Effectiveness of Innovation Policies
Reference. 13
Abstract
Dubai is currently the leading country in the world in innovation and technological development, thanks to the innovation policies put in place by the leadership of the country. When the Markhtum family took over the leadership of Dubai, the country was a tiny desolate state in the desert with no blissful future ahead. However, the leadership of the country adopted an innovation strategy to the development and expansion of their country. The passion to transform Dubai from a little desert state to a developed world economy drove the leadership to adopt innovation policies that enabled as well as enhanced the fast development in infrastructure, commerce and industry currently experienced in Dubai. As such, the country developed from grass to grace because of excellent innovation skills employed by professional from across the globe, and driven by the leadership of the country.
Introduction
Efficiency of innovation policies in Dubai is evident through the structural and architectural developments undertaken within the country. As mentioned earlier in the abstract, Dubai is the leading country in technological development, especially in the real estate sector. Statistics put it that Dubai has the world’s highest number of cranes operating in the world. This means it has the fastest rates of development in the world (Carson, Douglas, & Julius, 2001). Situated in a tiny gulf and covered with a sandy desert, Dubai lacked all facilities to develop and become a first world country. Most of its land was desert land, with no water and trade activities to bring in sustainable income. In addition, the country was too dry and very hot for any agricultural activities to take root profitably. Even the dismal oil deposits were not a good excuse for Dubai to bank on for economic development (Association of American Inventors, 2012).
However, the leadership of the country had a different view and vision for Dubai. They wanted to make the country a developed state, with everything that naturally cannot take place in the desert. Despite the dismal oil deposits the country had, it did not rely on oil for its development, such as its trade counterparts and neighbors, Saudi Arabia. It relied on development through creativity and innovation (Kietzman, Hermkens, McCarthy, & Sylvester, 2009). The leadership of the country encouraged outsiders and other foreign investors to come into the country and invest, providing them with the best optimal conditions for investment that would earn a sustainable return and enhance profitability. They initiated innovation policies as part of their developmental agenda, and encouraged the entire country to adopt the policy. As we speak, Dubai is the most innovative country, beating all the odds of nature, and expanding its wealth and horizons, as discussed below (Fraedrich, 2011).Thecreation of architectural designs in Dubai, and how the innovative policies adopted by the day’s government led to the development of such magical structures, forms the main concerns of this paper. It outlines the technological strides the city has made in making itself a center of architectural excellence despite having numerous natural challenges. It goes ahead to explore the Burj Dubai and the Burj Khalifa as architectural models of the city and their design magnificence.
Main Body
How it all began
As mentioned earlier, Dubai was a desolate country located in the desert with no meaningful natural resources that it could tap in order to make or generate some sustainable revenue or income. People lived in abject poverty and survived on deep sea diving in order to make a living. The only significant natural resource that the government perceived would generate some sustainable streams of income for the country as well as its people was the Dubai Creek. This is a small strip of the sea that enters into Dubai and very famous for trade and business activities (Gee, 1995). Driven by the need to expand and bring about prosperity to the country, the leadership through the Markhtum family decided to rely on the Dubai Creek as an alternative source of income. They wanted to expand the creak so that it could accommodate enormous ships and hence, bring in more investors as well as more income.
The Dubai Creek was very famous for business activities. Numerous businesspersons travelled to this Creak in order to trade their goods and service. It was so famous that huge ships and other marine water vessels travelled to this creak in order to load and offload their goods, thereby bringing in streams of revenue for the country. However, the creak had one significant problem that hampered its expansion as well as proper development as an income generating resource. The Dubai Creek was small and it was not possible for huge ships to navigate or make conclusive turns. Therefore, it remained a playing ground for small ships and yachts, hence reducing the revenue streams for the country. At this point, the Dubai government invoked their innovation policies to enable the Creak to accommodate big ships, as well as ensure their safe navigation in and out of the creak. This would enhance business activities as well as attract more investors to the desert country (Gus, 2012).
