Bloomberg businessweek middle east 16 january 2016

16 — 31 January, 2016 businessweekme.com Algeria… … … DZD 215 Bahrain… .BHD Egypt…… … EGP 18 Iraq…… … … IQD 3200 Jordan … .… .JOD Kuwait… .… KWD 0.75 Lebanon LBP 4000 Libya… LYD 3.5 Oman…… .… OMR Qatar……… .…QR 10 Saudi Arabia .…SAR 10 Syria SYP 200 UAE … … … …AED 10 Yemen… YER 600 “It gives good insulation against heat and provides an external finish to the building However, we have found in several instances that it can be quite flammable” COVER BY LA CHINA M AND SJC, THIS PAGE PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY SJC, SHUTTERSTOCK (5) p6 “We are benefiting from what is currently a challenging environment for the energy sector” “I think what’s happening with Iran and Saudi Arabia right now is they’re both realising they can be spoilers” “My friends in Lebanon said, ‘You’re going to London? You have to go to Primark.’” p14 p20 p46 Cover Trail 16 — 31 January, 2016 Opening Remarks Dubai real estate investors could have hot property on their hands How the cover gets made Global Economics Cresting deal mania usually points to a slowdown Maybe not this time As gas prices fall, Gazprom loses its swagger “Oh, this is after the fire on New Year’s Eve in Downtown?” 10 India’s GDP data get recalculated, Chinese-style 11 In Japan, put some yen in the soda machine, and out comes deflation 12 Companies/Industries Low oil prices give tanker operators big paydays 14 Good times for Deutsche in Saudi Arabia as its economy stutters 15 In Dubai, homes sit empty as developers try to fend off a property slump 16 The Grill: Bruce Robertston, managing director, Jaguar Land Rover MENA 17 With Saudi Aramco’s sights set on an IPO, refining comes into focus 18 Briefs: Netflix goes global, Emirates rolls out A380s on Dubai-Washington route 19 Politics/Policy As Saudi Arabia and Iran wrangle, Saudi Arabia and the US drift apart “This issue’s cover will be on the risk posed by tower fires in Dubai.” 20 Putin gets his way as Assad looks to keep a grip on power in Syria 21 To write its new economic story, Turkey might need to spend big 23 “Yeah, that was the third major tower fire in the city in as many years They all seem to have shared the problem of being built using flammable panels on their faỗade The problem seems to be quite widespread and, beyond posing a risk to health and safety, it also threatens property investments.” ① “Ok then, how about a cover of cash with fire “Like the idea of the burning a hole hole burning through through it.” the cover but not sure about the cash.” Technology Using WhatsApp to combat human trafficking 24 For many startup workers, stock option dreams crash into IPO reality 25 The biggest help yet in preventing football concussions: Woodpeckers? 26 Innovation: Testing for a whole lot of viruses all at once 28 ② “Burning through the front of a building, then?” Markets/Finance Get ready for another slow year for sukuk sales 30 Egypt’s desperate for dollars, and investors are playing a hard game over bonds 31 In Saudi Arabia, money managers put their faith in IPO funds 32 Banks get ready for what could be a record-breaking listing 32 Bid/Ask: Palm projects for Ssangyong, Dubai developer buys a chunk of London 33 Features “Yeah, that looks better Any other options on the look of the building?” ③ “How about this? It looks a bit more like the towers you see in this part of the world.” 16 — 31 January, 2016 businessweekme.com Bad Burrito America’s healthiest fast-food chain comes down with food poisoning 40 Faster Fast Fashion Primark launches its supercheap model in the US 46 China’s Disney Scandal hits the “CEO monk” who made the Shaolin Temple into an empire 52 ILLUSTRATION BY SJC Etc Trying to stay alive is the new corporate team-building exercise 59 Rant: Why force an office Christmas party when colleagues are already buds? 62 What I Wear to Work: Rutgers law prof Sarah Dadush’s “funky librarian” look 63 How Did I Get Here? Cleveland Clinic’s Toby Cosgrove went from history major to heart surgeon 64 Algeria… … … DZD 215 Bahrain… .BHD 00_cover.indd Egypt…… … EGP 18 Iraq…… … … IQD 3200 Jordan … .… .JOD Kuwait… .… KWD 0.75 Lebanon LBP 4000 Libya… LYD 3.5 Oman…… .… OMR Qatar……… .…QR 10 Saudi Arabia .…SAR 10 Syria SYP 200 UAE … … … …AED 10 Yemen… YER 600 13/01/2016 17:20 “Cool We’ll go with that.” Index People/Companies 14 Tankers rise amid an oil slump Performance Sports Group Primark Prince Mohammad bin Salman Queen Elizabeth Rabigh Refining & Petrochemical Company RealScout Recep Tayyip Erdogan RHB Investment Bank Robert Hvide Macleod Rosneft Royal Dutch Shell RSA Sajid Raza Saudi Arabian Mining Company 26 48 32 54 33 60 23 30 15 32 18 6 33 33 Arabtec Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi Abercrombie & Fitch Accel Partners AK Ravindran Aldar Properties Alexey Miller Alexey Teksler Alibaba Group Holding Alkhair Capital 31 48 26 33 11 10 32 32 19 Gerald Lawless Allergan Ambit Capital American Apparel Andrew Flachner Angus Salim Amran Apple Arab National Bank 11 48 60 30 54 15 Arthur Ryan 48 Ashmore Group 32 Ashok Aram 16 Barack Obama 20, 22 Bashar al-Assad 20, 21 Besix Group 33 Bill Coughlin 19 BlackRock 32 Blackstone 33 Brian O’Malley 26 BrightRoll 26 Bruce Robertson 17 Butler Engineering CBRE Group 16 China National Petroleum Corporation 15 China Petroleum & Chemical 18 Chipotle 42 Chris Zaharis 25 CIMB Group Holdings 30 Cleveland Clinic 64 CSCEC 33 DEF Delos Cosgrove DHT Holdings Dubai Duty Free Dubai Holding E.ON 64 14 19 19 11 Emirates 19 Euronav 14 Exxon Mobil 18 Facebook 24, 60 Fahad al-Turki 18 Ford 19 Frontline Management 14 15 Deutsche Bank GHI Gazprom 10 General Motors 33 George Weston 48 Goldman Sachs 33 Google 25, 60 Henan Shaolin Temple Industrial Development 53 Hosni Mubarak 31 HSBC Holdings 32 IBM 25 Ibrahim al-Assaf 31 Investment Corporation of Dubai 33 JKL Jaguar Land Rover Jamal Al Kishi Jawbone John Kerry John Sfakianakis JPMorgan Chase Juergen Fitschen Julian Bailes Jumeirah Group Khalid al-Attiyah Khalid Al-Falih King Salman Kuwait Investment Authority Lanxess Larsen & Toubro Li Keqiang Lyft 17 15 26 21 18 32 16 26 19 22 19 23 19 32 33 11 33 MNO Mark Zuckerberg Maros Sefcovic Mazen Abou Atie 24 11 32 McDonald’s Microsoft Mohamad Safri Shahul Hamid Montgomery Moran Morgan Stanley Narendra Modi National Commercial Bank 43 25 31 43 33 12 33 18 TUV Amin Nasser Nebras Power Nelson Mandela Netflix Nikolas Tsakos Nimr al-Nimr Outward Bound 19 54 19 14 20 60 PQRS Paul Marchant 21 Assad gets a little help from a friend How to Contact Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East Editorial: Cathal McElroy, Editor cathal@businessweekme.com; +971 432 9467 Rahul Odedra, Deputy Editor rahul@businessweekme.com; +971 432 9467 Sales & Marketing: Poonam Chawla, Asst GM Sales & Marketing poonam@businessweekme.com; +971 50 144 0703 Art & Design: Steven Castelluccia, Art Director steven@businessweekme.com; +971 432 9467 Subscribe: subscriptions@businessweekme.com Address: PO Box 503048, Building 10, Office 346, Dubai Media City, Dubai UAE Web: www.businessweekme.com General enquiries : +971 4 329 467 49 Tenaga Nasional Tim Cook Tsakos Energy Navigation Twinings Twitter Uber United Airlines Valero Energy Vladimir Putin 33 54 14 48 60 33 19 18 21 WXYZ W Ian Lipkin WhatsApp Xennovate Medical Xi Jinping Yahoo! Zynga 28 24 26 54 26 26 BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK MIDDLE EAST is published by UMS International FZ LLC and Bloomberg L.P Articles reprinted in this issue from BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK are copyrighted 2013 by Bloomberg L.P All rights reserved Reproduction in any manner, in whole or in part, without prior written permission of Bloomberg L.P and UMS International FZ LLC is expressly prohibited UMS International FZ LLC, a division of United Media Services PO BOX 503048, Building No 10, Office 346, Dubai Media City, Dubai, UAE Printed by: EMIRATES PRINTING PRESS DUBAI BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK HQ 731 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10022, United States, www.businessweek.com AFP (3); COURTESY SUBJECT (3) ABC Saudi Aramco 15, 18, 32 Sergei Lavrov 22 Shell 11 Shi Yongxin 53 Sichuan Development Holding 30 Square 25 SRG Holding 33 Ssangyong Engineering & Construction 33 