Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Do the math

In a meeting with Coca Cola senior management a couple of years ago, the company's regional md revealed how his life is governed by a continuous check of Coke's retail presence. Every day, in shops, on planes, in bars, at vending machines, was spent checking whether Coke was beating Pepsi?

In this morning's Emirates Business 24/7, Osman Sultan, CEO of Du, admits to a similar compulsive disorder: he says he feels a "quiet sense of achievement" every time he answers a call from an 055 prefix.

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Monday, December 10, 2007

Silent Salik

To the surprise of no one Dubai's Salik road toll system is to be expanded to all major roads and bridges in the city. Electronic gates will be installed on Emirates Road, Al Khail Road and Al Ittihad Road by 2009. Salik will also be introduced at Shindagha Tunnel, Business Bay Crossing and Maktoum bridge.

Since Salik was introduced in the summer, the RTA has inched towards some degree of public interaction. There has been a sharp increase in the number of RTA ads appearing in press and billboards. It is now advertising its complaints line: 800 9090, http://ecomplain.dubai.ae, or fax to 04 206 5532. It might have been nice to flag up some concept of dialogue before the next phase of expansion: a suggestion that public feedback might be taken into consideration.

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Sunday, December 9, 2007

Tough business

The UAE is a regional business center, UAE companies make the international news, the country needs a daily business paper. This appears to be the logic behind Arab Media Group's relaunch of its Emirates Today title to Emirates Business 24/7. The new paper debuted on Sunday 9 December with the publisher confident it will become "an integral part of the life of top executives and decision-makers in the private and public sectors as well as a reference for investors".

Good luck to them. Given the difficulties in securing a license to print new newspapers (and ITP's inability to launch a daily business title), Business 24/7 could be a spoiler from AMG – 'if we can't crack the market with a general newspaper, we'll pioneer the business daily sector'.

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