The Vanishing strike

AP says 40,000 construction workers in Dubai are on strike and refusing to budge. Strangely, the local media fails to report this.

It is one of Dubai's flagship developments, being carried out by one of the city's most ambitious companies and will create an iconic image for the Gulf. So when work grinds to a halt as workers demand an increase in pay you might expect the local news to take an interest?

Yes, and then no. Arabian Business yesterday reported workers on the Burj Dubai were striking for the sixth day running. The 3,000 Arabtec-contracted laborers were refusing to leave their camps and work on the world's tallest building had ground to halt. This morning, AB has pulled the story, and there is no mention in any of the other local media.

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Flights of fancy

"Time matters here and one minute lost can cause a million-dirham loss," says a Dubai businessman, fluffing up an Emirates Today story on the launch of a new helicopter air taxi. The service is hailed as an innovative solution for go-getting business champions to beat Dubai's traffic snarl-ups.

It is, of course, nonsense. It is a gimmick to suggest Dubai is an every-second-counts kind of town; that businessmen are whisked for meeting to meeting, concluding mega-bucks deals. The reality is that most meetings drag on for hours, are interrupted by endless mobile calls, and that you leave without a decision being made. In 10 years living in London, a city with far worse traffic and far bigger deals, I never once heard of a businessmen using a helicopter to make an intra-city trip.

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Who remembers 37th place?

Mastercard is in town pushing its Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index and while there are few surprises in the top 10 (see if you can list – one point per city, bonus point for the right ranking), it seems puzzling to see Dubai only at number 37. Puzzling, that is, if you believe all the IPO announcements, takeover deals and real estate mega-project launches make Dubai the center of the world.

In reality 37th, sandwiched between Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, is no bad effort given how much Dubai has progressed over the past 10 years. But Mastercard's assessment seems to be damning it with faint praise: The region's air and cargo traffic hub, Dubai also claims a flexible business climate that makes it optimal for growing companies.

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Innovation overdrive

Great story in the Wall Street Journal last week: a former SAP exec, flush with $200m of venture capital backing, plans to overhaul the automotive business model. Why can't the car industry be more like the mobile phone industry, is the basic gist of his argument.

Shai Agassi has no experience of the auto market, but he does have a very clear goal: to change the way electric cars are sold. Car makers will sell the shell of a car (the handset), he will sell the battery and top-up power (the SIM card and call credit).

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