Strathclyde International Business Fellow Oliver Matar gave a talk at Strathclyde Business School's Dubai centre on April 7 which focused on utilising current global trends to maximise career potential. The talk was held at In5 Innovation Hub in Dubai and attracted a good number of students and alumni from the Abu Dhabi and Dubai centres plus members of the local entrepreneur community based at the incubator.
Engaging the audience in discussion throughout, Oliver drew on his many years' experience as a management consultant and entrepreneur to define four key trends - the speed of change, convergence of knowledge, ease of communication and human mobility - and to argue that these are not only disrupting the global business world but are creating unmatched opportunities for professionals and entrepreneurs to grow and prosper. Using matrices to highlight the combined impact of these trends, Oliver drew out a set of criteria for success, and ultimately presented two opposing pathways for the professional or entrepreneur to follow; one focusing on what does not change and the other on what does.
Dubai entrepreneur Nabil Al-Sayed tweeted "very interactive, interesting and mind-opening session" after the talk while current MBA student Sarath Nair said, "Oliver's emphasis on adaptability to change and the notion of 'unlearning' as a critical success factor for an entrepreneur was certainly thought-provoking. As the saying goes, change is inevitable so the quicker you are able to identify or bring in reform and adapt, the more successful you'll get. Overall, it was a brilliant talk and I look forward to future opportunities to engage with Oliver again."
Oliver, an alumnus from the Dubai centre, credits the Strathclyde MBA with giving him the insight and confidence to start up his own management consultancy, APT Facilitators in 2003, just one year after he graduated. APT Facilitators has gone from strength to strength and Oliver, now chairman, is based in the United States where he is building up the company's North American client base. Oliver is a Certified Management Consultant, and the Lead Trustee of the Institute of Management Consultants USA (IMC USA) to the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes (ICMCI). Not content to focus purely on his professional success, Oliver has also written two books, Counsellors Beyond Knowledge and Eudemonia Redemption.
One of the elite group of Strathclyde International Business Fellows, Oliver currently delivers the capstone Strategic Consulting in Practice (SCIP) workshop and supervises MBA theses. Last year, Oliver also delivered a successful four day management consulting workshop for a group of Strathclyde students and launch in Dubai.
Director, Strathclyde Business School UAE, Dr Ron Bradfield, said, "We at Strathclyde are very proud of the success of so many of our alumni and that the Strathclyde MBA has contributed to that success. We are delighted to have engaged this thought-provoking talk from Oliver and very much appreciate his continuing support of the business school and for sharing his invaluable insights with our local Strathclyde student and alumni community."