Tommy Weir writes that Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to resign provided a reality check for many ageing business leaders. Darrin Zammit Lupi / Reuters
Tommy Weir writes that Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to resign provided a reality check for many ageing business leaders. Darrin Zammit Lupi / Reuters

Pope Benedict's lesson for ageing business leaders



Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world by announcing the extremely rare move of a pontiff stepping down. At the end of this month, he will quit his role leading the Catholic Church. He honourably admitted that he did not have the strength in mind or body to lead.

Upon hearing his reasoning, it brought to my mind another type of patriarch, the patriarch in business and specifically, the founder of the business. And wondering: when is it time to hang up the keys and pass the leadership of the business to another?

This predicament is universal as many organisations have septuagenarian and octogenarian leaders. Examples of publicly traded companies that fall into this category include Ralph Lauren, whose founder is 73; Berkshire Hathaway with Warren Buffett at 82 and his vice chairman Charles Munger at 89; News Corp with Rupert Murdoch, who will be 82 next month; and Viacom with chairman Sumner Redstone, who will be 90 in May.

Of course, across the Arabian Gulf region, the succession question is a continuing consideration with many of the titans of Arab business maturing in age.

While I am not advocating that we should witness a mass exodus from the boardroom, what became evident in the pope's announcement is that leaders need to be aware of their limits and prepared for the future. The senior leader has a responsibility to the organisation to know when his or her strengths and abilities are starting to fail.

In making this decision, the pope had to come to grips with the reality of going from reigning as leader to taking the title of "emeritus" followed by a change of name.

Letting go of control is hard for any leader to do. Any successful person is tempted to forget the reality of age and believe they are indestructible.

Easing Pope Benedict's decision may have been the Catholic Church's substantive succession programme. While there are numerous able-bodied men ready to step forward and take the helm, it is the system with centuries of proven track record that brought comfort to the pope during his time of contemplating stepping aside.

Succession planning is currently being talked about across the region but it is still a nascent practise. It is central to the sustainability of leadership.

As we look at the idea of succession, at the onset, let's avoid the all too common trap of only thinking of succession for the chairman or chief executive role. An equally great risk is the churn of leaders at the senior management and executive committee level. It serves any business well to have ready successors for positions even two levels below a place on the board.

To be successful in succession planning, we need to reduce the complications that come from vaguely understanding the process. In reality, succession planning is rather simple - it requires understanding exactly what is required from leaders at each level in an organisation.

For example, what is it that managing others or front-line leaders do from a leadership perspective? The answer is motivating, planning and allocating work and priorities, assessing contributions, giving and receiving feedback, and handling conflicts and problems. Then this determination is repeated for the remaining levels: leading managers, business leaders and enterprise leaders.

Once it is clear what leaders do at each level, develop those who show promise to exceed at a higher level. And then assess them to see if they are demonstrating future leadership in their current role. If so they should become a candidate for succession.

Pope Benedict's reality check is a reality check for all of us.

Tommy Weir is an authority on fast-growth and emerging-market leadership, an adviser and the author of The CEO Shift. He is the founder of the Emerging Markets Leadership Center

TO%20CATCH%20A%20KILLER
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Oppenheimer
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Stage 5 results

1 Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates 3:48:53

2 Alexey Lutsenko (KAZ) Astana Pro Team -

Adam Yates (GBR) Mitchelton-Scott - 

4 David Gaudu (FRA) Groupama-FDJ  0:00:04

5 Ilnur Zakarin (RUS) CCC Team 0:00:07

General Classification:

1 Adam Yates (GBR) Mitchelton-Scott 20:35:04

2 Tadej Pogacar (SlO) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:01

3 Alexey Lutsenko (KAZ) Astana Pro Team 0:01:33

4 David Gaudu (FRA) Groupama-FDJ 0:01:48

5 Rafał Majka (POL) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:02:11

COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Cricket World Cup League 2

UAE squad

Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind

Fixtures

Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE

Company%20Profile
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UK%20-%20UAE%20Trade
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COMPANY PROFILE

Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed 

Thank You for Banking with Us

Director: Laila Abbas

Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum

Rating: 4/5

Meghan%20podcast
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MATCH INFO

Wales 1 (Bale 45 3')

Croatia 1 (Vlasic 09')

Sheer grandeur

The Owo building is 14 storeys high, seven of which are below ground, with the 30,000 square feet of amenities located subterranean, including a 16-seat private cinema, seven lounges, a gym, games room, treatment suites and bicycle storage.

A clear distinction between the residences and the Raffles hotel with the amenities operated separately.

While you're here
UAE SQUAD

Mohammed Naveed (captain), Mohamed Usman (vice captain), Ashfaq Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Imran Haider, Tahir Mughal, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed, Fahad Nawaz, Abdul Shakoor, Sultan Ahmed, CP Rizwan

Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENamara%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJune%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMohammed%20Alnamara%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMicrofinance%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E16%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFamily%20offices%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
TEAMS

EUROPE:
Justin Rose, Francesco Molinari, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Alex Noren, Thorbjorn Olesen, Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson

USA:
Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Bubba Watson, Jordan Spieth,​​​​​​​ Rickie Fowler, Webb Simpson, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau ( 1 TBC)

Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode

Directors: Raj & DK

Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon

Rating: 4/5

Bareilly Ki Barfi
Directed by: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Starring: Kriti Sanon, Ayushmann Khurrana, Rajkummar Rao
Three and a half stars

Electoral College Victory

Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate. 

 

Popular Vote Tally

The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.

Singham Again

Director: Rohit Shetty

Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone

Rating: 3/5

BLACKBERRY
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Manchester City (0) v Liverpool (3)

Uefa Champions League, quarter-final, second leg

Where: Etihad Stadium
When: Tuesday, 10.45pm
Live on beIN Sports HD

The Africa Institute 101

Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction. 

COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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The specs

Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol

Power: 154bhp

Torque: 250Nm

Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option 

Price: From Dh79,600

On sale: Now

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Airev
Started: September 2023
Founder: Muhammad Khalid
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: Generative AI
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47