Stefan Leser 19 Steve Ells 42 Storm8 26 Sumitomo Chemical 19 After a third major Dubai tower fire in as many years, property owners should be wondering what their buildings are made of Firefighters in Dubai are fast gaining a reputation as some of the best in the business when it comes to extinguishing blazes in super-tall buildings Fire departments around the world look to their expertise and techniques, honed and perfected over the past few years in a series of high-rise— and high profile—fires Tamweel Tower, Torch Tower, and now The Address Downtown Dubai on New Year’s Eve have all been the site of dramatic blazes In all of these conflagrations, the buildings faỗade material is being fingered as the culprit, responsible for the rapid fire spread Lightweight, easy to install, and aesthetically pleasing, aluminium composite panels (ACPs) are a favourite of architects and builders in many countries around the world In Dubai, the panels are an integral part of the modern look of many of the buildings in the emirate’s futuristic skyline There’s just one problem—it’s not the two thin aluminium skins that make up the surface of the panel, but what lies within Many ACPs contain a combustible core of polyethylene, a hydrocarbon that, once ignited, can create a fire which spreads vertically up a buildings faỗade, and often at speed After a discarded cigarette butt ignited a pile of rubbish left behind by contractors at the base of Tamweel Tower, in Jumeirah Lake Towers, it took just ten minutes for the blaze to reach the roof of the 35-storey building, according to the police forensic report Describing how these panels burn, Dr Leong Poon, a fire safety specialist based in Singapore who has worked on several projects in Dubai, says: “Ver- tical fire spreads quickly because the hot plume rises and impinges directly upon the unburnt material above This process leads to the melting of the panel core which leaks out and fuels the fire.” Not all ACPs have an entirely combustible core: many have a mineral or chalk buffer that reduces their combustible content down to 30 or even per cent, and which—if correctly installed— will not contribute to rapid vertical fire spread Critically, however, use of ACPs with a combustible core was widespread in Dubai and across the UAE before the UAE federal fire code was introduced in July 2011, which banned their use, says Sajid Raza, a vice president and advisor at Butler Engineering, and a member of the UAE Fire Code Council By one estimate, the number of buildings constructed in the UAE with combustible core panels is above 500, he says Insurance company RSA regularly conducts engineering inspections of buildings in Dubai prior to writing a policy These inspections consider many elements of fire safety and the risk, including the nature of the occupancy and building management; they also look for the presence of ACPs By obtaining design and specification details of exterior cladding during site surveys, risk engineers are able to “identify the external fire spread characteristics of the building,” says AK Ravindran, technical director at RSA “Most of the constructions [in the UAE] prior to 2013 have combustible ACPs cladding on exterior walls,” according to Ravindran Generally, RSA will not insure buildings with a high presence of combustible ACPs, since not only will they rapidly spread fire, but as they burn will give off toxic gases and smoke, which can make it difficult for Civil Defence to control the fire, says Ravindran Authorities too are aware of the material Speaking to Industrial Fire World, a trade publication, Lt Col Ali Hassan AlMutawa, director of operations at Dubai Civil Defence, described the faỗade of The Torch The building’s external finish con- sists of panels made from two sheets of metal composite with an infill of combustible foam which exhibits rapid flames spread upon fire exposure It gives good insulation against heat and provides an external finish to the building However, we have found in several instances that it can be quite flammable.” So far Dubai has managed to avoid any fatalities caused by these fires This can be put down to a mixture of fire safety systems working as planned, the quick response of Civil Defence, as well as simply luck Fire experts spoken to pointed out a number of ways these fires could have resulted in worse outcomes Faỗade fires have a risk of spreading fire into the buildings, says Poon, which can endanger the lives of occupants or firefighters A failure in any of the critical elements of the fire safety system—such as the sprinkler system, fire compartmentation, or evacuation procedure—could result in devastating consequences There is also the danger that molten fragments can travel in the wind to adjacent skyscrapers, or smaller buildings located on the ground that may not have the same level of fire safety as the large towers, he says As far as luck goes, wind direction can play a big role in whether occupants are able to safely evacuate: In the case of The Address hotel fire, the wind was blowing the toxic smoke away from the building “That’s why people were able to escape,” says one fire safety engineer, who declined to speak on the record citing sensitivity about ongoing projects “It was bad enough, and everyone had enough problems, and that was when everything worked well That’s the scary thing: if the wind had been in a different direction, I think that we would have had a very difficult outcome.” The UAE isn’t alone in facing the issue of combustible panels: they’re also found in other GCC countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, says Raza Internationally, rapid fire-spread on building faỗades has been experienced in disparate locations such as PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY SJC; PHOTOGRAPHS: AFP Questions Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, and Melbourne, in southern Australia Following a fire in Melbourne in mid-2015, a local fire chief expressed disbelief that a blaze could travel so quickly up the faỗade of the building Subsequent investigations revealed it had been constructed with combustible core ACPs, in contravention of the state’s building code Authorities there made a direct comparison with The Torch in Dubai, saying that there was a similar rate and vertical travel of fire spread, while the properties of the external cladding were also deemed to be similar In Melbourne, authorities were spurred to undertake an audit of 170 high-rises that had been constructed in the central city over the past decade, demanding from builders and surveyors proof details of the faỗade specifications According to one fire engineer familiar with the process, the audit has already identified a number of buildings where panels will need to be replaced or remediation work undertaken “When we look in the greater Melbourne area, there are probably 10 times that many buildings, so this is a process that is going to take years,” he says “I would suggest that Dubai needs to the same process.” According to Raza, officials at the UAE Ministry of Interior are planning a similar response He says that the process is yet to be formalised, but will be part of the annual safety audit that’s required for all buildings in Dubai, carried out by engineering firms approved to act as registered fire consultants, known as houses of ex- The Address Downtown Dubai caught fire on New Year's Eve pertise Safety audits are proceeding “aggressively,” says Raza, and include inspection of the exterior faỗade system, though he foresees that the process will be expedited following the fire at The Address For buildings with combustible faỗades, mitigation measures are to be taken Rather than replacing the entire faỗade, one of the recommendations is to fit every third floor of a high-rise tower with non-combustible ACPs, or any other exterior faỗade system or building envelope system, to act as a fire break, says Raza This means that in the case of a faỗade blaze breaking out, its less likely to spread quickly beyond two storeys Other options are also being studied and considered, including installing sprinklers on balconies, or even externally With news that many buildings in Dubai may require retrofitting of some cladding, questions will be asked about whether