Background
The UAE has a long history that began in 6000 B.C. One of the crucial aspects of the country was the arrival of Islam because the role of religion remains to be crucial even today. With time, the Europeans were interested in the Arabian Peninsula due to its location, naval powers, and economic activities (History of the UAE 2017). The citizens of the UAE wanted to define their responsibilities and freedoms regardless of the attempts of other nations to interfere with their development. At the beginning of the 1970s, seven emirates, including Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ajman, Sharjah, Umm al-Quwain, Ras al-Khaimah, and Fujairah, established the federation, now known as the United Arab Emirates. Its government undergoes considerable changes. The results of these changes are the development of new powerful strategies, the ability to improve the private and public sectors of the region, and the creation of new opportunities for all emirates.
Problem
Today, Abu Dhabi is one of the most successful and fast-developing emirates in the region. It has already increased its expenditure and continues reaching international benchmarks (Oxford Business Group 2014). However, it is necessary for the emirate to build individual and organisational capacities to succeed in the future, generate possible ideas and strategies, and enhance its understanding of risks and challenges. Abu Dhabi Government is in need of foresight that is defined as the ability to identify and accept changes and use the insights with the help of which organisations protect their competitiveness, eliminate uncertainties, and avoid mistakes. Technological progress, international relations, and evident competitiveness in all spheres make the Abu Dhabi Government develop new strategies and improve its future foresight by any possible means. This paper aims at discussing the methods, practices, and tools that could be used to support Abu Dhabi Government in strategic planning and management.
Future Foresight Methods, Practice, and Tools
Countries have to think of tomorrow today to achieve success and recognition. Organisations and governments are not always prepared and face certain unexpected and unfamiliar challenges and tasks (Bishop & Hines 2012). Therefore, they should have several options and ways to reach the established goals and prosperity. There are many tools and methods that could be offered to companies and governments. All of them could be divided into qualitative such as backcasting, brainstorming, scenarios, SWOT, and acting, quantitative, including such approaches as benchmarking, modelling, or TSA, and semi-quantitative which are based on mathematical principles that could quantify viewpoints and subjective information and have the forms of Delphi, voting, road-mapping, and stakeholder analysis (Wippel 2014).
Model Based on the Methods
The effectiveness of the model developed on the methods mentioned before depends on the number of tools chosen and the appropriateness of the work done at each stage. The current model consists of the following tasks:
- The identification of inputs – literature review;
- The analysis of the current state of affairs – SWOT (SW) and benchmarking;
- The interpretation of the events – Wi-We and surveys;
- The clarification of the prospects – SWOT (OT);
- The explanation of outputs – scenarios and modelling;
- The creation of a strategy – building models to improve health, educational, and environmental sectors at the same time.
Abu Dhabi Government Practices and the Model
The success of Abu Dhabi may be explained by an effective work performed by its government. As in other emirates, in Abu Dhabi, the government tries to cover different public and private sectors and promote the improvements in several directions. Shaping the Future means developing a strategy that helps not only to identify weaknesses and strengths of the emirate but also to clarify what innovations are required to make Abu Dhabi one of the most successful places at the global level (United Arab Emirates Ministry of Cabinet Affairs & the Future 2017). The Abu Dhabi Government has to investigate the current achievements and inputs of the region, analyse the needs and potentials of the society, and clarify what kind of work should be done. In other words, the main idea of the model is to gather enough background information to comprehend future steps and identify possible achievements.
Efforts to Foresight Future Initiatives and Abu Dhabi as a Future Global Destination
Abu Dhabi chooses a global future destination within the frames of which it is possible to drive competitiveness in the region and the whole world. This emirate has already achieved good results in leveraging diverse cultural assets and tourism (Abu Dhabi ranked among fastest growing destinations 2017). These steps help the emirate be recognised at the national and global levels. The government has got certain opportunities and prospects to cooperate with different countries. Besides, the overall analysis of the current economic and social achievements proves that Abu Dhabi is a powerful region with a huge potential. Therefore, the government should not stop analysing its work and think about the future from different perspectives.
Future Foresight Methods, Practices, and Tools for the Abu Dhabi Government
Taking into consideration the needs and strategic plans of the Abu Dhabi Government, the following methods and practices could be offered:
- Literature review (as a qualitative method to scan past reviews and reports and clarify the best practices which have been already made);
- SWOT analysis (a qualitative practice to identify resources, capabilities, threats, and competitors);
- Brainstorming (a qualitative tool to avoid routine decisions and rely on creativity and interactivity);
- Benchmarking (a quantitative tool to investigate marketing and business planning);
- Voting (a semi-quantitative practice to assess strengths and weaknesses of the achievements).
Reference List
‘Abu Dhabi ranked among fastest growing destinations in the world’, 2017, Khaleej Times. Web.
Bishop, PC & Hines, A 2012, Teaching about the future, Palgrave Macmillan, New York. History of the UAE 2017. Web.
Oxford Business Group 2014, The report: Abu Dhabi 2014, Oxford Business Group, Abu Dhabi.
United Arab Emirates Ministry of Cabinet Affairs & the Future 2017, Areas of focus. Web.
Wippel, N 2014, Multinational strategic foresight of environmental trends in the automobile industry using internal resources, LIT Verlag Munster, Berlin.