Business Must Invest in Their Employees
Businesses in the region are lagging behind global companies because they fail to invest in training and development programmes, says an HRD 2005 official. Human capital is the most important and valuable asset that any organisation has, said HRD 2005 chairman Saeed Omar. "It goes far beyond equipment and technology. If you have the right people behind you, you will have a successful organisation," he said.
"Unfortunately the majority of organisations in the public sector look at career development and apprenticeship programmes as an expense, they don't look at it as an investment. "Because of this problem this part of the world will always be a few steps behind. It's sad but it's a reality."
Mr Omar, who is also CTM Event Management general manager, said that succession plans, including apprenticeship schemes, were also important for the long-term stability of an organisation. "When Jack Welsh, CEO of General Electric left he had five, or six in line ready to replace him," he said. "Unfortunately in this part of the world you don't see things like this. Often you see senior positions vacant for months and everything freezes.
"Companies could have thousands of employees, but not one of them may be trained to take over. Then whoever comes in doesn't know the organisation, so they must start from the beginning." Mr Omar said that these issues and similar topics would be tackled in The Third International Training, Management and Human Resources Development Conference and Exhibition (HRD 2005).
More than 350 people are expected to attend the event, which will be held under the theme Measuring Organisational Success Through Human Capital. Topics to be explored under this theme include: HRD and human resource management practices, team building and motivation, career development, assessment and succession plans, identifying future leaders and talents, global challenges and competition and its impact on organisational success and human resource progress, apprenticeship, coaching and HRD success stories.
The conference will be held from December 12 to 14 at the Bahrain International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) under the patronage of Cabinet Affairs Minister Dr Abdulhussain Mirza. Mr Omar said that HRD 2005 would be a practical and interactive conference. "Speakers are not just presenting papers, it is an interactive conference where people can debate papers," he said. "It also has an international exhibition. They are specialised and professional exhibitors and solution providers. "They will provide delegates with hands on solutions and assist them.
"We have sessions in the morning and then after lunch interactive panel discussions. "We will have four to five experts who will be tackling a particular area of HRD." The conference will feature talks by more than 20 training, management and HRD experts and practitioners from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, Malaysia, Australia, Ireland, UK, France, Germany, South Africa, US and Canada.
Session speakers will include senior executives from: ALBA (Bahrain), GPIC (Bahrain), Ideal Management Consultancy (Bahrain), Ernst & Young (Bahrain), CCMI (Bahrain) WLL, Directorate General for Joint Training (Saudi Arabia), Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organisation (Jordan), Biz Ability (UAE), Genyx (UAE), Paradigmz (UAE), TML Training (South Africa), Sa-San Training and Transformation (South Africa), Performance Connect (Ireland), Secure Services Limited (UK), Price Waterhouse Coopers (UK), Ohio State University Centre on Education and Training for Employment (US), Accor Middle East (France), EMC Management Centre (Malaysia).
Keynote speakers are: Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organisation, Jordan founder and chairman Talal Abu-Ghazaleh; GPIC general manager Abdulrahman Jawahery; Accor Middle East, France corporate director Dr Denis Sorin; and Ohio State University Workforce Development and Education professor and Centre on Education and Training for Employment interim director Professor Ronald Jacobs.
Mr Abu-Ghazaleh is a graduate of the American University of Beirut and received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Canisius College, USA. His current international contributions include chairing United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force (UN ICT TF) Arab Regional Network Strategy in addition to being a member of the Task Force's Bureau.
He is also the Chair of the ICC's Commission on E-Business Information Technologies and Telecoms (EBITT) and of its Jordanian Intellectual Property Committee and member of the Chamber's Working Committee on Intellectual Property. In addition, Mr Abu-Ghazaleh is the founder and president of three not-for-profit organisations namely: the Arab Society of Certified Accountants (ASCA); the Arab Knowledge Management Society (AKMS); and the Arab Society for Intellectual Property (ASIP) and Licensing Executives Society - Arab Countries (LES- AC). Mr Jawahery is a chartered chemical engineer with BSc and MSc degrees in chemical engineering from the UK.
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© Press Release 2005
