Abdulrahman Ibrahim, the Chief Data and Innovation Officer at Al-Madinah Region Development Authority, embodies transformative leadership in the vibrant urban landscape. As a guiding light of innovative thinking and progressive vision, Abdulrahman creates a vibrant metropolis teeming with life and opportunity. Amidst the city’s dynamic landscape, industries flourish, each playing a vital role in shaping the economy. At the forefront of this advancing scenario, Abdulrahman’s expertise and passion for smart, responsive, sustainable and resilient cities is unmistakable, driving positive change and progress.
With 22 years of rich experience in the private sector, Abdulrahman’s journey through diverse industries—fast-moving consumer goods, food manufacturing, medical supplies, and supply chain—has been nothing short of remarkable.
For him, technology, open data and innovation are not mere objectives but powerful tools driving socio-economic development and enhancing quality of life. His insights into this dynamic field are encapsulated in his Co-authored work, ‘Cities in a Time of Emergencies: Can Smart Cities Help?’ published jointly by IMD and Singapore University of Technology and Design. But what sets Abdulrahman apart is his commitment to innovation and progress. His journey from the private sector to the public realm reflects a deep-seated desire to effect positive change on a broader scale.
As Abdulrahman continues to spearhead innovation at Al-Madinah Region Development Authority, his vision for inclusive growth and sustainable urbanization serves as an encouragement for industries looking to thrive in an era defined by modernization and resilience.
Leading with Agility
With 22 years of private-sector experience across various industries, Abdulrahman brings a unique perspective to his leadership role in the public sector. Executing with agility is key. He emphasizes, “Despite initial challenges, our organization now operates at a faster pace compared to others, despite limited resources.” One of his significant achievements has been shifting the organization from a process-oriented to a result-oriented mindset. He notes, “It’s been truly rewarding. We’re now focused on outcomes rather than just following procedures.”
However, the most critical aspect, according to Abdulrahman, has been instilling an entrepreneurial mindset within the organization. Seeing barriers as opportunities has been crucial. He explains, “We’re encouraging innovative thinking, finding alternatives to overcome challenges and embracing multitasking.” Through Abdulrahman’s leadership, the organization is evolving by embracing agility, results and entrepreneurial spirit to drive impactful change in the public sector.
Reimagining City Development
“In one of our internal brainstorming sessions, we asked ourselves why we were determined to improve the communication and information technology infrastructure in the city,” Abdulrahman reflects. “To our astonishment, we did not have an honest and direct answer. That was my first moment of truth.” This realization prompted Abdulrahman to embark on a quest for purpose. “We were, like the mainstream, chasing technology implementation with no apparent purpose, a north star, for our city in its own context,” he explains.
Thus began his journey towards the concept of human-centricity in smart, responsive, sustainable, and resilient cities. It’s about putting people at the heart of technological advancements ensuring that technology serves the needs of the citizens and enhances their quality of life.
Navigating the Shift
Abdulrahman’s perspective on technology and open data is clear—they are a means to an end, not the end goal itself. “I view the role of technology and open data as supporting means towards improving people’s quality of life and achieving socio-economic development objectives,” he explains. However, he notes a stark contrast between rhetoric and reality. “Despite organizations and cities generally claiming the same view, what we see in reality is different,” Abdulrahman observes. The mainstream, unfortunately, implements technology and exploits open data as a destination.
Identifying the root cause, Abdulrahman points to the supply-driven nature of technology adoption in cities. He laments that this supply-driven behavior in the cities led to technology-centered cities. To steer cities towards a more human-centered approach, Abdulrahman outlines three key strategies. He suggests that firstly, through a demand-driven strategy in technology adoption, each city has to define and prioritize its challenges. He asserts that involving city residents and visitors in this exercise is crucial.
