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A LEADING Gulf-based businessman and global training guru has set up his regional headquarters in Bahrain and reckons it’s the best move he has ever made.
Graham Nugent of MANDEVCO International was all set for retirement in the UK, but a flying visit to the kingdom and the professionalism and enthusiasm he encountered made him set up shop and stay.
“I took a view that Bahrain was where I wanted to be based as a place to live my life and it’s an excellent regional hub for Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Qatar,” said the 62-year-old entrepreneur.
“Every day reinforces my view that relocating to Bahrain was the best decision I have ever made. I am all set up, ready to start marketing and feel confident and comfortable with my future.”
He first established his human resource consultancy and training company 27 years ago – in the early years it worked only with banks but in the past decade widened its portfolio.
Although specialising in providing a comprehensive range of soft skills training such as covering meetings, supervisory roles, creativity, problem solving, negotiating and presentation expertise, the flagship of his enterprise has been a special programme he developed.
His ‘Experiential Team and Team Leader Programme’ has been delivered more than 600 times for 350 clients, including 23 multi-national companies and has attracted 35,000 participants.
He also owned, built and managed four Activity Learning Centres in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) comprising of a high climbing wall and adventure frames and hopes to establish a similar facility in Bahrain.
MANDEVCO was established in 1985 in Kuwait and relocated in 2001 to the UAE – sponsored by Bahraini Abdul Malik Al Hamer. They merged the title of MANDEVCO International with Abdul Malik’s company Allied Business Advisors to create ABAMI.
“We rode the wave in Dubai achieving enormous success and sold the company earlier this year,” said Mr Nugent. “I went back home to the UK to retire, but as I hadn’t lived in England for 40 years I found the weather awful, business dire, had no connections and encountered ageism.
“So, I looked around, initially considered Georgia and Azerbijan, then India and China, before realising my strengths and connections were in the Middle East. I thought I would give it a try back in the Gulf.”
He decided to stay in Bahrain for three days on the way to an assignment in Dubai ‘to test the water’.
“If it seemed reasonably OK I could stop by on the way back,” he explained, “but if smothered in bureaucracy I would fly back to England.
I carried just a suitcase.
“I went in trepidation to the Bahrain Investors Centre – met a business agent called Abdul Ali Shams, of Reliance Consultancy, who I bonded with immediately, who was so competent and so reassuringly confident.
“I briefed him and he told me not to worry, he would handle the paperwork and the registration should be completed on my return a week later.
“I was blown away – it seemed so easy and inexpensive. I had thought the Dubai Fee Zone was the easiest / best / cheapest – not at all! A week later, still with the return ticket to UK in my hand, he handed me the registration.
“Next step the LMRA and then what at the time seemed an insurmountable problem, getting the required insurance. But then a miracle, I went to BNL (Bahrain National Life) – found an amazing and professional service - absolutely outstanding, problem solved and then discovered the superb services of Tamkeen, so committed to stimulating the economy.”
Did the recent unrest in the kingdom cause him any concern? “Yes initially,” he explained. “The dissidents won the propaganda war very decisively – and I would think most people outside still hold those images. But I was aware that the troubles had been rumbling for years, that the spike reflected the Arab Spring movement, that Western expats were not targeted and that the Bahrain Government seemed to be trying to be restrained and responsive.
“Also, a great majority of the residents I spoke to were more frustrated than fearful … and the bottom line was Saudi Arabia across the Causeway.”
The re-born MANDEVCO International has been appointed as exclusive agent for John Adair, one of the world’s leading authorities on leadership and leadership development. Over a million managers worldwide have taken part in the Action-Centred Leadership programmes he pioneered.
Father-of-four Mr Nugent has exciting plans to grow the business, which includes ‘establishing an Activity Centre’ in Bahrain and taking participants out of their comfort zone and learning about trust, communication and team work.
The aim is to eventually employ eight full-time support staff and 40 trainers and facilitators.
In the meantime, he plans to unwind by helping to establish a Party Bridge Club on the island. It is already on the cards, a place, he said, where ‘you can talk about the bidding, rules, outcomes, weather, football and you can eat, drink and the whole focus is to have a good time’. Bridge Clubs are usually like bad nights in a Mausoleum – total silence.”
