Q. How would you describe your journey with Nakheel in the last two years?

 My journey supporting Nakheel’s transformation by leading the newly created Nakheel Community Management (NCM) has been phenomenal. Transforming Nakheel’s community management business into a customer-centric and technology-driven business has been truly rewarding. From the onset, our goal has been to promote loyalty and advocacy through our three pillars of community, customer and technology by creating a renewed sense of belonging for all our stakeholders, whether they are investors, residents, service providers or the workforce that makes up our community management team.

With the support of a visionary management team and the community management support staff, the entire NCM team has been able to achieve optimum efficiency and effectiveness in delivering excellent service to our stakeholders and customers. It is true testament to the team that we have been recognised by numerous bodies for our efforts, including our recent achievements of receiving the international WELL certification, the award at the Smart Built Environment summit for community management company of the year and two awards at the Customer Happiness Summit and Awards.

In line with the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan, Nakheel Community Management is committed to developing vibrant, healthy, and inclusive communities, with leisure areas, sports facilities, events and activations to create plenty of opportunities for our residents to interact and build relationships and providing and creating an overall healthy environment for residents and visitors.

Q. Is the meaning of the word ‘community’ undergoing a transition or an evolution?

Communities are evolving and it’s an ongoing process. Traditionally, urban developments and master developers have focused on placemaking while community management has always focused on creating a sense of belonging. This is becoming more and more important and, as community managers, we believe it’s imperative to create communities which reflect a sense of belonging and togetherness – a place you can call home. A community is a place where you want to live for a long period of time and make memories. It's a place that you feel, a place that resonates with you. It is not only about bricks and mortar – it is about experiences. That’s why we introduced bespoke events such as LiveWell with Nakheel to support the health and wellbeing of our residents and also why we have partnered with Dubai Emirates 7’s to be the presenting partner for Netball for the next 5 years.

Q. What has your most rewarding experience been when introducing sustainability into communities?

In the onset, introducing sustainability seemed challenging considering the complexity and magnitude to reach out to more than 300,000 residents spread across 27 communities, representing more than 100 nationalities. The first challenge was to understand the different perceptions on sustainability, dispel the myths surrounding the subject while introducing the truths, and explain its importance to the environment, our communities, our children, and the generations to come. Constant interactions and engagements with the communities helped create awareness surrounding the idea of sustainable community, like ‘one global village’ built on the principles of sustainability for happiness and prosperity.

The journey towards sustainable communities provided numerous learning experiences, transforming challenges into exciting opportunities and enlightening events. A testament to this would be the overwhelming and positive response we received from the communities especially from the younger generation who showed great enthusiasm to do more and contribute towards a sustainable future.

Q. What events highlight the concept of sustainability in the Nakheel Community?

Sustainability is key to our strategic framework, both across our existing communities as well as across our projects which are under construction. Powered by strong senior management commitment, we at NCM are steadfast in bringing sustainable long-term value and enhanced competitiveness through sustainability integration across all our functions. The NCM sustainability framework aims to implement projects, programmes and practices for sustainable energy, water, and waste management.

We endeavour to instil a culture of conscious and sustainable living across our communities which is important to ensure a quality living experience. Our teams run regular awareness campaigns to encourage residents to adopt recycling practices and understand what items can be recycled, and what to avoid.

Our other initiatives include collection of used cooking oil from residents for producing biodiesel, as well as encouraging residents to participate in sustainability initiatives like Dubai Can and RECAPP. Our teams constantly encourage residents and service providers to actively engage in awareness campaigns aimed at protecting the environment and resource conservation.

Q. Why did you decide on the three objectives of being community-focused, customer-centric, technology-driven?

Our community-focus and customer-centric objectives are about creating that sense of belonging, it is making sure that you create a coherence between residents and their wider community, creating opportunities for them to get together. Creating a sense of neighbourliness, especially in a cosmopolitan city such as Dubai is essential. We all reminisce about the days we grew up in our communities and neighbourhoods back home where everyone knew each other on their street, where you knew all the children and the families. Recreating this is the key to creating the sense of belonging in a master community.

For example, we run the LiveWell with Nakheel events as well as other activations to get our residents out to meet fellow community members, with fun activities for all ages, supporting their engagement with each other. This helps to create a sense of belonging amongst our residents, which hopefully makes them happier overall.

The digital team at Nakheel Community Management is pioneering technology driven customer services, by implementing a multichannel approach to ensure that messages and essential information are being delivered to residents, with concerns constantly monitored online and raised for resolution or management by the community customer care team on the ground within a minimal period of time.

Q. What is your philosophy for Nakheel Community Management to manage diverse groups of people from different cultures, backgrounds, nationalities?

As human beings, everyone aspires to have a sense of belonging. In a multicultural city like Dubai, full of different cultures and nationalities, sometimes it is difficult to feel a sense of belonging. At Nakheel, we prioritise the wellbeing of our residents by focusing on events and activations around festivals and important days for different cultures, such as Diwali and Ramadan, to cater to the many nationalities of people living in our communities and celebrating it with them just like they would have done back home, with the added benefit that people of different cultures also get to experience and enjoy these events and activations.

Q. Why did you introduce the initiative of LiveWell with Nakheel? Can this also be categorised as a form of sustainable living?

Through LiveWell with Nakheel we want to create a sense of wellbeing. Happy and healthy residents is what we want. We have seen that there's a need for such initiatives when we see the overwhelming response, with a large number of residents attending these events. Additionally, we believe that it’s important to diversify the community events we run with initiatives that make a difference to the health and wellbeing of all those that attend. A healthy mind and body are the pathway for happiness and prosperity.