Business Extra

With the UAE's move to a Monday-Friday working week and a reduction of hours for public sector employees to four-and-a-half days, the country is leading the charge of a milestone shift in the way we work in the 21st century. Less than a month into the new model, the private sector is following suit. One in four companies plan to move to a four-and-a-half-day working week, a survey by management co...

Staff shortages are one of the most consequential by-products of the latest coronavirus variant, Omicron. Health care, aviation, education and dining are among the industries scrambling for employees to provide essential services. As the pandemic enters its third year, robots and automation are becoming a necessity rather than a novelty, with a labour market in flux. This is according to geopoliti...

Sharp uptick in robot orders in the US amid a worker shortage. Historically large cyber and ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure. A chip shortage that threatened to grind the auto industry to a halt. Looking back on some of the biggest technology threats of 2021, experts from the World Economic Forum, Algirde Pipikaite, cybersecurity lead, and Jayant Narayan, AI and machine learning lead,...

Will 2021 be remembered as the year cryptocurrency went mainstream? The blockchain-powered financial services industry drew about $30 billion in venture capital this year, more than in all previous years combined. Meanwhile, hype over a more decentralised Internet - from NFTs and crypto to Web 3.0 and beyond - reached a fever pitch. Co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner unpack and explain the...

A year in review for the controversial figure with an outsized influence on our future. In this episode Elon Musk's 2021 overview (1m) Elon Musk's persona (5m 50s) The role of social media (8m 32s) Tesla stock and future (9m 58s) Is Elon Musk human enough? (14m 23s) US regulation (17m 5s)   Read more • Elon Musk offloads more Tesla shares as company loses its $1tn valuation • Elon Musk jokes about...

A four and a half day working week, with Saturday and Sunday as full days off, marks a massive shift to work culture in the UAE. The federal government will adopt these measures beginning January 1, 2022, but it remains unclear if the private sector will follow suit. Co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner discuss what residents, investors, employers and employees need to know, the significance...

Status quo is no longer good enough in the C-suite. From employees looking for greater leadership and meaning in their work amid the Great Reassessment, to shareholders and consumers calling for sustainability and equity, top jobs at the corporate level demand a new list of skills. Shane Phillips, CEO of global executive search firm The Phillips Group, joins host Kelsey Warner this week. He talks...

Abu Dhabi could be "the Switzerland" of financial technology thanks to its regulatory environment and agile government, according to Kevin O'Leary, but he is quick to add he is still doing his due diligence. The celebrity investor, who made his name on the US reality show Shark Tank, joins co-host Kelsey Warner this week to talk about investing in decentralised finance, Web 3.0 and what he has lea...

Business Extra is live from Adipec 2021, where oil majors, energy ministers and executives are meeting. Co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner discuss the major themes of the critical gathering following Cop26. Read more on our website: Adipec to explore challenges faced by the energy industry on the cusp of change Adipec 2021 told oil and gas industry needs more than $600bn annual investment u...

There was no pandemic the last time the Dubai Airshow was held in November 2019. Two years later, beginning November 14, the exhibition is set to bring together a changed aviation industry.   The National's aviation correspondent Deena Kamel outlines the trends shaping the major players in commercial, cargo and defence and what to expect from the biggest in-person aviation event since the Covid-19...

Addressing the opening session of Cop26, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was “one minute to midnight” on the climate doomsday clock. But sharp rhetoric is not the business of the day in Glasgow: 196 nations are convening in a test of commitment to avert a climate disaster. The National's London bureau chief Damien McElroy joins co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner this week to talk ab...

Understanding algorithms, rolling out 5G, developing quantum computing, building cyber defences and establishing sovereignty online are among the challenges and opportunities facing decision makers navigating the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on countries and their citizens. Krzysztof Szubert, Poland’s High Representative of the Prime Minister for European Digital Policy talks to Kels...

