Career Insight: Saif Saeed Ghobash on Why Great Leaders Study History
Saif Saeed Ghobash is the undersecretary of the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi, a city in the United Arab Emirates. During our recent global travels, KWHS met Ghobash for a Knowledge@Wharton interview about his key role in helping to bring Paris’s famous Louvre museum to the UAE. The Louvre Abu Dhabi opened in November 2017. Here, Ghobash underscores the importance of history in helping to develop effective leaders.
Any leader has to navigate through troubling times and great times. Chances are, a lot of the incidents that we face today as business leaders are not very unique, unless they are driven by technological disruption. But the methodology you would use to navigate around these is the same as the methodology used by someone 500 or 1,000 years ago. I think it is good for a business leader to be grounded in great business education today, but it is also very important for them to be well read when it comes to history, and especially the history of nations, leaders and biographies. There’s a lot to learn, and it helps you to accelerate and steepen your learning curve, instead of having to recreate the wheel.
I studied at Wharton as an undergraduate and then I got my MBA from IMD Business School. At IMD, we were given books and case studies to read – how did that guy turn Whirlpool around and what happened to Hewlett-Packard there. Why do we do that? Because if we take the lessons learned from the mistakes and successes of past business leaders and we apply them in our work, we will avoid making these mistakes and we will unlock greater value.
Then we have to pay it forward. When we discover hurdles that no one has ever seen before, the onus is on us to document what we face and how we overcome the challenge – or, all the attempts we’ve made to do so and failed, because we need to embrace failure as leaders. People get very busy with their work and don’t allocate enough time in their lives to document what they’ve learned. That’s something you owe the broader business community and the public, so that you can drive together toward a more prosperous future.
Related Links
- The Louvre Abu Dhabi
- Louvre Abu Dhabi Website
- United Arab Emirates
- Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism
Conversation Starters
The phrase “history repeats itself” is at the heart of what Saif Saeed Ghobash is saying in this “Career Insight” column. Visit the website of our parent publication, Knowledge@Wharton (knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu), which has been writing about business leaders for 20 years. Find a leadership article from before the year 2000, read it, and find three important lessons that might help the leaders of today or tomorrow. Share with a partner or in a group.
What is the United Arab Emirates?
Using the toolbar with this article, click on the Related KWHS Stories tab to locate several “Career Insight” columns. Choose one, read through it, and share what you learned with a partner or a group.
History helps us navigate both the present and the future. By analyzing past events and their causes, effects, and consequences, we uncover patterns in what may appear to be random circumstances. These patterns help us avoid repeating mistakes and make more informed decisions. While this is widely accepted in politics and sociology, far fewer extend this perspective to the world of business, which makes Saif Saeed Ghobash’s emphasis on history’s relevance to business especially compelling. I found Ghobash’s assertion that “chances are, a lot of the incidents that we face today as business leaders are not very unique” particularly thought-provoking. Business and enterprise are not modern inventions; they’ve been deeply embedded in history, as far back as 1602 with the incorporation of the Dutch East India Company. The lessons from that company, its rise driven by innovative funding and economies of scale, and its fall due to poor corporate governance and unethical practices, closely parallel those of modern firms. We see echoes of its success in companies like OpenAI and Amazon, and reflections of its collapse in the downfalls of FTX and Enron. Ghobash’s point strikes at a universal business truth: many failures could have been prevented had their patterns been recognized earlier. These mistakes weren’t unprecedented, they had already occurred, just under different names and circumstances. The tendency to view our own business challenges as unique often leads to an overreliance on untested, “original” solutions. Ghobash challenges that mindset, noting that history accelerates our learning curve: “There’s a lot to learn, and it helps you to accelerate and steepen your learning curve, instead of having to recreate the wheel.” Indeed, the best business leaders are often the most well-read. Bill Gates reads around 50 books a year; Warren Buffett spends five to six hours a day reading. Reading and understanding history goes beyond an intellectual pursuit, it could serve as a shortcut to expertise and solutions. Today’s AI startups, for example, would be wise to study the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. The survival of Amazon, Google, and eBay during that volatile time offers critical insights: focus on fundamentals, deliver long-term customer value, and prioritize strong leadership. As history illuminates paths to success, it also warns us of the dangers ahead. Had Elizabeth Holmes studied the story of Enron, she might have realized that secrecy and disruption do not equate to innovation or lasting value, and that deception inevitably collapses under its own weight. I was also struck by the final paragraph of Ghobash’s article, where he stresses our responsibility to document history, not only for the future, but also for the present. Stepping back to recognize our place in the timeline can provide both comfort and clarity. In business, where emotional clarity is often the foundation of good decision-making, that broader perspective matters more than we might assume. For the next generation, our records serve as both compass and warning. In this way, history becomes an undervalued yet readily-available tool for innovation, resilience, and ethical leadership. Overall, thank you to Saif Saeed Ghobash and the Wharton Global Youth Program for this insightful reminder to both study the past and document the present, to nurture the success of current business leaders, and to provide a path for future leaders.