Google wants companies in the UAE to be able to fail without stigma

The head council at Google has called on the UAE government to create a system where companies are able to fail without stigma.

Negative attitudes towards failing companies is currently deterring people from wanting to start their own companies. The new approach will help support an entrepreneurial culture, and will encourage more start-ups.

Kent Walker, global senior vice president and general counsel at Google, said: “One of the secrets of Silicon Valley is to create a culture of risk and reward. The dot-com boom and bust of the late 1990s may have left a ‘litter’ of failed technology start-ups, but those failures ultimately created the successes of today”

Decision makers in the UAE must work to create safe harbour policies for new companies, which includes flexible data sharing regulations and privacy rules that strike a balance between helping companies feel safe and enabling companies to innovate over existing platforms.

The new mindset will also stretch to the education system, so students willingly test out ideas without the fear of failure.