TAILORING SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FACEBOOK’S ROB NEWLAN MAKES THE CASE

THE RECAP
ACHIEVING WOMEN’S
FORUM 2015

BUILDING THE ( BEST )

HOME GROWN

BRANDS
PERSONIFYING YOUR COMPANY’S CORPORATE LINGO, MAKING MESSAGING WORK FOR YOUR BUSINESS,

H.H. SHEIKH AHMED

AND THE APPLICATION OF PERVASIVE BRANDING TACTICS

ZIAD EL CHAAR
DAMAC PROPERTIES
FABRIZIO FERREIRA
KBW INVESTMENTS
BIN SAEED AL MAKTOUM SULTAN SOOUD AL-QASSEMI RAMANATHAN HARIHARAN
EMIRATES BARJEEL ART FOUNDATION MAX

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 JUNE 2015
CONTENTS

20
Powering the engines
of prosperity to Dubai
Expo 2020 and beyond:
H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin
Saeed Al Maktoum,
Emirates

18 Market penetration > Ziad El Chaar 50

INNOVATOR:
BUILDING THE (BEST)
HOME GROWN BRANDS
Personifying your company’s
corporate lingo, making
messaging work for your
business, and the application
of pervasive branding tactics
strategies across sectors DAMAC PROPERTIES TECH:
> H.H. Sheikh Ahmed > Ramanathan Hariharan SHINY
bin Saeed Al Maktoum MAX #TamTalksTech
EMIRATES Gadgets and doodads that
> Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi 32 you might’ve missed out on,
BARJEEL ART FOUNDATION THE RECAP sourced by a tech aficionado.
> Fabrizio Ferreira KSA Enterprise Agility Yes, it’s okay to want them
KBW INVESTMENTS Achievers 2015 all… and no, it’s not our
fault.
40
DAMAC
19 ACHIEVING WOMEN’S 46
Properties gets FORUM 2015 ‘TREPONOMICS:
the message The second Entrepreneur SKILLSET
across
Industry Intel event, the Invigorate your team in 10
Achieving Women’s Forum, steps
and 12 points of reference Bayt.com’s Lama Ataya
on the methodology of discusses the difference
business. between innovation and
creativity, and how to
12 determine which of the
EDITOR’S NOTE two is needed for your
By Fida Z. Chaaban organization.

JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 3

CONTENTS JUNE 2015

80
START IT UP: 50 #TamTalksTech:
ECOSYSTEM BlackBerry Classic in white

MENA founders talk back

Five startups at the 8th MIT
Pan Arab Conference
consider ecosystem problems
and potential solutions.

84
Q+A
Yebab puts photos at the
forefront
Co-founders Mareyah
74 KSA Enterprise Agility Awards: Mohammad and Murshed
Mr. Farhan Al Jarba receiving the Lifetime Achievement award with Riyadh
Mohammad think it’s okay
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Vice Chairman of the board of directors,
Mr. Khalid Abdulaziz S. Al-Mukairan to rework your startup’s
direction- find out how it
went for them.

54
MARKETING
One size doesn’t fit all
Facebook Creative Shop’s
Rob Newlan makes the
case for tailored, targeted
marketing, and how your
SME stands to benefit.
74
ESQUIRE GUY
Small talk 101
Ross McCammon on
the difference between
schmoozing and small talk,
and which one to use in a
business context and when.
86
STARTUP FINANCE
Seeing dollar signs
Melltoo co-founder Sharene
Lee talks about how she
finally got funded in Dubai…
and it was much harder than
you think.

40
The Recap:
Achieving
Women’s
Forum 2015

4 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015

CONTENTS
62
CULTURE:
TRAPPINGS
‘Trep gear
The executive selection for
the entrepreneur on your
list that has everything.
Okay, maybe for a little
self-reward as well.
ERRATUM In the article, Blackwater
guards sentenced to lengthy prison
terms for Nisour Square slayings, that
appeared in Entrepreneur Middle East
May 2015 print edition, we erroneously
stated that Blackwater had rebranded
as Academi which is in fact not the
case. Entrepreneur Middle East regrets
the error.
60
Anticipation ahead of
demands: the JW Marriott
Marquis Hotel Dubai
6 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015
JUNE 2015
54 Facebook Creative Shop’s Rob Newlan
makes the case for tailored marketing
60
TRAVEL
Anticipation ahead of
demands
General Manager of the JW
Marriott Marquis Hotel
Dubai, Bill Keffer, relies on
finely-honed instincts to
cater to the executive client.
76
LIFE
Home, sweet home
Want to work from home as
senior management? There
are pros and cons, and
research to validate your
side of the debate.
68
DESIGN
Seeing double
Entrepreneur and designer
Tarek Atrissi explains how
a well-executed typeface
can become the voice of
your brand, and that your
identity needs to be on-
message. 68 Entrepreneur and designer Tarek Atrissi
EXHIBITION DESIGN FOR THE VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM IN LONDON COURTESY TAREK ATRISSI WWW.TAREKATRISSI.COM
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a lifestyle suited to the world's most discerning. A collection
Dubai’s Most Exclusive of beachfront penthouses and garden apartments filled
Beachfront Residences with elegant luxury. Nestled in the iconic crescent of
The Palm Jumeirah, Dubai.
your home.
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It waits for you at www.sereniathepalm.com

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 MIDDLE EAST SUBSCRIBE
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Entrepreneur Middle East every issue
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PUBLISHER Nehme Abouzeid
MANAGING EDITOR Aby Sam Thomas
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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS All rights reserved © 2014.

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Dr. Melodena Bal- Sharene Lee Emad Saif Salma publications in the MENA region are officially licensed
exclusively to BNC Publishing in the MENA region
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by Entrepreneur Media Inc.
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In addition to our print edition, we’re bringing you all sorts of

industry news on our web mediums. Joining us online means getting
MIDDLE EAST relevant business and startup content in real-time, so you’re hearing
about the latest developments as soon as we do. We’re looking
VISIT OUR NEW WEBSITE! forward to interacting with our readers on all of our social media and
www.entrepreneur.com/me web platforms- like any thriving business, we’re looking to give and
take. #TrepTalkME is already happening on all of our digi platforms,
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EntMagazineME

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8 ENTREPRENEUR MARCH 2015

EDITOR’S NOTE
#EntMEWomen
Real talk in real-time
I
had the honor of hosting really
pivotal figures of business
at our Achieving Women’s
Forum, an event staged under
the Industry Intel banner of
Entrepreneur Middle East.
Our Industry Intel events are
structured with three primary
goals in mind: knowledge-building
and sharing via discourse, creat-
ing opportunities for business
development, and networking and
access. During my opening remarks,
I stressed on the importance of
the third point- I told our guests
that in that space they should “feel
emboldened to approach other
guests and especially the event’s
speakers.” I encouraged the audience
to network with one another heavily,
and even more importantly, to take
advantage of the direct access to
our panelists who have all displayed
significant talent and rare business
acumen. I also shared my thoughts
on the fact that we were staging a
women-centric event; our speakers
and our attendees both are not just
significant in the realm of women
in business, they are significant in
business as a whole. That is partly
what the Achieving Women’s Forum
was about: being an effective force of
commerce and enterprise as a figure
of business, not being regulated to
being an effective female figure of
business. What do I mean by this?
Biology should not be part of the de-
scriptors used in a business context.
It is often the clichéd case that
the squeaky wheel gets the grease,
and if it weren’t for my occasional
“squeaks,” I wouldn’t be where I
am today. That was one of the mes-
12 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015
sages that we hoped to convey, and
judging by our bold and engaged
audience, it resonated. We’re proud
of the fact that the Forum was heav-
ily interactive (I took my phones
on stage to continue to “talk back”
via Twitter throughout the course
of the event, something people who
don’t use social media might find
unusual), but it was and always will
be part of Entrepreneur’s commu-
nication strategy: real talk in real-
time. Our hashtag, #EntMEWomen,
trended on Twitter for two straight
days indicating to me that not only
was the event widely discussed, it
was much needed. For those that are
interested, visiting the hashtag on
Instagram and Twitter can give you
a pretty comprehensive run down To our Achieving Women’s Forum
of the day’s discourse- I hope you speakers, thank you for sharing
check it out. your candid and frank opinions
Post-event, before I had a chance at the event. We appreciate your
to sit down and write thank you willingness to publically draw on
notes to our speakers for giving up your relevant personal anecdotes
their time to participate, I began both positive and negative, and your
receiving emails from them thank- valuable advice. You all brought
ing us for including them. These things to the table that everyone can
exceptional women were actually learn from, and put to work. I am
thanking us for inviting them to humbled by your participation and
speak? It shocked me, but it says a your support of the magazine and
lot about their ethics and their sheer the work that we do.
dedication to using their respective
experiences to make other women in
business as successful as they are,
and they do so with such pleasure
and unparalleled relish! That’s one
of the primary reasons our speak-
ers from the Achieving Women’s
Forum deserve to be heard far and
wide: they are willingly part of the Fida Z. Chaaban
ecosystem whenever possible, and Editor in Chief
they want to participate in pushing @fida
us all forward. editor@bncpublishing.net
IN THE LOOP

FORMER EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT

MOHAMMED MORSI
SENTENCED TO DEATH

A
fter a long trial, former
Egyptian president Moham-
med Morsi along with over
100 others were sentenced
to death in May for involve-
ment in a mass prison break during the
uprising against former president Hosni
Mubarak in 2011. Many of the other
suspects were tried in absentia. Morsi
seemed clear of the death sentence after
a trial last week resulted in the court
sentencing 16 suspects on espionage
charges, but he was spared. The verdict
Pyongyang, North Korea
caused outrage in the international com-
munity, including the United States, the
North Korea Defense Minister European Union, and even Turkey. With
all that said, the court’s decision must
reportedly “executed” be revised by Egypt’s Grand Mufti, whose
role is to interpret Islamic law on behalf

O
n May 13, several South Ko-
rean MPs said at a session that
North Korean Defense Minister
Hyon Yong-chol was executed
in late April after falling asleep at an
event that was attended by head of state
While the story of Yong-chol’s execu- of the government, but this won’t be
tion went viral across the Internet, this clear until June 2.
isn’t the first time something like this
has gone wild. In early 2014, Kim Jong-
un executed his own uncle. That was
confirmed by both the NIS and North

Kim Jong-un. The details were eyebrow-
raising to say the least; the Defense
Minister, who was a very close colleague
to Kim Jong-un, was supposedly ex-
ecuted at a shooting range with an anti-
aircraft gun in front of a large crowd.
That said, the fact that he was executed
might not even be true: South Korean
intelligence, the National Intelligence
Service (NIS), stated that there was no
confirmation of Yong-chol’s execution,
let alone the method of execution. They
do know that he has been purged, and
that while some reports claim he was
executed, it might not be the case.
NORTH KOREA IMAGE © ASTRELOK / SHUTTERSTOCK | MOHAMMED MORSI IMAGE © MOHAMED ELSAYYED / SHUTTERSTOCK | CLARIDGE’S HOTEL IMAGE © IR STONE / SHUTTERSTOCK
Korean state media, the reported nature
of his execution (though not publically
disclosed by either entity) went viral
on the internet via multiple platforms;
it was stated that his uncle was fed to
120 hungry, rabid dogs. An interesting
fact-finding piece by the Washington
Post shows that the original source of
the story was a Hong Kong newspaper
that did not mention any sources, and is
among the least credible sources there.
Not that we’re giving the North Korean
state the benefit of the doubt, but
Mohammed Morsi
maybe they didn’t use an anti-aircraft
gun to execute Hyon Yong-chol.

QATAR SCOOPS UP (MORE) LONDON

LUXURY HOTELS
Q atar hasn’t taken a break with their
massive purchases, after purchasing
a 64% stake in the Maybourne Hotel
Group that owns Claridge’s, The Berkley,
and The Connaught. The three luxury
London hotels were scooped up by
Constellation Hotels (part of the Qatar
Claridge’s luxury Investment Authority), and its former
hotel in London owners couldn’t be happier; Sir David
and Sir Frederick Barclay have been
dealing with a four-year skirmish on pur-
chasing their stake. The remaining 36%
is owned by Irish businessman, Paddy
McKillen. The price wasn’t disclosed,
but rumor has it that Abu Dhabi offered
£1.6 billion for the three hotels, though
no official statements or developments
were made on the matter.

16 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015

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INNOVATOR

BUILDING
THE ( BEST )
HOME GROWN
BRANDS
Personifying your company’s corporate lingo, making messaging work for your business,
and the application of pervasive branding tactics

H.H. SHEIKH AHMED BIN SAEED AL MAKTOUM EMIRATES

FABRIZIO FERREIRA KBW INVESTMENTS
RAMANATHAN HARIHARAN MAX
ZIAD EL CHAAR DAMAC PROPERTIES
SULTAN SOOUD AL-QASSEM BARJEEL ART FOUNDATION

EDITOR’S NOTE
For the June edition of Entrepreneur Middle East centered around the developing the best home grown brands, we are pleased to present a section that includes
an exclusive editorial by the Chairman of the company that has arguably done the most for the UAE across industries and sectors: Emirates.

18 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015


THE PROPERTY PUNDIT
ZIAD EL CHAAR MANAGING DIRECTOR
DAMAC PROPERTIES
N
“ o one speaks for DAMAC
Properties. DAMAC
speaks for DAMAC.”
If there was someone
who could speak for the
luxury developer, it would be Ziad El
Chaar, appointed to the position of
its Managing Director in 2011. Prior
to assuming the role of MD, El Chaar
served stints as DAMAC’s General
Manager of Operations, International
General Manager, and Vice President
of International Sales since joining
the company a decade ago. Taking
his experience wearing different hats
within the company into consider-
ation, it’s safe to assume that El Chaar
has mastered DAMAC’s message,
internalized it, and pretty much made
it his way of life. “Many real estate
developers just go on building and
selling without creating a brand. The
main driver, in building a local brand,
was the brand of Dubai, from which
we have definitely benefitted from
tremendously. We wanted to create a
brand next to brand Dubai, and this is
when we started working very heavily
on establishing a brand of real estate,
which very few developers do. The es-
tablishment of a brand isn’t just about
plastering your billboards on roads,
but also about developing a com-
munication plan and then making sure
that what you deliver is in line with
that brand proposition.” It means you,
as an entrepreneur or as a corporate
executive, can’t just spout the party
A villa at AKOYA
Oxygen
line without having a solid product or
service that actually does what your
advertising promises. And in the event
it doesn’t? You’ll be pigeonholed as an
all-talk-no-action company- no matter
how much promo you put out there
or worse it might even backfire. “The
value of the brand will not increase
if it’s not delivering on its slogan and
positioning,” and the message may
even subsequently become an Achil-
les’ heel for the company.
“The investor must be confident and
believe that the developer, building
this extremely complex 84-storey
tower or developing a 42 million sq.
ft. Gulf community, is credible and
courageous. The chief concern of the
branding is that you need to stand
out in a massively cluttered market,”
says El Chaar, and stand out they do
with visual campaigns that are at once
interesting and arresting. Even if you
know next to nothing about the busi-
ness side of DAMAC, the company’s
comprehensive corporate communica-
tion strategy with a strong language
of its own, and a distinctive visual
identity, makes things abundantly
clear. “The visual identity is that we
are in the development of buildings,
towers, retail shops- the visual iden-
tity has to be as bold and as credible
as the actual construction operations
themselves.”
“In 2014, we changed the way that
we are communicating. With Akoya
Oxygen, we went into a fresher ap-
proach, we went into a more human
approach- placing more people in our
communication, and yes, we’re still
bold and ‘living the luxury,’ but we’re
closer to human beings and close to
being attached to the environmental
aspect of the developments. We’re not
only steel and concrete.” DAMAC does
undertake campaigns abroad but tai-
lors their propositions based on “what
cycle of awareness” the demographic
is in regarding Dubai. As examples, El
Chaar explains that recent messaging
in Beijing at a large-scale event dis-
cussed property ownership in Dubai,
and what DAMAC can offer those
BUILDING
THE (BEST)
HOME GROWN
BRANDS
Ziad El Chaar,
Managing Director,
DAMAC Properties
considering real estate in the UAE.
He adds that the messaging in India,
geographically closer and culturally
more familiar with Dubai, is more in
line with what people might see here
in the GCC. The process goes as such:
determining the chief concerns of the
target market, crafting the message
around those concerns, and injecting
the elements of DAMAC Properties
into the overall schema. El Chaar
points out that while the process is
care and labor intensive, often involv-
ing the senior management of multiple
areas of the company, it has been re-
warded richly with brand recognition
and even brand admiration- no mean
feat for a company founded just over a
decade ago.
TALK THE TALK
Founded in 2002, the DAMAC Properties
messaging has evolved over the years.
Current DAMAC Properties strategic
communication dos:
• The use of accurate comparative language
to give prospective investors an idea of the
standard, like “Beverly Hills.”
• Choosing language that reflects the
heritage of the local market.
Current DAMAC Properties strategic
communication don’ts
• Celebrities are out, real people are in.
• Avoid language and titling properties
with descriptors that don’t reflect the local
environment and topography like “hills.”
JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 19
 BUILDING
THE (BEST)
HOME GROWN
BRANDS

POWERING THE ENGINES

OF PROSPERITY
TO DUBAI EXPO 2020
AND BEYOND
AVIATION DRIVING THE SUCCESS AND SUSTAINABILITY OF THE UAE PRIVATE SECTOR
By H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum

I
t’s been more than a year and a half since the UAE was named as the
host of World Expo 2020. As the government and business com-
munity have already begun to collectively gear up for the largest
international mega-event to happen in this region, the role of
entrepreneurship has never been more essential. It will not only
continue to solidify the foundations of our economy, but will
also help propel it beyond 2020.
Dubai expects to receive over 25 million As we approach 2020, the UAE will
visitors, with over 70% of them coming become even more ‘front and center’
from beyond the UAE, setting a precedent on the world’s stage. This translates
for World Expos. This means that about 17.5 into opportunities for businesses to
million people will conduct about 33 million further link up with global value
visits to the Expo site. These figures confirm chains across several sectors, and
to me that every sector in the UAE will be our flourishing air transport sec-
involved in this mega project. tor will play a big role in that.
Government plans have al-
FOR EVERY 100 JOBS CREATED IN AVIATION, ready been laid out, and they
AN ADDITIONAL 116 JOBS ARE CREATED ELSE- carry enormous opportuni-
ties for small and medium
WHERE IN DUBAI. EVERYTHING POINTS IN THE sized businesses. Within
DIRECTION THAT THESE FIGURES WILL GROW the nucleus of the private
SIGNIFICANTLY IN THE COMING YEARS, AND sector, the role of SMEs
WILL SPILL OVER TO THE REST OF THE REGION. is becoming vital >>>

20 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015

 BUILDING
THE (BEST)
HOME GROWN
BRANDS

JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 21

 BUILDING
THE (BEST)
HOME GROWN
BRANDS
in augmenting Dubai’s already diversi-
fied economy, helping to create more
jobs in industries that underpin our
place as a global epicenter for every-
thing business.
Dubai Expo 2020 will support Dubai
and the UAE’s economy by creating
more than 270,000 additional jobs
between 2013 and 2021- with 40% of
them in the travel and tourism sector.
ACCORDING TO AN OXFORD ECONOMICS
STUDY DONE LAST YEAR, AVIATION
SUPPORTED OVER 416,500 JOBS
AND CONTRIBUTED OVER US$26.7
BILLION TO DUBAI’S ECONOMY IN
2013. THIS GROWTH WILL BE FURTHER
STIMULATED AS EMIRATES EXPECTS
TO CARRY 70 MILLION PASSENGERS BY
2020 ON OVER 300 AIRCRAFT
22 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015
Aviation and its direct, indirect and
induced outputs will account to more
than 17% of Dubai’s total workforce
by 2020. Aviation is one of the main
engines driving Dubai’s emergence as a
global center for trade, commerce and
tourism. That is why the government
created a business and regulatory en-
vironment that supports its growth by
encouraging open competition through
Open Skies policies and efficient opera-
tions. For every $100 of activity in the
aviation sector, a further $72 is added
in other sectors of the local economy
from supply chain connections and ex-
penditures. For every 100 jobs created
in aviation, an additional 116 jobs are
created elsewhere in Dubai. Every-
thing points in the direction that these
figures will grow significantly in the
coming years, and will spill over to the
rest of the region.
According to an Oxford Economics
study done last year, aviation sup-
ported over 416,500 jobs and contrib-
uted over US$26.7 billion to Dubai’s
economy in 2013. This growth will be
further stimulated as Emirates expects
to carry 70 million passengers by
2020 on over 300 aircraft, and we are
developing our workforce, and build-
ing leading-edge facilities to support
operations of this scale.
These are not ambitious figures.
They are forecasts based on meticu-
lously laid out plans to enhance the
world-class infrastructure that has
defined Dubai. It’s no accident that we
are a global aviation and tourism hub
that continues to power the engines of
economic development.
It’s taken years to build up the

H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum
DUBAI EXPO 2020 WILL SUPPORT DUBAI AND
THE UAE’S ECONOMY BY CREATING MORE
THAN 270,000 ADDITIONAL JOBS BETWEEN
2013 AND 2021- WITH 40% OF THEM IN THE
TRAVEL AND TOURISM SECTOR.
fundamentals, and we will continue
to take a consensus-based approach
to infrastructure investment, embrace
open competition, and focus on open-
ing up and connecting mature as well
as emerging markets.
SMEs within a multitude of sectors
have played a part in the development
of this infrastructure and will continue
to be involved in a wide spectrum of
the industries that surround it includ-
ing building materials, construction,
support for the over 400 hotels in
Dubai in a sector that continues to
grow, consumer products and supply
chain projects including storage, logis-
tics and packaging, to name a few.
But infrastructure is just the start.
Infrastructure and logistics help
to define and enhance our strategic
geographical position. Entrepreneur-
ship will help unlock the potential of
BUILDING
THE (BEST)
HOME GROWN
BRANDS
TODAY, PASSENGERS HAVE DIRECT
FLIGHT CONNECTIONS FROM
DUBAI TO OVER 149 CITIES WITH
POPULATIONS OF OVER 1 MILLION
PEOPLE, CREATING POTENTIAL
EXPORT MARKETS OF OVER 916
MILLION PEOPLE, OR 13% OF THE
WORLD’S POPULATION.
innovative industries and will define
their structure. And connectivity will
be the lynchpin that helps merge great
young minds and new ideas.
One of Dubai’s greatest assets is its
superior connectivity. We are eight
hours away from two-thirds of the
world’s population. And the connectiv-
ity effects will continue to be felt, not
just local or regionally. From China to
Africa, we are helping to build the new
trade highway. Today, passengers have
direct flight connections from Dubai
to over 149 cities with populations of
over 1 million people, creating potential
export markets of over 916 million peo-
ple, or 13% of the world’s population.
AVIATION IS ONE OF THE MAIN ENGINES DRIV-
ING DUBAI’S EMERGENCE AS A GLOBAL CENTER
FOR TRADE, COMMERCE AND TOURISM. THAT
IS WHY THE GOVERNMENT CREATED A BUSI-
NESS AND REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT THAT
SUPPORTS ITS GROWTH BY ENCOURAGING
OPEN COMPETITION THROUGH OPEN SKIES
POLICIES AND EFFICIENT OPERATIONS.
This connectivity has provided greater
access to foreign markets, encourag-
ing exports, and increasing competi-
tion within our own local economy,
ultimately benefiting consumers. It
has also given smaller businesses the
ability to specialize in areas where they
have a comparative advantage over
their more sizable competition, helping
to pioneer new products that will ex-
tend Dubai’s already burgeoning crea-
tive industries, tourism and technology
sectors. As a result, new thinking and
dynamic ways to attract business will
raise the bar for innovation.
The extent of the opportunities avail-
able for those who want to seize them
are significant, and I am optimistic of
the prospects that lay ahead of us in
the upcoming years as aviation con-
tinues to be a key economic sector and
driver in Dubai and the UAE, leaving a
lasting mark for generations to come.
JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 23
 BUILDING
THE (BEST)
HOME GROWN
BRANDS
NUMBER CRUNCHING EMIRATES
Established in 1985, Emirates today award-winning carrier today has 219 ing delivery of aircraft worth over • Net profit $1.2 billion
has an international route network passenger and 14 freighter aircraft US$135 billion. • Passengers carried
that involves 144 destinations in in its fleet, a number that’s only For the financial year 2014-15, 49.3 million
81 countries and territories, which set to further grow in the coming Emirates saw: • Cargo revenues $3.4 billion
includes 14 cargo-only services. The years, with Emirates having a pend- • Revenue US$24.2 billion • Cargo carried 2.4 million tons