developers, architects or builders can be held responsible for the costs Barry Greenberg, senior associate at law firm BSA Ahmad Bin Hezeem & Associates, believes there’s a chance that owners may be able to shift costs back onto developers, architects or builders, under the UAE Civil Code That code states that the architect and contractor are jointly liable for a period of 10 years for any defect “which threatens the stability or safety of the building.” In the case of ACPs, liability may fall on the party that specified the panelling to be used The view of Dubai Civil Defence engineers is that the overall responsibility for a project lies with the ar- Previously buyers considered property and home insurance as an expense, but now they're looking at that much more seriously chitect of record, says Raza When it comes to clawing back costs, a major point of contention may be that the work done on these buildings was compliant with the code at the time The burden will be on the owners to demonstrate that developers or builders knew that the material being used was dangerous, Greenberg says “The lack of any regulation at the time will present a very serious challenge to an owner seeking to impose liability, but in a case where the builder knew the cladding was dangerous for the purpose for which it was intended, a court might award damages But there will need to be an exceptional showing to rebut the presumption created by the lack of any law prohibiting this material at the time.” For building owners who believe their building is built with combustible ACPs, the first step is to engage a reputable engineering firm to study the material to determine what the risk is and the replacement cost, says Greenberg “If there is risk, the best option would be to place the builder on notice, and see how they and their insurer react, although they will need to also determine whether they are prepared to bear the cost of a retrofit without any outside source of compensation.” Regardless of who pays, doing nothing may not be an option, since insurers and underwriters are likely to refuse insurance, or else they may underwrite such risks “at significantly higher rates,” according to one property reinsurer in DIFC, who declined to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media Niraj Masand, director at Banke International Properties, a real estate broker in Dubai, says he’s seen no signs that the recent fires have affected appetites among property investors “Buyers are obviously looking at safety, but the incidents have not deterred them, and it’s not a deal breaker.” He says that if remediation work is necessary, building maintenance funds, which owners contribute to through their service charge, could potentially cover the cost In the meantime, one effect has been a sudden uptake in property and home contents insurance by investors and tenants, says Masand “Previously buyers considered property and home insurance as an expense, but now they’re looking at that much more seriously.”�Stian Overdahl Global Economics 16 — 31 January, 2016 Monster Deals, ▶▶A surge in M&A can be a sign the economy is sputtering PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY BRAULIO AMADO; PHOTOS: ALAMY (2) ▶▶“I’m not sure the same lessons apply this time around” On 23 November, when drugmaking giants Pfizer and Allergan agreed to combine, in a deal worth $183.7 billion, 2015 gained the distinction of becoming a record year for mergers and acquisitions The Big Pharma deal, by far the year’s largest, pushed 2015 past the $3.4 trillion mark in global M&A value set in 2007, just before the financial crisis That beat the previous record, set in 2000, which also came right before the economy fell into recession, pulled down by the dot-com collapse A flurry of corporate dealmaking is “a classic late-cycle development,” says David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff, a Toronto money manager “When companies embark on peak M&A activity, it is more often than not coinciding with a peak in the stock market and, dare I say, a peak in the business cycle Companies are telling us they can no longer grow organically.” The dollar value of deals in 2015 through 21 December was $3.8 trillion During six and a half years of expansion, the US economy has averaged only 2.2 per cent annual growth With interest rates near zero and corporate balance sheets flush with cash, the easiest way for executives to boost share prices has often been to increase dividends and buy back stock That strategy worked to a degree Even with lacklustre economic growth, the stock market has almost tripled since its March 2009 low Yet corporate profits peaked in the summer of 2014 With consumer demand still weak around the world, sales growth remains elusive Rather than trying to generate revenue themselves, companies have been buying growth instead, acquiring rivals at an unprecedented pace The near-term impact of a merger boom tends to be negative for the economy, Rosenberg says The watchwords of corporate M&A—cost-cutting and synergies—usually translate Shi Yongxin built a tiny monastery into a 52 By Christopher Beam PHOTOGRAPH ILLUSTRATION BY CREDIT TK Then karma caught up to him PHOTOGRAPH ILLUSTRATION BY CREDIT TK Ancient Branding Secrets of ™ is Holiness the Venerable Abbot Shi Yongxin would deliver the money himself Eight thousand kilometres from the Shaolin Temple, the ancient Buddhist monastery and wellspring of kung fu that he oversees in the mountains of central China, a city council in Australia had approved his purchase of some land Attuned to the power of symbolic gestures, Yongxin wanted to seal the deal in person, so in February the cherubic, saffron-robed abbot journeyed from Henan province to Shoalhaven, New South Wales, and handed the mayor a cheque for $3 million Yongxin smiled and pressed his hands together, as if in prayer “It is destiny,” he said Yongxin had negotiated for the property for nearly a decade He wanted to build a complex there called Shaolin Village, where Australians and international tourists could learn about Chan Buddhism and the temple’s famed warrior monks But to think of Shaolin Village as a temple would be like calling Versailles a house In addition to a monastery and kung fu academy, the development Yongxin envisioned included a four-star hotel with 500 beds, residential villas, and a 27-hole golf course, at a cost of more than $270 million Yongxin, in his 16 years as head of the Shaolin Temple, had presided over many business ventures and was known across China and the world as the “CEO monk.” Since taking his vows of piety in the early 1980s, he had transformed the Shaolin Temple—a picturesque compound of prayer halls, tree-dabbled courtyards, and Buddhist shrines set against a lush mountainside—from a poor and relatively unknown outpost into a global brand He became a symbol of the successful intersection of church, state, and commerce in China, a kind of anti-Dalai Lama who enjoys political favour as well as spiritual status Yongxin first drew national attention in China in the mid-1990s, when he filed a lawsuit against a company that produced Shaolin brand sausages—a product that was not only unauthorised but also, given the Buddhist monks’ vegetarianism, particularly off-message To prevent further brand dilution, he created the Henan Shaolin Temple Industrial Development Co and registered the name Shaolin as a trademark While abbots had traditionally overseen only the temple grounds, Yongxin got the shabby warren of shops and martial arts schools outside the complex demolished, in the name of preserving its character, and 53 PREVIOUS SPREAD: CHINAFOTOPRESS/GETTY IMAGES; THIS SPREAD: CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: AFP/GETTY IMAGES; CARL COURT/GETTY IMAGES; CHINAFOTOPRESS/GETTY IMAGES 54 he clashed with the local government released new material Side-by-side photos a precursor of Zen Buddhism At the foot over ticket sales to the region He also seemed to show that Yongxin had not one of Mt Song, the temple became known created the Shaolin Kungfu Monk Corps, but two housing registrations, which is for its warrior monks—a contradiction, a touring troupe that performs for paying illegal in China A police report included given their commitment to