A decade ago, IBM introduced the power of artificial intelligence to the masses with Watson. The computer system made its debut on the popular American quiz show Jeopardy! and beat the best player in the show's history, Ken Jennings.   In the years since, AI has seeped into nearly every corner of life, from the streaming suggestions served up by Spotify or Netflix to the global effort to come up w...

What do a coal shortage in China, a cold winter in Europe and oil's rally to a three-year high have in common? Herman Wang, managing editor at S&P Global Platts, joins co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner this week to answer that, and what to expect going forward.   They discuss what will happen to oil prices amid the energy crisis and how we got here. The answers are more complicated than ti...

Does this decision compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs?   This is the overarching question guiding Sophie Howe's work. As the world's first Commissioner for Future Generations in her home country of Wales, she enforces a legally-binding plan for national and local government to improve the well-being of Welsh citizens and think long-term.   She joins co-host Kelsey...

For the first time in more than two years, airline executives will meet in-person at an industry-wide event.   The 77th IATA Annual General Meeting (AGM) and World Air Transport Summit will take place in Boston starting October 3, against a backdrop of surging travel demand and an urgent need to tackle the industry's carbon emissions.   The National's aviation correspondent Deena Kamel is headed t...

UpLink was launched at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting at Davos in January 2020, with an ambition to accelerate the Decade of Delivery – to source and scale the innovative solutions that would make achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 a reality. Through co-operation between the WEF, Salesforce, Deloitte and Microsoft/LinkedIn, a crowdsourcing platform was built to connect...

A little more than a third of humans on the planet use Facebook each month, that’s 2.8 billion people in more than 160 countries and growing.   Outside its home country, Facebook is under the scrutiny of governments, who are grappling with how to handle the scope of tech companies today, as well as harness their potential for their own economies and people.   To help drive the agenda on the future...

Three months ahead of marking its 50th year, a flurry of announcements has given way to a greater understanding of the UAE's roadmap for growth over the coming decades, and plans to attract and support innovation.   On Sunday the UAE's leadership unveiled Projects of the 50, a series of developmental and economic projects that will be rolled out throughout September. Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi's Mohamed...

The Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia region is at a turning point. There are opportunities for sustainable economic development through reforms and technological shifts but there are challenges in the form of political obstacles and conflict. Recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic will also be uneven. After the success of a summit in Baghdad this week that brought together regional leaders,...

Students at Zayed University began a new bachelor's degree programme on Tuesday. It is the first stage in a plan to transform the way the Abu Dhabi university teaches students over the next five years. The course is designed to build skills in critical thinking and project management, alongside studies in entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence and social change. The programme is a tie-up with U...

The numbers are striking: over the next 20 years, 127 million young people will enter the labour force in the Middle East and North Africa, but face an unemployment rate of 23 per cent. At the same time, nearly 29 million jobs are at risk of being displaced by 2030 because of automation. In a new report McKinsey lays out solutions to address the issue of youth unemployment in a changing labour mar...

Clean hydrogen is one of the most hyped solutions to achieving net zero in time to avert climate catastrophe.   While it's true the molecule has a major role to play in decarbonised economies, massive hurdles remain. But Paddy Padmanathan, chief executive of Acwa Power, is a believer.   He says over the next decade, challenges around transport and pricing will rapidly diminish, paving the way for...

Do robots care? What should companies keep in mind before using facial recognition or machine learning? Can new laws being mulled in the EU protect citizens from fast-changing technology? Kay Firth-Butterfield, the head of AI and machine learning at the World Economic Forum, joins host and The National's Future Editor, Kelsey Warner this week to field these questions, and more.   In this episode:...

More Saudi Arabian women are joining the workforce than ever before as wide-sweeping reforms bear fruit. But the country's recent progress is an outlier in a global jobs market much changed by the Covid-19 pandemic.   The National's Deena Kamel's recent reporting uncovers how working women are juggling heightened workloads and more household duties, leading to job dissatisfaction, pessimism about...