Aidan Birkett - Dubai World - Chief Restructuring Officer - Cultural Biases

An article from Maktoob Business on the cultural and other constraints to be faced by Birkett in Dubai.

If you read the article closely, you'll notice a strong undercurrent:  having made such a hash of things, the locals obviously can't be trusted to work their way out of the problem.   Culturally, they are just not up to it is the message.

So naturally we need to find an ex-region savior - preferably an expert from the West wearing a business suit.  To come in and sort things out.  To set the locals straight.  But will these incompetent locals let him save them from their follies goes the story?  Hence, the hand wringing over the obstacles in Mr. Birkett's path.  

But what should we then make of the recent "performance" in the more sophisticated financial centers  - the  subprime crisis, covenant lite loans, and assorted other manifest absurdities?  Where it should be  noted the amount of funds at risk in the Dubacle is but a rounding error in relation to the larger Western sums.

Will we soon be hearing calls for the dispatch of some sober looking chap in a thaub and ghutra to set the benighted fools in New York, London and other financial capitals straight?  Ever sensitive to the psychology of the less developed world, AA could suggest two Arab bankers who would arrive wearing business suits so as not to disturb local sensibilities in Europe or the States too much.  Dr. Naaman Al Azhari or Hassan Juma.   Let's hope that the locals' quaint but irritating folkways don't get in the way of  either of these khabir's work. 

It's important to be very clear about two things.

First, Mr. Birkett's position. 

He was hired as the Chief Restructuring Officer to come up with a restructuring plan. 

He is not the CEO to whom the CRO reports.  He is not the Board of Directors to whom the CEO reports.  He is not the shareholders to whom the Board reports.

He was not hired as a replacement for Shaykh Mohammad.  Nor did Shaykh Mohammad give him his shares in the company.

He is an employee.  He will give his advice and his client will either accept it or reject it.   In effect he is a mustashaar. 

Second, the capabilities of the locals in the GCC.

It's also important to understand that the people in the region and those in Dubai are no more a collection of incompetent fools than the financial titans in the West.  And no less able to take sage and sound advice.  And, yes, also subject to the same constraints that sometimes result in compromises between what should be done and what can be done.