H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum

Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline & Group
Over the past appointed President of the Dubai Depart-
25 years, H.H. ment of Civil Aviation (DCA), the governing
Sheikh Ahmed body that oversaw the activities of Dubai
Bin Saeed Al International and Dubai Duty Free, among
Maktoum has others. In the same year, Emirates Airline,
been at the fore- Dubai’s international carrier, was launched
front of Dubai’s with Sheikh Ahmed as its Chairman. He is
remarkable eco- now the Chairman and Chief Executive of
nomic develop- Emirates Airline and Group, which includes
activities, he is Patron to many charitable
organizations. He has also received
numerous recognitions and accolades from
various Governments and multi-nationals.
Semi-Government positions; patronages
and accolades are also listed below.
His Highness Sheikh Ahmed has a
Bachelor’s Degree from the University of
Denver, Colorado, USA. He is well known
EMIRATES IMAGE © BYELIKOVA OKSANA / SHUTTERSTOCK

ment spearhead-
ing the successful
expansion of aviation and, more recently,
formulating economic, investment and fis-
cal policies and strategies in support of the
emirate’s overarching vision.
Sheikh Ahmed embarked on his career in
the aviation industry in 1985 when he was
dnata, the region’s leading travel services
and ground handling company, and other
aviation related entities.
Sheikh Ahmed holds a number of
government positions and plays an
increasingly pivotal role in leading the
Emirate’s finance and energy sectors;
and despite his numerous business
internationally for his contribution to the
development of aviation in the region.
The Royal Aeronautical Society, one of
the industry’s oldest and most respected
professional associations, honored his
achievements in aviation with a fellowship
of the Society at the 1994 Farnborough Air
Show in the UK.

24 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015

 BUILDING
THE (BEST)
HOME GROWN
BRANDS

THE BRAND MAKER Fabrizio Ferreira,

Chief Strategy Officer,
KBW Investments

FABRIZIO FERREIRA CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER

KBW INVESTMENTS

W
“ hat we have observed
with our own eyes
in January of last
year, and since then,
is that the life of a the heritage com-
mid-sized company pany has grown in
completely changes both scale and mul-
when it finally makes the decision tinational presence.
to take one more step and use high- “The First objective
impact marketing campaigns.” Fabrizio is to innovate in the
Ferreira is making the case for First, way media and cor-
the newly launched media arm of porate performance
KBW Investments, and he’s the man intertwine, and we
heading up the show. And a show it do this by merging
is, as First’s launch project centers the experience we
around motorsport and what it can have developed as
do for both SMEs and large-scale an investment firm
enterprises with their eyes on multi- to that of the media
national business development… and activity,” explains
Ferreira.
Why is a new-
“WE LOOK FOR COMPANIES THAT WE
comer in a section
CAN ACTUALLY CREATE VALUE FOR; THE about the best home
COMPANY MUST HAVE THE MINDSET grown brands?
THAT WE ARE AN ACTIVE PARTNER AND Because First
THAT WE WORK HAND-IN-HAND. WE demonstrates the
CONCEPTUALIZED FIRST AT THE END OF LAST importance of brave
YEAR, AND WE SAW THAT THIS MODEL HAD market entry moves,
POTENTIAL TO SPIN-OFF AND HAVE ITS OWN and how a large-
LIFE, SOMETHING THAT BEGAN WITH THE scale company can
RAIMONDI CRANES ACQUISITION.” and should dedicate
significant resources
potentially IPOs. As the Chief Strategy to launching a new
Officer, Ferreira recently relocated venture. When
from his native Brazil to execute and you’re fresh out of
implement First for KBW Investments. the gate, doing it
His professional background includes bigger and better
founding a private equity firm, and a with an unconven-
number of restructuring deals- some- tional methodology
thing that he says he is applying to will get your company noticed by the What we see in a mid-sized company
First’s tactical market entry. “We look people who matter: those with an ap- is that most of the time, executives
for companies that we can actually preciative eye for bold maneuvers and and employees are looking just to stay
create value for; the company must unorthodox business approaches. First in the company for a while and then
have the mindset that we are an active isn’t just looking at implementing transition to a larger company later.
partner and that we work hand-in- external branding, corporate com- We believe that if someone stays in
hand. We conceptualized First at the munications and public identity for the company and the company grows
end of last year, and we saw that this your SME, Ferreira maintains that it’s and does well, he or she will be much
model had potential to spin-off and also about “really helping companies better off -if there is the right gover-
have its own life, something that be- achieve and perform better than they nance, profit distribution model, and
gan with the Raimondi Cranes acqui- perform today. It’s not just about culture in place- fantastic results can
sition.” The first of two 2014 European marketing and advertising, it’s about be had for all.” How does First plan to
KBW Investments acquisitions, HRH helping to shape corporate culture and do this? They are already practicing
Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal how companies and the executives of what they preach via due diligence
became Chairman of Raimondi Cranes those companies behave internally. and close analysis of a potential

26 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015

 BUILDING
THE (BEST)
HOME GROWN
BRANDS

“MOST OF THE TIME, EXECUTIVES AND
EMPLOYEES ARE LOOKING JUST TO STAY IN THE
COMPANY FOR A WHILE AND THEN TRANSITION
TO A LARGER COMPANY LATER. WE BELIEVE
THAT IF SOMEONE STAYS IN THE COMPANY
AND THE COMPANY GROWS AND DOES WELL,
HE OR SHE WILL BE MUCH BETTER OFF -IF
THERE IS THE RIGHT GOVERNANCE, PROFIT
DISTRIBUTION MODEL, AND CULTURE IN PLACE-
FANTASTIC RESULTS CAN BE HAD FOR ALL.”
partner company’s structure of the
sort usually only applied to financial
considerations- like M&A deals, and
this is very much in line with Fer-
reira’s professional experience. “Of
course we look at the marketing and
communications at the start, but we
delve deeper. We analyze what’s going
wrong and make suggestions to adjust
accordingly, and maximize what is
going right,” he says, adding that the
best in class are in all likelihood going
to be considered for potential invest-
ment by KBW.
“The tagline for First is ‘brand maker’.
Anyone can execute an outdoor
campaign, but certain companies
are looking for a more exclusive or
exotic communication experience
and we’re developing these tools. GP3
was very interesting for us; we found
the affect of GP3 advertisement for
a medium-sized company astonish-
ing. It generates a lot of good results,
internally and externally. Internally
it changes the life of a mid-sized
company, with nine different events
across nine countries and execu-
tives begin to follow and really plot
their marketing plans- depending
on which markets you are looking to
enter or expand penetration of.” The
benefits of motorsport involvement?
The positioning is promotional gold-
companies stand to gain a slew of ar-
resting imagery and videography that
emerges from every motorsport event.
Regardless of whether or not the
driver you are endorsing wins, you’ve
got branding material that your com-
pany can cleverly leverage for a very
long period of time. There is also the
added benefit of the type of comradery
and excitement that sporting events
impart, and Ferreira points out that
some of your best business develop-
ment opportunities happen during the
all-important social situations. “It’s
an opportunity for business to busi-
ness because the suppliers are there,
the investors are there, the clients are
there! It’s really a different environ-
ment completely from doing business
in the boardroom than taking a client
or investor for a full weekend of mo-
torsport experiences.”
“ANYONE CAN EXECUTE AN OUTDOOR CAMPAIGN,
BUT CERTAIN COMPANIES ARE LOOKING FOR A
MORE EXCLUSIVE OR EXOTIC COMMUNICATION
EXPERIENCE AND WE’RE DEVELOPING THESE
TOOLS. GP3 WAS VERY INTERESTING FOR US; WE
FOUND THE AFFECT OF GP3 ADVERTISEMENT FOR
A MEDIUM-SIZED COMPANY ASTONISHING. IT
GENERATES A LOT OF GOOD RESULTS”

First starts big to foster the ever-elusive

cult of personality wielded

with GP3 by influencers globally to

FIRST’S KEVIN CECCON
“We are proud to launch
with Kevin Ceccon as we
believe he has the heart
which every middle market
company must have in order
to expand, and to conquer
market share in highly com-
petitive niches. More than a
driver, Kevin has the ability to
inspire executives outside the
racetracks and to really make
a difference to the compa-
nies, both in the strategic
and tactical levels.” Ferreira
is certain that Ceccon, a
GP3 racer, has what it takes
Kevin Ceccon
benefit companies of all
sizes, both online and offline.
The 21 year-old Italian has
demonstrated strong career
potential, having won the
Italian Auto GP, and subse-
quently proved himself again
in Monte Carlo in 2012 and in
2013 in Monaco. Like many
young motorsport stars, the
driver was in need of spon-
sors and patrons to further
his already-impressive track
foothold and in came First,
under the KBW Investment
umbrella. KBW Investments
became aware of Ceccon
after their Italian-based
subsidiary Raimondi Cranes
brought his marketable im-
age and on-track prowess to
their attention. What makes
Ceccon brand-friendly?
Marketeers will quickly note
his charismatic disposition,
confident grin, and attitude
that conveys equal parts
HRH Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal
and Kevin Ceccon during the signing of
the driver’s collabroation with First, the
new media arm of KBW Investments
overachiever and relentless
determination- qualities
lauded in business and
desirable for promotional
potential. At the time of writ-
ing, Ceccone had just finished
the GP3 Barcelona, Spain
leg placing at eighth with 10
points. The next segment of
GP3, June 19-20, is to take
place in Austria, followed by
England and Hungary legs
both in July. For those want-
ing to see Ceccon perform on
our turf, he’ll be in the UAE
for the Abu Dhabi leg of the
event November 27-29.
www.gp3series.com

JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 27

 BUILDING
THE (BEST)
HOME GROWN
BRANDS
THE STRATEGIST
RAMANATHAN HARIHARAN
CEO, MAX
I
t may be one of the largest value
fashion brands in the Middle
East today, but back in 2004,
Max was just another startup
(albeit from the stable of the
Landmark Group conglomerate),
trying to make inroads into what was
then a relatively untouched market in
the retail space of the region.
Ramanathan Hariharan, CEO, Max,
recalls how he and his team looked
into the growing influence of value
fashion retailers in Western markets,
and wanting to replicate that success
for their brand in the Middle East.
“We realized that value fashion retail-
ers are slowly carving out a niche in
the market, and becoming stronger in
their positioning and their offers to
the customers,” he remembers. “That
inspired us to say that if the value
fashion segment is becoming more
important, or if it’s trying to create
its own niche in the retail landscape
and taking a certain share of the
fashion market, we realized that it’s
important for us in this market to also
play the game as Landmark Group
and not be left out, in a manner [of
speaking].”
The market segment that Max was
targeting was a pretty specific one-
the brand’s consumer of choice lay
in between those who shopped at
mainstream retailers, and those who
shopped at discount stores. “We felt
that there’s a clear space in between
the high-street retailers and the dis-
counters, and that’s how we started
researching more and more into the
value fashion segment,” Hariharan
says. “Our research made clear to us
that, yes, we can create a niche in
the market, and that we can create
a sizeable business and scale [it up
further], just by targeting that value
fashion segment. Our positioning was
always that we are going to be a value
fashion brand: customers who shop
with high street retailers, we wanted
to offer them value, and customers
who shop with discount retailers, we
28 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015
wanted to offer
them the aspira-
tion, so that they
could move up to
value fashion.”
This principle
served as the
basis behind
decisions on
where Max stores
would actually
be situated- their
locations were
carefully plotted
to be next to, you
guessed it, high
street and dis-
count retailers.
“I think, in
terms of strategy,
positioning and
where to put the
stores, all of that
was fairly well
researched and
thought out,”
Hariharan says.
“But of course,
the final piece is
the execution.”
To the brand’s
credit though,
Max didn’t falter
on this front- Ramanathan
Hariharan and his Hariharan,
CEO, Max
team were keen
on ensuring that
every customer who visits a Max store
were offered high-quality products “OUR RESEARCH MADE CLEAR TO US
in a pleasant, seamless environment. THAT, YES, WE CAN CREATE A NICHE IN
With this aim in mind, a decision THE MARKET, AND THAT WE CAN CREATE
was made to have all products at Max A SIZEABLE BUSINESS AND SCALE [IT
branded with the Max name- custom- UP FURTHER], JUST BY TARGETING
ers weren’t going to have disjointed THAT VALUE FASHION SEGMENT. OUR
experiences at these stores. All prod- POSITIONING WAS ALWAYS THAT WE ARE
ucts Max sold had to thus meet high
GOING TO BE A VALUE FASHION BRAND”
quality standards- this meant that
Max’s suppliers and vendors had to be
carefully chosen to ensure adherence This attention to detail, be it in terms
to the requisite criterion. Similarly, of the desired customer experience or
no effort was spared in ensuring the quality of the products Max was
Max’s consumers got to shop in a selling, may seem like quite a basic
pleasant setting- Hariharan says that principle that all retailers should
he and his team didn’t want to “bring follow- but realizing such a vision,
down” the experience people had in especially when you are a newcomer
their stores: “We said we’d try to give to the business, is a lot easier said
them as rewarding and enjoyable an than done. After all, it must be re-
experience as they would possibly membered that Max was essentially
enjoy with a mainstream retailer.” a startup when all of these plans

“MOST
Max store OF THE TIME, EXECUTIVES AND
exterior,
part of the ARE LOOKING JUST TO STAY IN THE
EMPLOYEES
Landmark Group
COMPANY FOR A WHILE AND THEN TRANSITION
TO A LARGER COMPANY LATER. WE BELIEVE
THAT IF SOMEONE STAYS IN THE COMPANY
AND THE COMPANY GROWS AND DOES WELL,
HE OR SHE WILL BE MUCH BETTER OFF -IF
THERE IS THE RIGHT GOVERNANCE, PROFIT
DISTRIBUTION MODEL, AND CULTURE IN PLACE-
FANTASTIC RESULTS CAN BE HAD FOR ALL.”
and visions were being drafted, and
Hariharan is candid enough to admit
that finding suppliers and vendors for
Max at that point in time was indeed
a rather tough proposition. “Initially,
our biggest challenge was one of vol-
ume,” he says. “Because when you go
to a factory [that would be a potential
supplier], they’d have to run their
machines and everything for you, and
they normally can only run it only if
there’s a certain volume. We didn’t
have as many stores as some of the
other brands, and so, we didn’t even
have the minimum to try and source
the products.”
So how did Max get past this
hurdle? “When you’re a startup, it
means you have to engage with your
suppliers, give them the vision of
where you want to go, and how you
can help them to start and grow along
with you,” Hariharan replies. “One of
the things that we used to always talk
to our vendors about was that most
of them were only servicing the Eu-
ropean and U.S. markets- they never
Max store, part of the Landmark Group
had exposure in the Middle East.
So we would introduce the Middle
Eastern market, and tell them how
emerging it is, how important it is for
them to have an account here, to start
off business with us. We also had the
benefit of being part of the Landmark
Group, which had more than 20 years
of history to showcase. So we told the
vendors: Max may be a nascent brand,
but given the backing of Landmark
Group and the way Max had been
conceptualized and positioned in the
marketplace, it could grow in the next
10 years, and the vendors would be
our partners in this growth.”
Sure, Hariharan’s pitch was a com-
pelling one, but that is not to say that
it convinced suppliers to line up by
the dozen to partner with Max at that
point of time. “Of course, many guys
will not accept you; they will say we
don’t have time for you,” he admits.
“But for every 10 guys that say no,
there will be that one guy who will say
okay, and is willing to invest with you
and service you, in the hope that they
will be one of your key vendors over
a period of time.” With such partners
on board and a carefully thought-out
strategy that was both marketed and
executed well, Max soon saw its for-
tunes scale up in the market- today,
the company has over 300 stores
spread across 16 countries around the
world. With more than 7000 people
employed across its network, Max
now has a reported turnover in excess
of US$1.2 billion, and aims to have it
reach $3 billion in the next five years.
BUILDING
THE (BEST)
HOME GROWN
BRANDS
Max is also evolving with the times,
and is moving beyond its brick-and-
mortar stores- the brand recently
announced its entry into the e-com-
merce space by launching the sale of
its products on landmarkshops.com.
“We want to enrich the shopping
experience of customers by providing
them with an online platform,” Hari-
haran says, noting that the ultimate
aim is to provide consumers with “a
seamless way of shopping between the
online and offline” versions of Max.
“This is only the start of the journey,”
he explains. “The interface between
online and offline shopping will get
more and more integrated.” But while
Max develops its digital footprint, and
at the same time, sees further growth
in its business (besides its India op-
erations, which was launched almost
in tandem with its Middle East arm,
the company is now making inroads
into the African continent), the brand
remains steadfastly true to its value
fashion ethos- customers shopping
at Max can remain assured of looking
good, and feeling good as well.
GET TO KNOW THE CEO
RAMANATHAN HARIHARAN
Ramanathan Hariharan, or Ram, as
he is popularly known, is the CEO
of Max and a Board Member of
the Landmark Group. Ram joined
Landmark Group in Dubai in 1994 and
played a pivotal role in launching the
fashion brand, Splash. In June 1996,
he moved to Kuwait to expand the
Group’s operations in the new terri-
tory. Realizing the importance and po-
tential of the Group’s India operations,
Ram moved as Managing Director to
head Lifestyle, India in 2000. Having
successfully launched the brand in
India, Ram took over the reins to con-
ceptualize and build Max, the Group’s
value fashion business in 2004.
Under Ram’s leadership over the last
10 years, Max has grown to become
the largest value fashion brand with
over 300 stores in the Middle East,
North Africa and India. Today, Ram is
at the forefront formulating strategies
and overseeing Landmark Group’s
investments in India in the future.
JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 29
 BUILDING
THE (BEST)
HOME GROWN
BRANDS
Sultan Sooud
Al Qassemi,
Founder, Barjeel
Art Foundation
THE CULTURAL EMISSARY
SULTAN SOOUD AL QASSEMI
FOUNDER, BARJEEL ART FOUNDATION
N
ow in its fifth year, the
Sharjah-based Barjeel
Art Foundation, concep-
tualized and executed by
Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi,
has a few agendas on the go at all
times. At the forefront of their mis-
sion is the presentation, promotion
and perseveration of MENA region
works of modern and contemporary
art, and the artists behind those
works of art. Increasing dialogue via
participation in the global art scene,
generating buzz locally for art, and
the active pursuit and sourcing of rare
works is only some of the initiatives
that Barjeel undertakes. The driving
force (and possibly the most valuable
asset of the Foundation)? Al Qassemi
himself. On the ground, as the face
of Barjeel, Al Qassemi is a highly ac-
tive in the cultural community, and
considered the catalyst of some of
region’s most spirited art discourse.
“My aim for Barjeel is to establish a
collection that has a unique identity:
a collection of Arab artists that is ac-
cessible, approachable and available
for loan, that kind of nurtures cultural
30 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015
on display until November, while
Whitechapel Gallery in London will be
showcasing Barjeel collection works
over the course of year beginning in
September with a four-part series,
and the Toronto Aga Khan Museum
will have Barjeel works on exhibit as
of July 25th. “The exhibit at the Aga
Khan Museum will run until January
2nd. We’re flying in a few artists from
the exhibition, Saudi artist Manal
AlDowayan and Egyptian-Australian
artist Raafat Ishak. Also, the artists
have recorded the audio guides of
their work, and we’re hoping to get
more artists to come and give talks
over those months. We’re showing a
cross-section of artists from across
the Arab world including from Iraq,
Palestine, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia,
and Egypt. There are 11 artists, and
only one has passed away, so it’s a
contemporary show. The name of the
exhibition is Home Ground.”
As a journalist, speaker, com-
mentator and digital influencer, Al
WWW.BARJEELARTFOUNDATION.ORG | WWW.GOOGLE.COM/CULTURALINSTITUTE/U/0/COLLECTION/BARJEEL-ART-FOUNDATION | ARTWORK IMAGES COURTESY OF BARJEEL ART FOUNDATION
Qassemi leverages his substantial
digital footprint and online audience
to further the conversation about
art in MENA. He often tweets images
understanding, tour-able in that you of works and artists directly, shares
can take it out of the country, show it details about upcoming exhibits, and
elsewhere and bring it back, and con- articles about cultural endeavors.
tributes to broadening the dialogue, Joining Al Qassemi for dinner might
and distancing ourselves away from include a private showing of some of
the stereotypical discussions that we Barjeel’s expansive collection, paired
have surrounding the Middle East and with an enlightened commentary
Arab world.” and artist backstory à la museum
One of the biggest indicators of audio guide. If you already follow Al
Barjeel’s success as a home grown Qassemi online, it won’t come as a
brand is the list of their regional and surprise that Barjeel’s web presence
international alliances. In the region, is both expansive and extraordinary.
the Foundation’s works recently Visiting the Foundation’s portal treats
visited Kuwait, and there are several users to a rabbit hole experience- one
UAE-based companies to whom Bar- click leads to another and soon you
jeel has loaned
work to, including
“Dolphin En-
ergy and Tawazun
[Holding] in Abu
Dhabi, a couple of
law firms in DIFC
as well as the DIFC
courts.” The Foun-
dation also loaned
works for the UAE
Pavilion at the
56th Venice Bien-
nale which will be

