Brands in the region are navigating a path towards ‘business-as-usual’ following tumultuous events, with many re-evaluating operations for the years ahead.
As a one-size-fits-all roadmap simply does not exist for times like these, businesses are pushed to go the extra mile and think outside the box to preserve business continuity. This may require leadership that is more agile and willing to pivot – putting the needs of employees first and looking for new ways forward.
Leaders from eight businesses across real estate, retail, hospitality, fintech and wellness tell Campaign Middle East how they are approaching business operations to prevent losing commercial momentum while keeping employee-wellbeing at the forefront.
They explain that when conditions become volatile, brands are forced to reveal what sits beneath the campaign calendar and the quarterly targets. Although this can often be framed as a trade-off – protect business continuity or prioritise employee wellbeing; push sales or show empathy; drive visibility or pull back to avoid misreading the room – leaders argue that in today’s reality, internal clarity is what makes external confidence believable.
Leaders also emphasise that empathy and performance are the same variable, especially in times of uncertainty and outline how brand navigating this period can weather the storm through strong culture fueled by honest internal communication and how this leads to trust-led external messaging.
Why culture is the foundation, not the response
Across industries, leaders say the journey towards brand strength in uncertain starts at home first. They explain that internal-first communications shape external brand success, and this is often a result of longstanding alignment between business objectives and employee wellbeing.
“The first audience any brand needs to convince in moments like these is not the market. It is its own people,” says Simranjeet Singh, Head of Marketing, Meraki Developers.
“When employees feel unclear, anxious, or disconnected, it does not stay internal for long. It shows up in diluted messaging, slower decision-making, weaker execution, and ultimately, a brand that feels less certain than it wants to appear,” he adds.
The cause-and-effect is mechanical, not philosophical. An anxious team doesn’t stay anxious internally – it leaks outward into the brand. Across industries, leaders advocate for internal communication that cares.
“At Meraki Developers, we believe the brands that will emerge stronger are not the ones choosing between performance and people. They are the ones structured to deliver both – with clarity, composure, and consistency,” Singh explains.
“Because in this market, confidence is not built by pretending nothing is happening. It is built by showing that your business can stay steady while everything around it feels uncertain,” he says.
For Karin Cohen, Multi-Property Director of Marketing – JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai, Al Maha – A Luxury Collection Desert Resort & Spa, Le Meridien Al Aqah Beach Resort, Dubai Marriott Harbour Hotel & Suites, the priority isn’t balancing business outcomes versus people, it’s about building a work environment that mirrors success when it actually matters.
She explains that JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai and its sister properties have each spent a long time building a team culture rooted in transparency, shared vision, accountability and real ownership.
“So, when things shift (and they have) we’re not scrambling to align,” she says. “That alignment is already there. Everyone already shares a vision of what collective success looks like, so when we hit rough waters, the ship stays on course.”
That culture, she says, runs on specific operational practices: daily check-ins, weekly town halls, and constant cross-departmental conversations. No over-polishing. No guessing games. Just clarity.
“When people feel informed and involved, they step up,” Cohen says. “And that’s when business continuity and team engagement stop pulling in different directions and start driving each other forward.”
Clara Al Sayegh, GM of Corporate Marketing at Al Khayyat Investments (AKI) – the group behind brands including BinSina Pharmacy and Befit – describes the same principle from a conglomerate perspective. The argument is not that AKI has managed uncertainty well. It is that their approach does not change in uncertainty, because the foundations were already in place.
“Our culture and DNA are rooted in the belief that our people and our performance are intrinsically linked – one does not exist without the other,” Al Sayegh says. “We recognise that our people and our customers are living through the same moments. That shared experience creates a genuine sense of understanding and togetherness, and shapes how we show up for the communities around us. In times like these, leadership is felt as much as it is heard. Clarity matters, but so does presence.”
The result, she argues, is not compliance but collective momentum. “When people feel connected to the direction, and to each other, they do not hold back – they step forward. And it is that collective movement, grounded in trust and culture, that carries the business through uncertainty with strength and focus.”
This is echoed by wellness retailer Sara Chemmaa, Founder & CEO of Citron & Glow by Citron. She explains that if a brand is serious about commercial outcomes, it must be equally serious about how its people experience the business in real time.
“In periods of pressure, we focus on two things: clarity of direction and proximity to the team. We communicate more, not less. We share what’s happening, even when it’s uncomfortable, and we stay close to the people executing the work, because that’s where both risk and opportunity show up first,” she says.
“That said, empathy doesn’t mean lowering the bar,” she adds. “It means being clear, consistent, and honest about where the business stands, what’s expected, and how each person contributes to moving it forward.”
The logic, shared by multiple leaders, follows a specific sequence. Clarity inside the organisation is the precondition for credible external confidence.
It urges business leaders to preserve continuity by going beyond running a wellbeing initiative parallel to its commercial strategy.
Through clear direction, visible leadership and communication that reduces noise rather than adds to it, businesses can safeguard commercial success as a natural outcome of strong internal communications.
“That means being direct about what the business is seeing, what remains unchanged, and where the focus needs to be – without overexplaining, overreacting, or slipping into corporate theatre,” says Singh.
Rania Zorkot, Founder, Boost DXB sums it up saying: “Business continuity and commercial growth cannot exist in isolation from people. If your team is not aligned, supported, and motivated, the business will eventually feel it. It’s always been about building a strong community internally first – because that is what ultimately reflects externally in the brand.”
How honest internal communication is a commercial tool
As brand leaders establish that culture is the foundation to business success in uncertain times, they also explain how to go about translating that culture into commercial returns.
Leaders agree that prioritising brand and business goals with employee-centric communication focused on empathy and talent retention is not mutually exclusive.
