2020: A Year of Great Achievements, Huge Challenges
As the new year 2020 begins, it is important to assess what we achieved in the past year and assess the challenges ahead of us so that we can develop a systematic plan to implement and achieve many more noble goals to the fullest extent possible.
The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation (MBRF) registered milestones in 2019, which played a great role in activating knowledge mobility. Our work got international recognition. The Foundation received ISO 30401:2018 Certification for Knowledge Management Systems Requirements. These serve to upgrade systems management processes at the Foundation for the achievement of its objectives and strategic goals.
The Foundation also signed a new 10-year agreement with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which runs until 2030. It was signed at a special ceremony held at the UN Headquarters in New York City, renewing the partnership between the two organizations on the Knowledge Project. MBRF also began other partnerships with multiple knowledge authorities in the world, programs, workshops and initiatives in the service of Arabic language and culture.
The New Year 2020 comes with new challenges in the form of technological innovations and technological concerns, which we have highlighted in this issue alongside how the data is the oxygen that fuels the fire of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This edition also discusses the issue of time and how to manage it in the digital age.
According to a popular phrase, “time is gold,” this is remarkably right in our current time, where speed has become the first rule. The time investment has effectively become a necessity for improved productivity. If a person fails to control their time, it is possible they can be subjected to psychological problems, which cannot be neglected due to their impact such as failure to work. Also, if an organization fails to manage time, it suffers setbacks and disappointments because it will waste its resources in a way that does not allow them to achieve the desired target of productivity.
Financial experts, economists and psychologists constantly observe that a person’s success is always linked to his ability to manage his time and benefit from it so that days and years will not escape from him without success, nor to find himself biting the fingers of remorse after it has become too late for him to do anything meaningful for and with his life.
The digital age in which we live needs special time management because different technological advancements have saved up a lot of time, which should be invested well whether at individual or institutional level in order to improve performance. It will help to compete in a time that recognizes only the distinguished and hard working.
While we relish the important achievements at MBRF last year, we promise that we will continue our efforts this year in order to foster a culture of knowledge, innovation and technology investment so that the UAE continues to occupy the prominent place that befits it within the developed countries in the world.