understand firsthand why entities
with content-heavy mediums experi-
ence less bounce rate and more overall
sharing action. Barjeel’s portal allows
you to browse by medium (including
collage, installation, and video/mul-
timedia), or by artist and by country
(even listing “Iraqi Kurdistan” and the
“Occupied Syrian Golan Heights”).
You can also search for artworks by
date added, by title alphabetically or
by artist alphabetically, and while this
may seem straightforward, the devel-
opment of portals of this complexity
involves serious coding and a lot of
planning ahead. The website lists 720
works, and 430 of Barjeel’s works are
also curated in the Google Cultural
Institute. This all feeds into one of the
Foundation’s core directives: “to make
the artworks publically-accessible.
We are a private collection that acts
as a public collection. We’ve loaned to
a number of corporations for free, as
long as there is some type of security,
and our guidelines are observed. I
think we’re the only organization in
the Middle East that has an art loan
form for download on our website. If
any corporation wants to borrow art,
they can just download the form, fill
it out and send it to us. It can’t be
easier.”
Al Qassemi can give you tons of
reasons that your company should
invest in a MENA region-based art-
ist. To begin with, you are creating
a distinct environment by injecting
BUILDING
THE (BEST)
HOME GROWN
BRANDS
culture into the space
that makes a statement “Your corporate space
about your vision as a is a reflection of your
corporate leader. “It’s a
unique statement about
company culture.”
the corporation, it says MENA artworks worth the investment
that, ‘We differentiate selected by Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi
ourselves.’ There is also
CSR, as many of these
companies are not taxed
in the region so it’s
a way to give back to
the community. It’s an
immediate investment
in culture and com-
munity- it’s not a CSR
initiative that doesn’t
have a direct return to
the institution. These ALGERIA Driss Ouadahi Zinnober, 2014, oil on canvas
artworks will go up in 190 x 240 cm
value, the more people
that buy quality work, the more
certain the valuations are in these
artworks.” Al Qassemi suggests that
corporations can take “baby steps” by
borrowing fine pieces, then gradually
moving into ownership.
“One of the biggest collections in
UAE Ebtisam Abdulaziz Untitled, 2014, acrylic on
the world maybe is Deutsche Bank’s canvas, 101 x 201 cm
collection; it’s a huge database. UBS
and J.P. Morgan both have huge
collections, these are some of the
greatest corporate collections in the
world, and you’ll notice some of the
biggest and best corporate collectors
are banks. Sadly, the Middle East cor- PALESTINE Kamal Boullata Bilqis 5, 2014, acrylic on
porations are falling behind in terms canvas 120 x 328 cm
of corporate collections, but the most
famous one by far is Abraaj Capital
in Dubai. Not only do they have a
major corporate collection going into
the scores of artworks, Abraaj is also
among the most transparent- they
recently published a book about it,
and their works are on public display
UAE Noor Al Suwaidi Landscape of Colour (triptych),
and they are loaned. They also have 2008, acrylic on canvas 91 x 61 x 4 cm
an award for artists so they are a huge
supporter of the arts, and their collec-
tion is predominately Middle Eastern.
In Lebanon, Bank Audi has a huge
collection; some of it is domiciled in
Lebanon and some of it is in domi-
ciled in Geneva so the collection is
distributed. From what I understand,
the Bank Audi collection that is in
Lebanon is Middle East, and the Bank
Audi collection that is in Europe is
more international.”
www.barjeelartfoundation.org PALESTINE Samia Halaby Grey and Pink, acrylic on
linen canvas, 121 x 150.5 | 126.5 x 153 x 6
JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 31
 Platinum Ally

Gold Ally A production by

Powered by Powered by

32 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015

 O
n the occasion of the first
BNC Publishing Director
Mr. Wissam Younane annual KSA Enterprise
Agility Awards, BNC
Publishing as part of the Entre-
preneur MENA franchise, awarded
businesses and individuals across
multiple categories on May 18,
2015 at The Four Seasons Riyadh
in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The relevant Enterprise Agility
Achievers have established them-
selves as clear industry innovators
who have made significant con-
tributions to the Saudi business
arena, and set the benchmark for
corporations operating across the
region.
A total of 16 awards were pre-
sented, with all of the winners
having set themselves apart from
their peers in the region by show-
casing a commitment to excellence
and thereby raising the bar of their
respective industries. “We were
HRH Prince honored to have some of Saudi
Khaled Bin Arabia’s most enterprising busi-
AlWaleed
ness people present at the KSA En-
Bin Talal with
Mr. Wissam terprise Agility Awards 2015,” said
Younane Wissam Younane, Director, BNC
Publishing. “The attendance of the
Chairman of KBW Investments,
HRH Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed
bin Talal, meant a great deal not
just for the figures of business in
attendance at the event, but also
us as a company affirming our ties
to the Saudi Arabia’s entrepre-
neurial and commercial space.”
On behalf of Riyadh Chamber of
The winners of the 2015 KSA
Enterprise Agility Awards with HRH
Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal
and Riyadh Chamber of Commerce
and Industry, Vice Chairman of
the board of directors, Mr. Khalid
Abdulaziz S. Al-Mukairan
Commerce and Industry, Vice
Chairman of the board of directors
Khalid Abdulaziz S. Al-Mukairan
presented the trophies to the 2015
Agility Achievers.
Organized by Entrepreneur
MENA, the 2015 KSA Enterprise
Agility Awards recognized and
honored enterprise leaders and in-
dividuals who have distinguished
themselves and shown sector sig-
nificance and outstanding business
conduct across a variety of indus-
tries that are key drivers of Saudi
Arabia’s economy. The Enterprise
Agility Awards, Entrepreneur of
the Year seeks to acknowledge
agility across a variety of indus-
tries including retail, healthcare,
construction, hospitality, aviation,
education, banking, and energy,
amongst other key drivers of the
Middle East’s economy. “The win-
ners of the KSA Enterprise Agility
Awards 2015 are not just a signifi-
cant part of the enterprise space in
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but
in the entire region. Since this is
the country with the biggest GDP
in the region, having market share
here means that the client base
and potential profits of our Award
winners outstrip tons of similarly-
positioned companies across the
Middle East. We applaud their
penetration of the Kingdom’s size-
able market, and we look forward
to continuing to recognize innova-
tive tactics going forward.”
JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 33
KSA ENTERPRISE AGILITY
AWARDS 2015

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT MR. FARHAN AL JARBA

Dar Al-Arkan
CSR INNOVATION CPC HOLDING accepting the
PAYMENT SOLUTIONS INNOVATION PAYTABS Real Estate
Development
MOBILE APP INNOVATION FEELIT
Innovation award
DIGITAL INFLUENCE MR. FAHAD ALBUTAIRI
RESPONSIBLE LEADERSHIP MR. AHMED ABOU HASHIMA
REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT DAR AL-ARKAN
RETAIL INNOVATION ABDUL SAMAD AL QURASHI & SONS
TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION SELLANYCAR.COM
PROJECT OF THE YEAR DOWNTOWN RIKAZ
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE INNOVATION AL OMARI GROUP
FAMILY BUSINESS INNOVATION AWAB HOLDINGS
CONSULTING INNOVATION HILL INTERNATIONAL
CONSTRUCTION INNOVATION DRAKE & SCULL
HEALTHCARE INNOVATION SAUDI GERMAN HOSPITAL GROUP
SME OF THE YEAR MOHAMMED A. ALSULAIMAN GROUP But first… let me
take a selfie!

Mr. Farhan
Al Jarba,
Chairman, Zain
KSA, receiving
the Lifetime
Achievement
award

Mr. Walid Zok of BNC Publishing

CPC Holding
accepting the
CSR Innovation
award with
Riyadh Chamber
of Commerce
and Industry,
Vice Chairman
of the board of
directors, Mr.
Khalid Abdulaziz
S. Al-Mukairan

34 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015

 Riyadh Chamber
of Commerce
and Industry,
Vice Chairman
of the board of
directors, Mr.
Khalid Abdulaziz
S. Al-Mukairan

Feelit CEO and

co-founder
Mr. Mohammad
AlQadi

Mr. Ahmed Abou

Hashima of Egyptian
Steel accepting
Abdul Samad Al the Responsible
Qurashi & Sons Leadership award
accepting the Retail
Innovation award

Hill International
accepting the
Consulting
Innovation award

And… another
selfie with HRH
Prince Khaled bin
Alwaleed bin Talal

Saudi German
Hospital Group
accepting the
Healthcare
Innovation
award

JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 35

KSA ENTERPRISE AGILITY
AWARDS 2015
Mr. Ali Ahmed
Downtown Rikaz accepting
Bin Ofai accepting
Project of the Year award
the SME of the Year
with Riyadh Chamber of
award on behalf of
Commerce and Industry, Vice
Mohammed
Chairman of the board of
A. AlSulaiman
directors, Mr. Khalid Abdulaziz
Group
S. Al-Mukairan

PayTabs founder
Mr. Abdulaziz
Aljouf receiving the
Payment Solutions
Innovation award

Al Omari Group
accepting the
Commercial Real
Estate Innovation
award

SellAnyCar.com founder and CEO Mr. Fahad Albutairi

Mr. Saygin Yalcin receiving the Technology receiving the Digital
Innovation award Influence award

Awab Holdings CEO

Mr. Fawaz Alotaibi receiving Drake & Scull receiving
the Family Business the Construction
Innovation award Innovation award

36 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015

THE DIGITAL
INFLUENCER
FAHAD
ALBUTAIRI

P
erforming artist and social media
enthusiast Fahad Albutairi,
awarded the KSA Enterprise Agil-
ity Award for Digital Influence,
says that while his main medium
is Twitter, he is fairly active on both Insta-
gram and Facebook. The “direct contact and
streaming updates” of Twitter make it optimal
to interact with his fan base, and interact he
does: his 1.75 million followers are more than
engaged, they’re manic. Mostly tweeting in
Arabic, Albutairi sees serious real-time num-
bers with the comedian describing his strat-
egy as “planned and selective. I try as much
as I can to stay true to my personal values and
beliefs, regardless of what is considered to
be popular in the current social media scene.
I think that has resulted in increased value
due to the uniqueness of the content that I,
both as myself and as part of Telfaz11, post on
different social media platforms. Many com-
petitors have started producing online content
around the same time we in Telfaz11 did, but
most are nowhere to be found now.”
Like offline celebrity, online celebrity can to be successful when using social media. It all One KSA-based digital influencer Albutairi
be fleeting if you don’t make regular enough depends on many factors related to the type finds worth the follow? Dr. Tawfiq Al Rabiah,
appearances and provide your followers with of content posted, audience demographics, Saudi Arabian Minister of Commerce and
fresh material, and visible outreach efforts to regional social media penetration, and com- Industry, who is also an active verified tweep
convince the audience that you are not just munity guidelines relevant to the local culture. with one million followers. “Not only is he
using the social media platforms to broadcast. Furthermore, the aforementioned factors are one of the most influential Saudi officials
Albutairi does talk back, and regularly uses ever-changing; some of the things that are on many social media platforms, but he
popular hashtags. As a verified tweep, his normal and acceptable nowadays have been has also capitalized on his knowledge of
account wields both heft in numbers and SEO considered unacceptable and foreign (and at the latest technological advances and social
weight, and he is a recommended MENA ac- times even malignant) in the past,” explains media trends to advance the Ministry’s
count to follow. “There isn’t a specific formula Albutairi, who also hosts La Yekthar. efforts by recruiting young digital influencers,
developing numerous mobile applications, and
initiating digital awareness campaigns.”
Albutairi suggests that when you’re trying
to gain traction on social media personally
or professionally, first and foremost you’ll
need to present unique content consistently
via regular posts and updates. Staying on
top of tech trends and mastering the use of
new digital mediums and fresh platforms
is key as well, and for those of you who
find your follower counts and engagement
rates frustratingly weak, Albutairi counsels
“patience. Influence and career advancements
driven by digital mediums usually take a long
a time.” Finally, when attempting to create a
lasting digital footprint, he says social media
users should “strive to influence the audience,
and not let the audience influence you.”

JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 37

 THE RECAP
ACHIEVING WOMEN'S FORUM 2015
W
omen in business came together
at the Ritz-Carlton JBR in
Dubai, UAE on May 25, 2015
for the first Achieving Women’s Forum,
which featured some of the region’s most
prominent leaders sharing their insights
with over 200 attendees of the half-day
conference. The Achieving Women’s
Forum, the second event staged under
the Entrepreneur Industry Intel ban-
ner, was moderated by Anna Roberts of
Dubai Eye 103.8, and began with opening
remarks by Entrepreneur Middle East
Editor in Chief, Fida Chaaban. Chaaban
40 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015
addressed the assembly, directly calling
on the event’s guests to become engaged
and interactive to set the tone for the
rest of event. Chaaban also discussed one
of the Forum’s main drivers: that there
is a wealth of business development and
networking potential to be had for those
who could take advantage of the space
structured to embolden the event’s at-
tendees.
The keynote address was executed
by Noor Sweid, Managing Partner,
Leap Ventures, and Board Director
of Endeavor UAE, who acted as the
voice of entrepreneurship. Sweid also
participated in the second panel discus-
sion of the day, which centered around
leadership and how to bridge corporate
influence. Sweid drew on her past experi-
ences both in the corporate world and
in entrepreneurship to impart anecdotal
advice and inspire the audience. Sweid’s
address was followed by a question and
answer segment with the audience, and
acted as the kick off for the three panel
discussions planned for the day, which
focused on problems and solutions for
women in business.

The first of the Talking Series brought
forward ideas under the title of Tech
Ticker: Staking Your Corporate Claim,
which had as its panelists Maha Aboue-
lenein, founder and Managing Director of
OC, Racha Ghamlouch, Entrepreneur and
Speaker Relations Manager, ArabNet,
Firdaus Shariff, Head of Marketing at
SAP for South Europe, Middle East and
Africa, and Rosemin Manji, founder,
RR&Co. The second discussion for the
day brought forward tenets of strong
leadership and how that can be leveraged
to help other women in business, under
the title of Lead, Follow or Get Out of the
Way: Bridge Building and was headlined
by Nisreen Shocair, President, Virgin
Megastore Middle East and North Africa,
Noha Hefny, Director of Corporate Af-
fairs for the Middle East and Africa at
PepsiCo, Rania Rostom, Chief Innovation
Officer, GE Middle East, North Africa and
Turkey, and Noor Sweid. The third and
final panel of the event revolved around
financial literacy, funding and strategic
steps toward seeking capital injections
under the title of Show Me the Money:
Female Access to Finance with panelists
Panel one Tech Ticker: Staking
Your Corporate Claim
Left to right:
Anna Roberts, Maha
Abouelenein, Firdauss Shariff,
Rosemin Manji, Racha
Ghamlouch, Fida Chaaban
Ghada Abdelkader, Corporate Develop-
ment and Investments Manager, Crescent
Enterprises, Ambareen Musa, founder
and CEO, souqalmal.com, Chantalle
Dumonceaux, co-founder and Operations
Director at WOMENA, and Nina Curley,
Managing Director of Flat6Labs Abu
Dhabi.
The Achieving Women’s Forum was
conducted with the support of the Dubai
Chamber of Commerce and Industry,
together with Platinum Ally Intercoil,
Gold Allies Paris Gallery, Drake & Scull,
and Skyline University College.
JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 41
ACHIEVING WOMEN'S
FORUM 2015
THE METHODOLOGY OF BUSINESS
An Industry Intel event

BUSINESS
LEARNING CURVES
Twelve points of reference
on the methodology of business
Noor Sweid
1. WANT TO BE ing, as that will almost certainly have an impact on the investors
@nsweid SUCCESSFUL? they are trying to impress. “Believe in yourself,” Dumonceaux said.
KEEP AN OPEN MIND. “Passion speaks more than experience. Investors will respond to
NOOR SWEID it- they’re people too.” Ghada Abdelkader, Corporate Development
In her keynote address and Investments Manager at Crescent Enterprises, added, “You’re
at Entrepreneur Mid- selling your business- make sure you can sell your story.”
dle East’s Achieving
Women’s Forum, Noor 3. AN IDEA IS JUST AN
Ghada Abdelkader
Sweid, Managing @g_abdelkader IDEA WITHOUT THE
Partner, Leap Ventures METHOD OF EXECUTION.
and Board Member, BACK UP YOUR
Endeavor UAE, noted CONCEPT.
the importance of one GHADA ABDELKADER
being open to opportu- “It’s not just the ideas.
nities in order that one It’s the ability to show
may indeed find them, that you can execute on
and then capitalize on them. “If you’re looking to succeed, keep the idea,” explained Ab-
your eyes and heart open to opportunities,” she said. “You’ll miss delkader during the third
opportunities that come to you if you’re not open to them. Success panel of the day. She
is about seizing the opportunities that present themselves to you.” suggested that when con-
Sweid also counseled the Forum attendees on strength in sidering capital injections
numbers. If you’re launching an entrepreneurial endeavor, look to scale your business,
for likeminded associates to team up with. According to Sweid, flexibility is needed when evaluating funding options. Several
entrepreneurs who are trying to get their respective enterprises up alternatives may present themselves, and you’ll need to weigh the
and running would be wise to find a partner to help them through pros and cons carefully before committing to one or more options.
what is almost certainly going to be a grueling journey. “Don’t Another important finance tip? “Make sure your projections are
go at it alone,” she said. “It’s really key to find someone to work validated based on market expectations” before you go searching
alongside you to get you through those rough days.” Of course, this for funds. You need to be able to back up your numbers.
is not to say that a partner or co-founder’s role will be just that of
a support figure- on the contrary, having another set of eyes to go 4. PITCHING TO INVESTORS?
over and supervise a company’s setup and execution could play a FINANCIAL LITERACY IS IMPORTANT.
key role in ensuring its success in the long-term. AMBAREEN MUSA
“Whether you have a finance back-
2. WHEN LOOKING TO RAISE ground or not, if you will be running a
FUNDS, MAKE SURE YOU business, [you need to] get your num-
CAN SELL YOUR STORY. .
bers right.” That was souqalmalicom
CHANTALLE DUMONCEAUX founder and CEO Ambareen Musa’s
According to Chantalle matter-of-fact response as to why
Dumonceaux, co-founder and entrepreneurs need to keep a tab on all
Operations Director at WOM- money matters relating to their respec-
ENA, entrepreneurs hoping to tive businesses. “If you’re smart enough
raise money for their startup to start a business, then you should
Chantalle Dumonceaux Ambareen Musa
ventures need to show their @ChantalleALD
be smart enough to understand your
@ambareenm
passion for what they are do- financial numbers,” Musa said. It is of

42 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015

primary importance for those
launching enterprises to be able
to understand how the mechan-
ics of the business works, and
that means being able to crunch
figures right alongside a CFO.
Start by getting handle on the
basics, then try and move along
to the more complex aspects of
your financials.
5. FIND THE INVESTOR
THAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU AND
FOR YOUR BUSINESS, AND
THAT DOESN’T JUST MEAN
LOOKING AT THE DOLLAR
SIGNS.
NINA CURLEY
“When you’re pitching to
investors, you think you’re
pitching for money,” said Nina
Curley, Managing Director,
Flat6Labs Abu Dhabi. “But
you’re actually pitching for
their trust.” Research is
integral to the success of your
operation, and when pitching
you need to be able to show
that you are more than just
familiar with the market
that you want to enter. She
also noted that investors,
Nina Curley
@9aa
VCs included, need to share
your goals in terms of exit
and potential IPO scenarios.
The entrepreneur-investor
relationship needs to be one
that works both ways- as Musa
noted, if a potential investor
was offering her only money for
her business, she wouldn’t take
it. “A good VC can accelerate
your business,” Dumonceaux
explained. “A bad VC can
destroy your business.”
Maha Abouelenein
@mahagaber
6. YOU HAVE TO CREATE THE
IMAGE YOU WANT PEOPLE TO
KNOW YOU FOR; WORK ON
YOUR MESSAGE.
MAHA ABOUELENEIN
While there is hardly a need to
talk about why having a digital
presence is important in to-
day’s world, there is still quite
a bit of confusion on how one
presents one’s profile on the In-
ternet. “It’s not so much about
influencing people, as much
as it is about really wanting
to connect with people,” said
Maha Abouelenein, founder
and Managing Director, OC.
“You want to make sure when
people search for you they find
something that’s relevant, they
find something that’s positive,
and you have [to take on] the
responsibility to get that infor-
mation out there. You have to
drive your brand, you have to
drive the persona, you have to
create the image that you want
people to know you for.”
7. TAKE TIME TO CULTIVATE
YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA
PRESENCE AND A SOLID
DIGITAL FOOTPRINT.
ROSEMIN MANJI
It’s easy to be bowled over by
the sheer number of followers
that Rosemin Manji, founder,
RR&Co., has on her Instagram
page, but it’s important to note
that this digital influencer got
to where she is because she
took time to actually work on
and develop her social media
presence- a practice that she
continues to cultivate even to-
day. “I try to do things that are
of interest to me and to my fol-
lowers,” Manji said. Strategic
content planning is also needed
when you are presenting the
brand of “You”, and that means
originality and timeliness.
Think before you post, and ask
yourself if this represents the
Rosemin Manji
@RoseminManji
persona you want the world to
see. “I do spend time to make
sure that the right photo goes
out; that it’s not super repeti-
tive.”
8. FIELDING NEGATIVE
COMMENTS? DON’T IGNORE
THEM- TRY TO CONVERT
THEM INTO POSITIVE ONES
INSTEAD.
RACHA GHAMLOUCH
When asked about her strat-
egy in responding to nega-
tive online comments, Manji
replied that she often tried
to spin them into something
positive. Racha Ghamlouch,
Entrepreneur and Speaker
Relations Manager, ArabNet,
noted how this methodol-
ogy could be put to work for
brands and companies as well,
saying, “With regard to the
most negative commentators
on your brand- if you can learn
how to convert them, they can
then become your best assets.”
Ghamlouch pointed out that
Racha
Ghamlouch
@__racha
every company at some point
will be dealing with the odd
naysayer; have a plan in place
ahead of time. Firdaus Shariff,
Head of Marketing at SAP for
South Europe, Middle East and
Africa, agreed with the use of
such an approach to deal with
critics of your brand on social
media, noting, “The minute
you start engaging with people,
that’s when their perceptions
change.” Of course, doing this
requires time and effort, but it
does pay rich dividends.
9. BRINGING YOUR BRAND
ONLINE, NO MATTER HOW
LARGE OR SMALL, REQUIRES
A TOUCH OF HUMANITY.
FIRDAUSS SHARIFF
Shariff stressed that a com-
pany’s communication schema
online can no longer have that
cut and dried (robotic) edge. >>>
Firdaus Shariff
@fishariff
JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 43
ACHIEVING WOMEN'S
FORUM 2015
THE METHODOLOGY OF BUSINESS
An Industry Intel event

No matter the size of your venture or the type of business that 12. FEELING OVERLOOKED? ASSERT YOURSELF, AND MAKE
you conduct, there must be a humanizing element- even if you are YOUR VOICE HEARD.
running the communications of an enterprise as big as SAP. She RANIA ROSTOM
also pointed out that what was once a clearly drawn line, between While there may be an increase in the number of women in the
the personal and professional information spheres, no longer truly business arena today, there’s still a long way to go to correct the
applies due to the nature of today’s Internet. In addition to posting skewed gender balances
material about your professional endeavors, she suggests making in the workplace. As a Rania Rostom
@raniarostom
an effort to share content that might actually shed some light on result, it’s possible that
you as a person, and this too can help your brand- so long as it’s women at work may be
appropriate to your line of business, and what message you are overlooked, or worse,
trying to send.) steamrolled by their male
peers- but the solution
Noha Hefny 10. IF YOU ARE A here is not to allow this
@Koukou2009 WOMAN IN BUSINESS, to be the status quo.
THEN MENTOR Rania Rostom, Chief
ANOTHER WOMAN IN Innovation Officer at GE
BUSINESS. Middle East, North Africa
NOHA HEFY and Turkey, said that
Given how useful she women should never give up on their individuality, and if required,
found the support from shout to make their voices heard. “Be yourself,” Rostom declared.
mentors throughout “Authenticity is the key. You cannot progress in your life or career
her career, Noha Hefny, if you compromise who you are.” She also advised that women in
Director of Corporate business should ensure that their values, and that of their organi-
Affairs for the Middle zation need to be in-line with one another to facilitate success.
East & Africa at PepsiCo, Otherwise, you probably need to look elsewhere.
encouraged women in
the business world to take on mentorship roles to help and sup-
port their contemporaries in the workplace. “I think, as women, Fida Chaaban
@Fida
we have a duty to make ourselves accessible,” she said. “Informal
female mentorship is just as important as formal mentorship…
By knowing your strengths and how you can serve, you can make
a difference.” Try applying an open door policy when it comes to
advice, and encourage other senior executives in the company to
do so as well.

