I, Danish Farid Khan, am a hospitality graduate who spent a total of eight years in Dubai, studying at first and then working professionally with the elite Strategy & Excellence function of one of the most sought after hospitality conglomerate — Jumeriah Group. I had an extremely well-paying job and planned career trajectory with Jumeirah, however I was not content within living and working in Dubai. I wanted to serve in my own country, Pakistan; therefore I eventually left my promising career, to make the move back home.

I had been offered a role in Jumeirah’s corporate Strategy & Excellence function on my graduation day, and from there on, in a span of 4 years I experienced the organization nearly triple its portfolio of business units, as well as a restructure during the economic downturn. Our function was responsible for strategic steering of the organization through opportunities and challenges in a changing environment, through means of scientific tools, processes and analysis. I was responsible for managing customer satisfaction indexes of entire portfolio across different geographic locations, development of a document management system, communicating brand standards for existing and preopening hotel properties, monitoring business performance through balanced scorecards and creating the quarterly board report for the CEO of Jumeirah.