ME PoV Summer 2013 issue

About this issue

Take a drive along the traditionally billboard-infested Lebanese coastal highway and you would be forgiven for thinking that some advertising agency has placed the wrong ad on the wrong billboard. A better transportation network, a strong and well-equipped army, these are visions being touted by the Lebanese Ministry of Energy and Water now that, as the campaign says: “we have oil and gas.”

The polemics surrounding the relatively recent discovery of energy fields in Lebanese waters are plentiful and this is not the forum to be discussing them. The idea behind the ad campaign has been well received though: gas is good.

Click the link on the left to access the Summer 2013 issue. Alternatively, you can read each article separately by clicking below.

Has the train left the station?

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), the buzzing phrase of the nineties that catapulted Qatar onto the world stage, is simply natural gas: methane-cooled to - 164º Celcius (its natural boiling point) thereby turning it to liquid. Easily said, but do not try this at home: it costs around USD 5 billion and five years to construct a plant to liquefy natural gas.

Click here to read the full article.

Event management

As the Middle East experiences rapid social and business development, events are increasingly taking place. With countries, cities and companies spending a considerable part of their budgets on events, the need for effective Event Management has become significant.

Click here to read the full article.

ICS: Protecting the ‘other’ network

Industrial Control Systems (ICS), those big machines with lights, switches and big knobs common to manufacturing environments, have long been considered a matter for engineers and Operations. But the recent spate and proliferation of cyber attacks - attacks utilizing technology and the Internet, has brought to light how these systems affect our daily lives and are raising questions about how they are being managed and protected.

Click here to read the full article.

Brick by brick, tile by tile

Islamic Finance is a business and operational model that predominantly relies on its ‘intellectual capital’, ‘knowledge assets’ and ‘knowledge managers’ to drive its evolution and sustainability in both terms, qualitative and quantitative. Yet some institutions offering Islamic Financial Services (IIFS) often lack the tools to help them identify the knowledge assets and the knowledge management value proposition it could develop to deploy resources and achieve efficiency and profitability.

Click here to read the full article.

Less is more

Unhappy with your management team? Then SACK them.

But before you stop reading this article, fire everybody and find yourself alone in the office by the end of the day, you should note that SACK – which stands for Stipulate, Appoint, Collaborate and Keep monitoring – is a solution for efficient and effective management reporting that has been developed specifically to assist companies working towards achieving success on their projects and investments.

Click here to read the full article.

New business strategies from big data

The possibilities presented by big data are numerous. But, to paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, how should business leaders act rather than merely react? In seeking to derive maximum value from their businesses, organizations should act before they are faced with challenges. Under the appropriate circumstances, big data can lead to insight within emerging trends that are invisible in small data and thereby provide the means for businesses to be more proactive.

Click here to read the full article.

Blowing in the wind?

Whistleblowing, or ‘Ethics’ hotlines, have gained prominence in the Middle East over the last few years, although it is difficult to identify any legislation to protect ‘whistleblowers’ within the various Middle East government sectors. However, history provides many instances where the whistleblower, and not the alleged offender, is the one penalized and people in the Middle East are uncomfortable with the process, which allows for anonymous reporting.

Click here to read the full article.