11. DEVELOP AN INCLUSIVE COMPANY CULTURE, AND MAKE

IT THE NORM.
NISREEN SHOCAIR
Adding on to Hefny’s comment about being accessible in the
workplace, Nisreen Shocair, President, Virgin Megastore Mid-
dle East and North Africa, noted that companies by themselves
should make it a priority to become a more inclusive environment,
and ingrain gender diversity
in the way they work on a Nisreen Shocair
@NShocair
day-to-day basis. “I believe
the most accessible way to
be able to achieve any of our
female or women-oriented
goals is to make it part of
culture,” Shocair said. “If it
is not part of culture, then it
is never going to mean any-
thing- it’s then always going
to be just a pie-chart and an
annual report. That’s good
for investors, but that’s not
good for culture.”

44 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015

 ACHIEVING WOMEN'S
FORUM 2015
THE METHODOLOGY OF BUSINESS
An Industry Intel event

Anna Roberts
@ImAnnaRoberts

Pamella de Leon
Tamara Clarke @GlobalGazette @pamdeleon_

Panel two Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way: Bridge Building

Odette Kahwagi (right) @odette_h Panel three Show Me the Money: Female Access to Finance

JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 45

TREPONOMICS ETHICS | ESQUIRE GUY | SKILLSET | MARKETING | PRO
INNOVATION IS THE HEART AND SOUL
OF YOUR ORGANIZATION
INVIGORATE
YOUR TEAM IN
10 STEPS
By Lama Ataya
T
here was a time when the
concepts of creativity and in-
novation were only associated
with artists and scientists. But
with the ever-increasing neces-
sity of cultivating a unique
brand and value proposition,
the need for innovation and creativity
has transitioned from science and arts
into everyday business. But what is in-
novation? What is creativity? What is
the difference between innovation and
creativity? But most importantly, which
is more important to your organization?
INNOVATION IN THE MENA
46 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY?
When it comes to innovation versus crea-
tivity, opinions diverge. One of the defini-
tions out there relates to the practicality
of these terms. Some say that creativity
refers to the ability to come up with new
ideas or new ways to approach old prob-
lems, whereas innovation is the ability
to confine these creative ideas and make
them turn into reality. In other words,
creative ideas are thought experiments
within one person’s mind. Innovation,
on the other hand, is concerned with the
actual implementation of an idea. An or-
ganization can use innovation to convert
its creative resources into appropriate
solutions and reap a return on its invest-
ment. Because people are often unclear
about the exact meanings of these two
terms, organizations often chase creativ-
ity, but what they really need to pursue is
innovation.
HOW INNOVATIVE ARE ORGANIZATIONS
IN THE MIDDLE EAST?
In 2014, Bayt.com conducted a poll to
measure the extent to which organiza-
tions in MENA are perceived to be in-
novative– the Bayt.com Innovation in the
MENA Workplace poll (January 2014).
The results were quite positive, revealing
how valued and encouraged innovation is
between employees and customers. For
example, the poll showed that 83% of re-
spondents claim their organizations have
long-term innovation strategies. The poll
revealed improved financial performance
within participating companies, with
seven out of 10 (69.4%) claiming that
their companies are up to date with other
establishments in their domain. The ma-
jority (82.9%) said that their companies
instill long-term innovation plans rather
than short-terms ones, which has put
them ahead in the industry.
Teamwork and collaboration play an
important role in the rise of a company’s
success, having 81.1% of respondents
claiming that pitching ideas and reaching
IMPORTANCE OF ATTRIBUTES IN A JOB COURTESY BAYT.COM
out to other divisions is highly encour-
aged and supported, to the point where
involving customers in feedback is essen-
tial in the betterment of the company’s
success.

INNOVATION AND THE ECONOMY

The Bayt.com Education and Innova-
tion in the Middle East and North
Africa poll, February 2015, shows that
both creativity and innovation are
viewed as important by Middle Eastern
professionals. 89% agree that creative
thinking is important for driving social
and economic growth. In the region, the
UAE is perceived to be the most creative
country, according to 51.5% of respond-
ents. On the career front, the majority of
respondents (88.5%) agree that creative
thinking and related skill sets are impor-
tant for getting a job in today’s market,
as people are increasingly being asked
to think creatively at work (according to
86.9%). Another 72.1% claim that their
office has creative spaces in which they
can relax, unwind and innovate.
The biggest challenge to creativity is
money, according to 42% of respond-
ents. Other factors that stifle creativity
and innovation in the region are lack
of knowledge and tools (15.8%), age
(10.1%), and not enough time (9%).
When respondents were asked whether
standardized education systems stifle
creative thinking, the majority agreed
(73%). Moreover, 41.9% believe that
their country’s education system is not
innovative enough to adapt to changing
times.

IS YOUR ORGANIZATION INNOVATIVE?

Innovation needs to be carried out by
everyone and on all fronts. In fact, focus-
ing on innovation has been identified as
a way to encourage learning and growth
in an organization. Unfortunately, many
managers don’t innovate because they
don’t think it is their job to do so. We say
that innovation is everyone’s job. Great
organizations don’t depend on a small
number of exclusive people to come up
with innovations. Instead, they create
a culture in which every employee is
encouraged and empowered to innovate.
A thriving innovation culture leads not
only to new customer offerings but also
to better margins, stickier customer
relationships, and stronger partnerships
with other firms. 62% of respondents in
the Bayt.com Innovation in the MENA >>>

JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 47

TREPONOMICS ETHICS | ESQUIRE GUY | SKILLSET | MARKETING | PRO
Workplace poll say that innovation has
led to improved financial performance for
their company; 64% agree that their or-
ganization is more innovative compared
to their competition. There are many
pieces to the innovation puzzle, and they
will come together differently for each
organization. How one goes about build-
ing an innovative organization ought to
be unique. But for every organization, in-
novation starts with the following steps:
1. GIVE EMPLOYEES A REASON TO CARE.
The fact is, if people aren’t feeling con-
nected to your company, there’s little
incentive for them to be innovative. Make
sure your employees are in the loop on
your firm’s strategies and challenges, and
invite their input. Employees who are
involved early on in processes and plans
will be motivated to see them through to
completion.
2. STRESS THE IMPORTANCE OF
INNOVATION. Ensure all your employees
know that you want to hear their ideas.
Unless they understand how innovating
your business processes can keep your
firm competitive, your efforts at encour-
aging creative thinking risk falling flat.
RESPOND ENTHUSIASTICALLY TO ALL
IDEAS AND NEVER MAKE SOMEONE OF-
FERING AN IDEA FEEL FOOLISH. GIVE
EVEN THE MOST APPARENTLY ECCENTRIC
OF IDEAS A CHANCE TO BE AIRED.
3. SCHEDULE TIME FOR BRAINSTORMING.
Allocate time for new ideas to emerge.
For example, set aside time for daily or
weekly brainstorming, hold regular group
workshops and arrange team days out. A
team involved in a brainstorming session
is likely to be more effective than the sum
of its parts. You can also place suggestion
boxes around the workplace, ask for solu-
tions to solve particular problems, and
always keep your door open to new ideas.
4. TRAIN STAFF IN INNOVATION
TECHNIQUES. Your staff may be able to
bounce an idea around, but be unfamil-
iar with the skills involved in creative
problem-solving. You may find train-
ing sessions in formal techniques such
as lateral thinking and mind-mapping
extremely worthwhile.
5. ENCOURAGE CHANGE. Broadening
people’s experiences can be a great way
to spark ideas. Short-term job swaps can
introduce a fresh perspective to job roles.
48 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015
Encourage people to look at how other
businesses do things, even those in other
sectors, and consider how they can be
adapted or improved.
6. CHALLENGE THE WAY STAFF WORK.
Encourage employees to keep looking
anew at the way they approach their
work. Ask people whether they have con-
sidered alternative ways of working and
what might be achieved by doing things
differently.
7. BE SUPPORTIVE. Respond enthusiasti-
cally to all ideas and never make someone
offering an idea feel foolish. Give even
the most apparently eccentric of ideas a
chance to be aired. You can’t force crea-
tivity, but the right support system will
put your team in the right frame of mind
to find imaginative solutions.
8. TOLERATE MISTAKES. A certain
amount of risk-taking is inevitable with
innovation. Allow people to learn from
their mistakes. Never put off the creative
flow by penalizing those whose ideas
don’t work out.
9. REWARD CREATIVITY. Motivate
individuals or teams who come up with
winning ideas by actively recognizing in-
novation, for example, through an awards
scheme. You could even demonstrate
your recognition that not all ideas work
out by rewarding those who just have a
rich flow of suggestions, regardless of
whether or not they are put into action
at work.
10. ACT ON IDEAS. Remember, innova-
tion is only worthwhile if it results in
action. Provide the time and resources
to develop and implement those ideas
worth acting upon. Failure to do so not
only means your firm will fail to benefit
from innovation, but flow of ideas may
well dry up if employees feel the process
is pointless.
HOW IT WORKED FOR US
Over the years, Bayt.com has won
numerous Great Place to Work awards.
What makes Bayt.com a top place to
work is a very firm belief that is proudly
shared across the organization; it is the
belief that the work we do at Bayt.com
is very directly and profoundly helping
the communities we serve. In fact, the
overall feeling throughout Bayt.com’s
offices is that employees are involved in
something much bigger and better than
merely a job; they are involved in making
the region a better, richer, more prosper-
ous place.
At Bayt.com, our most important asset
is our people. We put considerable time
and effort to ensure that we have an em-
powering culture that focuses on innova-
tion. This includes providing top-class
training, ongoing support, and a working
environment that fosters creativity,
teamwork and the development of new
ideas. It is this combination of sophis-
ticated training, mentoring opportuni-
ties and the culture of innovation that
have allowed Bayt.com to remain at the
vanguard of its industry both in terms of
cutting-edge technology and in terms of
client service and support.
Today, our team is able to proactively
anticipate the needs of our communi-
ties rather than simply reacting to them.
This is very evident in the number of
pioneering product and service offerings
and enhancements we have introduced to
serve our communities better, including
Bayt.com Branded Career Channels (also
known as ‘Talentera’), Bayt.com Virtual
Job Fairs, and other enhanced jobseeker
and employer solutions that remain the
most sophisticated tools in our industry
today.
INNOVATION NEVER ENDS
There’s no shortage of books and
resources with varying methodologies
that can help you get started if you’re
looking to adopt more formal innova-
tion processes. If you’re not quite there,
encouraging employees to become more
curious thinkers could be a first step
toward a culture that seeks new solu-
tions for everyday challenges. In fact,
it is human curiosity that leads people
to pioneer new cures for diseases, more
efficient forms of energy and new ways
to see the world. You don’t need to hire
a team of geniuses to achieve innovation,
but you do need to give your workforce
the confidence, support and incentive to
solve the problems around them, until
problem-solving becomes just another
part of the company culture.
Lama Ataya heads the
Marketing depart-
ment at Bayt.com and
within that role is also
responsible for com-
munications, content,
community experience,
and corporate social
responsibility.
JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 49
TECH SHINY | WEBSITE TO WATCH | GEEK | MOBILE TECH | ONLINE ‘TREP | THE FIX
#TAMTALKSTECH
Smartphones might be your most stylish accessory yet. While the focus is usually the ultimate style statement. Brands have embraced the charge of creating
on hardware and function, design (and ergonomics) is equally important. Whether attractive devices and now release new color variants just to keep you looking
your phone is wrapped in cool metal or high gloss plastic, the color is what makes good- versions of popular smartphones in white seem to be the growing trend.
Huawei’s Honor 6 Plus BRAVEHEART HONOR 6 PLUS
Huawei soars to new heights
with the release of its pre-
mium smartphone, Honor 6
Plus. The device, launched by
Honor (Huawei’s e-commerce
only brand), is outfitted with a
Kirin 925 intelligent octa-core
processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB
ROM and supports an SD
card up to a 128GB, but the
device wows with camera and
battery technology. Honor 6
Plus is the first smartphone
to feature bionic parallel and
dual rear cameras- meaning
it doubles the capture and
YotaPhone 2 KNOW YOUR LIMITS YOTAPHONE 2
in white
Yota Devices unveiled a
limited edition YotaPhoneI2
in white. The unique, dual-
front smartphone has an
inverted screen to make apps,
notifications and the “Always
On” display meld with the
overall look of the device.
The color isn’t the only new
50 ENTREPRENEUR MAY 2015
conversion of light for photo-
graphs. It also boasts superior
battery life with super-fast
charging allowing the phone
to be fully charged in 2 hours
and 51 minutes lasting 1.25
days with heavy usage. Even
more, the device is capable
of charging a second mobile
device using its OTG (on-the-
go) battery charging function.
Honor 6 Plus was made for
the digital power user who
dares to be different. It’s
not just a smartphone; it’s a
movement for the brave.
At the Honor 6
launch event,
Ronaldo Mouchawar,
founder of Souq.com
element of YotaPhoneI2.
Other enhancements include
an upgrade to Android
5.0 Lollipop, YETI 2.0 to
customize your display, new
widgets and the introduction
of the Yota Wireless
Powerbank for effortless
charging while on the move.

BlackBerry Classic in white
A CLASSIC CASE BLACKBERRY CLASSIC
Blackberry Classic is now
available in white too. Image-
savvy smartphone users can
have the same communication
brevity and business-friendly
dependability that they’ve
always enjoyed in a new color
variant. The Blackberry Clas-
sic features a QWERTY key-
board, BlackBerry web brows-
#TAMTALKSTECH
Tamara Clarke, a former software
development professional, is
the tech and lifestyle enthusiast
behind The Global Gazette, one
of the most active blogs in the
Middle East. The Global Gazette
has been welcomed and lauded
by some of the most influential
tech brands in the region. Clarke’s
goal is to inform about technology
and how it supports our lifestyles.
See her work both in print
regional publications and online
on her blog where she discusses
everything from how a new gadget
er, and all of the features of
BlackBerry 10 OS. At the time
of writing, BlackBerry had just
released the BlackBerry Leap
in white as well. Is the snowy
look suitable for the executive
look? Perhaps not; we still ex-
pect to see boardroom tables
stocked with the main staple
black devices.
improves day-to-day life to how
to coordinate your smartphone
accessories.
Visit www.theglobalgazette.com
and talk to her on Twitter
@GlobalGazette.
BlackBerry
Leap
in white
BEAM ME UP SEED ROBOTICS
Seed Robotics introduced
Beam Pro, a futuristic video
conferencing robot that en-
hances remote communica-
tion. The robot is managed by
software on your Mac or PC via
Wi-Fi or 4G LTE connections
and can be controlled with
the touch of a button on your
personal keyboard. Beam Pro
is equipped with two wide
angle video cameras, an echo-
Beam Pro by Seed
Robotics,
a futuristic video
conferencing
robot managed by
software on Mac
or PC via Wi-Fi or
4G LTE, controlled
on your personal
keyboard.
canceling microphone, a 17 inch
display and motorized casing
so that it can walk and talk-
literally. A fully charged battery
can last up to eight hours and
when you need to recharge,
there’s a dock for that: simply
drive Beam Pro onto its electri-
cal contacts. Want to add
dimension and presence to
your multinational conference
calls? Get bionic.
JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 51
CULTURE BUSINESS UNUSUAL | LIFE | TRAVEL | DESIGN | TRAPPINGS

Popular Japanese F&B model

comes to UAE
Ailuromania Café is purr-fect
By Pamella de Leon

L
ove cats, but can’t have any? The
Ailuromania Café, UAE’s first cat
café, is here to fill your feline-loving
hearts. Saudi-born sisters 23 year-old
Iman and 25 year-old Alla Ahmed Bin
Farid Al Aulaqi have imported the cat
café trend to Dubai. The business model,
a fully operational café with cats, already
does well in Taipei, Tokyo, parts of South
Korea, London, and New York, among oth-
ers global cities. The Al Aulaqi sisters had
to sort out the legal and health require-
ments (with special rules made for the
atypical business), and then renovated a
villa, transforming it into a café. The sib-
lings say that as co-founders, they found
their relationship helped in constructively
conveying opinions, and their different
educational backgrounds (finance and
marketing respectively) were valuable in
different aspects of launching their idea.
And after a year and four months of hard
work, on the weekend of its launching
week, they welcomed over 100 visitors.
Ailuromania rescues and adopts stray
cats, giving them a home at the café. All
14 of the cats –which are all adopted ex-
cept for two- are checked and vaccinated.
And as for the logistics? The food is pre-
pared in the outside kitchen or delivered
fresh from suppliers, with the animals’
provisions kept completely separate. For
marketing, the sisters focus on social
media with Facebook and Instagram used ends. There’s a 50AED entry charge per
heavily to share people’s experiences at adult in the cat section, and there’s a no
the café (user generated content). The children policy in the cat room on week-
feline inhabitants are easily spotted from ends. Their future plans include opening
the windows, and while the establish- another outlet in Abu Dhabi, and later
ment welcomes walk-in visitors, Al Aulaqi on, they hope to expand to other Emirates
advises to book online especially on week- and then the rest of GCC.

| LIFE |

LEGOLAND GERMANY IMAGE © SENOHRABEK / SHUTTERSTOCK | LEGOLAND CALIFORNIA IMAGE © OCULO / SHUTTERSTOCK | AILUROMANIA INSTRAGRAM ACCOUNT
Middle East- in addition to LEGOLAND

WATERWORKS
California
the bigger LEGOLAND Dubai
theme park opening next year.
LEGOLAND Water Park planned for Dubai Targeted at children ages two
to 12 (although we know that

I
f you like theme parks and
have an affinity for LEGO,
this might be your new
happy place. U.K.-based
Merlin Entertainments plc, the
LEGOLAND Germany
company behind the global won’t stop adults from visiting
chain of LEGO-themed parks, as well), the water theme park
is partnering with Dubai Parks will feature well-known attrac-
and Resorts to bring the first tions including the LEGO Wave
LEGOLAND Water Park to the Pool, Build-A-Raft where guests
can build their
own personal-
ized LEGO
raft, and the
Imagination
Station that Dubai –a AED10.5 billion worth
lets children project- is to have six themed
build toy con- lands: LEGO City, Adventure,
structions and LEGO Kingdom, LEGO Create,
test endurance LEGO Factory and Miniland,
against water displaying LEGO-replicated
flow. Currently trademark buildings and
in Denmark, structures from the Middle East.
U.K., the U.S., Along with Dubai, Merlin Enter-
Germany and tainments plc also has projects
Malaysia, under development in Japan
LEGOLAND and South Korea.

52 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015

JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 53
TREPONOMICS ETHICS | ESQUIRE GUY | SKILLSET | MARKETING | PRO

Rob Newlan, Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, Facebook Creative Shop

ONE SIZE NEVER FITS ALL WHEN

front to put together messages that
are not just alluring to the consumer,
but beneficial to the brand as well.