The government decided to expand the Dubai Creek through dredging. This meant that it would dig out the sea base and expand it in order to allow the Creak to accommodate bigger ships and vessels that would bring in more trade and business at the country. They invoked their creativity and innovation policies and came up with a plan to dredge the sea and expand it (Innovation, Americas Conference on Innovation Systems, 2009). This happened two times in a row. The first dredging did not expand it well enough to accommodate bigger sea cruisers; however, the second dredging enabled the sea to accommodate docking of large sea vessels. This enhanced business activities at the creak as more and more ships docked here, bringing with them numerous goods for trade and business. The government as such, enhanced its policy and commerce through this means by providing its potential investors with optimal business conditions, or conducive environment for trade (Innovation, Theories of Art, and Cultural Naratives, 2000).
Architectural Designs
The country adopted several innovative policies that compounded its artists and developers to think outside the obvious. These developers were to develop and create magical things out of this world, and they had full support from the government through the polices that they created which supported such wild creativity and innovation. In fact, the government funded most of the magical developments in the country, as part of its policies to support economic development through innovation. These include the creation of the Dubai pearl, the development of Terminal 3 – the largest building in the world, at the Fly Emirates Airlines, and the Burj Khalifa, which is the tallest building in the world (Kietzman, Hermkens, McCarthy, & Sylvester, 2009). All the features discussed in this paper focus on the innovative minds of Dubai developers who went beyond the ordinary to create the extra ordinary, all thanks to the support from the Dubai government which promotes creativity and innovation.
The innovative mind of the Dubai nationals did not stop at the sea alone. As such, having conquered the sea, by expanding the creak to bring in more business and trade to the country, they went on to build more notable structures at sea, such as the Perms, the world, and the universe, as well as constructing a hotel on a manmade island. Some of the most attractive architectural designs of Dubai include, Burj Dubai, the Burj Khalifa, Terminal 3, the ice-skating room, and the Flaming twists, as well as, the rotating building (Jan, Mitho, Bhatti, & Ghulam, 2012). The architectures in Dubai managed to use what nature puts against them to their advantage, such as the desert land, the hot temperatures during the day and very cold at night, and the strong winds that blow across the country more and more frequently. These factors would otherwise bring down every developmental project of the country. However, they employed their innovative minds to turn these curses into blessings (Kirk, 2007).
- The Burj Dubai
The Burj Dubai had been for a long time the tallest hotel in the world. However, it was not through holding this record of being the tallest hotel in the world that put the Burj Dubai in the map of the world. It is the architectural design and the location of this magnificent hotel that raised eyebrows from everyone who saw or heard of it. It is such a spectacle, located nearly one hundred meters into the sea on a manmade island. The engineers who were charged with the duty of designing and constructing this hotel had to first build an island, 100 meters into the sea. They had to come up with possible means of reducing the effect of water waves and sea winds from bringing the hotel down. In addition, they also had to content with high temperatures at sea and come up with a way of ensuring that the hotel was always cool (Longstaff, 2010).
The architectures managed to come up with this magnificent structure, towering over four hundred meters above the sea level. They came up with special designs on the island that would enable it hold tons of steel without the risk of crumbling into the sea. This was all an art of architectural innovation and creativity as these engineers had to think beyond the obvious bits of construction and building. All this resulted from the innovative policies structured by the Dubai government. The royalty of Dubai have measures and procedures that encourage their engineers and think beyond the ordinary in order to come up with extraordinary structures such as construction of such a massive structure on sea (Mohammad & AbdiSheikh, 2011).
- The Burj Khalifa
The Burj Khalifa is another building that put the country on the map of the world as an architectural hub. Dubai currently has numerous skyscrapers. A visit to Dubai or a drive around the town bombards an individual with tall buildings, one taller than the next, one more attractive than the next (Sargisson, 2012). However, this was not enough for the innovative mind of the Dubai leadership. They wanted to hold another record, this time of having the tallest building in the world, currently, the Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world, towering over 2000 feet above sea (Kietzman, Hermkens, McCarthy, & Sylvester, 2009). The Burj Khalifa is one building of its kind in the world, and as such, even acts as a tourist attraction site for the country. Tourists travel from all corners of the world to Dubai in order to behold the tallest building in the world (Pabel, 2009).