nonviolence, audiences from Thailand to Canada handwritten notes from the interroga- but an advantage during wartime—when, For centuries, the monks of the tion of a Shenzhen businesswoman who in the year 621, a group of Shaolin monks Shaolin Temple mostly prayed and claimed she’d had intimate relations came to the aid of the Tang emperor in practiced martial arts, while living off with Yongxin and had been threatened battle The temple thrived during the the land and the donations of wor- by his disciples; one of them “told me Ming dynasty, as government officials shippers Under Yongxin, their activ- he’d let me have a comfortable death,” recruited its monks for 16th century miliities expanded to include food and she told the police A social media user, tary campaigns, including several battles medicine sales, construction, enter- posting under the same woman’s name, against Japanese pirates One account tainment, and consulting In 2006 the uploaded a photo of clothing suppos- describes a group of 120 monks killing temple teamed with a Shenzhen media edly worn during a romantic encounter more than 100 “dwarf pirates,” while company to produce Kungfu Star, an with Yongxin and claimed to have other suffering only four casualties American Idol-style TV competition evidence that could prove her relationThe Shaolin fared worse under the Shaolin announced in 2014 that it would ship with the Qing (1644-1911), as the Kung fu students practicing in Shaolin new rulers, quesbegin developing mobile apps, includ- abbot Letters tioning the monks’ ing instructional kung fu software The bearing the loyalty, tried to curb Shaolin Village project in Australia was official stamps their military activonly the next logical step in the abbot’s o f f o r m e r expansionist theo-corporate empire “If Shaolin ity In 1928 the temple China can import Disney resorts,” he abbots said was torched by a Nationalist general said in March, “why can’t other coun- that Yongxin had been tries import the Shaolin Monastery?” The rise of Mao Zedong Yongxin had a knack for politics expelled and the Communist Party caused damage as well as business He was both vice f r o m t h e first spiritual—monks chairman of the Buddhist Association temple— of China and a member of the National twice The documents’ were forbidden to wear People’s Congress, the country’s legis- authenticity wasn’t confirmed, but those robes or practice Buddhist rituals—and lature He met with luminaries, includ- inclined to believe the charges saw in then physical, when the Red Guards ing Nelson Mandela, Queen Elizabeth Yongxin a classic portrait: the outwardly destroyed many of the temple’s relics II, and Tim Cook, the head of Apple pious religious leader exposed as a hyp- during the Cultural Revolution Within the temple, he commanded a ocrite, abusing his authority to commit A 16-year-old named Liu Yingcheng loyal following among its 400 or so sins of the flesh and the purse arrived in 1981 Growing up on a monks “He’s the person I respect the Yongxin made a show of proceeding farm in Anhui province, he’d often most,” said Shi Yanlu, one of Yongxin’s with business as usual On its website, heard stories about Buddhist monks, most trusted disciples, at one point “He the temple dismissed the charges as and was taken with the idea of, in his really dares to dream.” “vicious slander” and called for the gov- words, “living a carefree life, coming Then, on 25 July, a message about ernment to investigate and prosecute the and going like the clouds and the fog.” Yongxin appeared on a Chinese Internet accusers Yongxin taunted them in an Liu’s parents opposed him becoming a forum Its authors claimed to be Shaolin interview with Global Times, a Chinese monk, so he waited until they were travdisciples and used the pseudonym newspaper, published on August “If I elling to take some money and sneak Shi Zhengyi Shi is a title taken by all really had a problem, you wouldn’t have to away to Shaolin He found the place Shaolin monks, and zhengyi means post accusations about me on the Internet,” in a shambles The temple was falling “justice” in Mandarin Borrowing he said “You could go directly to the relevant apart, and only two dozen monks lived there, eating little but maize paste and the language of President Xi departments.” Jinping’s ongoing anticorruption He might have regretted the challenge steamed buns There hadn’t been an campaign, which promises to target That week, six Shaolin disciples trav- official abbot for more than 300 years both “tigers” (high-level officials) and elled north to Beijing and, on August, Still, Liu sought out the acting abbot, an “flies” (low-level ones), the post asked, walked into the Supreme People’s old man named Xingzheng, who agreed “Who will supervise the big tiger Shi Procuratorate, the central government to take him on Liu cooked and grazed Yongxin?” To “protect the hall of our agency that handles investigations The cattle while beginning his studies He ancestors” and “revitalise Shaolin,” the group included a former head of the was an unremarkable martial artist, self-proclaimed whistle -blowers were Monk Corps, several other senior monks, but he was smart, and Xingzheng took “bravely stepping forward to reveal and, leading them, Yongxin’s trusted a liking to him During the young man’s the rule-breaking and lawbreaking of disciple, Shi Yanlu Within a week, gov- vow ceremony, the abbot gave him the Shaolin Temple Abbot Shi Yongxin.” His ernment investigators were visiting the dharma name Yongxin misdeeds, they charged, included raping Shaolin Temple and scrutinising the Any sense of tranquility was about a nun, fathering two children, embez- Yongxin empire to end In 1982 the film The Shaolin zling funds, and generally “staining Temple, shot on location and starring the reputation of the Shaolin Temple.” he Shaolin Temple was founded a 19-year-old kung fu phenom named The accusers posted photos of a nun i n 495 A D by t h e m o n k Jet Li, became one of the first ChineseBuddhabhadra, who had trav- made international blockbusters and a small child who were supposedly elled from India to China It’s consid- Inspired by the story of a slave Yongxin’s mistress and daughter Over the next few days, Zhengyi ered the birthplace of Chan Buddhism, boy fleeing to Shaolin to learn kung fu Those inclined to believe the charges saw in Yongxin a class the o ic po piousutwarrdtrait: ly religiou leader s expose hypocr d as a ite and avenge his father’s death, would-be monks made pilgrimages to the temple and offered to join its ranks Children flocked from around the country to study martial arts, and dozens of training schools opened Tourism spiked from roughly 50,000 visitors per year in the late 1970s to 2.6 million in 1984 Yongxin watched this explosion with some trepidation, but mostly excitement—it was an opportunity to spread Shaolin beliefs to more people At the same time, the central government’s grip on religion was starting to relax Xingzheng took advantage of the “reform and opening” policies of Deng Xiaoping to push for greater independence for the temple, travelling frequently to lobby officials in the provincial capital and Beijing He would often bring along Yongxin, who became known as Xingzheng’s “walking stick.” In his memoir, Shaolin Temple in My Heart, Yongxin re m e m b e r s t r ave l ling on the cheap, eating bread they’d packed themselves and staying in bathhouses (Yongxin, through a spokesman, declined several requests to be interviewed.) He met officials and learned the importance of political connections Xingzheng successfully persuaded the government to let the monks wear robes again and to allow ticket sales, which generated an income for the temple In this radically open economic landscape, Yongxin saw firsthand how the temple could leverage the Jet Li miracle into security, autonomy, and growth Some accounts suggest Yongxin became too keen a student of power According to a recent report by Sina News, a Chinese news portal, in 1986, as Xingzheng was preparing for a ceremony Yongxin fought the loc that would officially make him abbot, he couldn’t find a necessary scroll Xingzheng accused Yongxin of stealing the sacred object out of a desire to become abbot himself At first Yongxin denied the charge, then reportedly admitted