IT COMES TO SOCIAL MEDIA However, marketers don’t have to

go at this challenging task by them-
selves- Facebook Creative Shop was
Facebook Creative Shop’s Rob Newlan makes the case essentially created to help in this
particular regard.
for tailored, targeted marketing By Aby Sam Thomas Described as “a team of brand

W
ith Facebook reporting that
it has 79 million monthly
active users in the MENA
region, that stat by itself
is reason enough for why
brands and companies here
would be wise to invest
in marketing their offerings on this
particular social media network. But
this doesn’t mean that one is guar-
anteed a spike in business with just a
perfunctory presence on Facebook- on
the contrary, if one wants to make
their voice heard among all of what’s
happening on the platform, then one
needs to really step up on the creative
marketers, creative directors and
strategists who help clients grow their
business,” Facebook Creative Shop
provides marketers with guidance
and tools they can use to better their
advertising efforts on the social media
network. “We are a group of creatives
and strategists and entrepreneurs
based around the world,” explains Rob

54 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015

Newlan, Head of Europe, Middle East
and Africa, Facebook Creative Shop.
“We get the fantastic opportunity to
work with both big and small brands,
and really look at driving the creative
opportunities for them on our plat-
forms like Facebook and Instagram,
and we’re going to look more broadly
as we build our portfolio.”
But that is not to say that Newlan
and his team have solutions for all of
your Facebook marketing conundrums
either- after all, the digital media
landscape is very much a “new”
one, and they, like everyone else, are
figuring it out as they go. “We are
learning along with everyone else,”
Newlan says. “This is not a team of
people who are coming in with the
answers- this is the team of curious
people who are coming in to try and
probe and work together with brands
and partners to see what the potential
is… It’s a really young industry, and
so when you are looking at formative
curves in different media, it takes a
while to understand some of the ways
of producing great work.”
Given the scale of the reach that
Facebook provides -there are 1.44
billion Facebook users around the
world, of which 190 million are in the
Middle East and Africa region- brands
thus have an exceptional opportunity
to engage with this audience provided
they can craft messages that are both
relevant and rewarding to them. This markets” like Kenya, Indonesia and tion, but I am not sure if we have nec-
is where Facebook’s analytics, insights India respectively. In the Middle East essarily seen sort of the correspond-
and targeted marketing tools have a specifically, Facebook Creative Shop ing creative revolution [for that]- I
significant function- these can, ac- collaborated with Etihad Airways to think we are stuck at the early parts
cording to Newlan, play an important launch the airline’s new ground and of that.” So does Newlan have any tips
role in enhancing the interactions cabin crew uniform, with acclaimed for the marketers out there on how
between a brand and a consumer. “If New York-based photographer Nor- they can utilize Facebook’s platforms
we understand what different people man Jean Roy shooting the work in in the best way possible? “In a world
find valuable, and what different peo- question. Adding to the campaign’s of relevancy, there’s no one answer to
ple want as reward, then we can start appeal was the use of Facebook’s tools that,” he replies. “There’s no one way
to really tailor our creative so that it’s to get it targeted better and reach the of saying it’s this, or it’s that. And I
not an ubiquitous piece of work that right type of consumers. “It was intel- fundamentally believe it- it’s part of
we hope lots of people are going to ligent, and it was beautiful,” Newlan what I think is the most exciting thing
be interested in,” he says. “It’s [going recalls. “And the more of that kind of about the industry at the moment,
to be] a well-crafted piece of work, work we see, it starts to just, sort of, which is that there isn’t one answer.
which, by testing and understand- reset the bar.” It’s not, ‘Oh, you need to do it like
ing, we have greater assurances of When asked about the fairly com- this.’ But you need to do things. You
[whether] this is going to work.” monplace complaint by users that need to try things. You need to be out
Examples of such creative market- there are just too many ads on Face- there doing, testing and learning…
ing efforts can already be seen on book, Newlan says that the problem And that’s where the future of mar-
the social media network- in March, actually lies elsewhere. “People don’t keting is going. You need to go out,
Facebook Creative Shop revealed its mind advertising- it’s just that they you need to understand the industry,
Creative Accelerator program, which don’t like bad or irrelevant advertis- and you can only understand it by be-
worked with brands such as Coca- ing,” he explains. “And that’s where ing present on these platforms, doing
Cola, Durex and Nestlé to boost their I think the shift is [needed]… There work, and understanding that there
storytelling prowess in “high-growth has been this big technological revolu- isn’t ubiquity.”

JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 55

IN THE LOOP

Gazprom, Russia
UK LEBANON TECH HUB
UP AND RUNNING

T
he UK Lebanon Tech Hub was
finally unveiled in Lebanon at
the Beirut Digital Park, after
British Ambassador to Lebanon
Thomas Fletcher announced the pro-
gram at the Banque du Liban Accelerate
startup conference back in November
Russia’s Gazprom continues 2014. Ambassador Fletcher said that he
flexing its muscles despite hopes that UK Lebanon Tech Hub will
provide a “launch pad” for emerging
EU antitrust concerns tech startups, given the limited tech

I
n late April, the European Union (EU) formally
charged Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned natural
gas giant, over violating EU antitrust laws,
also known as the EU competition law. The law
is meant to protect the market by making sure
businesses don’t abuse their large market shares
and become monopolies. Political and economic
analysts believe that the EU has the upper hand
in this case. Gazprom’s response? The Russian
government owns 50.23% of the company, and
therefore, it’s not subject to the law’s jurisdiction.
The EU won’t budge though, with EU energy com-
missioner Günter Oettinger saying that Russia is
playing an economic “game of divide and conquer,”
infrastructure available. The launch
event, which featured speeches by
Ambassador Fletcher and Central Bank
Governor Riad Salameh, was met with
an overwhelmingly positive response.
Governor Salameh’s talk was incredibly
promising for Lebanese entrepreneurs, British Ambassador to Lebanon Thomas Fletcher and
given that the Central Bank pledged Governor of the Banque du Liban, Lebanon’s Central
to play a major role in boosting local Bank, Riad Salameh, Nicolas Sehnaoui, former Minister
of Telecommunications
startups with their Circular 331 initia-
tive. Some of Lebanon’s most promising nel. Prior to the official launch, some
tech startups now have the opportunity of Lebanon’s tech startups presented
to take their endeavors to a global level their businesses for the press, including
with help from Britain’s top-notch Bitcoin-powered e-commerce payment

GAZPROM IMAGE © MERKUSHEV VASILIY / SHUTTERSTOCK | FIFA.COM

thus destroying the EU’s gas market. This scenario infrastructure and training person- platform Yellow, and mobile videogame
couldn’t come at a worse time, given the EU’s cur- developers Game Cooks. While
rent relations with Russia; however, Russia might some of Lebanon’s best up-
need EU customers more than the EU needs Rus- and-coming startups will enjoy
sian gas. At the same time, Gazprom is still making the boost that they deserve
business in Europe, especially in Ukraine. The through this program, we
company recently announced that it had received a could only hope that bringing
US$32 million instalment from Ukraine- its third out the potential in some of
in May alone. If you add that up with the other the country’s most talented
instalments, it means that Ukraine has already entrepreneurs could finally
paid Russia $102 million for its May gas supply in make way for better tech
less than 20 days. British Ambassador to Lebanon Thomas Fletcher and Governor
infrastructure and facilities.
of the Banque du Liban, Lebanon’s Central Bank, Riad Salameh www.uklebhub.com

Qatar launches Al Rayyan stadium as fifth venue

for 2022 FIFA World Cup

T
he Supreme Committee for Delivery
& Legacy (SC) has presented the
designs for Al Rayyan stadium- the
proposed fifth stadium for the 2022 FIFA
World Cup. According to SC, the stadium
has a capacity for 40,000 audiences and will
feature a “sustainable cooling technology”
as well as “renewable energy”- designed to
acquire certification from the Global Sustain-
ability Assessment System and Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design ratings.
Designed by U.K.-based architecture firm
Ramboll and Pattern Design, it pays homage
to Qatari culture and heritage by incorporat-
ing local patterns and elements in its design,
with materials reused from the decon-
structed Ahmed Bin Ali Stadium. Nearby the
stadium will be a mosque, aquatics center,
athletics track, cricket pitch, tennis court,
hockey pitch, and a new branch of Aspetar,
a sports medical hospital. Other stadiums
under development are the Qatar Foundation
stadium, Khalifa International stadium, Al
Bayt Stadium and Al Wakrah stadium.

58 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015

CULTURE BUSINESS UNUSUAL | LIFE | TRAVEL | DESIGN | TRAPPINGS

Appointed in January 2012, the GM has built

up his hospitality repertoire across conti-
nents, and he has acted in a senior capacity
at various group properties including the JW
Seoul, Korea, and the Renaissance Hotel in
Sapporo, Japan. “2005 saw a move to Europe
taking on the role of Area Director of Opera-
tions in the United Kingdom and Ireland until
2009, when I came to the UAE as General
Manager of Marriott Dubai Harbour Hotel
and Suites.” With a grand total of 1608 luxury
suites and rooms, 32 meeting rooms, and
over 8,000 meters of indoor and outdoor
event space, convention and meeting rooms,
Keffer is overseeing a mammoth operation,
and he says that service is the heart of the
JW Marriott Marquis offering. The property’s
guest roster last year were “primarily here
for business. Our top five source markets for
group bookings in 2014 were broken down
as UAE (31.8%), Western Europe (16.6%),
Asia (15.4%), GCC (6.4%) and North Africa
(5.4%), [which] were the biggest drivers.”
Logistics plays a clear role in Keffer’s stra-
tegic management; he points out that being
conscious of a guest’s specific requirements
are part and parcel of how the hotel strives
to over-deliver a seamless experience for
those who are often working across multiple
time zones and visiting several countries for
business. “We know business travellers value
time above all else, which is why we have
strengthened the appeal of our prime down-
town location with a range of 24/7 facilities.
Business travellers also value connectivity,
which is why we launched online check-in,
and have equipped every room with USB
connections to the LCD TVs, iPod stations,
fast Wi-Fi throughout the hotel, and control
tablets for the master rooms. Service is obvi-
ously at the heart of our offering, and we fo-
cus on training and upskilling our associates

Anticipation ahead
as an absolute priority to ensure we provide
exceptional service that is crafted, intuitive
and authentic– the central pillars of the JW

of demands Marriott brand.”

GM Bill Keffer leads the JW Marriott Marquis
Hotel Dubai with instinctual excellence
Finally, no one knows the brand’s strengths
like someone who has spent 25 years in the
company; his favorite of the group’s inter-
national properties? “The Marriott Beach
Resort Fort Lauderdale in Florida, one of my

“
E
first positions, and where I first met my beau-
xecutives choose us based on our business-oriented facilities and tiful wife Stephenie.”
capacity to cater to their individual needs, and to do so intuitively,”
says General Manager of the JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai, Bill
Keffer. After a solid quarter century with Marriott International, Keffer
has pretty good instincts when it comes to the expectations of the
business traveller, and he’s sure that there is no one better equipped to handle
your corporate event no matter how big: “First and foremost we are a Meetings,
Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions [MICE] hotel, and what makes us differ-
ent as a business hotel is our capacity to host groups of up to 1,000 to meet, eat
and sleep in one location. We are the only hotel in Dubai that can host groups of
this scale. Previously, conference and event organizers would have needed to split
Prime 68 Private Booths
their group between numerous different hotels within the same city.”

60 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015

 RECOMMENDED BY THE GM
EXEC STAY
“Guests can
reserve an
Executive
Level room
for special
benefits like
complimen-
GM Bill Keffer tary hors
d’oeuvres
and cocktails in The Executive
Lounge. The lounge is open
24/7 for business travelers to
relax and enjoy snacks and
beverages in privacy, both day
and night. They also benefit
from access to complimentary
business facilities including
secretarial services, a meeting
room for up to eight people,
and a business center equipped
with fax machine and printer.
We strive for ‘no distractions’
around the clock to allow busi-
ness travelers to focus on the
actual business they are doing.”
CONFERENCE CAPABILITIES
“Our owners Emirates Group
had the vision to build a con-
vention hotel with scale and
facilities on par with those in
New York, Hong Kong and Paris,
Executive Lounge
IMAGES COURTESY JW MARRIOTT MARQUIS
Saray Spa Dead Sea
Floatation Pool
making Dubai a viable and at-
tractive option for high volume
international conferences. As
a result, we hosted the largest
segment of the NuSkin group
from China in 2014, the largest
incentive group ever received
in Dubai. Not only do we have
Dubai’s largest ballroom which
can accommodates a large num-
ber of conference attendees, but
we have enough hotel rooms to
comfortably host them during
their visit. JW Marriott Marquis
also recently launched a brand
new initiative called ‘Meetings authentic restaurants and five Mahal, with Michelin-starred
Imagined,’ allowing for busi- lounges which offer world class Chef Atul Kochhar at the helm.
nesses to get creative when dining options suited to both It is a multiple award-winning
holding conferences or meetings business and pleasure. We also modern Indian restaurant,
on a large scale. Meeting plan- host international concepts presenting an exciting menu in
ners can facilitate modern meet- such as the VIP Room and GQ a vibrant ‘Palace of Color’ (Rang
ings with a creative spin that Bar within the hotel, further Mahal)- it really is a feast for the
stimulate attendees through cementing our position as a senses, and a great venue for a
cutting-edge approaches; big destination hotel. Prime 68 is a more relaxed business dinner.”
screen multimedia, energizing personal favorite of mine, with
breaks, interactive activities and panoramic views of the urban DOWNTIME “I recommend a
relaxed meeting configurations skyline complimenting delicious session in the Dead Sea Floata-
are all part of out-of-the-box cuts of steak. Of course, I have tion Pool, a hammam, massage
‘Meetings Imagined’ experi- enjoyed countless business or steam room session in Saray
ence.” lunches and dinners here- the Spa. Work off stress in the gym,
New York Strip with mushroom take a dip in the outdoor pool,
MUNCH “JW Marriott Marquis truffle sauce is sensational. I have some shisha, or indulge in
is home to nine award-winning also am also very fond of Rang cuisines from around the world.”
The Club Lounge
JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 61
CULTURE BUSINESS UNUSUAL | LIFE | TRAVEL | DESIGN | TRAPPINGS

‘TREP TRIMMINGS
THE EXECUTIVE
SELECTION
F
rom better goods to boardroom wardrobe bests, each issue we
choose a few items that make the approved executive selection list.
In this issue, we present the EthanIK men’s collection, the right way
to wear a great timepiece, and our suggestions for better grooming gear.

YOU’VE GOT BAGGAGE! ETHAN K

He learnt the art
of exotic tanning
from British traders
WATCH ME GO
CHANEL J12-G.10 CHROMATIC
and passed on this
knowledge to his Gaspard Ulliel certainly knows how to
son,” explains Sin- cut a striking figure: the actor and face
gapore-based Koh. of CHANEL Bleu made an entrance in
After his grandfather superbly tailored achromatic tones of
and father opened grey at the launch of the Cruise Collection
the family tannery, 2015/16 in Seoul, Korea. Taking a page of
Heng Long Leather Ulliel’s book; when dressed in understated
Ethan Koh in Singapore, Koh shades with the cleanest of cuts, choose a
grew up surrounded
“Our clasps are hand crafted in Tuscany, by the tanning process and being inducted Gaspard Ulliel
Italy, and I work personally with the arti- into the ways of leather craftsmanship. at CHANEL
Cruise 1516
sans. I wanted to go back to the era where The designer spent his teenage years in show in Seoul,
clients could meet the designer and have Italy at bag and shoe ateliers, and crafted Korea on May
bespoke creations made, tailored to their his first handbag for his mother while he 4, 2015
personality and a symbol of the connec- was still a student. So yes, he’s got the
tion between the artisan and the client.” background and the market know-how
This is Ethan Koh, a Central Saint Martins to address the niche of ‘treps looking for
educated designer who knows what you’re a good leather piece with some dignified
looking for in an accessory simply because punch. www.ethan-k.com
he’s an entrepreneur, much like your-
selves. Your better leathers are one
Ethan K, Hardshell
way to let your personality shine Briefcase in
CHANEL J12-G.10 CHROMATIC IMAGE CREDIT GASPARD ULLIEL BY ALDO CASTOLDI

through, in what might be more of Shiny Black Cumin

a conservative wardrobe depend- Crocodile

ing on your sector of business,

so we suggest a few of the men’s
selection in the Ethan K range. The
backstory? The Ethan K Debut timepiece that makes a statement. In an
Collection was unveiled in Janu- appropriate nod to the House, Ulleil opted
ary 2011, consisting of 18 bags for for the CHANEL J12-G.10. Crafted in tita-
men and women at Claridge’s in nium and ceramic, the grey nylon strap is
London- marking the moment that steel-looped paired with a steel pin buckle.
Koh transitioned from being a de- Specs we find that pay for themselves? The
signer to being a designer and an 42-hour power reserve, scratch resistance,
entrepreneur. “My great grandfa- durability, and water resistance up to 200
ther was a fisherman in Singapore, meters. www.chanel.com
when it was [still] a British colony.
Ethan K wallet
62 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015
 EDITOR’S PICK
BURBERRY BRIT SPLASH
A new take on Burberry Brit
for men, the launch of Splash
has come just in time for
those steeling themselves
for the long (and hot) Gulf
summer. Burberry Brit Splash
is crisp and clean- the eau
de toilette is described as
an “aquatic” with notes of
rosemary, vetiver and moss. A
bracing scent with masculine
anchor accords? Yes, sir!

MINIMAL EFFORT, MAXIMUM RESULTS

KIEHL’S FOR MEN
The grooming specialists at Kiehl’s have
made it their business to get your skin in
shape since 1851; that’s a century and a
half of experience. We’ve got a few picks
in mind that you can count on to keep you
looking your best, with minimal effort and
time. Start by determining your needs, then
choose the products you can use consistently
to achieve results. Is your skin in the combi-
nation to oily range? Treat your complexion
and control shine with the Kiehl’s Oil Elimi-
nator Cleanser. It’s good for use in and out of

The new Kiehl’s second

stand-alone boutique
in Dubai at Mercato Mall

the shower, and follow up daily with an even

application of pore-minimizing Kiehl’s Oil
Eliminator Anti-Shine Moisturizer. Are you
having a rough time with your shaving area?
Opt for Kiehl’s Facial Fuel Energizing Scrub
with exfoliating properties that helps to rid
the skin of impurities and over time helps
to reduce ingrown hairs, and ensure that
you apply the Kiehl’s Post Shave Repair Gel.
www.kiehls.com

JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 63

IN THE LOOP

Meet and greet The

The Ritz-Carlton Riyadh releases app for real-time

event and meeting services

M ore coffee? More microphones? Not enough tables?

Planners, here’s something to make your job easier.
The Ritz-Carlton has released ((Chime)), a meeting and
event planner companion app to utilize the hotel’s services with a
touch of a button. The app, available for any web-enabled device,
can cater to needs from room requests, set up changes, culinary
alterations and other options available on the app’s menu. Besides
the available options, a text feature is also available to make specific
instructions prior or during a meeting. After a request, the app
would receive a notification from the conference concierge con-
firming receipt of the request, and its progress. Available at global
Ritz-Carlton hotels, it includes 20 languages such as Arabic, French,
German, Chinese and more.

‘TREPS CHOICE
‘TREP TALK ME during the day, which means

The Jaguar XE S makes for

that we also have to approach
THE BUSINESS potential customers at specific
hellofood Middle East times, which is the moment
an interesting (and agile) ride THE ‘TREP
Founder and CEO Beschir
they start thinking about
what to eat and where. In this
Want to be aerodynamic? Want to feel control and seam- Hussain sense, the need we satisfy
less response times? Then we suggest taking the new Q What are some consumer has a daily time constraint.
Jaguar XE S for a spin so you too can experience the trends you have noticed in One interesting insight is that
precision handling. The lightweight, slick-lined body, F&B and online and mobile countries in the Middle East
and second look-worthy interiors do make for a fashion- platforms with hellofood? have significantly different
forward executive statement, but the ergonomics of the A “In the food online ordering lunch and dinner peaks. In
interior and exterior engineering is what we find most im- industry, timing is crucial. Saudi Arabia, for example,
pressive. Tailored to the investment savvy luxury-lover, the People eat at certain times dinner peak starts at 10 p.m.,
newest vehicle in the range is great for maintaining owner while in Jordan it’s at around
affordability, and if you’re eco (and wallet) conscious, the 8 p.m. This has various op-
XE S is fuel efficient and low on emissions. And now for erational implications for the
the specs: go 0-60 in 4.9 seconds with the supercharged business and for our partner
3.0 liter V6 engine, and eight-speed automatic transmis- restaurants, such as the call
sion with paddle shift controls. Switching lanes has never center capacity planning and
been so… stimulating. www.jaguarmena.com the delivery staffing.”
www.hellofood.sa

64 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015

 www.etro.com

e Jaguar XE S
CULTURE BUSINESS UNUSUAL | LIFE | TRAVEL | DESIGN | TRAPPINGS
SEEING DOUBLE
ENTREPRENEUR AND
DESIGNER TAREK ATRISSI
A well-executed typeface can become the voice of your brand
G
“ ood typography
is when you look
at them [type] as
one logo design,
not letters,” said
Tarek Atrissi emphasizing
how a well-executed typeface
can become the voice of a
brand at a session for the
2015 Dubai International
Arabic Calligraphy Exhibi-
tion. The session explored
supporting traditional art and
including it in contemporary
typographic expression. And
Atrissi has definitely made
it his life’s work to explore
the branding possibilities
of typography- particularly
bilingual typography. Born
in Beirut, Tarek Atrissi has
worked, lived and studied in
66 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015
Tarek Atrissi
ing him to take advantage of
his creative background and
pursue his entrepreneurial
endeavors. His entrepreneur-
ial training helped in under-
standing his clients- who are
also often entrepreneurs. Act-
ing as a facilitator to “bring
their own ideas into the
world,” Atrissi advises them
as he has executed ventures
of his own. He established the
Netherlands and Spain-based
Tarek Atrissi Design studio
in 2000, which focuses
on branding, type design,
exhibition design and general
communications consultancy.
The agency has made a name
for themselves for their
cross-cultural design work.
As increasing design literacy
in the region is part of their
mission, education has also
been part of their services,
with design workshops and
courses being held for teams
and academic institutions.
So why did his design
studio hone in on bilingual
typography? Atrissi explains,
“Our market in the Middle
East is, at the end of the day,
a bilingual market commu-
nicating often in more than
one language.” It’s true, but in
By Pamella de Leon
terms of deciding to focus his
Lebanon, The Netherlands,
Qatar, Dubai, Spain, and
the U.S. His enthusiasm for
cultural endeavors began
after being exposed to classic
artists at a young age, while
his interest in graphic design
stemmed from how it’s a
relatively new discipline in
the region.
The 36-year-old Lebanese-
Dutch citizen holds a Masters
of Arts in Interactive Multi-
media from Utrecht School
of the Arts, Holland, MFA
in Design Entrepreneurship
from the School of Visual
Arts (SVA) in New York and a
Postgraduate degree in Type-
face Design from the Type@
Cooper Program in New York.
He later credits SVA for push-
Poster Design Series for Identity Design Conference at Dar El Hekma College, Saudi Arabia
 design practice on typography it for our current times. In character, and allowed me and creative professionals
as a solution for branding Holland, I was inspired by the to observe and study closely thinking of venturing their
projects, Atrissi points out Dutch design approach, and some of the living legends own business in MENA? Go
how typography is a visual by being in a country with a in design today and the way beyond design and build an
language on its own and in high level of visual culture they work. The combina- interest in business- starting
branding contexts –especially and a methodological ap- tion of these very different off with a business plan. After
in logo design- using type- proach to the design process. design cultures made me as a all, one needs to make sure
faces as main elements turns New York was a school of de- designer, and is a continuous one’s creativity finds com-
it to being “minimal, abstract sign that stamped me with a rich blend of inspiration.” mercial viability in order to
and timeless.” The lack of hard-working and ambitious His advice for graphic design survive.
minimal design in the region
is also one of Atrissi’s motiva-
tions for mainly utilizing
typography in graphic design.
The challenge is keeping it
legible when needed. It’s es-
sential as fonts and typefaces
can become the voice of a
brand. When you think of a
red curved M, the first thing
that comes to mind is, of
course, McDonald’s. Likewise,
Atrissi asserts the importance
of sets of fonts that can be
associated with a brand’s
identity, and how companies
have clued in on typefaces’
importance, and have begun
asking for custom-made
fonts. In adopting multi-
lingual typeface design for
corporations, Atrissi advises
“respect[ing] the nature of
each script- [don’t] force the
Arabic to look like the Latin
script so that it becomes
distorted. Vice versa, mak-
ing a Latin typeface look
Arabic by trying to draw it
in a superficial calligraphic
way and making it a ‘faux
Arabe’ kind of font is also a
wrong move.” The goal is to
match the multilingual fonts
harmoniously, but without
sacrificing the authenticity or
legibility of each language. To
advocate good design in the
region, Atrissi incorporates it
to real life projects and brings
it to the public as a successful
VISUALS COURTESY TAREK ATRISSI DESIGN WWW.ATRISSI.COM

example.
“Every country had its own
influence and was a specific
school of design that helped
my design personality. The
Arab world provided me with
the interest in local culture,
as well inspiration from our
heritage and interpreting

JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 67

CULTURE BUSINESS UNUSUAL | LIFE | TRAVEL | DESIGN | TRAPPINGS

FIVE ARABIC
COLOR OVERUSE
Golden color to suggest
luxury, and green as an Is-
DESIGN CLICHÉS lamic color.

