QI have a business relationship with an organisation that regularly sets very demanding deadlines for me and my team to respond to complex requests. However, they themselves take an age to respond to our questions and requests, regularly missing deadlines I try to impose. How can I rectify the situation? TD, Abu Dhabi
AThank you for the highly relevant and challenging question. Many people from different industry sectors will closely relate to the issue you have raised. This is not a simple problem to solve but, rather, a complex dilemma to try and unlock.
So let's start by trying to understand the nature of this dilemma. On the one hand, to meet demanding deadlines, you might provide more "templated" or "off the shelf" solutions to ensure you respond quickly and on time. On the other hand, to respond to the complex nature of the requests, you ideally want carefully considered input from a number of resources, which takes time. In these situations, compromises of time or quality are not good enough and hence the dilemma.
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Furthermore, in today's competitive environment, it is also unrealistic to have resources on standby, ready and available to act when the demanding deadlines come in, and then to be standing idle the rest of the time. So what can you do?
It sounds as though you are dealing with the same client organisation on an ongoing basis, which would suggest the possibility of exploring potential interdependencies of your businesses to build a mutually beneficial relationship.
What this would require is a deeper understanding and appreciation of each other's business drivers and priorities. Start by seeking to understand the business imperatives behind your client's demanding deadlines. Who are their clients or stakeholders? What needs are they trying to satisfy? Why are they so urgent? Are they always the same in terms of urgency and complexity? Through this line of inquiry and understanding, you may begin to identify some patterns and be able to categorise needs with appropriate corresponding responses.
This may lead to some creative and innovative thinking, such as a new multi-tier business agreement, where you do provide highly customised and comprehensive solutions within a very short time period, but at a higher price. They may be prepared to pay a premium for this, as it would provide them with a significant competitive or reputational advantage with their stakeholders and you are able to factor in the additional cost of bringing in extra hands or expertise on demand. In other instances, you may be able to offer a lower price for responses that can afford a longer lead time.
To illustrate the former, a simple example may be useful. If you sell ice-cream and on a particularly nice day over a long weekend you run out of ice-cream because everyone was out enjoying the good weather, what would you say if your supplier could only restock the same day at 20 per cent higher cost? "No" – because it's more expensive – or "yes", because even at a higher cost, you know it is still worth your while? Once you feel you understand their business and have exhausted all potential innovative approaches, work towards them understanding your business context, in other words the potential trade-offs or challenges of providing the quality solutions that they require (costly overtime working or less than optimal solutions), when demanding deadlines are imposed.
This would also be a good time to emphasise how important quick responses to your queries are to ensure you meet these challenging deadlines. Again, always be creative and look for the best solutions that will work for both sides, perhaps suggesting that you meet the deadline with a critical part of the project instead of all of it.
This type of joint exploratory communication and mutual understanding can lead to what we call "effective contracting" or agreeing operating principles of productive business relationships
Doctor's prescription:
Having a better understanding of what informs the client's demanding deadlines, coupled with the client gaining some appreciation of the level of involvement and intricacy required when dealing with complex requests, will allow for more transparency and a mutually successful and sustainable business relationship. If you cannot achieve a new way of working with your client and in instances where they do not respond quickly to your queries then, knowing your business and market sectors well, you may have to base your solutions on documented assumptions. Understanding the pattern of requests, develop a series of "90 per cent" solutions to the most common demands so you can quickly tailor the final 10 per cent at short notice.
Yolande Basson is an executive coach and consultant at Ashridge Executive Education
– Middle East
Zayed Sustainability Prize
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The Bio
Favourite holiday destination: Either Kazakhstan or Montenegro. I’ve been involved in events in both countries and they are just stunning.
Favourite book: I am a huge of Robin Cook’s medical thrillers, which I suppose is quite apt right now. My mother introduced me to them back home in New Zealand.
Favourite film or television programme: Forrest Gump is my favourite film, that’s never been up for debate. I love watching repeats of Mash as well.
Inspiration: My late father moulded me into the man I am today. I would also say disappointment and sadness are great motivators. There are times when events have brought me to my knees but it has also made me determined not to let them get the better of me.
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre supercharged V8
Power: 712hp at 6,100rpm
Torque: 881Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 19.6 l/100km
Price: Dh380,000
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Ticket prices
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A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
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The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol
Power: 154bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option
Price: From Dh79,600
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Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Who are the Sacklers?
The Sackler family is a transatlantic dynasty that owns Purdue Pharma, which manufactures and markets OxyContin, one of the drugs at the centre of America's opioids crisis. The family is well known for their generous philanthropy towards the world's top cultural institutions, including Guggenheim Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate in Britain, Yale University and the Serpentine Gallery, to name a few. Two branches of the family control Purdue Pharma.
Isaac Sackler and Sophie Greenberg were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York before the First World War. They had three sons. The first, Arthur, died before OxyContin was invented. The second, Mortimer, who died aged 93 in 2010, was a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. The third, Raymond, died aged 97 in 2017 and was also a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma.
It was Arthur, a psychiatrist and pharmaceutical marketeer, who started the family business dynasty. He and his brothers bought a small company called Purdue Frederick; among their first products were laxatives and prescription earwax remover.
Arthur's branch of the family has not been involved in Purdue for many years and his daughter, Elizabeth, has spoken out against it, saying the company's role in America's drugs crisis is "morally abhorrent".
The lawsuits that were brought by the attorneys general of New York and Massachussetts named eight Sacklers. This includes Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, Jonathan and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, who are all the children of either Mortimer or Raymond. Then there's Theresa Sackler, who is Mortimer senior's widow; Beverly, Raymond's widow; and David Sackler, Raymond's grandson.
Members of the Sackler family are rarely seen in public.
yallacompare profile
Date of launch: 2014
Founder: Jon Richards, founder and chief executive; Samer Chebab, co-founder and chief operating officer, and Jonathan Rawlings, co-founder and chief financial officer
Based: Media City, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: 120 employees
Investors: 2014: $500,000 in a seed round led by Mulverhill Associates; 2015: $3m in Series A funding led by STC Ventures (managed by Iris Capital), Wamda and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority; 2019: $8m in Series B funding with the same investors as Series A along with Precinct Partners, Saned and Argo Ventures (the VC arm of multinational insurer Argo Group)
Business Insights
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Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
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Farasan Boat: 128km Away from Anchorage
Director: Mowaffaq Alobaid
Stars: Abdulaziz Almadhi, Mohammed Al Akkasi, Ali Al Suhaibani
Rating: 4/5
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
The specs
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now
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Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