guilt and gave the scroll back Xingzheng also learned that Yongxin had been referring to himself as Shaolin’s “second in command,” and sometimes even as “abbot,” according to Sina Xingzheng expelled Yongxin from the temple, according to documents posted by Shi Zhengyi and statements by people who were at Shaolin at the time But Yongxin refused to leave, even when, per one account, some monks took his bedding and personal items and threw them out of the temple A year later, documents released by Shi Zhengyi appear to show, a new “honorary” abbot, Shi Dechan, again tried to kick Yongxin out He wrote a letter to the Buddhism Association of China enumerating Yongxin’s alleged offences, al government over ticket revenue including inciting monks to beat up an electrician Again, Yongxin refused to be dismissed The farm boy who had come to Shaolin wishing to come and go like the clouds and the fog had learned the power of staying put He built his own base of supporters and, with higher-ranking monks either too ill or too unpopular to take charge, eventually emerged as the de facto leader of the temple, the monk with the clearest ability to continue the modernisation that Xingzheng had begun In 1995, Yongxin organised a celebration of the Shaolin Temple’s 1,500th anniversary, inviting government officials, Buddhist leaders, and thousands of guests from around the world In a clever bit of political theatre, he put on display a memorial tablet commemorating the 50th anniversary of China’s victory over Japan The five-day celebration got extensive media coverage and helped establish the Shaolin Temple as the preeminent monastery in China “It was exceptionally successful,” Yongxin wrote in his memoir Four years later, he went through the official induction ceremony and was named 30th abbot of the Shaolin Temple He was 34 years old “I always persist in things that I am determined to do,” he wrote “People might not understand for the moment, but everything will become clear at last.” ’d heard a lot about the commercialisation of the Shaolin Temple, but nothing could prepare me for my first encounter with Buddhism Inc I paid the steep $16 entrance fee and walked the long, tree-lined path from the front gate of the Songshan Shaolin Scenic Area to the temple The lilting theme song from Shaolin Temple, the movie, played from speakers in the trees Tour groups congregated in front of the temple, snapping photos of its front steps, sloping tile roofs, and, despite a rule against it, the occasional monk A man in a puffy jacket offered to sell me a Photoshopped picture of myself with Yongxin and Vladimir Putin flanking me like bodyguards I shelled out $30 to see the 400-person nighttime Shaolin Zen Music Ritual, and caught a kung fu performance where the stage was emblazoned with the name of a tyre company In the mall-like gift shop, I bought a toy gun 55 chaotic place?” he wrote He lobbied the local government to approve demolition in the area and helped pay for it with what he said was the majority of the temple’s savings Villagers, whose livelihoods were jeopardised, picketed and held banners denouncing the abbot, but in 2002 the forced relocation proceeded Yongxin was pleased “Now it possesses a little bit of the poetic charm that I have long cherished for the Shaolin Temple,” he wrote The project dovetailed with his trademark-protection litigation, as he sought to control the temple’s image locally and abroad When Yongxin first tried to lay exclusive claim to the name Shaolin, he found that 57 other parties had already registered the trademark in China, as well as 18 in the US and 228 in Japan After numerous lawsuits, all rights to the name were transferred to the temple in 2009 Yongxin was instilling the modern tenets of brand discipline on a 1,500-year-old faith But he was also creating a long list of enemies who had been cut out of the Shaolin economy As Yongxin’s fame grew, his critics accused him of living an increasingly extravagant lifestyle—especially for a monk In 2006 the government of Dengfeng gave him a Volkswagen SUV worth $125,000 as thanks for his contributions to tourism “I dream of getting a bigger prize next year,” he said at the time Three years later, he was again denounced for showing off a cloak with gold thread worth $25,000 He said it was a gift from a brocade company in Nanjing as an example of their shared “intangible cultural heritage.” Allegations of more serious misbehaviour began to appear in 2011, when someone claimed online that Yongxin had been caught visiting prostitutes during a police raid The State Administration for Religious Affairs issued a statement saying the report was only a malicious rumour Whatever controversies surrounded Yongxin, they never stuck When he addressed them, it was only in koan-like utterances “If these things are problems,” he once told a reporter, “they would have become problems by now.” In November, I visited Qian Daliang, the general manager of Shaolin Intangible Assets Management Co Ltd., which Yongxin had established to oversee the temple’s many subsidiaries In his spare office inside the temple walls, Qian—the surname means “money”— turned on a small, ineffectual space heater and made tea while he told tales of the Shaolin monks’ greatest financial battles “Religions should be independent, and economic independence is the most important part,” he said One of Yongxin’s most significant stands had been with the local government over the issue of allowing the temple to sell tickets—the campaign Abbot Xingzheng had started Eventually, Qian said, the government agreed that the temple would receive 30 per cent of the revenue from ticket sales to the Songshan Shaolin Scenic Area, in which the temple is the main attraction Temple insiders suspect the local government is trying to reduce its financial dependence on Shaolin In 2010 the city of Dengfeng started developing plans for a competing temple, to be called Tianzhong Construction began but was soon delayed According to a report in Caixin magazine, although Yongxin expressed outward support for the project, many locals believe he played a role in stalling it by raising objections that the construction would damage old relics Work was halted in May, two months before Shi Zhengyi launched the public crusade against Yongxin he highway connecting Dengfeng to the Shaolin Temple passes a dozen martial arts schools—tall, grey buildings crowned with almost identical red lettering, most containing the name Shaolin and many run by former monks Some relocated there after Yongxin’s demolition; others have been erected since, sometimes with temple funds The schools, which bring in tens of thousands of students every year, including wealthy foreigners, have over the years turned into gold mines for their owners In 1997, Yongxin reportedly dispatched his disciple Shi Yanlu to found the Shaolin Warrior Monks Training Base and invested 15 million yuan ($2.3 million) in the school Yanlu, a sinewy specimen, especially compared with Yongxin’s melted-candle figure, had grown up poor in Shandong FROM LEFT: CARL COURT/GETTY IMAGES; DONALD CHAN/REUTERS 56 One evening I was sitting in a nearby guesthouse, reading a copy of Yongxin’s memoir, when an old man with a long white beard shuffled over His son accompanied him and said his father had studied at the temple long ago The old man stepped to the centre of the room and performed an elegant kung fu routine, striking and kicking invisible enemies Here it was, I thought: living heritage, unsullied by crass commercialism When the man finished, I applauded and went to shake his hand “Now give me some money,” he said In his book, Yongxin describes his goal for the temple not as commercialisation, but rather the preservation and spread of authentic Shaolin culture To that, he argues, requires that monks be engaged in the secular world “It seems that in people’s minds, monks worthy of respect should nothing but chant prayers,” he writes “I not think that way.” He rejects the CEO Monk nickname, but based on past statements, his aim isn’t radically different from that of a Fortune 500 company: growth Yet growth requires efficiency, rational management, and creative destruction, which don’t always suit religious leaders If Shaolin is commercial now, it used to