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By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 27^th December 2010.

It’s that time of year again, the end of the Gregorian calendar. It’s when executives calculate their expected bonuses. Companies tot up their end-of-year financials and congratulate themselves on how well they have done. And people at a personal level set new-year resolutions, such as buying a gym membership, which never gets used more than once or twice in that year. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 13^th December 2010.

The road to senior management is littered with landmines concerning business ethics. Well, it is if you speak to academics teaching MBA courses at business schools. It is not if you ask most of the students, who really could not care less. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 22^nd November 2010.

Sometimes customers are crying out for your products and services but the barriers to serving those customers are just too difficult to overcome, so companies don’t bother.  My parents’ home town is one such place. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 15^th November 2010.

One of the pleasures of dealing with a small entrepreneurial business is the energy and enthusiasm that one encounters, particularly from its founders. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 8^th November 2010.

It is often said small organisations are more innovative. Yet to bring about significant change, large organisations must also innovate. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 25^th October 2010.

You see a middle-aged guy cruising on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle down Jumeirah Beach Road on a weekend and what’s your first impression? Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 18^th October 2010.

The lore of Star Trek postulates the existence in space of an Alpha quadrant, home to the United Federation of Planets – called simply “the Federation”.  There is also, among three others, a Delta quadrant dominated by villainous cybernetic humanoid drones, the Borg, whose raison d’etre is to acquire new species and assimilate them into the Borg collective. Prior to acquisition, the target species are candidly told “resistance is futile”.

These two fictional quadrants are an extremely accurate pop-culture metaphor for the telecommunications industry – the Alpha quadrant – and the IT industry – the Delta quadrant. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 4^th October 2010.

Thousands of business incubators have been set up around the world, mainly by governments and universities, which is probably one reason that they do not succeed in creating viable entrepreneurial businesses. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 27^th September 2010.

Last week, Vince Cable, the UK coalition government’s business secretary, made a scathing attack on the “murky” world of high finance in his speech at the Liberal Democrats conference in Liverpool. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 30^th August 2010.

A friend of mine has recently structured a US$100 million (Dh367.2m) film fund to finance slasher/horror movies. The fund is forecasting solid returns for this genre, which is always in demand.  I put it to him that there were many parallels between bad managers and the villains that stalk the slasher genre. Both are fundamentally concerned with cutting things up. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 9^th August 2010.

I can guarantee you this. Whether you like it or not, you’ve done it. You’ve completed one. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 2^nd August 2010.

The British game show host Bruce Forsyth was known for asking his audience on Play Your Cards Right, “What do points make?”, to which they would shout back in unison, “Prizes!” Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 26^th July 2010.

It happens to the best of us, it happens to the worst of us. It occurs when times are good, as well as when they are not. Politicians and football coaches are victims of it; managers in corporations also fall prey but in a more private setting. Either way, being fired really sucks. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 19^thJuly 2010.

I was never bright enough as an 18-year-old to warrant a place at Oxford University. But last week, 21 years later, I managed to attend the Oxford University Summer School for Adults (OUSSA). Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 12^thJuly 2010.

Last week, I took a group of MBA students on a field trip to Jebel Ali to visit the UAE’s largest pasta and noodles factory. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 5^th July 2010.

There is a company that generates 97 per cent of its revenue from a single source. Some say it is persuasive, others call it manipulative. It permeates almost every aspect of our lives and many of us fear that it holds too much sway over the minds of our children. The company is Google and the source of the revenue is advertising. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 28^th June 2010.

There is a wonderful line spoken by the fictitious company promoter Mr Goldbury in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Utopia Limited: “Though a Rothschild you may be in your own capacity; as a company you’ve come to utter sorrow; but the liquidators say, ‘Never mind, you needn’t pay’; so you start another company tomorrow!” Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 21^st June 2010.

As the FIFA World Cup juggernaut trundles along, I’d like to put in a word for my home town of Wimbledon. Today is the first day of the 124th championship at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in south-west London. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 14^th June 2010.

When a business becomes untethered from society, serving no purpose but the pursuit of profit, it is time for that organisation to go back to the drawing board. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 7^th June 2010.

Growth in international markets is sluggish. The local economy isn’t faring much better. But in every organisation there is one place of enormous expansion – around the waistlines of workers. Read more »