What a strange year…I remember 12 months ago ambling around Dubai Cityscape, the largest real estate exhibition in the Middle East. The projects were amazing, the buildings taller than ever, demonstrating the lofty ambitions of the emirate. And then Lehman Brothers collapsed. One by one, my diarized appointments disappeared as everyone tried to make some sense of it.

I might not drum up any new business, but mentally, it definitely helps to have a few grey hairs, and to have lived through the boom and bust years of the 1980s-90s. It’s just another cycle with some up-side.

I arrived in the Middle East over four years ago to witness the incredible growth of not only Dubai but the region as a whole.

There has of course been a steady flow of top professionals attracted into the region, enticed by new challenges, broader opportunities, enormous P&L responsibility and green-field sites.

Rapid recruitment and over-promotion

With this came a huge demand for those with regional knowledge and for those with international disciplines. As in 1980s UK, companies and line managers in the Middle East were under huge pressure to build teams as quickly as possible to gain market share, quickly promote relatively young workers to avoid losing them to the competition or hand big responsibility to comparatively inexperienced staff because they were all that was available.

The financial crisis has brought a dose of reality, not only to the banking sector but also to the Middle East recruitment market. Whilst there has been a need for better quality executive search consultants in the region, demonstrating discipline and transparency, the Middle East is a relationship driven market.

In recruitment, banking, real estate and I would imagine most industries that market their services, a level of arrogance, which may be a necessity on Wall Street or the Square Mile, does not work here. Many clients have been unimpressed by the ‘City boys’, the very same people they were in awe of when they received phone calls from London.

When can you call yourself a Middle East specialist?

It is not always the fault of the individual. Companies in the Gulf are often star stuck by the big London-based search firms who are excellent in their home territories but often lack the depth of knowledge in the Middle East.

Rather arrogantly, I thought I was a Middle Eastern specialist when I arrived in 2005, only to find I knew very little. Over 95% of Saudi companies are family businesses, often hard to navigate without an Arabic speaker. Without knowing some of the tribal or family issues across the Middle East, a consultant can get himself or herself into a pickle, and many have.

With all the down side, I am still a great believer in Dubai and the GCC region. In terms of PR, the 1st UAE Grand Prix has squarely put Abu Dhabi on the map and is a great place for expats to live. Qatar may be behind the UAE in infrastructure but it’s catching up, and well capitalized to continue its expansion through the recession.

Each country across the MENA has its pros and cons, but this is still a place for top professionals to face new challenges and add real value. After 4 years I still look out of the bedroom window in the morning to check the weather. I’m wasting my time of course, its blue sky again but you can’t break a habit of a lifetime!

Peter Greaves heads the finance and banking team for executive search firm McArthur Murray, Dubai. www.mcarthurmurray.com