- The CEO of Oman Air's parent company, Oman Aviation Group, said that capitalism, globalization, and innovation are the three things that he worries about the most.
- Companies such as Google disrupt industries in countries all over the world without mitigating the disruption through investment, explained CEO Mustafa Al Hinai.
- Al Hinai said he believes forums such as Davos and empowering groups such as entrepreneurs women will help solve the world's problems.
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When operating a business in the Middle East, one would think that the primary concerns for a chief executive officer would relate to terrorism, geopolitical conflict, or regional stability, but not for Mustafa Al Hinai.
Heading up the Oman Aviation Group, Al Hinai oversees the entirety of Oman's aviation industry including its national airlines and international airports. Its flagship, Oman Air, is tasked with transporting passengers to and from the country via its capital, Muscat.
As a Middle Eastern carrier, Oman Air operates through some of the world's geopolitical hotspots, especially as civil war in neighboring Yemen rages on. But even with navigating regional challenges while going up against the Middle East big three, Hinai said during an interview with Business Insider at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that capitalism is what worries him the most at night.
"Capitalism is the most worried disruption for any business," said Al Hinai.
Citing examples such as Uber and Google, Al Hinai explained that capitalism allows for disruptor companies that have the ability to change daily life to do so without mitigating its disruption. Al Hinai explaining that when these companies disrupt industries, countries such as his own are left in the dust without investment despite being directly affected by the disruption.
Google Flights, Al Hinai elaborated, directly affected booking and reservation platforms Sabre and Amadeus, causing Oman Air to reevaluate its own system. Though the platform allows for innovation in the field, according to Al Hinai, it creates a disruption for Oman Air that isn't entirely justified in Al Hinai's mind since Google is not investing in Oman despite disrupting one of its industries.
"Google are not investing in my country; they are not investing in my system. They are investing somewhere else," Al Hinai said.
Google Flights declined to comment and Uber did not respond to request for comment.
As the overseer of an airline tasked with connecting Oman with the world, globalization is another worry for Al Hinai as he now needs to ensure the needs of every passenger segment are met in each market he serves.
While one market focuses on amenities such as in-flight entertainment, Al Hinai explained, another one might not.
"The global shift in consumer behavior, in customer behavior, it's really a big agent that needs to be addressed by global leaders," said Al Hinai.
Despite being surrounded by the big three's success, Oman Air hasn't expanded beyond Europe, Asia, and regional destinations in Africa and the Middle East. His skepticism regarding globalization, however, partly explains why the airline hasn't followed suit with the ME3 and expanded into the US.
"But we need to really understand the market first, it's very complex, each and every city," Al Hinai said when asked when it plans to start service to the US. "I think we need to invest into this market by understanding the nature of travelers, the type of travelers, what they like, what they dislike."
Luckily, he believes the solution to problems stemming from globalization is continuous innovation.
"As organizations, we have to be innovative enough…to challenge all these issues which are sitting in front of us," Al Hinai remarked.
The key to mastering innovation, he said, comes from global forums such as Davos where current and future leaders and entrepreneurs can come together and discuss solutions. He also explained that the world also needs to empower women and nations so that they can contribute to solving the world's problems.
"We have to make sure that we are leading the world and not the world is leading us," concluded Al Hinai.
He ended by saying that if we do not start taking control of these things than outcomes will be forced upon us.