Abdulrahman emphasizes, Secondly, building the solutions around the users’ journeys which will include designing smart city use cases to address specific pain points of each persona. Thirdly, focus on measuring the outputs rather than the inputs. Cities should measure the outputs of their smart city initiatives in terms of improving their people’s quality of life, sustainability and resilience. Abdulrahman’s vision advocates for a shift towards human-centric smart cities where technology serves as a tool to enhance the well-being of citizens and foster sustainable development.
Towards Sustainable Urbanization
Abdulrahman explores the intricacies of smart cities through his exploration of various urban landscapes in his recently co-authored book—Cities in a Time of Emergencies: Can Smart Cities Help? One of the key insights he gained while creating it is that there is no internationally agreed-upon definition of what a smart city is. Smart cities should focus on their outcomes rather than their technological inputs. Highlighting the multi-faceted nature of smart cities, Abdulrahman emphasizes that they transcend specific fields like technology or urban planning. Smart cities are not a one-man show. He asserts, “Each city has its own DNA, leading to unique solutions for improving quality of life and ensuring sustainability.”
Drawing from these insights, Abdulrahman advocates for collaboration among all stakeholders. “I strive to promote collaboration among local and national government agencies, the private sector, technology vendors, and most importantly, the people themselves,” he states. Moreover, Abdulrahman is committed to preserving the identity of each city amidst technological advancements. He affirms that being a smart city should not entail giving away people’s values or transforming into a mimicry of another culture. Through his endeavors, Abdulrahman seeks to create smart cities that prioritize outcomes, celebrate diversity and enhance the lives of their citizens while preserving their unique identities.
Embracing Uniqueness
Abdulrahman’s extensive experience in managing P&L responsibilities across diverse markets has heightened his awareness of the importance of diversity. He has observed that each market has different dynamics and consumer behaviors. Doing business in the Middle East differs from Africa, and even within the same region, different countries have different business dynamics.
This realization extends to the realm of sustainable, resilient and smart cities where Abdulrahman emphasizes the uniqueness of each city. “Everything differs among cities including the geography, human behaviors, cultural beliefs, and so on,” he explains. Therefore, one-size-fits-all solutions don’t necessarily work.
Drawing from his experience, Abdulrahman critiques the approach of national government agencies worldwide. He notes that they typically see cities’ challenges from the perspective of the capital city and design solutions based on that. This contradicts the basic concept that each city is unique.
In his current role, Abdulrahman is applying this understanding to promote a more tailored approach to city development. “I am promoting the idea of enabling individual cities to prioritize their challenges, define their problems and design and implement customized solutions accordingly,” he shares. By recognizing and embracing diversity, Abdulrahman seeks to drive meaningful change that addresses the specific needs and contexts of each city fostering sustainable and resilient urban environments.
Privacy, Security and Progress
Abdulrahman accentuates the paramount importance of data privacy and security in all his projects. Data privacy and security are utterly critical. He affirms, “Therefore, I strive for the projects I run to be a role model in adhering to international and national regulations in this regard.”
However, Abdulrahman stresses that prioritizing data privacy should not impede responsible data utilization for sustainable development. “But that should not hinder us from responsibly utilizing data for sustainable development purposes,” he explains. “We shall focus on the statistics generated by the available data to produce valuable insights to support decision-making and better manage the city.”
To illustrate, Abdulrahman presents a scenario where data can be used effectively without compromising privacy. For instance, collecting live data around electricity consumption by household and comparing it with historical consumption of the same household and others of similar demographics. Fetching back the generated insights to the same household to adjust consumption behavior does not require breaching any private data of the residents themselves.
Abdulrahman advocates for a balanced approach that ensures robust data privacy measures while harnessing the power of data for the greater good. “As much as we need to impose more rigorous measures to ensure people’s data privacy and security,” he states, “we similarly need to implement more useful use cases that improve their quality of life using the insights generated by the outcome of their data, not by their private data itself.”
