employed. When your time is up, it’s time to find somewhere else to contribute. Obviously, this is distinctly different to the U.S., as most companies try to do all the fluffy “Employees are our family” type of things in the workplace.

Similarly, I found it very interesting that “work is work, your personal life is personal” is the dominant mentality. Again, the panelists were unapologetic about the notion that people stay to their “own kind”, and that’s ok. While at no time were the panelists saying that diversity was bad (there are ~180 countries/cultures represented in Dubai), there wasn’t the implied guilt that you feel in the U.S. whenever a personal group is too homogeneous. That’s just the way things are done here.

After the panel, we had dinner on the terrace outside, which has an amazing view at night with all of the buildings lit up. I really need to learn how to use a camera for nighttime pictures! A little decision tree homework, a few economics questions, then the Halloween party. I’m glad to announce that no one got arrested. :)

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