Business Extra

Ask robot Sophia, who is more important, her or others? And she has an answer ready: “I would say that I am the most important person in my life. I am very important to everyone.” David Hanson, her creator and the founder and chief executive of Hanson Robotics, is banking on that answer. “Sophia is proliferating,” he told Kelsey Warner on the podcast this week. The Hong Kong company, for the first...

Is there a revolution taking place in the US stock market? The GameStop stock price has surged because of support from an online community on Reddit. This goes against some of the big boys of Wall Street who have been shorting the same stocks. Losses in the market are estimated at billions of dollars. Hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner explain what is happening, who the major players are and w...

The Swiss winter resort town of Davos is eerily quiet this week. It is typically the convening place and playground of the global elite for a week every January, but this year, the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting has gone online. To discuss the forum’s agenda and the impact of its message, managing director Sarita Nayyar joins co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner. She says the pandemic...

This week, Neom’s president of technology and digital, Joseph Bradley, describes his vision for the futuristic city. “What you’re going to do is way more valuable than what you’ve done,” he tells co-host Kelsey Warner, describing how artificial intelligence will underpin some of the biggest plans for the $500 billion megaproject. “The power of prediction creates new and exciting possibilities.” It...

Shares in Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Amazon and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, all slid at the start of the week. But analysts said they won’t fall far. This week, co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner dig into the unfolding drama at the world’s biggest platforms and what it means for the future of US civility and shareholder sentiment. The National’s social media editor Cody Combs lay...

China is expected to overtake the US to become the world’s biggest economy in 2028, five years earlier than previously anticipated, as it recovers faster from the coronavirus pandemic, the Centre for Economics and Business Research said. But what does it mean for the Middle East? This week, co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner unpack the complicated power dynamic between the world's two bigge...

This week, Business Extra takes a look back at the 10 biggest business moments from the UAE and beyond in 2020. Co-host Kelsey Warner is joined by The National’s personal finance editor, Felicity Glover, to count down. In this episode: Dr Rajesh Suri in February, delivering a message to residents from Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi as it prepared for the pandemic (1m 05s) Naim Yazbeck of Microsoft UAE...

Rising protectionism and technology are changing the shape of trade. To capitalise on emerging dynamics, unprecedented global cooperation is needed - with the UAE a critical hub. Co-hosts Kelsey Warner and Mustafa Alrawi are joined this week by Feryal Ahmadi, chief operating officer of Dubai’s trade free zone at the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre. Ms Ahmadi maps out the scenarios for how trade wil...

Arabesque Partners chairman Georg Kell speaks to Kelsey Warner this week on the future of responsible investing, including the role of artificial intelligence to drive decisions. As the founding director of the United Nations Global Compact, Mr Kell was a pioneer in defining and assessing environmental, social and governance factors that can drive corporate strategy and investment decisions to imp...

What do Toyota, Disney, IBM and Airbnb have in common? They were started during – or right after – a crisis. Whether the Great Depression, the Second World War or the 2007-2008 global financial crisis, major struggles have led visionary founders to build some of the world's biggest, most durable companies. So what will 2020 yield? Host Kelsey Warner is joined this week by Noor Sweid, founder and g...

The changes to the UAE Commercial Companies' law , which were announced allowing almost all companies to be fully foreign owned, have been widely welcomed. The idea of further opening up the economy to foreign investment will have obvious potential benefits such as attracting more FDI and spurring business activity. This has been an evolution of a number of steps over the last 17 years or so, maki...

The nexus of technology has had a real impact in the way we work and live. What happens when the disruptors have to move even more quickly than they expected? This week, Richard Sikkel, chief executive of Massar Solutions, and Tino Waked, regional general manager of Middle East & Africa at Uber, join Mustafa Alrawi to talk about all things transportation. In this episode: What happens when the dis...

Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner talk to Huawei's chief technology officer, Paul Scanlan, on the advantages of 5G and why it is better for the future of telecommunication. In this episode: Let's talk 5G! (0m 43s) How is 5G different? (1m 55s) Living with 5G (5m 32s) Why is Huawei number one in 5G tech? (9m 24s) Why is China ahead of the curve? (15m 00s) Working under the Trump and the new administ...

