I
Slow at the start.
The companies that last make their first five decisions with more patience than anyone around them has time for.
Founder & Chairman · TWENTY2™ Group of Companies
PhD, International Relations · Professor · Mentor
Thirty years of Gulf business. Twelve operating companies. Seven emirates. One discipline — now opened to a room: profit, with purpose.
A career built not on a single moment, but on the quiet compounding of sound decisions — across industries, across cycles, across borders.
Since 1999, Dr. Rashid has founded, chaired, or advised more than twelve operating businesses across the United Arab Emirates and beyond — spanning consulting, consumer goods, real estate, government services, hospitality, and international trade. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the European International University in Paris, and serves as Professor at Universidad Privada Boliviana and Board Advisor at the European Institute of Management & Technology.
His practice is anchored in a simple thesis — that the best businesses are those where profit and purpose are not at odds, but inseparable. Across consulting engagements with government bodies, partnerships spanning five continents, and the mentorship of a generation of entrepreneurs, this has been the through-line.
He now opens a portion of that practice — not as a book, not as a podcast, but as a conversation. Once a month, publicly. And by reservation, privately.
His unique power lies in the authentic integration of profit and purpose — a rare voice for a new generation of Gulf entrepreneurs who want to build successful businesses without compromising cultural values or social responsibility.— From a public endorsement
A closed monthly session. One topic. One lens. Ninety minutes with Dr. Rashid. No recordings without consent. No crowds. A conversation.
“In the Gulf, wisdom travels through the majlis. Every consequential conversation I have ever had about business began in one. This is mine.”
Each month, Dr. Rashid convenes a small group on Zoom for ninety minutes. The topic is set in advance. The room is intentionally limited in size. Participants come from every emirate, the wider Gulf, and diaspora capitals — founders, operators, executives at decision points.
The format is deliberately unmodern: a short framing by Dr. Rashid, a structured question window, then open conversation. You leave with notes, a reading, and — if you want it — an introduction.
For the founder, the operator, the executive at a decision point. Two hours, one to one, on Zoom. A written summary afterward.
Some questions require a room. Others require a chair across from you. Private Council is the latter — a structured, confidential two-hour session with Dr. Rashid designed around a single business question you bring.
These sessions are best used at inflection points: a funding round, a partnership decision, a difficult personnel call, a strategic entry into a new market, a family succession question, a pricing reset. They are not coaching. They are counsel.
By authorisation only. For family members building their public voice, senior operators in Dr. Rashid's portfolio companies, and a small number of founders he has personally chosen to mentor.
Private Desk is a scoped version of Dr. Rashid's own desk — the same one that runs this platform — built for the people he would teach in his own office. The next generation of a family. The senior operators in a portfolio company. The handful of founders he has chosen to spend longer time with.
Members receive their own authenticated dashboard and daily post generator — posts produced in their own voice, under their own name, drawing on Dr. Rashid's nine operating principles, his Gulf Brief archive, and a curated library of frameworks from thirty years of practice. The posts are theirs. The thinking has a lineage.
A position I have argued for thirty years, and will argue until I cannot argue anymore.
There is a version of business that treats profit as the whole question and leaves purpose to a foundation somewhere — a committee, a quarterly report, an afterward. I have never been able to make peace with that version. Not in the Gulf. Not anywhere.
The companies I have built, chaired, and advised over three decades share one quiet conviction. That the way a company makes its money is inseparable from the people it makes that money with. That integrity is not a soft value — it is the hardest operating constraint there is. That you cannot hire, partner, govern, or exit your way around the kind of person you are.
The Majlis is where I say this out loud, once a month, to people who are building. Private Council is where I say it, one to one, to people who are deciding. The book will say it in full, once. This is where they all begin.
The operating code of the companies I have built — and the ones I now counsel. From the forthcoming book.
The companies that last make their first five decisions with more patience than anyone around them has time for.
Invest in the relationship before you invest in the term sheet. This is not a regional custom. It is a business truth.
Never disparage the country, the institution, or the people who let you start. It is the cheapest way to lose everything.
Skills train; character does not. A brilliant person with bad temper is a liability disguised as an asset.
Presence is a function of restraint. The more senior the room, the shorter the sentences.
Do not break a relationship to save the numbers. The numbers will recover. The relationship, once broken, rarely does.
Read the room in the language it is meeting in — even when you are speaking another. Culture is not style. It is how decisions get made.
Seniority is asking what the junior cannot. A mentor's job is the question — not the fix.
This is the thesis. Everything else is mechanics.
A morning note. One reflection from the mentor's desk, alongside three items from the Gulf that shaped the last twenty-four hours — each with his own read on what matters.
“The fastest way to build a business that lasts is to move slower at the start than anyone around you has the patience for.”
Fresh guidance from the Ministry continues the trajectory of relaxed ownership rules for onshore entities in sectors long ring-fenced for Emirati majority. The operational read: the strategic case for choosing free-zone is narrowing, and the decision becomes less about ownership and more about market access, banking, and customer contracts.
Filings indicate another quarter of measured rotation from public equities toward private growth mandates targeting GCC founders with proven operating history. The checks are larger, the diligence is slower, and the board terms are becoming less founder-friendly as pension trustees ask sharper questions.
Enforcement is sharpening for companies in the 20–99 employee band. Firms that treated compliance as a recruitment ticking exercise are discovering the real cost shows up twelve to eighteen months later, in attrition and in the career trajectory of the Emirati hire.
One reflection and three Gulf items, 7:30 GST, no weekends.
Thirty years, distilled. The first public accounting of how Dr. Rashid built, governed, and sold across Gulf markets — and the rules he follows. Working title reserved.
“The Gulf taught me a way of doing business. I have waited until I could speak about it honestly.”
Part memoir, part field manual. Nine principles, drawn from a career that began in 1999 and has spanned every cycle the region has known since.
Release planned for 2026. Pre-register to be the first to hear — and to receive the opening chapter two weeks before publication.
A mentor is only as good as the people they have stood behind. A small selection — the rest hold their privacy.
“His unique power lies in the authentic integration of profit and purpose. He is perfectly positioned to be the leading voice for a new generation of Gulf entrepreneurs who want to build successful businesses without compromising cultural values or social responsibility.”
“A rare combination of excellent communication, deep industry knowledge, and strategic thinking. In every board I have sat on with him, Dr. Rashid asks the one question nobody wanted to ask — and it is always the right one.”
“Some mentors write a book. I chose to open a room.”
Dr. Rashid's desk
Requests are reviewed by Dr. Rashid personally. You will hear back within three business days. Not all requests are accepted.