Frustrating as it is to talk to senior figures in the Islamic finance industry only to hear them toe the party line and spout platitudes, and refreshing as it is to hear the clever ones in the industry take a slightly more realistic and frank view, it is depressing to see the straight-talkers get punished for their honesty in speaking out. It is almost as if the industry does not want to innovate and grow and become a force to be reckoned with.
Over the years I have seen this kind of thing happen too often. I remember a few years ago, one of the industry's real intellectuals based in Dubai - who also happened to be the head of Islamic finance for a large European investment bank - walk away from the narrow-mindedness of his firm only to set up his own consultancy in an unrelated field. A real loss to the industry, which has shallow enough depths of talent anyway and which really cannot afford to lose people with such passion, vision and drive.
And now we are seeing it again in another part of the world: another intellectual powerhouse and innovative thinker driven out because they had the temerity to suggest new products and new ways of doing things to their staid-thinking employer. It's not as if we overpay these people as it is.
The result of this witch hunting of free thinkers is that the intellectuals who remain are cowed into the same inane platitudes that their less gifted brethren espouse. What we risk happening is producing a series of leaders who only think in flat, monochromatic tones and who only produce the same two or perhaps three products.
It's as if a pre-requisite for a top job in the industry is an inability to think creatively and progression is gained more through the capability of a CEO not to rock the boat, then finding new and innovative ways of doing things. And there are plenty of one-dimensional yes men leading the sector's top institutions - so it looks like a recipe for success.
So who will stand up for the innovators and thinkers while the preening self publicists and prima donnas of the industry spend their employer's money scooting 'round the world to give tired old speeches on the conference circuit and pick up Awards they have bought? We do not need to head the same old stuff. We do not need to applaud quietly as the same clutch of charlatans wander off with more crystal trophies etched with their name to further their job prospects.
At the end of the day the shareholders of the world's Islamic banks call the shots in this industry and I for one cannot see where the shareholder value lies in chasing away the best people we have simply because they are trying to find a better way of doing things. We don't see Microsoft or Apple retreading the same old formula: they innovate and grow. They also reward new thinking; a sometimes rare commodity in this industry.
An industry driven by fear is an industry headed into a dark hole. We need to support the true leaders vocally and loudly and we need to make sure they are looked after or we are all on a road to nowhere.
The Islamic Globe 2011
