David Singleton, Coach, Strategic Advisor, Partner Socius Group
David is a strategic advisor and he is a partner of the Socius group. He has worked with several big brands and companies including Hard Rock International, Caffe Nero, Mercedes-Benz, Armani, Bloomingdale’s, etc. He is also a coach.
Podcast
Overview
Middle Eastern countries have always been the center of attention for big brands. Although the middle eastern countries share similar cultures, they are very different from each other when it comes to branding and marketing. To understand the Middle-Eastern markets, we have invited an expert in this field. Our guest for today, David Singleton, has been working in the Middle Eastern countries for a very long time.
David is a strategic advisor and he is a partner of the Socius group. He has worked with several big brands and companies including Hard Rock International, Caffe Nero, Mercedes-Benz, Armani, Bloomingdale’s, etc. He is also a coach.
What is the Socius Group and what was the motivation to start this venture?
David tells us that while he was working with Hard Rock International, he was asked to advise the company regarding the Middle Eastern markets. This brought his career as a coach leader, as he was working building businesses and working with high-performance teams and with his business partner helping brands grow. He continued doing this and the Socius Group came into existence.
The MIDDLE-EASTERN Markets
What is unique about the markets of the Middle-East
David has worked in over 40 countries but the thing that makes middle Eastern markets unique according to him is their sense of optimism. He says that the beliefs and designs there are wide and varied. People in the Middle East are determined to develop and execute faster than any other country. David also talks about different Middle-Eastern countries and how they are working on different projects of development and infrastructure.
How do different cultures within the Middle Eastern countries affect the market?
David believes that Middle Eastern culture is a show in itself. However, there are common values and behaviors around the different countries in the Middle East. They are; Ambition, Humility, Empathetic leadership, Optimism, etc.
David tells us that he went to Dubai to work for one of the most powerful families in the UAE. He soon realized that they were the most people-centric family and business he has ever worked with. He tells us that this quality of being people-centric transcends throughout the businesses in that area as Arab culture is very gentle and kind.
How is the middle eastern culture impacting the way brands plan on different things?
David has worked in the hospitality industry all his life. He has worked for different cafes and hotels and thus believes that the environment of a cafe in New York would be very different from a cafe of the same franchise in the Middle East.
From the store design to the menu, everything has to be in sync with the culture and preferences of the people there as a brand gets one chance to enter the market and David helps brands to work on establishing themselves in the Middle-Eastern markets according to its culture. David also talks about how technology is changing and impacting the businesses there.
Social Media Influencers
In David’s opinion, social media influencers are very powerful and extremely phenomenal. There are people who have worked hard to maintain and improve their LinkedIn profiles. They say that LinkedIn is their platform as a virtual billboard to influence people. However, David tells us that he has also seen people who have created small brands and use social media, Instagram for instance as their aggregator. They know how to make use of it for their benefit and they are really good with it as well.
Davi as a Coach
David coaches the high-performance leaders and teams.
As a young individual, David tells us that he didn’t want to work very hard. Instead, he wanted to enjoy whatever he was doing. In order to do that, he has always surrounded himself with amazing people who are very good at what they do. But, to keep up with them, David himself had to be on the next level.
David tells us that he surrounded himself with good people to enable his personal growth and in turn, he has enabled their personal growth too. This is how he has been a coach all his life even before realizing it.
Profile
David is a strategic advisor and he is a partner of the Socius group. He has worked with several big brands and companies including Hard Rock International, Caffe Nero, Mercedes-Benz, Armani, Bloomingdale’s, etc. He is also a coach.
David has worked in over 40 countries but the thing that makes middle Eastern markets unique according to him is their sense of optimism. He says that the beliefs and design there are wide and varied. People in the Middle East are determined to develop and execute faster than any other country.
David also talks about different Middle-Eastern countries and how they are working on different projects of development and infrastructure.