be worse—or at least tackier In the mid-1990s, the area surrounding the temple was filled with souvenir shops selling prayer beads, figurines, swords, and Tasers There was a roller coaster simulator and a house of horrors with a petrified cadaver One of Mao’s private planes stood on display The dirt road to the temple was lined with competing martial arts schools, where students trained to become, typically, kung fu coaches or military personnel, and occasionally Shaolin warrior monks “They were dazzling, in a weird way,” says Gene Ching, a Shaolin disciple and associate publisher of Kung Fu Tai Chi magazine who first visited in 1995 “My favourite was watching two kids assigned to clean up the street They got in a fight over a dustpan At first it was typical push-pull, then one kid trapped the other kid’s hand on the dustpan and put him in an armlock, and the other kid did a tornado kick to disarm him.” Upon becoming abbot in 1999, Yongxin decided to clear out the dreck “Who would want to visit this filthy and Yongxin was instilling brandn discipline on a ancient faith But he was also cutting rivals out of the Shaolin economy province and came to Shaolin in 1987 He eventually became a respected warrior monk and one of Yongxin’s loyal aides During the abbot’s 1999 induction ceremony, Yanlu stood behind Yongxin, holding his umbrella Yanlu’s school became one of the most successful in the region It maintained close ties with Shaolin: Yanlu would send his best students to perform in the temple’s kung fu shows, as well as in the lucrative Shaolin Zen Music Ritual song and dance show Yongxin allowed Yanlu alone to maintain a recruitment office inside the temple Over time, the relationship frayed Yanlu began to receive his own highprofile visitors, including the prime minister of Hungary and the king of Cambodia Temple leaders suspected that Yanlu was no longer sending his best pupils to participate in Shaolin performances, keeping them instead for his own school’s shows Yanlu further distanced himself from Yongxin when he bought a piece of land and began advertising an ambitious new programme called Shaolin Soccer, without involving the temple Yanlu and Yongxin would squabble over money According to Yanlu’s report to the government, starting in 2005, Yongxin began asking Yanlu for money “He was insatiable,” Yanlu’s spokesman told Caixin Yongxin denied this, saying he “never asked for a cent.” Yanlu also claimed that Yongxin forced him to pay million yuan to the Shenzhen businesswoman with whom the abbot allegedly had intimate relations “He was the abbot, so I had to what he said,” Yanlu wrote “After that, he warned me not to raise the issue of the money or else I’d be kicked out of the temple.” Yanlu has faced his own charges of sacrilege Several years ago, a photo reportedly circulated in the Shaolin community of Yanlu with his monthold son As Qian Daliang explained it to one news outlet, Yongxin confronted Yanlu and told him to stop wearing the monastic robes From then on, when they met in person, Yanlu would dress in everyday clothes, but he still wore the robes at school events His role as headmaster depended on his image as a pious Shaolin warrior monk—without that, he could lose everything Yanlu didn’t respond to requests for comment sent to his spokesman Tensions exploded one day in 2013, when a group of Yanlu’s students tried to enter the Shaolin temple without tickets A fight broke out between the students and the Shaolin monks guarding the gate, and the police arrested two of the guards After that, Yongxin closed Yanlu’s student recruitment office and, according to reports, officially expelled him from the temple n November, the year’s first snowfall blanketed the monastery Nearly four months had passed since the charges against Yongxin went viral, and the results of the state investigation still hadn’t been announced The initial blast of chatter about his fate had quieted to a low hum No one wanted to talk on the record: Those who had already voiced support for Yongxin had nothing to add, while those who had denounced him didn’t want to say more in case he kept his job after all As time went on and nothing changed, the locals were beginning to consider the possibility that the abbot, as he had survived past crises, would weather this one That would be an astonishing anticlimax, given the dynamite nature of the charges, but one they had to consider—knowing the extent of Yongxin’s power, the thinness of the evidence, the bias of the accusers, and the capriciousness of the Chinese legal system Then, on 28 November, the Henan government released partial results of its investigation The authorities had split their probe into two parts, one focusing on “disciplinary” charges and the other on “economic” ones Yongxin was cleared of the former The claims that he fathered two children were false, according to the report: One of them was in fact adopted by the nun with whom Yongxin had allegedly fathered the child, and anyway the woman had become infertile after an operation; a paternity test revealed that the other was the child of Yongxin’s younger brother The state’s report also rejected the claim that Yongxin had been expelled from the Yongxin with Jackie Chan monastery in the 1980s In an interview with a Henan newspaper, a member of the investigation team said the expulsion had been “a personal matter” and was “invalid” because it was not approved by the proper government authorities The results of the “economic” investigation haven’t yet been released (Nor have investigators explained their unusual choice to publish in thematic instalments.) But the findings so far suggest that Yongxin may be headed for exoneration, or at the most a slap on the wrist The “disciplinary” results are conspicuously incomplete: They fail to address the rape accusation, as well as the charge that Yongxin had romantic relations with the Shenzhen businesswoman Verdicts on these charges don’t appear to be forthcoming The public response has been predictably cynical One Chinese netizen spoke for many when he wrote, “He’s a good Party monk, of course he can’t have problems.” The point being, whether he’s guilty or not, Yongxin is too big to fail If he did, given the gravity of the charges, he would take countless others down with him It’s true that many party leaders have lost their jobs in recent years because of the anticorruption campaign, and those who fight their accusers rarely win But those officials have been targeted by the upper rungs of the party The small group that fingered Yongxin included rogue disciples who had axes to grind From a stability perspective, his ousting would cause more problems than it would solve Moreover, he’s a powerful symbol for the Chinese government His success showcases not only China’s tolerance for organised religion but also the country’s soft power Shaolin has reached new audiences through every manner of pop culture, from Stephen Chow movies to The Simpsons to the Wu-Tang Clan, whose latest album is titled Once Upon a Time in Shaolin At a time when China can’t seem to win an Oscar or produce literature that travels well, the fact that American teenagers know the name Shaolin is a source of pride During my visit to the temple, I went by the office of Wang Yumin, the head of foreign affairs, and told him I wanted to write about how the temple had become so successful under Yongxin “Successful?” Wang said He laughed bitterly and gestured around him as if the allegations dogging Yongxin were physical objects in the room “We don’t think it’s very successful.” 