Sir Andrew Likierman is the dean of London Business School.
What are your favourite things to do on the weekend?
I like a combination. Being social with family and friends, being entertained by reading – history especially – or music, or a good film, being domestic and, since the week is usually very hectic, catching up with anything left from last week’s work, and being properly prepared for next.
What do you consider to be your favourite hobby?
Difficult one this, but I will go for enjoying beautiful places. By that I mean buildings as much as the countryside. I am very fortunate to live in London, which is full of wonderful buildings and even more fortunate that London Business School is itself beautiful. The outside is preserved exactly as it was built 190 years ago. Inside it is very modern. When I come to Dubai, I’m always interested in the new buildings going up and the sense of excitement they help to generate.
What can’t you live without?
My wife.
What do you consider the secret to your success?
Getting a good education, including qualifying as an accountant. Education enabled me to move easily between large and small commercial organisations, academic life and government, to be an executive, adviser and academic.
What advice would you offer budding entrepreneurs?
I have three pieces of advice.
• Be passionate about succeeding. This is not only important to make sure you can survive the inevitable difficulties of starting and growing a business, but those around you will be inspired to make sure the venture is successful.
• Be aware of your own strengths and weaknesses. None of us is perfect, and anyway, you can’t do it all yourself. You will need the help of many others to make sure the venture is a success, and understanding what you need is a great start.
• Be flexible. Most early ideas are not feasible and need to be adapted to take account of circumstances. My colleague John Mullins, who specialises in this area, is clear that so you need, as he puts it, to get to Plan B before you start out.
Is having a good idea enough to get started at least?
Make sure you spend time on relationships as well as ideas. Many brilliant ideas fall because the person starting a business does not have the ability to work with other people. Treating people with respect is not just a good principle in life, but a good way to get the best out of them.
As an accountant I have to say this: Make sure that you have done the sums. Most small businesses fail, not because of lack of hard work or good ideas, but because there isn’t enough money for the business to survive. Cash flow planning is not an optional extra.
Someone, somewhere, has had the same problem as you and has solved or mitigated it. Don’t hesitate to learn from others. It’s not an accident that business schools spend a lot of time using examples about success and failure.
Thomas Edison’s line that genius is 1 per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration continues to be quoted because it remains true. Your brilliant idea is just the starting point. Getting anything to work requires a lot of effort. That’s why you need the passion.
How do you achieve a work/life balance?
By enjoying what I do, whether it’s work or leisure. One of the advantages of being an academic is that there is a lot of flexibility, and academics can follow their interests. So work isn’t work in the sense of having to do things that other people want, and research can be very absorbing and even relaxing. So achieving a work/life balance is less about stopping stressful work and making sure there’s enough restful leisure than making sure work doesn’t take over everything else.
If you weren’t dean of London Business School what else would you be doing?
Being a faculty member at LBS. I love the combination of lecturing and research, doing things for the institution but also working with organisations in the public and private sectors. The place is full of energy and the people – faculty colleagues, staff and students – are first class. All this is demanding. There never seems to be enough time to do everything well but there is always a sense of excitement that has drawn me here all through my working life.
abouyamourn@thenational.ae
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Major honours
ARSENAL
BARCELONA
- La Liga - 2013
- Copa del Rey - 2012
- Fifa Club World Cup - 2011
CHELSEA
- Premier League - 2015, 2017
- FA Cup - 2018
- League Cup - 2015
SPAIN
- World Cup - 2010
- European Championship - 2008, 2012
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UFC Fight Night 2
1am – Early prelims
2am – Prelims
4am-7am – Main card
7:30am-9am – press cons
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