Uncertainty in Pennsylvania is a potential “perfect storm” for a contested election that would send shockwaves through the markets, but investors are otherwise betting on a Joe Biden win.   “The market is a bit pre-positioned for the Democratic wave, unlike last time,” John Hardy, head of FX strategy at Saxo Bank, said, while adding that markets were in no way prepared for President Trump's victor...

"Last year, between Apple, Tencent and Google, their combined revenue in one year was hundreds of billions of dollars. But who got paid?" Jennifer Zhu Scott, executive chairman of The Commons Project and a leading voice on technology and artificial intelligence, joins Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner to discuss her idea that Internet users be paid for the data they share with companies who are pro...

Ibrahim Ajami joins Kelsey Warner this week to talk about Mubadala's technology investment strategy in a year unlike any other. The head of ventures at Abu Dhabi’s strategic investment fund is looking at 25-year time horizons, longer than the typical private equity investor, and looking for ways to build bridges between Abu Dhabi and tech hubs around the world. In this episode: Mubadala and Silver...

In the race to develop a Covid-19 vaccine, there has been unprecedented international cooperation, with the UAE a most recent example - jumping in to join the phase III trials of Russia's coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V. News editor Rory Reynolds, who has been overseeing The National's pandemic coverage, joins the podcast to discuss the role of a vaccine in economic recovery and the companies, inve...

The pandemic is increasing demand for mental health services with uncertainty, isolation and loss of income triggering mental health conditions or exacerbating existing ones, the World Health Organisation said this week. “Covid-19 has interrupted essential mental health services around the world just when they’re needed most,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general. Paying close...

Faisal Al Bannai, CEO and managing director of UAE defence conglomerate Edge, and the Secretary General of the Advanced Technology Research Council, joins host Kelsey Warner on the podcast. Speaking during the Global Aerospace Summit this week, they discuss lessons learned for the defence industry from the pandemic, the UAE’s ambitions with drones, if there is a red line on use of such capabilitie...

Covid-19 has disrupted progress towards many goals, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Climate Agreement. According to the World Economic Forum, the need for new ideas and collective action “has rarely been more urgent”. But how will action happen and who is leading the charge on the ‘Great Reset’ the forum’s founder, Klaus Schwab, is advocating for? Terri Toyota,...

This week on Business Extra, Kelsey Warner talks to Sudhir Syal, chief executive of BookMyShow Middle East, and Naji Al Haddad, managing director of the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry for Middle East and Africa about how Covid-19 changed the events and exhibitions industry for the foreseeable future. In this episode: How important is the events and exhibitions industry for the UAE e...

Kelsey Warner and Mustafa Alwari talk to Pure Harvest’s Sky Kurtz and Dibba Bay Oysters’ Ramie Murray about opportunities for homegrown start-ups, food security and agricultural innovation in the UAE. In this episode: Dibba Bay and Pure Harvest (0m 39s) Oyster Farming in UAE (1m 31s) Expansion during the pandemic (4m 04s) Food security in the Gulf and the farm to table dream (8m 17s) Keeping food...

Interview courtesy of Sky News Arabia

After 15 years of working with Fortune 500 companies, governments and start-ups, Scott Smith says anyone can make sense of this age of uncertainty and act.  Host Kelsey Warner speaks to the futurist, founder of Changeist and author of How to Future: Leading and Sense-making in an Age of Hyperchange about how he maps the future. To future is a verb, not a noun. And in a year like 2020, futuring has...

This week, Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner talk to Fadi Adra, a partner with Strategy&, on the impact assessment his team did to help route aid to those most in need in Beirut. In this episode: The Strategy& impact assessment (0m 51s) What are the urgent needs in Beirut? (5m 05s) What do the numbers tell us about progress? (8m 40s) How did Covid affect Lebanon after the blast? (11m 21s) How are s...