Five Ways Business Leaders In The GCC Can Challenge New Technology To Champion Growth

Walk into any boardroom in Dubai, Riyadh, or Doha today, and the conversation will eventually drift toward the latest shiny technology from artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain to the metaverse. The pressure is real. Every leader wants to look innovative, bold, and future-ready. 

The uncomfortable truth is that technology alone does not create growth. In fact, most digital transformations fail. According to global management consulting firm Bain & Company, 80 percent fall short of their objectives. Why? Because leaders treat technology as an end in itself, not as a means to create customer value. 

The leaders who will actually win in the Arabian Gulf are not the ones who spend the most on the latest tools. They are the ones who challenge technology, those who interrogate it, discipline it, and apply it strategically to compound growth. 

Based on my experience as an operator, investor, and advisor across global and regional markets, here are five ways business leaders can do exactly that. 

1. Tech As A Trend: Don't Chase Fast Fashion  

Technology cycles today are shrinking. What used to be a decade-long trend is now a one- or two-year hype bubble. The return on investment (RoI) window is collapsing. Even from a public relations (PR) perspective, the glow of being a “first mover” fades faster than ever. 

In the Gulf, many businesses burn cash chasing trends to impress stakeholders—be it an AI pilot, a metaverse storefront, or a blockchain press release. The problem? When the trend fizzles, you’re left with sunk costs and no defensible advantage. 

How to challenge it? Ask one question before you spend: will this investment still create value for my customers when the hype dies down? If the answer is no, save your money. The discipline to say no is as important as the courage to say yes. 

2. Tech As A Toy: Separate Curiosity From Strategy 

Experimenting with new tools like large language models (LLMs) at home or in the office is healthy—it sparks curiosity, creativity, and learning. But mistaking hobbyist tinkering for a business strategy is dangerous. 

Why? Because the paradigm has shifted. Traditional computing is deterministic: 2+2 will always equal 4. AI and LLMs are stochastic: they deal in probabilities, not certainties. Deploying them into your business without understanding this difference is like hiring a brilliant but unpredictable employee—you must know where to place them, how to supervise them, and when not to rely on them. 

How to challenge it? Draw a line between exploration and execution. Encourage your teams to play, but when it comes to integrating technology into core workflows, apply first-principles thinking. Don’t confuse novelty with necessity. 

3. Tech As A Token: Optics Have An Expiry Date

There is nothing wrong with using technology for signaling. A slick AI-powered customer interface or a digital twin demo at a trade fair can impress clients, competitors, and suppliers. It can buy you credibility. But treat it as what it is: optics. 

Ritavan's book,  Data Impact.

The problem is that tech-as-token strategies have a short shelf life. Just like fast fashion, yesterday’s cutting-edge demo becomes tomorrow’s baseline expectation. Worse, if the signaling is too expensive or undermines trust, it backfires. 

How to challenge it? Ensure your signaling spend is both measured and authentic. Impress, but don’t over-invest. Most importantly, never promise a future you can’t deliver. In the Gulf, where reputation and trust are paramount currencies, overplaying your hand can cost you more than money. 

4. Tech As A Tool: Know Who Really Wins  

Buying off-the-shelf technology is often unavoidable. Your competitors do it, your customers expect it, and in some cases, it’s a defensive necessity. But don’t mistake tools for strategy. 

As American billionaire investor Charlie Munger famously said at the USC Business School in 1994, the biggest winners of standardized tools are (a) the vendor, who sells them, and (b) the end-consumer, who benefits from lower prices driven by productivity gains. The loser, often, is you—the business that finds itself with thinner margins and a more commoditized model. 

Look at regional e-commerce: every player has access to the same platforms, payments, and logistics tech. The result? Lower prices, razor-thin margins, and a race to the bottom. 

How to challenge it? Ask: if every competitor in my market has access to this same software, where is my edge? Use tools selectively, but never rely on them as the foundation of your moat. 

5. Tech As A Growth Engine: Build Proprietary Flywheels

This is where true leadership comes in. The only way to sustainably champion growth with technology is to turn it into a proprietary growth engine. That means leveraging your unique assets—your customer relationships, legacy data, geographic position, regulatory advantages—and compounding them into a flywheel. 

This is what I call the SLASOG framework: Save, Leverage, Align, Simplify, Optimize, and Grow. Start by saving wasted spend, then leverage unfair advantages and align incentives, simplify operations, optimize for impact, and finally grow through proprietary compounding. 

In practice, this could mean a logistics company in Saudi Arabia building predictive delivery models based on its unique route data. Or a healthcare provider in the UAE creating a personalized wellness platform by leveraging years of anonymized patient outcomes. These are not off-the-shelf solutions; they are data-driven moats that turn technology from an expense into an engine of growth. 

Demand that every technology initiative ladders up to a flywheel that compounds over time. If it doesn’t build a moat, it’s definitely only a distraction. 

From Shiny To Strategic 

The Arabian Gulf is at a historic inflection point. Trillions are being invested into diversifying economies, scaling SMEs, and building global champions. Technology will play a central role, but only for leaders who challenge it, not blindly consume it. 

Don’t chase tech as a trend. Don’t confuse toys with strategy. Don’t over-invest in tokens. Don’t rely blindly on tools. Instead, focus relentlessly on building growth engines grounded in your unique customer value and proprietary advantages. 

Because in the end, the businesses that thrived won’t be those that followed every trend. They will be those that turned technology into compounding engines of value creation. 

About The Author

A business owner, operator, investor and speaker, Ritavan is the bestselling author of Data Impact. With over a decade of experience delivering measurable, multi-million-euro business impact, Ritavan has led data-driven initiatives across legacy industries. His latest book offers actionable insights to accelerate data-driven value creation for businesses that want to win big.