“I am always fighting design LITERAL TRANSLATIONS West-

clichés in our region that are
used, abused and are wrongly
associated with our Arabic
culture and identity. There
is a need to start thinking
beyond the superficial and
to create designs that are
unique, and not too com-
monly illustrative.”
ern brands translated into
Arabic without any consider-
ation as to how these would
work in the local market.
ALI BABA TYPO
Putting logos or words as Eng-
lish with an Arabic-looking
font.

GENERALIZATIONS ALL INCLUSIVE LOGO

Typical visuals and icons Telling too much in a logo,
to illustrate Arabic culture instead of subtle messages-
such as the camel and the MENA is not yet used to
palm tree. minimalism.

In conversation
SAUDI DESIGN WEEK
“It gives me the opportunity
to share my design philosophy
and try to reach the wider mass
in explaining the design needs
of our region, and be critical
about the pitfalls we often see
in common design solutions. I
[also] spoke about my project
for the Riyadh Metro, the new
public transport system in
Saudi Arabia. As part of the
branding of the metro, I have
developed custom bilingual
typeface design for the metro,
to be the ‘written voice’ of the
brand. It was a good case study
to share with the audience, as
the new font for the metro is
literally everywhere in the city of
Riyadh, and it gave the audience
a good practical sense of how a
typeface can act as a recogniz-
able component of any brand.”
INNOVATE NOT IMITATE
“We should not blindly copy
the design process and solu-
tions created in the West as
these could often not work
with our local culture. It is
important to keep the essence
of our design solutions purely
conceived to fit our culture,
and hence end up representing
our identity and be a unique
design to our region.”
EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
“My entrepreneurial spirit
was certainly what helped get
into all my ventures, so the
graduate studies I did in New
York was certainly a turning
point and I do advise any
designer aspiring starting an
own business to support their
creative profile with business
education.” Metro Riyadh Arabic and Latin typeface design by Tarek Atrissi
VISUALS COURTESY TAREK ATRISSI DESIGN WWW.ATRISSI.COM

THE BUSINESS OF DESIGN
MEET HALFWAY “Any design is the collaborative work of the
designer and the client, so I do my best to have this relationship
as collaborative as possible.”
PROJECT MANAGEMENT “As a businessman, I try to keep in
mind the timeframes and restrictions every project has and work
on a design solution within it, because design is not [just] art, and
it is tied to budgets and to commercial contexts.”
PASSION PROJECTS “I remind myself to keep having fun and
enjoying my work, because this is [the] reason why I got into
design in the first place- my love for the design practice.”
EXPLAIN YOUR STANCE “I try to [convince clients to forgo
clichés] by building arguments based on real case studies and
showing the many examples of how these clichés are used
wrongly. Sometimes, it is best to explain good design by show-
casing and analyzing bad design.”

68 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015

THE PORTFOLIO TAREK ATRISSI PROJECTS
“Every project brings its own challenges and requirements into the process that
are unique to it, and that is what makes the design process always interesting.”
BAHRAIN NATIONAL MUSEUM
As it was essential for the building’s
shape to be in the logo, the team studied
the architectural concept of the building
in depth. Eventually, instead of making
a drawing of the building, they got
inspired by the square-like forms of the
iconic architecture and translated it
into a typographic solution- where the
museum name was designed in a square
kufi style that reflected the floor plan of
the museum.
JEEM TV
For Al-Jazeera’s children’s channel
JEEM TV,, the aim was to create a logo
design that appeals to the aesthetics
of children. “This was not easy. I,
as a designer, had to step out of my
own preferences to create what really
appeals to kids of various age groups.”
It involved setting up workshops with
children to get them involved in the
design process.
Tarek Atrissi’s sketchbook
QATAR’S NATIONAL BRANDING
“This was a very unique and challenging
project- for me to understand well the
culture of a country and able to frame
it into a brand, I had to move and live
in Qatar for a year.” In the end, it was
a minimalist logo with a calligraphic
style of the Arabic word Qatar that was
constructed. To Arab readers, the logo
was a visual signature of the nation,
while non-Arab readers would see it as
an aesthetic calligraphic shape- appeal-
ing to both demographics, particularly works displayed. To avoid typical Arab
to outsiders, which was the goal for the design clichés, the design house used
tourism campaign. a hand-lettered street sign in Beirut as
its main inspiration and theme for the
VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM design. The main entrance of the exhibi-
EXHIBITION tion, large murals, introduction and
The museum had a photography exhibi- section panels consisted of multiple lay-
tion about the Middle East called Light ers of Latin and Arabic typography from
from the Middle East: New Photography. the sign, while the negative space of the
The project’s goal was to create an ex- Arabic letters contributed to the con-
hibition space that reflected the Middle cept of light, and at the same, depicted
East culture, without imposing over the an accurate landscape of Middle East.
JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 69
TREPONOMICS
Running a tighter
(and more fruitful) ship
Five leadership characteristics that entrepreneurs need
By Dr. Melodena Stephens Balakrishnan
I
n my role as Associate
Professor at the University
of Wollongong in Dubai,
heading up the institution’s
MBA program and with a keen
research interest in entrepre-
neurship, I often get asked two
questions: “What exactly is
leadership?” and “What char-
acteristics do I need?” If I was
Assessing strengths, opportunites, and problems
70 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015
ETHICS | ESQUIRE GUY | SKILLSET | MARKETING | PRO
given a dirham for every time
somebody asked me these ques-
tions, I’d be a very rich woman
indeed! The answer to “What
is leadership?” is a relatively
simple one in my book- it’s
an innate ability to motivate,
influence and lead people in an
organization towards a common
goal or purpose. Leadership as
a quality, however, is a much
harder subject to broach as it’s
a constantly evolving phenom-
enon. My overriding opinion is
that there are different answers
to “What characteristics do I
need to be a successful leader?”
depending on which stage of
business growth an entrepre-
neur is currently facing.
LEADERSHIP
TRAINING
SPONSORED BY CADILLAC IN THE
SPIRIT OF EDUCATING TOMORROW’S
ENTREPRENEURIAL TALENTS
It’s imperative that as an entre-
preneur you focus on each area
in turn, taking time to update
your leadership skills as your
company grows and develops.
The results for those that don’t
make the effort to do this are
clear: research has shown
that very few founders were
successful as CEOs once their
companies went public, hinting
that the leadership skills that
are required to be successful
change as a company grows in
size. To help budding entrepre-
neurs navigate their changing
business environments, here
are my top five leadership char-
acteristics that you should take
time to develop over the course
of your career:
LEADERSHIP STAGE ONE
CREATIVITY
All successful entrepreneurs
have something in common:
creativity. Sure, maybe other
people have had a similar idea
to yours, but how you make it
work, convince others of its
potential and get people to fall
in love with its possibilities is
an extremely creative process.
CHARTS: RESEARCH REPORT TEAM COLLABORATION STUDY © ESI INTERNATIONAL
Many entrepreneurs find that
early on in their idea’s life-
cycle, creativity is the biggest
trait they need to be a suc-
cessful leader. You have to be
creative in your use of limited
resources, have the ability to
catch a potential investor’s eye
-especially if you’re looking
further than their circle of
friends and family for funding-
and see things that other people
can’t, including having faith in
your own vision when others
may not.
Staff’s contributions
Keys to success
LEADERSHIP STAGE TWO
DIRECTION
As your business starts to en-
ter its first stage of growth, you
need to be able to articulate
your direction in measurable
goals. As one venture capitalist
told me, “There is no formula
for investment at the seed stage
because there are no numbers
and tractions for us to look
at- but the team is everything.
If you can measure what the
entrepreneur is speaking about
and express it in numbers,
then they are up to something.”
Although financial goals are of
course extremely important,
direction is not limited just to
money matters. It also includes
having a clear idea about your
target market, articulating
your vision in a sentence which
is measurable, inspiring and
achievable and communicating
effectively with key stakehold-
ers. Focus on being fluid in
ALL SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS
HAVE SOMETHING IN COMMON: CREA-
TIVITY. SURE, MAYBE OTHER PEOPLE
HAVE HAD A SIMILAR IDEA TO YOURS,
BUT HOW YOU MAKE IT WORK, CON-
VINCE OTHERS OF ITS POTENTIAL AND
GET PEOPLE TO FALL IN LOVE WITH
ITS POSSIBILITIES IS AN EXTREMELY
CREATIVE PROCESS.
your direction too- it may need
be redefined as circumstances
change, more investors come
on board, resources change, or
indeed, you change!
LEADERSHIP STAGE THREE
DELEGATION
As your business grows, you
may find yourself getting
increasingly inefficient as you
handle more responsibilities.
The key to combating this is
delegation, delegation, delega-
tion! Hiring the right team
who you trust to believe in and
respect your vision is of up-
most importance at this stage.
Knowing your weaknesses and
hiring people for their com-
petencies, concentrating on
building up a diverse workforce
made up of different genders,
background and skills, devel-
oping mutually agreed goal
posts and investing in good
governance to track finance
and business relationships
have all been proven to con-
tribute to successful growth.
What’s more, you shouldn’t be
afraid to take tough decisions
as the organization evolves. Be
clear about your own account-
ability and role within the
business too.
values for the future are deeply
embedded. A recent survey by
McKinsey & Company suggests
that those leaders who create
a sense of ownership amongst
their frontline staff fare better
during periods of change. Work
closely with other stakeholders
to develop a structure to help
to manage decision-making
too– try to avoid the paralysis
that sets in through too many
meetings that have no outcome
except frustration!
LEADERSHIP STAGE FIVE
COLLABORATION
Research by ESI International
proposes that 65.5% of teams
feel that if they worked more
collaboratively, they would
be more successful. As your
startup matures, attempt to
collaborate more both with
your internal team and external
agencies, working to build
LEADERSHIP STAGE FOUR strategic alliances and seek
COORDINATION external advice on business
As your organization grows strategy and staff recruitment
further, silos might develop from suppliers, customers,
within your business which legal teams and other business
could lead to inefficiencies, sounding-boards. Focus
miscommunication and loss your energies on effectively
of trust. If this happens, you networking too, building
should focus on effectively strong relationships which
and skilfully coordinating might help you to discover
between various personalities, opportunities, source resources
expertise and management and get that all important
levels. Concentrate on creat- foot-in-the-door with potential
ing a strong corporate culture customers, clients and future
where the business’ vision and opportunities.
Dr. Melodena Stephens Balakrishnan
is an Associate Professor at the
University of Wollongong in Dubai
(UOWD), and the UOWD MBA Program
Director. Dr Balakrishnan’s research
interests include branding, destination
marketing, entrepreneurship and social
entrepreneurship. As founder and President
of the Academy of International Business
MENA Chapter, Dr. Balakrishnan has
organized five international conferences,
bringing together over 300 participants
from across the region to discuss business
issues. She has 16 years of industry and
education experience, beginning her career
at Citibank India and spending over eight
years in marketing in India, including a
stint setting up a division in Eureka Forbes
Ltd. She is currently researching into the business stages facing social
entrepreneurs or organizations who have a strong embedded purpose
their business model. If you are one such entrepreneur and would like to
participate in her research, visit:
https://uowdoie.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0B7P4iUcZF3u9Mx&Q_JFE=0
JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 71
TREPONOMICS ETHICS | ESQUIRE GUY | SKILLSET | MARKETING | PRO

INDUSTRY
KNOW-HOW

SPONSORED BY CADILLAC
IN THE SPIRIT OF LINKING
SUCCESS WITH POTENTIAL

traditional management style

focusing on planning and evalu-
ating once a year can no longer
be applied, and that managers
will have to adopt more of a
coaching management style if
they aspire to build high-per-
forming teams and retain their
best people.
So, what are skills that are an
absolute must for all managers
in order to drive motivation,
results and eventually increase
performance and retention?

1. LISTENING TO
UNDERSTAND People want
to be listened to, that’s a fact.
But more than that, they want

Yes, you can do better

to be understood. In order to
become an effective listener,
ensure you don’t only listen to
what the person says, but also
Re-evaluating the approach to performance management pay attention what the person
By Salma El-Shurafa and Veronique Ademar doesn’t! Observe non-verbal

I
messages, and feelings, which
are usually ignored. Give your
n any company, ensuring that goals are captured, measured and full attention to your employee
periodically evaluated is a critical exercise to manage performance without necessarily having
the intent to answer…but
and outcomes. Most companies have some sort of performance just listen, understand and be
management system, be it online or in paper format. However, most present.
managers describe it as painful and time consuming, while employees
2. EFFECTIVE
feel like the process is contrived and often have the impression that it’s COMMUNICATION This seems
‘just a tick-in-the-box’ exercise for their senior management. like a given, however, having
great communication skills
So, is PM becoming redun- levels of value, while 58% said spondents are either “currently doesn’t mean just talking
dant? According to a 2014 it is not an effective use of time. evaluating” or have recently for the sake of passing on a
Global Human Capital Trends • Today’s widespread ranking- “reviewed and updated” their message to someone. Judgment,
report, led by Deloitte Consult- and ratings-based performance performance management attacks and emotional
ing LLP and Bersin by Deloitte, management is damaging em- systems. Also, it reveals that outbursts have no place here.
which surveyed over 2,500 ployee engagement, alienating some of these organizations are When you are conveying a
business and HR leaders across high performers, and costing scrapping the annual evalua- message, keep in mind that
90 countries, two conclusions managers valuable time. tion cycle and replacing it with what others perceive is also
stand out: Well, maybe you don’t want ongoing feedback and coaching important. Your body language,
• Only 8% of companies report to throw away your process just designed to promote continu- facial expressions and tone of
that their performance man- yet. The same survey showed ous employee development. voice will convey your attitude-
agement process drives high that 70% of the survey re- This means that the more be it positive or negative.

72 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015


3. IMPARTING MOTIVATION
The words ‘thank you’ go a
long way, and managers tend to
forget the importance of small
gestures. Appreciating some-
one’s hard work and lending a
hand or a compassionate ear
will make your employees feel
valued! Giving them new chal-
lenges and ensuring they have
clear goals and responsibili-
ties are simple, yet powerful,
ways to gain engagement and
motivation! And remember,
when looking at development,
focus on employee strengths
and ensure that their areas of
improvement are critical to the
responsibilities of the job, and
not just peripheral to it. You
can’t be motivating someone by
reminding them how ‘bad’ they
are at something, especially if
it doesn’t weigh too much on
CHART © DELOITTE UNIVERSITY PRESS - GLOBAL HUMAN CAPITAL TRENDS 2014 REPORT
the walk and don’t forget to give positive
dare to ask feedback also when the job has
feedback from been well done! It doesn’t stop
your staff. here. Feedback is essential,
You want to and it also has to be partnered
create an en- up with regular check-ins on
vironment of accountabilities and progress
openness with especially if development areas
your team so were established.
that they feel The performance manage-
supported ment process as we know it
and consider is becoming obsolete, and
themselves whether you need to review
free to come it or scrap it altogether will
to you in depend on a number of factors.
times of need. However, what is becoming
obvious is that companies
5. GIVING have to embed a new way of
FEEDBACK managing people. The truth of
Do this on the matter is that employees
a regular don’t merely want to be given
basis and a rating at the end of the year,
not just once a year! It always but instead crave for regular
has to be done in a timely feedback, understanding, guid-
manner and not a week after ance and recognition. When an
the fact. Remember that ownership-driven performance
feedback should be conveyed management process is paired
in a constructive manner, with managers applying coach-
(no blaming!), and instead ing skills, not only will you
of asking: ‘Why did you do accelerate change and growth,
this?’ ask instead: ‘What’s but you’ll also boost employee
gone wrong?’ and ‘How can we morale and engagement which
do it better next time?’ And will ultimately result in higher
Regions where top five trends are most important
performance. The way perfor-
mance is managed has to be
redefined and managers have
to be stretched beyond their
current skills so that they don’t
just remain evaluators, but they
become success-enablers.
Salma El-Shurafa and Veronique
Ademar, drawing on over 20 years of
combined experience, are Executive
Coaches and founding partners at
The Pathway Project (TPP). TPP
provides tailored executive leadership
and career development coaching to
professionals who are navigating the
dynamics of the global UAE market.
They have worked with a wide variety
of individuals in the Middle East, Asia
and Europe, ranging from directors and
managers at Fortune 500 companies
as well as entrepreneurs, across
industries, and other professionals.
www.pathwayproject.ae

their jobs.

WHEN AN OWNERSHIP DRIVEN PER-

FORMANCE MANAGEMENT PROCESS
IS PAIRED WITH MANAGERS APPLY-
ING COACHING SKILLS, NOT ONLY
WILL YOU ACCELERATE CHANGE AND
GROWTH, BUT YOU’LL ALSO BOOST
EMPLOYEE MORALE AND ENGAGE-
MENT WHICH WILL ULTIMATELY
RESULT IN HIGHER PERFORMANCE.

4. ESTABLISHING TRUST
Create a blame-free environ-
ment where employees are
challenged, supported and not
afraid to make mistakes. Walk

JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 73

TREPONOMICS ETHICS | ESQUIRE GUY | SKILLSET | MARKETING | PRO

Small talk 101

The Esquire Guy on the difference between
schmoozing vs. small talk
By Ross McCammon

P
eople say they don’t like small
talk. But what those people are
saying is that they don’t like
people. They are -and I’m not using this
word without some serious delibera-
tion- talkists. Also, they are denying an
essential truth about every great thing
that has ever been done: before you do
it, you have to talk about it. And before
you talk about it, you have to talk about
something else. And what that is, is
small talk.
Small talk is a not a glorious thing.
But it is the gateway to a thing that
is... also not glorious, but a lot more
interesting: medium talk. Which is
something.
But this is about small talk- at a party,
at a networking event. Which we’ll take
in stages. The stages are 1, 2 and 3, and
there’s no telling how long each will
last.
STAGE 1 ANYTHING YOU WANT
TO TALK ABOUT, INCLUDING
THE WEATHER
With small talk, you are advancing the
conversation. But in an extremely re-
strained way. You are giving something
of yourself. But you’re not giving actual
ideas. You are offering up the simplest
of observations.
People think they hate small talk
because it is boring. But it has to be
boring. The splendor of small talk is its
banality. Because small talk is a signal.
The words are irrelevant. The act is
what’s important. And you have to stay
small. Really small. You want to avoid
what’s large, including the thing you’re
probably most prepared to talk about:
business.
“The key to small talk is to avoid
in any way making conversation that
has to do with business,” says Daniel
Menaker, author of A Good Talk, about
how conversations work. “By definition,
small talk is not goal-oriented. Or if
it is goal-oriented, the goal is to make
yourself conversationally available to
other people in a way that shows you
are not just single-mindedly entrepre-
neurial, but that you’re a human being,
and that you can find common ground.”
Common ground is the whole point.
Similarity breeds attraction. The more
you have in common with someone,
the more you like them. The subject
of business is slightly too fraught. So,
what to talk about instead?
It’s difficult for your opening line to
be too small. “Hi, I’m Kevin” is not big. “An iceberg exploded yesterday.”
too small. “Hot out today” is not too Too big. “You have a good cheek.” Too
small. You’re not really giving the other big. “Why are we here? On Earth, I
person much to work with, but it’s mean.” Too big. Stay small.
not too small. “So, you’re a groomer of
animals?” Also not too small. “Thank STAGE 2 LISTENING MOSTLY
God it’s Thursday morning,” while odd, The second stage of small talk can hap-
is not too small. (“We are in a room” is pen only after receiving a response that
probably too small.) is equal to or greater than the content
And here are some examples of small of your opener. The signal from the
talk that is too big: “I’m Kevin!” Too other person is: I’m not threatened, so

KEY TECHNICAL MATTERS
> There’s no shame in opening with the following subjects: the
weather, the fact that it is Friday, sports.
> Unadvisable: the weather on another celestial body, the fact
that it was Friday three days ago, obscure sports (standing high
jump, for instance).
> No squinting, which is threatening.
> Head-nodding should be limited.
> Head-shaking should be employed only as a gesture of
sympathy.
> Head-rolling should be eschewed.
> It’s important to fill silences with a conversational bridge to some-
thing more interesting. “You don’t say.” Or: “Amazing.” Or: “Really?”
> The following are not to be used as bridges: “Well, my, my, my.” Or:
“I like what I’m hearing.” Or: “I’m so lonely.”
> When approaching a stranger, approach from the front with intent,
but not aggression. Also, do not flank them. Do not charge them. Do
not approach a stranger in a way that seems vaguely military.
> Eye contact is extremely important.
> Shoulder contact is not important.
> Hip contact is not relevant in any way.
> Elbow contact is hilarious.

