‘Because of their work ethic’: Emaar Properties founder Mohamed Alabbar on why he prefers hiring Indians

MOHAMED Alabbar, the Founder and Managing Director of Emaar Properties, one of the largest property developers in the Middle East and globally, has said he likes to hire Indians because of their work ethic. Speaking at the ongoing Make it in the Emirates Summit in Abu Dhabi, Alabbar said he believes in hard work.

Importance of hard work

According to Alabbar, hard work is not only about long hours but also about studying every opportunity, knowing when to take risks, bringing the right people into the business, and closely monitoring execution.
On hiring Indians

“There’s a saying, hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard, and this is why I like to hire Indians, because they answer the phone even at one o’clock in the morning,” Alabbar was quoted as saying by Gulf News.

Dubai-based Emaar Properties, which was founded in 1997 by Alabbar and has developed key projects like Downtown Dubai, Dubai Marina, and the iconic Burj Khalifa, has over 8,000 employees, mostly in the Middle East.

India is the future of the world

Speaking to Bloomberg, Alabbar said he was confident about India as a market.

“Last week, I spent two weeks in Mumbai. India is mind-blowing. India is the future of the world; that is what I can tell you. We are so ignorant [about India] that is why I am inviting my board for the next board meeting to be in India to see the incredible India story,” he said.

On US-Iran war's impact

Alabbar also spoke about the ongoing crisis in the Middle East due to the US-Iran war and said that companies in the region have become resilient due to past crises, including the 2008 financial crisis and Covid-19.

“There was a hard lesson for everyone. We had some hard lessons during the Covid pandemic as well as other crises,” Alabbar said.

“When you learn from 2008 and from Covid, you have to build an agile and resilient business that can handle these circumstances,” he added.

Expressing confidence that the region would bounce back within months, Alabbar credited the resilience to the UAE’s leadership.

“What happened recently was not expected, and our country showed its steadfastness and the resilience of its planning under the directives of our leadership, so we managed to successfully survive,” he said.