Innovative Initiatives
Abdulrahman’s approach to fostering innovation within his organization is centered on collaboration and empowerment. To foster this culture within the organization, he encourages collaboration internally and externally. Collaborating with internal teams and external agencies on local, national and international levels is essential. In addition to collaboration, Abdulrahman emphasizes the importance of open communication and transparency. Fostering open communication and supporting transparency are critical measures in an innovative culture.
However, Abdulrahman acknowledges that collaboration and communication alone are not sufficient. He notes that collaboration and open communication would not alone generate innovative outcomes without empowering leaders, giving them the freedom and resources to experiment and take risks is crucial.
Illustrating the impact of empowerment, Abdulrahman highlights a successful project that stemmed from experimentation and risk-taking. “Experimenting and taking risks led us to implement a city-wide smart street lighting using LoRa technology and LoRaWAN protocol,” he recalls. This project was considered one of the top five emerging technology projects in Saudi Arabia in 2023.
Furthermore, Abdulrahman’s organization’s innovative projects have garnered international recognition. Other projects won international awards in The Netherlands, Russia, China, and South Korea. Through collaboration, empowerment and a commitment to experimentation, Abdulrahman continues to drive innovative initiatives that make a tangible impact locally and globally.
Making Cities Smarter
Abdulrahman is a staunch advocate for a human-centered approach to the smart city agenda, diverging from the technology-centered mainstream. “I strongly believe that cities should adopt a human-centered approach,” he asserts. With the spirit of collaboration and open communication, he is nationally and internationally active in changing the narrative.
For Abdulrahman, actions speak louder than words. “Walking the talk, where I share and showcase actual concepts and initiatives that were implemented on the ground, is essential in my communications,” he emphasizes. At the end of the day, people believe what they see. Additionally, he leverages social media to engage his audience in this cause. Sharing basic concepts on social media with specific key messages is another way of engaging his audience.
Highlighting the significance of his advocacy, Abdulrahman points out the substantial responsibility cities hold in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Sixty percent of the SDG targets set by the United Nations lie on the shoulders of cities. However, most plans and actions globally are taken on national levels.
Abdulrahman stresses the urgency of addressing this challenge through SDG localization and effective use of technology. Most targets of SDG No. 11 cannot be assessed due to inadequate data, while technological tools are available to start effective monitoring. He highlights, “My key message during my interventions at the United Nations last year was that SDG localization and the wise usage of technology are critical solutions to this challenge.”
Tackling Tech Giants and Siloed Systems
Abdulrahman elucidates two significant challenges facing smart cities today. One of the most pressing challenges is the influence of giant technology companies. This influence led to the adoption of supply-driven technology in cities, with no apparent cause or vision. To address this challenge, Abdulrahman advocates for a demand-driven approach. “We need to adopt a demand-driven approach to technology adoption,” he emphasizes. City officials should prioritize the key challenges facing residents and involve all stakeholders including residents in ideating possible solutions.
Furthermore, Abdulrahman highlights the issue of siloed management within cities. City officials often manage their cities with a silo mindset. Different functionalities are managed separately with different systems and applications. He proposes a solution to this challenge by promoting data interoperability. “I envision overcoming this challenge by streamlining the flow of data among different systems,” he explains. This will enable managing the city as one grand system, facilitating interoperability among different systems to work in a homogenous and synchronized manner.
By addressing these challenges through a demand-driven approach to technology adoption and promoting data interoperability, Abdulrahman aims to pave the way for smarter, more efficient, and more cohesive cities.
Staying True to Your Values
Abdulrahman offers advice to aspiring leaders and innovators, he advises “Hold strong to your values even if they are against the mainstream. Be consistent in communicating your values and aspirations.” Moreover, Abdulrahman emphasizes the importance of delivering results in alignment with those values. With no results on the ground, those values become meaningless. Abdulrahman encourages individuals to stay true to their principles, communicate them effectively and back them up with tangible outcomes to make a meaningful impact.