74 ENTREPRENEUR APRIL 2015


let us continue this mundane banter.
There’s this thing psychologists call
a “promotion orientation.” It involves
thinking of the conversation as a series
of opportunities rather than a minefield
of embarrassment (thinking of it that
way is “prevention orientation”). The
promotion orientation involves making
eye contact and smiling. (Which are
the two most powerful tools a person
having a conversation has at his or her
disposal. You can say, “I’m into string”
to a total stranger, and if you say it
with eye contact and a smile, it can
seem brilliant.)
The second stage of small talk is all
about promotion orientation. “Don’t
think, don’t say this, don’t do some-
thing stupid, don’t go on too long,”
says Sam Sommers, associate professor
of psychology at Tufts University and
author of Situations Matter: Under-
standing How Context Transforms Your
World. “If you have all these don’ts and
negatives in your head as you go into
an interaction, you tend to come off
looking like someone who had a bunch
of negative thoughts in their head and
distracted and not engaged.”
The second stage also gives you an
entrée to be mildly interesting. And
slightly personal. Del Pedro -a bar-
tender who has about 50 small-talk
conversations a night at New York’s
Pegu Club says, “I try not to offend, but
occasionally I will push things a little
further just to get the conversation
flowing and get people a little jacked
up. For the sport of it, for fun.” His
small-talk hours have increased lately,
as he’s opening up his own establish-
ment, Brooklyn’s Tooker Alley. “There
are times when it’s awkward,” he says.
“When I had to go out to raise money
for this new [outlet], I found that’s a
form of small talk I’m not good at. But I
got better.”
Which is backed up by the scien-
tists: “Research suggests people who
are viewed by others as socially adept
and good at networking actually view
themselves as somewhat shy and
withdrawn,” Sommers says. “There’s
not a set personality type you have to
have to make this work. It’s more about
practice.”
STAGE 3 HOW TO GET OUT, OR NOT
It helps to have fallback questions:
two or three questions or topics you
know you can pull out when you’re on
the spot and nervous. “We don’t think
quite as quickly and clearly when we’re
under pressure, so the more well-
rehearsed any behavior is, the better
we’re able to pull that off when the
spotlight’s on. Having a good exit line
never hurts,” Sommers says.
At a party or a networking event
(as opposed to a meeting, where the
duration of small talk is somewhat
fixed), there is a point at which you
must decide if this is a conversation
worth continuing or a conversation
worth ending. The eyes are the
deciding factor, not the conversation.
If the other person’s eyes wander, even
a little bit, you should get out. If the
eyes wander, you throw out your exit
line. “I see a friend I need to speak
to; it’s been great talking to you.”
Or, more generously: “It’s been great
talking to you; I’ll let you get to some
other people now.” Or, the best exit
line ever developed: “I’m going to the
bar. Can I get you something?” If the
other person wants to continue the
conversation, they will say yes. If they
don’t, they will say no. And so you act
accordingly.
Or maybe it keeps going. Maybe you
get somewhere. Maybe it really gets
somewhere. Maybe you eventually
start a business with the person you
engaged in harmless banter at a party.
Maybe you end up getting key advice
from them. Or an important contact.
Or maybe it’s just social. Maybe you
just pass the time talking to another
human being in a generous way. The
thing about small talk is: Even if it’s
awkward, it’s worth it.

SCHMOOZING VS. SMALL TALK

It’s important to make a distinction between schmoozing and Small talk “I’m Steve.”
small talk. Schmoozing is an attempt to get somewhere. Small Schmoozing “I’m Steve. You look like a Steve, too.”
See this article in its entirety at Entrepreneur.com

talk is an attempt to fill a silence and make things less awk-
ward. Schmoozing is an ulterior act. Small talk is transparent.
Schmoozing is a wolf in the forest. Small talk is a fawn eating
clover in a meadow. A few examples:
Small talk “Cold enough?”
Schmoozing “That is the nicest scarf I’ve ever seen.”
Small talk “Great canapés.”
Schmoozing “What do you think they spent on this spread?”
Small talk “Gin and tonic. Safe choice.”
Schmoozing “Gin and tonic. Safe choice. Don’t drink too
many, though.”
Small talk “You don’t say.”
Schmoozing “Would you mind repeating that figure so I can
commit it to memory and then leverage it during the conversa-
tion I’m about to have with that guy over there? Did I just say
that out loud? Nice scarf, Steve. Hell of a scarf.”

JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 75

CULTURE BUSINESS UNUSUAL | LIFE | TRAVEL | DESIGN | TRAPPINGS

a lot of perks to being in this

WANNA WORK
position. Not having to com-
mute to work offers the most
precious gift of all: extra time.
It also saves cash. I don’t

FROM HOME
spend money on unnecessary
expenses like overpriced
coffee, unhealthy lunches
or vending machine snacks.

AS SENIOR
Headphones? I barely remem-
ber those. I blast whatever
music I want, and as loud as
I want.

MANAGEMENT?
So let’s say you’re given
the magical gift of working
remotely from home. Are you
prepared for what’s about to
happen? Honestly, it’s not for
THE GOOD (AND BAD) NEWS everyone. Here’s everything
By Angie Nassar you need to know to survive
working from home.

T
echnology and stuff, it’s great. With the introduction of
telepresence robots , combined with cloud-based systems,
VPNs, instant messaging, Skype, and phone forwarding and
conferencing, you can work thousands of miles from the
office with just as much effectiveness and clarity as if you were
physically there. As executive editor of Beirut.com, I manage the
content and direction of the leading lifestyle-travel directory in
Lebanon, and I do this from nearly 6,000 miles away in Upstate
New York. But that also means I work according to the Eastern
European Time Zone, a sometimes grueling schedule.
Every single person you know
-including your colleagues,
close friends, family, neigh-
bors and basically anyone
who finds out you work from
home– acts like you are
unemployed. My own brother
asked me when I was going to
get a “real job.” Also, if you
live with someone, they don’t
understand why you can’t
just drop everything and go
grab a coffee with them or
sit around and talk about the
latest episode of Keeping up
with the Kardashians for 45
minutes (because I have to do
things, yo). Of course, it goes
without saying that there are
1. THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE
HOME. You are about to
spend an inordinately long
amount of time in your home.
Outside of purchasing food
and other necessities, I have
no pressing reason to leave
my pad during the week. So
take the number of hours
you spend at home after you
finish your regular workday,
and add 16. That’s how much
time you will have to stare
at the neon orange wall you
painted in the living room last
week because you thought
it would look more edgy. My
advice: get as comfortable
as possible and invest in a
proper office setup with an
ergonomic chair, sticky notes,
calming colors, whatever it
takes to make you feel level-
headed, resolute and ready to
work.
2. ONE IS THE LONELIEST
NUMBER. If you’re one
of those people who need
constant attention and rec-
ognition from other human
beings, this is probably not
the job for you. As far as I’m
concerned, solitude is bliss,
but some people go nuts
when they don’t have human
contact.

76 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015


3. MAKE A SCHEDULE AND
STICK TO IT. It can be hard to
draw the line between work
stuff and home stuff. I think
people have this idea that
when you’re working from
home you get really distracted
by things like the TV or
other modern amenities,
but if you’re serious about
what you do, then the
opposite is true. You’ll find
yourself waking up in the
morning, sitting down at your
computer to check emails,
and then all of a sudden it’s 8
p.m., you’ve been working for
11 hours straight. This leads
me to my next point.
4. WATCH OUT FOR
POTENTIAL WEIGHT GAIN.
I am by no means a shining
example of health and fitness,
but if you’re like me and you
enjoy food, then it becomes
much harder to exercise self
control with your entire
fully-stocked refrigerator
at your disposal. At first,
my lunch break consisted
of going to the next room,
opening a cupboard, grabbing
a spoon and a jar of peanut
butter and walking back to
my desk. Now, I plan out my
meals for the whole week
on Sunday and refrain from
MARISSA MAYER IMAGE © JSTONE / SHUTTERSTOCK
purchasing unhealthy snack
foods because I simply don’t
want to be tempted. The
idea of being discovered
unconscious and in the fetal
position with crusty PB&J all
over my mouth after falling
into a self-induced food coma
is just not a possibility I’m
willing to entertain.
5. PLAN WHEN YOU’RE
GOING TO LEAVE THE
HOUSE. Even if it’s just to
go for a walk outside or run
to the store to grab some
groceries, make time away
from your living space.
6. MINIMIZE DISTRACTIONS.
As with any other activity,
you simply will not be as
effective at work if you’re
trying to focus on too many
things at once. That means,
leave the TV and radio off
and keep all other forms of
entertainment out of sight.
Also, do not try to work from
your couch or bed. While
insanely comfortable, these
positions will do the exact
opposite of engendering
thoughtful production.
Instead, invest in a real desk
and sit there.
The underlying feature
of all these points is the
importance of maintaining
discipline and boundaries
in your life. That’s why you
must create a schedule for
doing things, and when
work is done, be done with
it completely. It takes more
effort than I could possibly
explain to stop myself from
responding to emails during
non-work hours, but it also
gives me a level of sanity I
could not otherwise attain.
SETTING PRECEDENTS
The corporate take on working from home
While Yahoo CEO Marissa
Mayer didn’t made it fully
clear as to why her com-
pany decided to ban its
employees from working
remotely in 2013, her few
comments on the topic
have suggested the work-
from-home ban is to be a
move towards increasing
collaboration among em-
ployees, and thus raise the
standard of work delivered
at Yahoo’s offices around
the world.
But putting a stop to
telecommuting may not
necessarily be the right
way to go about this- after
all, as Mayer herself has
admitted, people are most
productive when they work
alone, and so, a company
that forces remote em-
ployees to come into the
office to work in a bid to
improve their performance
on the job may end up
seeing an undesirable dip
in the same. So, if the
target is to see a better
output from one’s remote
employees, then a better
way to achieve that could
perhaps be by rethinking
the strategies used to
manage them. The focus
should be on monitoring
their work, as opposed to
monitoring their presence
at work- and this can be
done by setting goals for
remote employees that fit
the SMART criteria, and
then being clear on what
the desired outcomes are.
Also, given the different
kinds of technologies we
have at our disposal today,
building a collaborative
work environment in a
team doesn’t require all of
its members to be in the
same physical space any-
more. For instance, face-
to-face meetings can be
virtually (and more easily)
conducted over online chat
applications like Skype
and Google+ Hangouts.
Similarly, enterprise social
networks like Yammer
and Socialcast allow for
real-time interactions and
collective conversations
Marissa
Mayer
among employees over
the Internet, no matter
where they may be actu-
ally located. Keeping track
of what employees are
doing can also be enabled
through daily status up-
dates via a phone call or an
email. In addition, research
is indicating that Yahoo
may be well off the mark
when it says that “speed
and quality are often
sacrificed” when people
work from home. A nine-
month-long experiment
conducted by Stanford
University at a Chinese
travel agency showed
working from home lead to
a 13% increase in perfor-
mance, with home workers
reporting improved work
satisfaction as well.
If these results are any
indication, then allowing
employees to work from
home is something that
can work out extremely
well for the company that
employs them. However,
the key to achieving suc-
cess in this regard is
to ensure the effective
management of these
remote employees, and
therein lies the challenge
for companies.
JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 77
TREPONOMICS ETHICS | ESQUIRE GUY | SKILLSET | MARKETING | PRO

INDUSTRY
KNOW-HOW

SPONSORED BY CADILLAC IN THE SPIRIT OF

LINKING SUCCESS WITH POTENTIAL

1. ADD 30%-50% ON TOP OF

WHATEVER YOU ESTIMATE YOUR
COSTS TO BE
It’s true that setting up a business costs
blood, sweat and tears, but it also costs
real money- often a lot more money than
you originally plan for. Startup costs are
one thing, and then continuing to run
the business and maintaining your suc-
cess level will cost a significant amount
of money as well. Whatever you budget
for initially, add an extra 30%-50%
as a safety net, because you’ll probably
need it. Whatever costs you are quoted,
for example for a trade license, ask if
there are any hidden costs, any extras or
any fees that will pop up later on. Then
when you get the answers, ask again and
then still be prepared to pay more.

GET READY
2. ASK EVERYONE FOR HELP
Whether you’re creating a business
around a wonderful idea that you’re
sure will take off, following a hobby that
you’re passionate about and turning it

FOR TAKE OFF

Six (hard) lessons we learned launching
our own venture By Sara Trüschler and Terry Dehdashty
into a full-time job, or whether you’re
using your expertise and skills that
you have in your current job to become
self-employed, you will need lots of help
and advice, so don’t be shy to ask for
it. Reach out to every single person in
your network and ask for help. We were
actually surprised to find how many
people were genuinely willing to help

W
us, from friends and clients referring
hen we founded Lotus Communications, we had a com- new business, to family members who
bined four decades worth of work experience between us- were a dab hand at IT offering us advice
so we knew our industry inside out, and we were fortunate on our website and technical issues, to
enough to have clients lined up wanting to work with us before we a close friend who is good at finance and
accounting. People are often inspired
even started. That doesn’t mean it was easy; even though we rode by the fact that you’re following your
on a wave of very early success, we soon learned that we had plunged dream and taking a risk they wouldn’t
into the world of entrepreneurship without looking at the fine details take themselves, and they are also flat-
of what was involved in setting up and running a business. For us, tered that you are asking them for their
expertise. Don’t assume that because
this worked to our advantage as we didn’t have the chance to be you’re very good at what you do, that
afraid of the challenges. We simply had to land on our feet and learn this will translate into setting up a busi-
along the way. Here are six lessons we learned the hard way: ness with ease.

78 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015

3. DRAFT A BUSINESS PLAN
It can be quite surprising that even after
months of talking about it, planning,
and even actually setting up and doing
it, you will struggle to write up a proper
business plan. It is easy to say, “I want
to run a boutique in a mall” or “I’m
going to set up a marketing agency”,
but a business plan is extremely useful
as it makes you think about how much
money you are planning to spend, how
many employees you plan to have down
the line, who the customers are that
you are targeting, how you envisage
your company growing, and how you
plan to actually manage everything. It is
particularly important when you have a
business partner as it forces you to re-
examine exactly what each of you wants
to get out of this, and how you plan to
divide up responsibilities and profits.
Having a plan written down on paper
makes things more concrete and forces
you to look at areas you might have been
avoiding or might not have even been
aware of. The business plan will prove
very useful when dealing with your bank
or getting your trade license, so get it
done early on.
YOU MAY BE WILLING TO DONATE YOUR
PERSONAL TIME FREE OF CHARGE, BUT
DONATING YOUR BUSINESS’ TIME IS A
VERY DIFFERENT ISSUE AND YOU HAVE TO
SEPARATE THE TWO. YOU WILL HAVE TO
BE TOUGH SOMETIMES AND USE THE OLD
CLICHÉ, “SORRY IT’S NOT PERSONAL, IT’S
BUSINESS” – GET USED TO SAYING IT, AND
START BELIEVING IN IT, OTHERWISE YOU
WON’T GET ANYWHERE.
4. START THINKING LIKE A BUSINESS
OWNER
You have to balance thinking with your
heart and thinking with your head.
Just because you’re now your own boss
doesn’t mean you can sleep in every
morning and only work with clients
you like. Sometimes you have to turn
down a project very close to your heart
because it’s not profitable or feasible.
Other times you have to take on projects
you don’t particularly enjoy because
it makes sense for the business. There
are times you will have to turn down
friends’ requests to do them a favor
because it would not make sense for the
business to work on a project free of
charge at that moment. You may be will-
ing to donate your personal time free
of charge, but donating your business’
time is a very different issue and you
have to separate the two. You will have
to be tough sometimes and use the old
cliché, “Sorry it’s not personal, it’s busi-
ness” – get used to saying it, and start
believing in it, otherwise you won’t get
anywhere.
PEOPLE ARE OFTEN INSPIRED BY THE FACT
THAT YOU’RE FOLLOWING YOUR DREAM
AND TAKING A RISK THEY WOULDN’T
TAKE THEMSELVES, AND THEY ARE ALSO
FLATTERED THAT YOU ARE ASKING THEM
FOR THEIR EXPERTISE. DON’T ASSUME
THAT BECAUSE YOU’RE VERY GOOD AT
WHAT YOU DO, THAT THIS WILL TRANSLATE
INTO SETTING UP A BUSINESS WITH EASE.
5. BE PROFESSIONAL AND
DON’T COMPLAIN
When you are first setting up your
own business, you will be incredibly
busy. You will find you are the tough-
est boss you have ever worked for and
you literally will work round the clock.
Your friends and family won’t see you
for a while. You will be too busy to talk,
too busy to go out and too exhausted to
make any kind of social plans when you
finally have time to switch off. At the
same time, you will probably be asking
these same people for help and maybe
even borrowing laptop, equipment or
even money from them and then telling
them you are too busy to see them! The
last thing they want to hear is you com-
plaining when they’ve just put up with
you being awful while helping you build
your dream. When you finally return
to the folds of normal humanity, you
want people to still be happy to see you,
and not retreat in fear from a miser-
able, complaining monster. Remember,
everyone around you is a potential
client or potential referral opportunity.
Act professional, tell them everything is
going well, be positive and show you are
on top of things. They will assume you
are well on the road to success and will
want to work with you or refer business
to you. If you are always complaining
and miserable, they will assume things
are not working out and that you prob-
ably can’t cope with any new projects.
6. DON’T GIVE UP
One of the best pieces of advice we
were given by an extremely successful
entrepreneur is that lots of people have
great ideas and dreams of setting up
their own company, but most people
talk about these things one evening, and
then they get up and go back to their
regular job the next day and never actu-
ally do anything about it. The successful
entrepreneurs are the ones who actively
take a risk, quit their job, make a change
and actually see things through and
keep at it. Giving up is not an option in
business. If necessary, assign yourself
a mentor. Whether it’s someone who is
already successful in business who you
admire, or even just your best friend
who is tasked with always pointing out
your successes when you’re down, and
refusing to let you get weighed down
when you’re about to give up, make sure
you have a dedicated cheerleader to
keep you on track.
WHATEVER YOU BUDGET FOR
INITIALLY, ADD AN EXTRA 30%-50%
AS A SAFETY NET, BECAUSE YOU’LL
PROBABLY NEED IT. WHATEVER COSTS
YOU ARE QUOTED, FOR EXAMPLE FOR
A TRADE LICENSE, ASK IF THERE ARE
ANY HIDDEN COSTS, ANY EXTRAS
OR ANY FEES THAT WILL POP UP
LATER ON. THEN WHEN YOU GET THE
ANSWERS, ASK AGAIN AND THEN
STILL BE PREPARED TO PAY MORE.
Sara Trüschler and Terry Dehdashty are
entrepreneurs, media gurus and yoga lovers
who founded Lotus Communications in
2014, after meeting on a yoga retreat in
Bali. Both founders brought with them
many years of experience in marketing, PR,
events and media, and wanted to move
away from the traditional PR agency model
and offer a more holistic approach to brand
management. Both founders have a Middle
Eastern background and Western education,
and have worked in the U.S., U.K., the Far
East and the Middle East which gives them
a truly international outlook and an in-depth
insight into the region. With a growing
number of lifestyle, wellness, and corporate
clients, Lotus Communications has rapidly
established itself in the market and is proof
that two businesswomen can succeed by
offering their own unique approach.
JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 79
START IT UP ECOSYSTEM | WHO’S GOT VC | Q&A | STARTUP FINANCE

FACING OUR FEARS

2. FEAR OF INVESTING
MOROCCO
AMINE TOUMI
Project Manager, Yuzu

MENA TALKS BACK

Do you think that there is a
fear of investing in startups
in Morocco and North Af-
rica?
Five startups at the 8th MIT Pan Arab Conference consider ecosystem “When I started Yuzu with
my team, we didn’t find any
problems and potential solutions investors or funds to help
By Soukaina Rachidi support or accelerate the

H
development of our startup.
I don’t know what the real
ala Fadel, Chair of the MIT Enterprise Forum for the Pan Arab problem is- is it a lack of
Region, opened the 8th MIT Pan Arab Conference in Kuwait by information about startups
emphasizing the need for Arab entrepreneurs to protect the in- in the region, the legitimacy
of our project or simply the
novation of the present from the fear of past generations. While lack of investors? While the
a growing number of young entrepreneurs in the Arab world have started Moroccan startup scene is
to disrupt traditional markets with innovative ideas, they are still being still very young and lagging
behind some countries in
met with great resistance from traditionalists. In a region that prides itself the Arab
Amine Toumi
on preserving its cultural authenticity, the Arab entrepreneur is forced to region,
it’s slowly
fight two battles. The first battle is assuaging the fears of Arab communi- catching
ties around innovative entrepreneurship, and second, establishing and up. At
monetizing unconventional business models in existing MENA ecosystems. Yuzu, we
under-
While these challenges may seem daunting, many young Arabs are plung- stand that
ing forward because they recognize that there is a gap in our various mar- fear is an
ket sectors and they want to see it change. Five startups from the 8th MIT investor’s
natural
Arab Conference, from across the Arab world, discuss the biggest obstacles state of
that young Arab entrepreneurs face in their ecosystems. being, whereas courage is an
entrepreneur’s natural way
of life. In order to increase
Do you think that there is a policymakers, incubators investment in the North Af-
1. FEAR OF SMALL
fear of investing in the small etc. are playing their roles rican startup ecosystem, we
ECOSYSTEMS
startup ecosystems in the correctly. An entrepreneur have to find the crossroads
QATAR
Gulf? should have the tenacity where these two stakeholders
KHALID ABUJASSOUM
“There is, and I think it’s to listen, learn and grow. A can meet. Firstly, we have
Co-founder & CEO,
natural due to the history policymaker should engage to be willing to admit that
Tahi Technologies Inc.
of business in this region stakeholders to understand startup success is hardly pre-
Khalid
and how the economy has their needs and incorporate dictable. On the other hand,
Abujassoum evolved. In the Gulf, the them in the policy making we must fight to nurture and
major business contributors process. The same applies to invest in entrepreneurship,
to the economy were traders investors and other players because startups will build
and merchants, so the whole in the ecosystem. By working the future of countries and
technology entrepreneurship together, all these stakehold- people across North Africa
realm is new, and as the old ers can build a strong and and the Arab world. If we
saying goes, ‘A person is trustworthy ecosystem for make it a priority, we can
an enemy to whatever they everyone. There is no one encourage decision-makers
ignore.’ Such fear is natural hero that will make it work, to take more risks, thus en-
and understood. We need to I believe that it is our collec- suring that more investments
ensure that all stakeholders tive responsibility to build and resources are available
in the ecosystem including and strengthen Arab startup for entrepreneurs to go on
entrepreneurs, investors, ecosystems.” dreaming of a better world.”