The design and construction of this building was also a significant art of creativity and innovation. This is because engineers developing this building had to throw away conventional construction practices and procedures and employ new means and designs of developing this building. This is because no one had previously pumped concrete to such heights; neither had anyone constructed anything as tall as the Burj Khalifa did. They had to worry about the strong winds blowing across the city, which threatened to blow down the building. They designed a y shaped base for the building, occupying almost the size of a single block. By spreading the feat of the building, the engineer gave the building much strength to withstand all the string winds blowing across the lands of Dubai, thereby enabling them to construct the building to such terrific heights.
- Other odds of nature in architectural designs
The country has many other creative architectural designs that bring about the concept of innovation and creativity to the forefront. For instance, one building in the country that is making good use of the hot sun and the strong winds experienced in the country is the twisting building. This building has nearly twenty floors and each of these floors makes a 360-degree rotation around an axle placed at the center of the building (Robert, 2009). In addition, the building is covered with solar panels on its walls. The presence of the solar panels and the 360-degree rotation around an axle enables the building to power itself through harnessing the heat from the sun. As such, the building is energy sufficient as it makes its own energy by processing the solar rays from the sun, which Dubai has in abundance. This rotation also enables the building to maintain its temperatures at normal, hence making it cool throughout the day and night. Dubai has very hot temperatures which make it sometimes unbearable to stay indoors, or too expensive to maintain the temperatures at low levels (Bonn, 1603).
Another fascinating design in the desert land is the ice-staking ballroom created in Dubai. Dubai is a desert land, and as such, a taboo to find water, let alone ice on such land. However, the creative mind of the Dubai nationals enabled them to build an indoors skating park with ice at all the best conditions. As such, people in Dubai can easily enjoy skating facilities at their own homes without having to go to countries that have ice for such services. The innovation employed in engineering enabled designers comes up with a structure that maintains ice at room temperature, hence giving these people an opportunity to skate (Yang, 2011). Dubai also has another development structure that is a brainwork of creativity and innovation. This is terminal three of the Fly Emirates Airport. As of now, this is the largest building in the world, with the best facilities for all travelers and passengers who use the airport. This airport terminal is a work of art, initiated by innovation policies adopted by the Dubai government, which owns the Fly Emirates Airlines (Wroigler, 2012).
Magical Developments of Nature
Dubai is a small country in the United Arabs emirates. However, the country has one resource that it makes good use of this is sand. There is sand in abundance within the country, and the innovative policies of the government enabled engineers to come up with new designs to reclaim land. Under normal conditions, people expand their land by reclaiming sea land or clearing forests. However, in Dubai, they create land. This is very phenomenal in the sense that they manage to use the resources that they have in abundance to create land. They dredge sand from the seabed then accumulate it at a given point to create a piece of land. This is evident from the two Palms created by the engineers, the world, and now the universe. Through this creation of new land, Dubai is able to expand its coastline, which is another feature of attracting investors to its land (Zhu, 2009).
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is evident that policies on innovation adopted by the government are the drivers of such fast development that Dubai is currently undergoing. Dubai transformed in a short span of time from a desert country with not hopes for development to a magical destination, a centre or hub for business and tourism. Dubai is a one-stop holiday park with numerous places to visit and have fun. Dubai is also a business hub whereby investors, traders and other businesspersons come with their goods and services to trade (Saunders, 2007). In fact, the country plays host to a number of multinational corporations that set up headquarters or subsidiaries at the country. In addition, the banking system of Dubai is also efficient enough to enable fast transactions as well as secure payment systems for business transactions, visitors, and other personalities visiting their country.
The government of Dubai encourages investors to come and put their money into the country in order to expand and generate sustainable streams of income. In addition, the government takes part in business on its own in order to encourage business activities as well as set conducive business environment for conducting business activities in the country. As such, the government fully supports all innovation practices from both engineers, architects, and other departments of branches in the society that may require proper development. For instance, most architecture confirms that the leadership of the country truly encourages development and innovation. For instance, many a times has the sheikh Markhtum of Dubai requested his engineers to build him something unique? This encourages engineers to think out of the ordinary and design buildings that transform the picture of Dubai on the map of the world.
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