The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation (MBRF) in collaboration with its knowledge partner – the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), held two panel discussions within the ‘Knowtalks’ series, on the second day of the London Book Fair, organised at Olympia London from April 5 to 7, 2022.
Making Ideas Work
The first session, entitled ‘Innovating into the Future – Making Ideas Work,’ saw the participation of Al Anoud Al Hashmi, CEO and founder of The Futurist Company, who discussed the role of innovation in developing solutions to challenges, and driving a positive transformation in society and businesses.
During the session, Al Hashmi discussed the UAE’s journey, emphasising on the region’s wide range of achievements that can be attributed to the wise leadership’s vision in turning ideas into action through the adoption of innovative and creative strategies. She said: “We are fortunate to be in the UAE, as the country has achieved numerous milestones throughout its history and has always strived to be the best in the world. Despite all the challenges, the UAE was successful in turning obstacles to opportunities, thanks to the vision and directives of our wise leadership”
Al Hashmi also highlighted the importance of innovation in addressing the challenges of the future, and for enabling progress in various areas, given its role as an essential tool for driving change. She further emphasised the need to develop strategies based on innovation in numerous fields, especially because machines could never completely replace human actions.
Furthermore, Al Hashmi shed light on achieving sustainability in innovation and how it requires honesty and transparency, in addition to accurate performance indicators to measure facts, data, and impacts, and collaboration with action teams and other institutions to achieve a sustainable business environment She also went on to reinforce the emphasis on honesty and integrity in developing innovative solutions, as well as promoting cooperation between governmental and private sectors, in order to lay the foundations for future generations, success, growth, and prosperity. The ongoing diversification of innovative projects for entrepreneurs was also discussed, in efforts to help them shift from the local market to the global market with a variety of different teams, resulting in global thinking and more solutions to understand dynamics and bureaucracy.
Knowledge Management Tricks
The second session, entitled ‘Tricks of Managing Knowledge within Growing International Teams,’ saw the participation of Mike Bandar, co-founder of Waybook.com, who gave an extensive presentation on the challenges faced by global action teams. Bandar highlighted several studies, which showed that 52 per cent of new remote employees feel less connected to their co-workers and institution, 39 per cent of employees have reported worse mental health at present in comparison to January 2020, while two out of five employees express a negative fear of the culture of telecommuting, and more.
Bandar further pointed out that the results of these studies and questionnaires do not serve as a measure, and explained how Waybook, which was established in 2013, provides an integrated knowledge management platform for the training, preparation, documentation, and international practices of remote teams in different locations of the world.
Bandar underlined that effective integration of international teams into the work system relies on knowledge and highlighted the importance of centralizing knowledge among the institutions using a single and accessible source of information to ensure seamless integration into work processes.
Bandar said: “The centralization of knowledge requires a framework that makes it interactive, and guides its transfer, understanding, and application, to remove ambiguity in information and clarify content. Corporate leadership must help engage all employees and strengthen cooperation among them, rather than demanding absolute compliance.”
The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation (MBRF)’s participation at the London Book Fair, highlighted its knowledge programmes and projects in collaboration with its strategic partners, including various Arabic and English editions of the Global Knowledge Index Report and the Future of Knowledge Foresight Report. It also underlined the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Award, the Digital Knowledge Hub, the Nobel Museums, and previous sessions of the Knowledge Summit.
