Visit to Sheikh Zayed Heritage Festival: Strategic Implementation of a Grand Vision

Wow! What a wonderful class... This term I am really concentrating on the Strategic Process and the importance of implementation... As regular readers of this blog know I like to use heritage and traditional industries and stories from the past to teach us about strategies to use in the future... So instead of sitting in a classroom for two hours we went to the Sheikh Zayed Heritage Festival about 15 minutes away from campus.

The Festival runs until December 14 and there is a video here:

And you can read more about it here: Festival Guide

We arrived and went into the main tent... We were greeted by the wonderful people from the National Center for Documentation & Research and were given a tour about the early recorded history of the UAE, in and around Dibba, Fujairah to present day. The heart of the photographic exhibit was about the implementation and realization of the vision of uniting the Emirates into one country. 

Our guide, Mr. Farman Al Marzooqi, Director of Corporate Communications, had so many wonderful stories and background for the photos... And of course this was supplemented with additional information from my students. 

The next photos will take us on a brief tour of what we learned.... 

Mr. Farman begins at the first recorded record of the current UAE from the archives of Portugal about the port of Dibba (yes my students did a research project on eco-tourism in Dibba and you can read about it here) 

Pointing out the mosque in the first Portuguese settlement was still in existence! (I didn't say I have had the pleasure of spending hours on the site)

You can read about Marco Sosa's book about Al Bidya Mosque here (also on my blog)

Before the UAE was the UAE there were treaties of agreements with the other Emirates and countries in the current GCC (Sheikh Zayed's vision of a united country required long term planning, commitment and work)

The details of the flag :)

HE Ahmed Al Souwadi announces the UAE to the world! Vision realized!

The first UAE Cabinet

Students and professor fascinated with the photos and stories

A medal from Queen Elizabeth to Sheikh Zayed

Sheikh Zayed and his sons

Sheikh Zayed and Nelson Madela on his official visit to the UAE

An excellent tour through the history of the UAE - from vision to reality!

A gift from the organizers - I could not believe my luck to receive this book - I cannot wait to start reading!!!!!

My photos do not do justice to the story told by the photos of the process taken from the Trucial States to Sheikh Zayed the First to the realization of "Etihad" - the vision of Sheikh Zayed - and then to the present day. 

Strategy is not a plan we write on paper - strategy needs to be implemented, adjusted, reevaluated and worked on.... but when it is done well, the word impossible does not exist.

I heard from the people there that this exhibit will be moved to the Nation Center's offices in the new year... you know I will be taking my next strategy class there... if you are in the UAE and have time before the 14 - please go for a visit.