At SQUATWOLF, which has been navigating simultaneous pressures – regional volatility, supply chain disruption, and a period of deliberate AI-led transformation – three leaders offer their perspectives on what this looks like in practice.
Jeethan George, Head of Operations, SQUATWOLF describes a period in which every operational decision was stress-tested against two mandates simultaneously: “Keep the business moving and keep our people engaged.”
He says this depended entirely on whether the team understood not just what was being asked of them, but why.
“We needed to eliminate uncertainty – and this was achieved by direct, honest, and transparent communication on the ‘why,’ not just the ‘what,’” says George. “The balance isn’t perfect – it rarely is. But the discipline of running a tight operation and leading with empathy isn’t in conflict. Done right, one reinforces the other.”
Sal Usmani, Technology Director, SQUATWOLF takes the argument into the domain of transformation – specifically, what it means to embed AI across engineering and business functions while retaining the people driving that change. His view is unambiguous: treating workforce decisions as a separate conversation from business strategy is exactly how brands get it wrong.
“A disengaged engineer or marketer will underutilise even the best tools,” he says. “Those efficiencies only land if the people executing them are bought in.”
“Empathetic communication means being honest about the 12 to 18-month horizon, investing in upskilling the people we’re retaining, and creating genuine career paths in an AI-augmented environment – not just asking people to adapt with no support.”
The framing that resonates across SQUATWOLF’s leadership is that its people are the stakeholders in the transformation, not merely recipients of it.
Viviana Vigoriti, Head of Product, SQUATWOLF extends this into process. Her argument is that volatile periods are also reset opportunities. However, she cautions that this comes with its own set of pressures; that requires critical leadership.
“Be present, guide them with confidence and empathy: when people feel supported, commercial performance follows,” she says.
From the wellness industry, Laura Fontaine, Regional Director of Longevity Wellness Hub, shares a perspective through the lens of systems that defines the structural logic behind leaders’ advice. An organisation, she argues, is not unlike a human body – it performs at its best when its internal regulation is clear, consistent and aligned. Disruption to that internal environment does not stay internal.
“If your people feel uncertain, unheard, or disconnected, that will always surface in execution, decision-making, and ultimately revenue,” she says.
Recalibrating external communications
Leaders agree that shifting external communications is crucial to commercial success in times of uncertainty and that a successful shift can only occur if the internal work is done well. They also explain that while a shift is necessary, retreating to silence is not an option.
“There is a level of responsibility in how communication is delivered. Over-communication or misaligned messaging can create more instability than silence. It’s about precision – saying the right things, at the right time, in the right way,” says Fontaine.
At Meraki Developers, the past months have seen a conscious move away from purely sales-led communications towards what Singh calls being strategically awareness-led – without, he is careful to stress, losing commercial intent.
“In cautious markets, hard-sell messaging often creates resistance rather than response. But disappearing from the market entirely is just as damaging,” he says. “The brands that stay relevant are the ones that understand that before people buy, they need to believe.”
He explains that at Meraki, that has meant placing greater emphasis on:
- trust-building over urgency
- narrative over noise
- confidence-building over conversion pressure
“Sales still matter. Commercial performance still matters. But in this environment, trust is doing more of the heavy lifting than urgency ever could,” he says. “Because in uncertain times, silence is not strategy. Steadiness is.”
That steadiness has meant increased consistency across every stakeholder group: clearer investor communications, more visible construction and delivery updates; broker communications built around conviction rather than just project information. The content strategy has shifted from campaigns to what Singh describes as a content engine – leadership commentary, podcasts, on-ground series, real-time market-facing material. “Brands are no longer judged by campaigns alone,” he says. “They are judged by whether they can stay present without becoming repetitive, and visible without becoming tone-deaf.”
Fontaine also explains that the regional dimension matters too. Across the UAE and Saudi Arabia, cultural expectations shape what good leadership communication looks like.
“People value structure, clarity, and leadership presence, but also authenticity. When those are balanced well, you create teams that are not only retained, but deeply committed to the growth of the business,” she says.
Furthermore, Chris Bishop, Ecommerce Director at SQUATWOLF uses COVID as a reference of how brands can either lose momentum or gain it in uncertain times.
“In moments like this, the instinct is to retreat, soften everything and wait it out. That’s exactly how brands lose momentum; COVID clearly taught us that. We’ve stayed active, leaned into the local community, reinforced reasons to buy local, and kept customers informed. The result is simple – we’ve stayed true to our values and for the business – protected revenue across the GCC and internationally,” he says.
Internally, the approach was no different in its directness. “We’ve been direct with our people. No spin, no theatre. Just clarity on what’s happening, why decisions are being made, and what it means.”
“The brands that come through this won’t be the quietest or the kindest. They’ll be the ones that stayed consistent, stayed clear, and kept moving,” he says.
For property investment platform SmartCrowd, this has been manifested in a move towards education – blogs, webinars, context-setting content that helps existing and aspiring investors understand the macro landscape rather than react to headlines.
SmartCrowd’s Lara Elcheik, Marketing and Communications Manager says: “There’s been a clear shift away from aggressive, hard-sell messaging towards more educational, insight-driven content that helps investors better understand the UAE’s current macro landscape.”
She explains that during COVID, periods of disruption created some of the strongest property investment opportunities for our investors at SmartCrowd. “Sharing that context is crucial as it helps shift the narrative from short-term uncertainty to long-term perspective,” she says.
Across industries, leaders align on the fact that empathy and commercial performance don’t compete; they’re symbiotic. One reinforces the other.
They stand by the message that the brands that will come out of this period stronger are not the ones that went quiet, nor the ones that doubled down on urgency. They are the ones that stayed steady – clear with their teams, honest with their markets, and grounded in the conviction that internal alignment is not a cost of doing business in challenging times. It is the mechanism by which business gets done.
