History risen, the challenges of building the world's tallest tower

11. February. 2010

Emaar chairman Mohamed Alabbar reveals the challenges of building the world's tallest tower - and how it has changed him as a person.

We are standing on the balcony of Mohamed Alabbar's private office, admiring the world's tallest building a few yards in front of us. The chairman of Emaar is putting the final touches to its grand inauguration, just a few hours away. And as always with Alabbar, nothing is being left to chance.

"Sheikh Mohammed is my boss, and I want him to look at it and smile and say well done. And I want my people in the city to say; ‘Yeah, yeah, that's ok.' Because this building is theirs, it's not ours anymore," he says.
 
The chances are Alabbar will get more than a few pats on the back from his boss, not to mention millions around the globe. Barely six years since breaking ground, the Burj Dubai is a reality. It is here, it is real. Alabbar has - once again - delivered.
 
For Alabbar more than most, it is has been a rollercoaster ride of emotions. Eighteen months ago, speculators queued through the night outside the very building we are standing in, desperate to get a slice of the property pie as Dubai's boom looked unstoppable.

But then came Lehmann Brothers. Then came the crash. Then came the recession. And then came the Dubai debt crisis.

As the new decade begins, both the Burj Dubai and Alabbar are still standing - and like the original plans for the tower, which were far less grand, Alabbar has undergone a transformation.

"Am I a different kind of leader now? Without a doubt. I got better in many things along the way. I'm sure I made valuable mistakes, but I am becoming more emotional. I don't know if it's age or what. Or so much beating by the shareholders," he says wryly.

So is this a new softer Alabbar we are seeing? No, not quite.

"I'm a harder leader now, you know," he admits. "I mean, I'm a hard leader anyway...On the boss side, I am much tougher. Some people who got a job from me four years ago wouldn't get it today. It's [been] proven that so many people don't actually work. Productivity of people is pretty bad. In those market conditions [before the crash], everyone was employed and spoilt. So I laid off a little bit, and then discovered there are mistakes - so now I am back in the same style."

Alabbar is known for his proactive leadership style and attention to detail. Some of his critics have rounded on this in the past, but the Emaar chairman says that if anything, the recent financial crisis has shown that his way is the right way.

"I am trying to learn," he says. "In times like this you need to relearn. I think I thought ‘I'm conservative in my business policies'; but maybe I need to revisit that. My management style is hands-on and a lot of people criticise that. I think they have been proven wrong. I believe that hands-on is the only way to go."

He leans forward. "But I've learnt a lot. I've done a lot of good things that I should do more of and I should avoid a few things as well."

Few would argue that the Burj Dubai is one of the "good things." Emaar's fact sheet on the tower is several pages long, but the words ‘record breaking' appear in almost every paragraph. From the tallest building to the amount of concrete used; from speed of construction to the speed of the lifts - you name it; the Burj Dubai has broken it.

Alabbar is rightly proud of the achievement, but says a lot of the credit belongs to his "boss", the Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

"He is a tough boss but a fair boss, and a great boss when you make a mistake," he smiles. "He is there behind you like a mountain. You push hard and then you make a mistake, but His Highness will pick you up, and I love him for that.

"I have learned a lot from him - especially optimism and that you never go down," he continues. "He pushes more than you think. This [the Burj Dubai] would have not happened without him, it would have been an 80-storey building. I assure you, that is where my vision gets - 80, 90 that's about it."

Alabbar pauses. "He'll take you for a 5km walk in the desert. He just calls you and says; ‘Let's walk. Never mind if you don't have the right shoes, let's walk.' In that 5km you learn so much. Some people don't get it even when he explains it, but I grasped a lot from him. He gave me the chance to become a recognisable person in society and that is so special."
[ArabianBusiness] by: Anil Bhoyrul.