57 SPICY MOCHA CHOCOLATE MOUSSE MOCHA MAKING FRIENDS AT WORK WHAT I WEAR TO WORK: PROFESSOR STYLE CLEVELAND CLINIC’S DR DELOS COSGROVE STARTUP VS WILD CAN YOU IMPROVE CUBICLE CULTURE BY TAKING THINGS OUTSIDE? BY REBECCA GREENFIELD Photographs by Fistname Lastname PHOTOGRAPHS BY MATHEW SCOTT T Etc 60 Teamwork wenty startup employees are stuck in the mountains in Northern California with one goal: not dying The first order of business is building a proper shelter Dan Baird, the head instructor at California Survival School, divides the employees into teams to gather branches and leaves to construct rickety lean-tos They’re from RealScout—a Silicon Valley startup where their days are spent developing an app that lets you search for homes by parameters such as luxury bathrooms and proximity to Google bus stops “Insulation, insulation, insulation,” says Baird, who looks like he was born wearing a pair of hiking pants “You’re not going to be in here telling ghost stories or playing cards.” On this sunny Friday morning, RealScout’s coders, marketing executives, and product team have departed from traditional office duties to learn basic survival skills—all under the guise of team building In addition to constructing makeshift shelters, RealScout’s staff will learn how to purify water, identify wild edibles, and for the main event, start a fire from scratch “I’ve never done anything like survival camp before,” says Bryan Kay, a member engagement specialist at RealScout, his tapered sweatpants betraying a penchant for fashion over function As businesses continue to search for corporate-culture enhancers they hope will give them a competitive advantage, many companies are making their employees play Bear Grylls for the day, believing it may promote bonding and teach teamwork skills that can be used at the office Culture, of course, isn’t something companies can manufacture But that hasn’t stopped them and their chief happiness officers from investing in culture-building off-sites and fads Over the last few years, Baird says he’s seen an “explosion” of tech companies sending groups to him for survival skills training, including Facebook, Google, and Twitter (Neither Facebook nor Google would confirm their participation.) Interest has doubled each year for the past three years, he says, from an average of about one trip a month to more than one a week “Survival—what we’re doing today—is literally what we every day,” says Andrew Flachner, the 27-year-old co-founder and chief executive officer of RealScout It costs him from $7,000 to $10,000 to put business on hiatus for the day, on top of the $2,000 cost of the programme Flachner is betting the excursion will result in some tangible benefits “It’s team building, but it’s also reward,” he says He cites “retention” and getting people to “enjoy staying longer at the office” as positive returns on his investment Tech companies in particular crave these rugged, disconnected experiences, Baird says “There’s a real thirst for that—a rewilding experience for the overcivilised and technologically inundated.” In a hyperconnected world, all a CEO has to to reboot his employees is put them in the woods (Although the woods where Baird hosts his retreats have great cell service.) Corporate team building traces back to human resources pioneer Elton Mayo His experiments at Western Electric’s Hawthorne plant in Illinois in the early 20th century initially focused on ideal light levels to increase worker productivity Turns out relationships—not light levels—motivated workers “The desire to stand well with one’s fellows, the so-called human instinct of association, easily outweighs the merely individual interest and the logic of reasoning upon which so many spurious principles of management are based,” he wrote Before workers ventured into the great outdoors, most motivational exercises took place in the same offices where employees worked Groups talked about their goals, interpersonal relationships, or role clarification Sessions went from break rooms to the wilderness in the 1980s At that time, Outward Bound’s rugged wilderness experiences, which first came to the US in the 1960s, became a fixture of corporate life The popularity of the programmes created a mini-outdoor-team-building boom, leading some organisers to offer less Spartan experiences People hiked out into nature, did hokey activities that had nothing to with their jobs—remember trust falls and rope courses?—and came Sarah Lin, user experience designer Anna Marie Morales, account executive Michael Parikh, co-founder/ CTO Etc Duke Fan, head of product Puja Parikh, business operations analyst PHOTOGRAPHS BY MATHEW SCOTT FOR BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK; ILLUSTRATIONS BY 731 Nic Cavigliano, software engineer back more united Or, at least, that’s how the thinking went That idea turned out to be wrong Multiple metareviews of decades’ worth of team-building research have found no conclusive evidence that it improves worker performance “A lot of companies believe there is some magic that translates into some behaviours, and therefore you get results,” says Eduardo Salas, an organisational psychologist who’s studied the field for 30 years “Team building doesn’t guide behaviour; it’s just an experience.” Trust falls have fallen out of favour with employees, who find them “super cliché,” Flachner says, but team building is alive and well, from whitewater rafting to entire companies participating in Tough Mudder, the military-style obstacle course The California Survival School says it will “take your team’s soft skills and leadership practices to the next level through wildly engaging outdoor survival challenges.” There’s also the added allure of symbolism “Making fire is the closest thing you can as a human to making something with nothing,” says Thomas Coyne, who runs the Survival Training School of California (not to be confused with the California Survival School), which also organises corporate wilderness experiences Despite activities that seem to ring true (mastering the natural world has long been seen as a key to mastering the modern world), research has found the activities that improve performance are the ones that more closely mimic the actual work being done “It has to follow the business model,” says Jocelyn Kung, founder and CEO of the Kung Group, which has worked with Fortune 500 companies to improve teamwork “The group needs to have a purpose for doing it and a problem to solve that’s related to whatever the mission is.” Researchers refer to those more robust methods as team training, not team building Those activities tend to happen in a conference room, not at a campsite Still, managers often say you have to escape from the office to improve performance in it John Ploumitsakos, a senior director of product strategy and sales at Twitter, took his team to the California Survival School last year “While wilderness survival isn’t something we tackle every day at the office, it teaches us how to tackle new obstacles and operate as a team to solve a problem effectively,” he says That’s how RealScout staffers ended up in the mountains, working their hands bloody in an attempt to make fire out of sticks “I hope everyone can separate from the anxiety, the urgency, the excitement of a startup and kind of just release,” Flachner says A few RealScout employees try to find meaning in building shelter and fire “At face value, no, obviously there’s not a lot of skills you can bring back to the office,” says Sherin Varghese, a marketing and operations engineer Office manager Megan Keefhaver points out, “If I’m building this shelter in the wilderness, I’m not going to have a team to it with.” That being said, she’s having “a blast,” she says If fun is the main objective, it’s unclear how successful the outing has been Many of the RealScout employees spent a significant amount of time scrutinising their iPhones After the retreat, multiple employees go back to the office in Mountain View A few say they appreciated spending time with people they don’t work with on a regular basis But still, says Arthur Kaneko, RealScout’s chief operating officer, “I like normal work.” THERE’S A REAL THIRST FOR THAT— A REWILDING EXPERIENCE FOR THE OVERCIVILISED 61 Rant SOCIAL WORKERS Your friends from the office are now your friends at the office By Rebecca Greenfield I 62 f your office didn’t have a holiday party this year, you are way not alone In 1998 more than 80 per cent of companies surveyed by the Society for Human Resource Management had end-of-year celebrations This year only 65 per cent of companies threw a party Fern Diaz, now a senior manager at ad agency Huge, doesn’t miss them “You’re being forced to hang out with the people you work with, because you’re complying with some company culture-building,” she says To some, this might seem like yet another indication that the office is turning into an increasingly antisocial place Adam Grant, a management professor at the Wharton School, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times in September claiming the workplace has become a mostly transactional environment, where relationships don’t extend beyond office walls One 2011 study he cited found that 32 per cent of respondents in the US said they invited colleagues to their homes, vs 66 per cent of Poles and 71 per cent of Indians Only per cent of Americans in the study reported going on vacation with their co-workers But looking to organi sed events and outof-the-office activities misses a bigger trend: Most co-worker socialising now happens at the office Our working relationships are much more intimate: Walls have literally come down, as open office plans have done away with cubes Workers are in constant communication via instant messaging and e-mail Diaz considers half of her 500 co-workers her friends Her idea of fun with colleagues is an in-office Serial discussion group or casual desk-side drinks, not a work-sponsored party or a staged dinner “Huge doesn’t pay for the bourbon We just buy it and drink it at p.m on a Tuesday,” she says “That’s how I’ve made a lot of friends.” Work itself is social Every day, almost million people log on to Slack, one of a handful of online communication tools designed for the office People use chat rooms as a digital water cooler as much as a place to get work done, so much so that many companies have designated rooms for nonwork conversations One of the most beloved features on Slack is the GIF generator, often used to add levity to a work chat Just because relationships are online doesn’t mean they should matter less In a 2011 study, researchers from the University of Rochester had strangers communicate with one another online and found that the more time someone spent chatting with someone, the more they reported liking that person Tanya Ghahremani and Kadeen Griffiths, two editors at the blog Bustle, formed their “weirdly close” friendship over instant messages Now “we’re always in communication over e-mail, text message, carrier pigeon,” Ghahremani says Organisations have an interest in promoting work friendships, because they’re good for business Friends motivate each other with social pressure; not performing means letting a friend—and a colleague— down Having best friends at work is one of the strongest predictors of a solid team performance, according to Gallup’s annual engagement survey Yet the harder offices try to make workers socialise, the more it backfires “You can’t force friendships,” says Jim Harter, the chief scientist at Gallup The best thing for employers to is let employees make their own fun That describes the environment at Web Talent Marketing, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where Anna Horn works “We will have a Cinco de Mayo party in the middle of the day,” says Horn, who met her best friends at work “We’re all just hanging out and having margs My boss is cool with that.” WORK ITSELF IS SOCIAL—THERE’S LESS NEED FOR STAGED PARTIES ILLUSTRATION BY LIM LAHAN Etc What I Wear to Work SARAH DADUSH Do you always wear those glasses? Yes, they’re my hipster cred I had a student come up to me recently and ask if I was Professor Dadush He said, “They told me to look for the one who looks like a student in really cool glasses.” CHANEL 39, assistant professor, Rutgers School of Law, Newark, New Jersey WINIFRED GRACE What you teach? One class in domestic contracts to first-year law students, but the rest of my classes are more international in focus I teach a contracts class for evening students as well in the fall GEORGES RECH Is that a vintage blouse? It’s my mom’s from the ’80s How did you wind up with it? Maybe seven years ago I said to her, “Don’t give away or throw away anything!” I don’t have to alter anything of hers ELMA BLINT PHOTOGRAPH BY BORU O’BRIEN O’CONNELL FOR BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK Etc What’s your outfit strategy? I think about the female students in my class and try to show them how to dress professionally without compromising style or fun I would describe my style as funky librarian WRITTEN BY FOREST Why these shoes? They’re extraordinarily comfortable for when I’m standing for two hours straight Your skirt is definitely funky I love the color—like a burnt orange The evening students are tired, so it’s important to me to be peppy and up, and my clothes can help me that DANCE AND MARVEL ECCO Interview by Jason Chen 63 Etc How Did I Get Here? DR DELOS ‘TOBY’ COSGROVE President and chief executive officer, Cleveland Clinic Education Watertown High School, Watertown, New York, class of 1958 Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, class of 1962 Demonstrating the blood conservation technology he invented, 1980 Today, Cosgrove has 30 patents for surgical products “We had 100 beds and two doctors and evacuated 22,000 sick and wounded On my days off, I flew combat missions and worked in a Vietnamese hospital.” Work Experience 1963–64 Crew member on the Nefertiti, America’s Cup competitor 1966–68 Surgical intern, resident, Strong Memorial Hospital, Rochester, New York 1968–70 Performing surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, 2006 “I was a history major It was the only thing I could major in, because my grades were so bad in everything else.” Chief of US Air Force casualty staging flight, Da Nang, Vietnam; surgeon, Hamilton AFB, California Providing health services to families in Vietnam, 1968 “One day I was reading the newspaper to a teacher I was dating, and she said, ‘You’re dyslexic.’ She was right.” 1970–74 With his wife and daughters, 2000 Surgical resident, Massachusetts General Hospital 1974 Chief resident of cardiac surgery, Boston Children’s Hospital 1975–2007 Cardiac surgeon, Cleveland Clinic “They were doing 3,000 coronary bypasses a year, so I instantly became one of the busiest heart surgeons in the country.” 2004– Present President and CEO, Cleveland Clinic Life Lessons “Heart surgery is an athletic event, and I was getting to the point where perhaps I needed to stop I was considering venture capital, and then the CEO announced his retirement and asked me to throw my hat in.” “What can be conceived can be created.” “Character is destiny.” “Never give up, never give up, never give up.” Courtesy subject (5) Alamy (3) 64 “One day, the guy below deck announced that it was a sewer and he wasn’t going down there anymore, so I took his job My nickname was Sewer Man, and ever since, America’s Cup boats have that position.” University of Virginia School of Medicine, class of 1966 “I was a pretty good student in a not very academically inclined high school.” AL JAFFILIYA HID RAS Emirates Towers Metro Station IKH Al Jaffiliya Metro Station World Trade Centre Metro Station SHE AL SATWA Burj Khalifa/ Dubai Mall Metro Station DUBAI AD ED RO H ZAY SHEIK D ROA Financial Centre Metro Station Emirates Towers Dubai International Financial Centre ’ada Al Sa St FIN AN St a CIA Al Zabeel Club ZABEEL LC Dubai Equine Hospital ZABEEL TRE EN Burj Khalifa ’ad Sa AD RO Dubai Mall JOIN OUR GLOBAL LOYALTY PROGRAM AT ACCORHOTELS.COM Zabeel Palace BUR DUBAI Refined wealth lasts the ages Bank of Sharjah, in partnership with Commerzbank AG, offers premium investment solutions in Physical Precious Metals with exclusive access to one of the world’s leading refineries in Switzerland The Private Banking Wealth Management at Bank of Sharjah delivers unique offers in Silver, Gold and Platinum Physical and non-physical precious metals at your doorstep Private Banking Wealth Management, Dubai Motor City, PBWM@Bankofsharjah.com, www.bankofsharjah.com ... 26 26 BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK MIDDLE EAST is published by UMS International FZ LLC and Bloomberg L.P Articles reprinted in this issue from BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK are copyrighted 2013 by Bloomberg. .. a friend How to Contact Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East Editorial: Cathal McElroy, Editor cathal@businessweekme.com; +971 432 9467 Rahul Odedra, Deputy Editor rahul@businessweekme.com; +971... PHOTOGRAPH ILLUSTRATION BY LACHINA M 16 — 31 January, 2 016 “We are benefiting from what is currently a challenging environment for the energy sector We expect 2 016 to be a rewarding year” ——Svein