What do you see as the biggest challenges in the Omani market?
I think one major challenge is overregulation and also the government having a lot of involvement; in many situations even acting as the buyer and the seller. This means that if the government is not doing well financially, the entire market would suffer alongside it. In the aviation industry there is this idea of deregulation where the government makes it a free market and the market forces of supply and demand balance the market. If a similar situation was applied, it would help balance the market here as well as open up more opportunities for SMEs to compete in.
Another challenge is we need to open up our market a little more to the world, which will benefit in improving services here and facilitate the innovation of new solutions and perhaps even the export of Omani solutions to the world. It will also address the challenge of branding Oman to the world, so that people will associate Oman with business. This will develop familiarity, trust and loyalty with Omani brands.
What advice do you have on handling the pressure and managing stress?
Stress is not always a bad thing unless you make it become a problem. In fact, some stress is needed to help you perform at optimum levels and that is good stress. The first thing we need to do to handle stress properly is to embrace it with positivity and think of it as a motivator to improve and do better at business. Secondly, you need to make sure you have good rest and take good care of your health in order to ensure the stress does not affect you physically. Good exercise and sleep are essential. Most importantly however, set aside family time to de-stress. Thirdly, I found Islamic spiritual sufism practices of prayers with focus and thikr as a really beneficial way to remove stress and negative energy out of your system and it helps you create balance.
Stress is not always a bad thing unless you make it become a problem. In fact, some stress is needed to help you perform at optimum levels and that is good stress.
The first thing we need to do to handle stress properly is to embrace it with positivity and think of it as a motivator to improve and do better at business.
Secondly, you need to make sure you have good rest and take good care of your health in order to ensure the stress does not affect you physically. Good exercise and sleep are essential. Most importantly however, set aside family time to de-stress.
Thirdly, I found Islamic spiritual sufism practices of prayers with focus and thikr as a really beneficial way to remove stress and negative energy out of your system and it helps you create balance.
Can you tell us on how to best manage one’s personal and professional life?
Remember why are you doing what you are doing and that you need to priorities yourself and your loved ones. We all get sucked into work and business a bit too much sometimes. But you need to keep in mind that should you fall ill and are lying in a hospital bed; it will be your loved ones that will be spending sleepless nights worried by your bed. So, remember to give them a good share of your time and make sure it is actual quality time. Build it into your daily and weekly programme to set aside some personal time for yourself and your family.
Simply put, it is all about setting your priorities straight and then working your way through, organising them in such a way as to give an equal share of your time to each side.
You also need to fully understand your limits. Know what you can and cannot do and learn to simply say no to whatever is beyond your capacity. Remember that burning yourself out in a short period of time will not get you to the top, rather it is the small but consistent steps over a longer period of time that will get you to your goal.
As the saying goes “how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” So, don’t bite
more than you can chew and just take enough of your share so that you can grow steadily and organically.