80 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015

 David
Al Achkar
3. FEAR OF COMPLICATED
FINANCIAL SYSTEMS
UAE
DAVID AL ACHKAR
Founder, Yellow
Do you think that there is a
fear of investing in the Arab
world, because of their exist-
ing financial systems?
“I see the main financial
problems in the region as
being ones of fragmentation,
high cost, and high complex-
ity. Whether you’re a startup
or an established business,
few options, besides stan-
dard wires and credit cards,
exist that cover the region as
a whole and the latter still
has a low penetration. Most
available options, however
local, are still on average
more expensive than abroad.
And finally, in many cases,
getting set up to accept or
“WE BELIEVE THAT IN THE MIDTERM
THE INNOVATION BROUGHT FORWARD
BY BITCOIN, WHICH IS FASTER,
CHEAPER, GLOBAL PAYMENTS, HAS THE
POTENTIAL TO BRING THE ARAB REGION
TO THE FOREFRONT OF PAYMENTS.
THUS, EFFECTIVELY LEAPFROGGING
MANY INTERMEDIARIES, AND IN MOST
CASES ONLY INCREMENTALLY BETTER
PAYMENTS SOLUTIONS.”
send payments is a compli-
cated, lengthy, and costly
process, which is a recurring
setback for most startups
in the region. The approach
we’ve decided to follow at
Yellow is the transition from
traditional payment methods
to the cutting-edge of finan-
cial technology, i.e., Bitcoin.
We believe that in the mid-
term, the innovation brought
forward by Bitcoin, which is
faster, cheaper, global pay-
ments, has the potential to
bring the Arab region to the
forefront of payments, thus
effectively leapfrogging many
intermediaries, and in most
cases, only incrementally
better payments solutions.”
4. FEAR OF INVESTING IN
NEW IDEAS
JORDAN
SAMER TARAZI
Founder and CEO, RedTroops
Do you think that there is a
fear of investing in Arab tech
startups in Jordan and the
MENA region?
“I wouldn’t say there is fear,
I would say
there’s an
immature
attitude to-
wards tech
startups in
the region.
We don’t
Samer have highly
Tarazi
experi-
enced investors who are truly
visionaries. Unfortunately,
most investors tend to follow
rather than lead, either by
following another investor
or investing in an Arabic
version of a business model
that has already been proven
abroad. When you’re working
on a disruptive technology
or trying to build something
that hasn’t really been done
in the Arab world before, this
mentality makes it extremely
difficult to raise the funds
needed to keep a startup go-
ing. Nurturing the maturity
of both founders and inves-
tors in the region will help,
because we currently lack
people who really understand
what a startup is and how
“I WOULDN’T SAY THERE IS FEAR, I
WOULD SAY THERE’S AN IMMATURE
ATTITUDE TOWARDS TECH STARTUPS
IN THE REGION. WE DON’T HAVE HIGHLY
EXPERIENCED INVESTORS WHO ARE
TRULY VISIONARIES. UNFORTUNATELY,
MOST INVESTORS TEND TO FOLLOW
RATHER THAN LEAD, EITHER BY
FOLLOWING ANOTHER INVESTOR OR
INVESTING IN AN ARABIC VERSION OF A
BUSINESS MODEL THAT HAS ALREADY
BEEN PROVEN ABROAD.”
to scale quickly on both
ends. While I’m sure that
Arab ecosystems will mature
with experience in time, I
still believe we suffer in the
region because the market
itself is still lagging and it’s
definitely lacking in terms of
early adoption.”
5. FEAR OF LACKING
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
PROTECTION
EGYPT
MOHAMMAD GAMAL
Founder, Kotobna
Do you think that there is a
fear of starting a startup in
the Arab world because of
the weak intellectual prop-
erty laws in Egypt and the
rest of the MENA region?
“Yes, there is a fear, but there
shouldn’t be, because firstly,
innovative young, business
leaders should find solutions
for the problems of intel-
lectual property (IP) protec-
tion. Secondly, they should
create new localized business
models that understand
target market’s needs, their
social environments and
their motives for breaking
IP law. By creating relevant
and innovative solutions to
real problem in the market,
young entrepreneurs will
find new and efficient ways
of providing and capturing
value in Arab markets. A very
good example of such a ‘mar-
ket hack’ is Abjjad, a social
network for books based in
Jordan, which offers Arab
readers e-books for free. The
Abjjad team make revenue
from the Google Ads that are
embedded in the pages of
each book. As entrepreneurs,
especially in the Arab world,
we must strive to understand
our customers’ needs and
their social environment. Re-
gardless of where you are or
what the startup ecosystem
is like, it is the responsibil-
ity of an entrepreneur to
reinvent their business
model until they can find one
that serves their customers.
I also believe that it is our
responsibility as entrepre-
neurs to educate our target
audience about the benefits
of protecting IP by creating
multi-sided platforms here,
content providers with
content consumers in a se-
cure, beneficial way for both
parties- that’s exactly what
we’re doing at Kotobna. We
are linking young Arab au-
thors with Arab readers who
are interested in e-books. On
the Kotobna platform, books
are encrypted and secured
and offered to readers at very
competitive rates, with very
easy and accessible payment
methods.”
Mohammad
Gamal
“AS ENTREPRENEURS, ESPECIALLY IN
THE ARAB WORLD, WE MUST STRIVE
TO UNDERSTAND OUR CUSTOMERS’
NEEDS AND THEIR SOCIAL ENVIRON-
MENT. REGARDLESS OF WHERE YOU
ARE OR WHAT THE STARTUP ECOSYS-
TEM IS LIKE, IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY
OF AN ENTREPRENEUR TO REINVENT
THEIR BUSINESS MODEL UNTIL THEY
CAN FIND ONE THAT SERVES THEIR
CUSTOMERS.”
JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 81
START IT UP ECOSYSTEM | WHO’S GOT VC | Q&A | STARTUP FINANCE

All for one, and 1. BE THE FIRST INVESTOR

Unfortunately, most young innovators

one for all

in the Arab world suffer a great lack
of moral support from their com-
munities in general. Having grown up
in this part of the world, I am very
It takes a global village to raise an entrepreneur familiar with the region’s response to
new ideas. When it comes to uncon-
By Soukaina Rachidi
ventional business ideas or models,

W
most young Arab entrepreneurs are
orking with Melltoo Marketplace, a Dubai-based faced with three possible reactions:
mobile app for buying and selling used items in either one of great suspicion or one of
great skepticism, or sometimes even a
the UAE, I’ve started to learn a lot about entre- combination of both.
preneurship and the startup scene. Over the past couple of Understandably, many families
in the Arab world still have a hard
months, I’ve met a lot of young entrepreneurs with all kinds time grasping how the Internet has
of startups and I’ve come to one very simple conclusion: true revolutionized business, so they dis-
success cannot be achieved in isolation. Nowadays, more and courage young people from pursuing
‘unconventional’ career paths. What
more young Arab entrepreneurs are getting mentorship and these families don’t realize is that
financial support from the private and public sector. ‘conventional’ doesn’t really pay the
bills anymore. Consequently, many
That being said, these entities a village to raise a child, then it takes a young Arab entrepreneurs have taken
shouldn’t be the only ones that are global village to raise an entrepreneur. it upon themselves to dive into the
supporting and promoting young What can we do as a community to ‘unconventional’ worlds of
Arab entrepreneurship. We all have a support the young Arab entrepreneurs e-commerce and m-commerce to
responsibility as a community to sup- in our lives, who are trying to make it make a living.
port Arab innovation by encouraging in the Dubai startup scene? Here are While it may be difficult for many
our home grown innovators. If it takes three things you can start doing today: Arab families to accept such a career
path in the beginning, it is our re-
sponsibility as a community to stand
by the young pioneers of Arab innova-
tion. So, the next time your friend,
brother, sister, daughter, son, niece
or nephew talks about starting a new
venture with their friends, try to be
the person who cheers them on, not
the person that tears them down. Be
their first emotional investor, because
it is a ‘cheap investment’ with a very
high ROI for our budding generation
of Arab entrepreneurs.

MANY FAMILIES IN THE ARAB WORLD

STILL HAVE A HARD TIME GRASPING HOW
THE INTERNET HAS REVOLUTIONIZED
BUSINESS, SO THEY DISCOURAGE YOUNG
PEOPLE FROM PURSUING ‘UNCONVEN-
TIONAL’ CAREER PATHS. WHAT THESE
FAMILIES DON’T REALIZE IS THAT ‘CON-
VENTIONAL’ DOESN’T REALLY PAY THE
BILLS ANYMORE. CONSEQUENTLY, MANY
YOUNG ARAB ENTREPRENEURS HAVE
TAKEN IT UPON THEMSELVES TO DIVE
INTO THE ‘UNCONVENTIONAL’ WORLDS
OF E-COMMERCE AND M-COMMERCE TO
MAKE A LIVING.

82 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015


2. HELP COVER THE LITTLE
EXPENSES
Anyone who lives in Dubai knows
how expensive it can be, especially if
you are a young entrepreneur. While
it’s not possible for everyone to invest
the kind of money needed to maintain
a startup, almost anyone can help
a young entrepreneur pay the daily
expenses that they inevitably incur.
Here’s an example: networking is
essential when it comes to pitching or
getting your ideas out there. However,
even the free networking events in
Dubai aren’t really free, because
entrepreneurs still need to drive
there, which means that constantly
have to spend money on filling their
gas tanks, topping up on SALIK or
recharging their RTA parking app.
Alternatively, they might have to take
a taxi or refill a NOL card- either way,
moving around in Dubai can be quite
expensive. So, the next time you’re
taking your aspiring entrepreneur out
to lunch, show them your support for
their startup by offering to help them
pay their travel expenses.
WE ALL HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY AS A COM-
MUNITY TO SUPPORT ARAB INNOVATION BY
ENCOURAGING OUR HOME GROWN INNOVA-
TORS. IF IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE A CHILD,
THEN IT TAKES A GLOBAL VILLAGE TO RAISE AN
ENTREPRENEUR. WHAT CAN WE DO AS A COM-
MUNITY TO SUPPORT THE YOUNG ARAB ENTRE-
PRENEURS IN OUR LIVES, WHO ARE TRYING TO
MAKE IT IN THE DUBAI STARTUP SCENE?
Another huge expense for young
Arab entrepreneurs who commute
to Dubai for work and work-related
events is lodging. Unfortunately, most
networking events in the UAE are held
in Dubai and they are hosted at night,
which means that entrepreneurs who
don’t live in Dubai have to deal with
endless rush-hour traffic and drowsy
drives home. So, the next time an en-
trepreneurial friend has a conference
or a meeting in Dubai, offer them your
couch to crash. It doesn’t cost you
anything and it will help your friend
grow their startup and protect their
savings. Ultimately, by helping young
Arab entrepreneurs pay their daily
expenses, we can help them alleviate
some of their financial responsibili-
ties, so they can spend more time and
money investing in their startup.
3. BE A MENTOR WHENEVER
YOU CAN
The biggest thing that young entre-
preneurs lack when they start out is
contacts. Luckily, Dubai is notori-
ous for continuously hosting free
networking events, workshops and
conferences for aspiring entrepre-
neurs. Having said that, it can be very
intimidating to attend these events
alone, especially if you’re unfamiliar
with the startup scene and its lingo.
So, the next time a young entrepre-
neur you know expresses interest
in attending a networking event in
Dubai, offer to go with them so you
THE BIGGEST THING THAT YOUNG ENTREPRE-
NEURS LACK WHEN THEY START OUT IS CON-
TACTS. LUCKILY, DUBAI IS NOTORIOUS FOR CON-
TINUOUSLY HOSTING FREE NETWORKING EVENTS,
WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCES FOR ASPIRING
ENTREPRENEURS. HAVING SAID THAT, IT CAN BE
VERY INTIMIDATING TO ATTEND THESE EVENTS
ALONE, ESPECIALLY IF YOU’RE UNFAMILIAR WITH
THE STARTUP SCENE AND ITS LINGO.
can give them moral support.
In addition to that, make sure to
coach these young entrepreneurs on
the basics of networking etiquette.
These etiquettes can include anything
from what to wear at a networking
event, how to appropriately greet
someone or how to offer your busi-
ness card to a new contact. When
you’re mentoring your young entre-
preneur, make sure to share your best
practices when it comes to conducting
research on events and their attend-
ees. By sharing your strategies, en-
trepreneurs can start to develop their
own networking strategies, which will
ultimately give them more confidence.
That being said, you don’t have to
take a young entrepreneur to a net-
working event to help them network.
Introducing your aspiring young en-
trepreneurs to a relevant contact over
a meal or a cup of coffee is yet another
simple way that you can help them
make valuable contacts. At the end
of the day, it’s not about the quantity
of contacts; it’s about the quality of
contacts. By helping our young Arab
entrepreneurs develop proper net-
working skills, we can ultimately help
them expand their business networks
to include people who can help them
take their startup to the next level.
Soukaina
Rachidi works
as Melltoo
Marketplace’s
Media
Relations
Coordinator,
where she is
responsible for
forging new
partnerships with like-minded entrepreneurs
in the Dubai startup scene and promoting
Melltoo’s core values of trust, sustainability
and privacy to the larger UAE community.
With a B.A. in International Relations from the
University of Delaware, Rachidi is passionate
about global issues and frequently writes about
trending cultural issues and entrepreneurship.
JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 83
START IT UP ECOSYSTEM | WHO’S GOT VC | Q&A | STARTUP FINANCE
REWORK YOUR STARTUP
MODEL TO REFLECT CHANGING
USER NEEDS
Yebab puts photos at the forefront
By Kareem Chehayeb
T
hings often change 2008 as a localized wedding to brides-to-be, what is it?
unexpectedly- and directory due to the market “Yebab is about instant photo
in this particular need at that time,” says its messaging, real-time photo
startup’s case, it co-founder Mareyah Moham- messaging,” says Mareyah.
changed for the mad. So now that Yebab “All its features are focused
better. “Yebab started back in isn’t a platform that caters on improving the way people
communicate using pictures.”
On Yebab, rather than the
conversation happening in
one stream, each picture
posted contains conversa-
tions under them. Using
myself as an example, if I post
a picture about the magnifi-
cent Justin Bieber and talk
about it with a friend, and my
friend later posts a picture
about legendary film High
School Musical, each picture
will have separate conversa-
tion “streams.” However, the
potential Yebab has goes well
being a casual social media
platform. Users with “public”
settings can follow up on
their pictures’ action: views,
discussion, shares, and more.
Sounds like something a few
startups can get behind- more
on that later.
Commenting on Yebab’s
development process,
Mareyah says that back
when Yebab was being
developed as an online
THEY RECEIVED FUNDING FROM
WEB/MOBILE INVESTORS N2V
THAT SAME YEAR, AND THAT PROB-
ABLY MADE THINGS EASIER FOR
THEM AS THEY DECIDED TO EVOLVE
YEBAB INTO A MOBILE APP, SOME-
THING THAT MAREYAH BELIEVES
HAS A “GLOBAL APPROACH TO
COVER ALL TYPES OF CATEGORIES
AND GENDER AS WELL.”
84 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015
DESPITE YEBAB BEING AN INSTANT
MESSAGING AND EVEN A SOCIAL MEDIA
PLATFORM IN ITSELF, MAREYAH
MOHAMMAD GIVES CREDIT TO SOCIAL
MEDIA IN ITS MARKETING SCHEME,
CLAIMING THAT SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
CREATE MORE “BUZZ” AROUND COVERAGE
COMING FROM “TRADITIONAL MEDIA.”
wedding directory in 2010,
she relied on AED2700
(approximately US$735) that
she saved up and used to
develop the website on her
own, alongside co-founder
Murshed Mohammad-
which means this is another
bootstrapping success story.
That said, they received
funding from web/mobile
investors N2V that same
year, and that probably made
things easier for them as
they decided to evolve Yebab
into a mobile app, something
that Mareyah believes has a
“global approach to cover all
types of categories and gender
as well.” Costs naturally went
up later on: “When we shifted
to be an established company
and started hiring talents,
costs naturally increased to
reflect market rates.”
While Yebab the online
website directory was a huge
hit, with the co-founder
claiming that it became the
go-to place for brides in the
Co-founders of Yebab Murshed Mohammad and Mareyah Mohammad
region, how has Yebab, as a
more versatile mobile app,
been received? “Currently the
user base is mostly from the
GCC, and we are having mar-
keting and PR plans in place
to move out to be a global
app.” Their current marketing
strategy seems to be working
well, with Mareyah explain-
ing that the focus has been
on promoting Yebab as an
instant messaging tool and is
shifting away from its wed-
ding-centric identity of the
past. However, she says that
THE CO-FOUNDERS ARE ALSO WORKING
ON “EXPANDING TO USERS IN OTHER
MARKETS OUTSIDE THE REGION,” AS
WELL AS SOME NEW FEATURES THAT
THEY CLAIM WILL “HUGELY IMPROVE THE
COMMUNICATION EXPERIENCE AND TAKE
IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL.”
users interested in Yebab’s
old services can still “use and
benefit from the app.” After
all, despite such a radical shift
in focus, it’s always a plus to
not compromise your former
target audience or users. De-
spite Yebab being an instant
messaging and even a social
media platform in itself, Mar-
eyah Mohammad gives credit
to social media in its market-
ing scheme, claiming that
social media platforms create
more “buzz” around coverage
coming from “traditional
media.” Her personal favorite
social media platform? Yebab,
of course.
Speaking of Yebab as a social
media platform, Mareyah also
sees the potential of the app
as an m-commerce platform.
She’s noticed how businesses
use “photos to drive decision
making,” and mentioned
that the Yebab website “still
covers companies’ profiles to
make it easy for people to find
them.” We could see some
interesting developments on
that end in the future.
So what are Yebab’s future
plans? In short, it’s going to
be all “about user growth.”
The co-founders are also
working on “expanding
to users in other markets
outside the region,” as well
as some new features that
they claim will “hugely
improve the communication
experience and take it to the
next level.” They didn’t give
anything away, but perhaps
it’s something m-commerce
related? We’ll see. The recent
ArabNet conference in Beirut
called mobile “Web 3.0” and
raved on about m-commerce
for a good hour, so this
feature could be something
that will get entrepreneurs
across the region quite excited
about Yebab, especially given
that it is coming from the
“home” turf.
JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 85
START IT UP ECOSYSTEM | WHO’S GOT VC | Q&A | STARTUP FINANCE
SEEING
DOLLAR
SIGNS
My startup got funded in Dubai… and it was much harder
than you’d think By Sharene Lee
R
aising funds is something
almost every startup has
to contend with at some
time. Even a successful
and profitable startup
needs to raise funds to grow faster
than what their revenue would allow.
The current climate of high valuations
and large rounds has pundits scream-
ing: “Bubble!” However, the bubble
is in Silicon Valley; (un)fortunately
there’s no bubble in Dubai. If you’re
part of the startup ecosystem in here,
you’ll soon realize that fundraising is
the bane of our existence. It’s one of
the three questions that gets asked
86 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015
each time you meet up with another
startup founder:
1. “How are you?”
2. “How’s business?”
3. “How’s funding going?”
Suffice it to say getting funding in
the region is challenging (grossly
understated). Our startup, Melltoo,
just closed our seed round. We have
several awesome investors includ-
ing TURN8, i360, WOMENA, Dubai
Silicon Oasis, and a handful of angels.
It took us almost eight months to
close our seed round, and here are
some hard lessons we learned along
the way.
A. FUNDING IS LIKE PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT- ITERATE, ITERATE,
ITERATE!
If you have a choice, start your
fundraising journey by pitching to
investors that are not crucial for your
round. This gives you very necessary
practice, and it allows you to mess up
without losing an important investor.
Fundraising is a learning process; your
first pitches are going to suck, but pay
close attention to the objections of
the first pitches and learn what stops
them from investing in you. Very of-
ten, the early feedback not only makes
subsequent pitches better, it provides
insight into improving your business
model and insight into what different
investors are looking for.
Since our first pitch (which was a
semi-disaster), we’ve iterated at least
10 times, continually tweaking it until
we got it right. We also identified the
common objections investors had and
worked those into our pitch. By now,
there really isn’t a question an inves-
tor can ask us that we don’t have the
answer to. Startup competitions may
also be helpful in helping you fine-
tune your pitch. I say “may” because
there are many competitions that
provide no feedback to participants
so you don’t actually learn from those
experiences.
YOUR STARTUP IS WORTH WHATEVER
INVESTORS ARE WILLING TO PAY. WHATEVER
FORMULA YOU USE TO JUSTIFY YOUR
VALUATION IS IRRELEVANT IF INVESTORS
ARE NOT WILLING TO PAY THIS. GO IN WITH A
BALLPARK FIGURE IN MIND BUT STAY FLEXIBLE
AND REACTIVE TO MARKET FORCES.
B. PUT YOURSELF IN THE SHOES OF
INVESTORS: WOULD YOU INVEST IN
YOU? HAVE YOU INVESTED IN YOU?
Seriously, would you invest in you?
For those of you who are just tinker-
ing with your startup, i.e. you actually
have a full-time job and the startup
is a “side” project, why would you
expect someone to give you US$150K
if you aren’t even willing to take a pay
cut to work on your startup?
Imagine someone you just met
on the street asks you for $5 with
the promise that he’ll pay you $10
an hour later. Would you give him
money? For the average investor, you
are someone they just met. >>>
START IT UP ECOSYSTEM | WHO’S GOT VC | Q&A | STARTUP FINANCE
Melltoo co-founders
Morad Irsane
and Sharene Lee
Above and right: Melltoo app
Why should he trust you with his
money, especially at an early stage
where it isn’t clear whether your
startup will make it? You have to earn
an investor’s trust and that means
building a relationship over time.
That also means being a professional
from the beginning till the end; an-
swer your emails in a timely manner,
and learn to take negative feedback
graciously. Most importantly, earning
an investor’s trust means growing
your business from the first day you
meet till the day you receive a check.
88 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015
STARTUPS GRIPE ABOUT INVESTORS IN THE pitch investors, make sure you know
REGION RELENTLESSLY. SOMEHOW, THEY EXPECT what your strengths and weaknesses
INVESTORS TO GIVE THEM MONEY SIMPLY are. Focus on your strengths and be
BECAUSE THEY HAVE A WORKING PRODUCT, ready to explain how you will address
DESPITE HAVING NO REVENUE, LITTLE TRACTION, your weaknesses. Don’t waste time
AND AN UNPROVEN TEAM. KNOW THIS: TECH- on peripheral things that are neither
NOLOGY IS CHEAP TODAY. BUILDING A PRODUCT strengths nor weaknesses; you’ll just
IS CHEAP AND IS ONLY THE FIRST STEP IN A LONG bore your audience and leave insuf-
JOURNEY TO STARTUP SUCCESS. SO MANY TECH ficient time to talk about what really
PRODUCTS ARE LAUNCHED DAILY THAT NOBODY matters.
HAS EVER HEARD OF. YOU NEED TO SELL INVES-
TORS MORE THAN A LIVE PRODUCT. D. VALUATION IS WHAT THE MARKET
OF INVESTORS IS WILLING TO PAY.
That’s how you build trust and cred- Your startup is worth whatever inves-
ibility with investors. tors are willing to pay. Whatever for-
We started building relationships mula you use to justify your valuation
before we even launched. This helped is irrelevant if investors are not will-
us because we had street credibility. ing to pay this. Go in with a ballpark
People knew us from day one and saw figure in mind but stay flexible and
our startup grow and evolve. Because reactive to market forces.
building a peer-to-peer marketplace is We began with a certain valuation
extremely difficult, people doubted us that we derived from looking at simi-
at first but became believers as they lar startups at similar stages globally.
saw how quickly we executed and We struggled to raise money at this
grew. Not only that, they got to know valuation and quickly realized that
us as people and as entrepreneurs and being stubborn would lead us to the
that goodwill pays off. Every so often wall. We went back and forth with
we hear: “I didn’t think you would various investors carefully until we
last three months when we first met. agreed on a figure that they jumped
But what you guys have accomplished on. Lowering our valuation brought on
is amazing and I told so-and-so ex- investors that even increased traction
actly the same thing.” In a small eco- wouldn’t have brought. Once we loos-
system like Dubai, word gets around ened up on valuation, it was smooth
quick, so be sure it’s a good word. sailing. We received more interest
than we were willing to entertain.
C. KNOW WHAT YOU’RE SELLING.
THE TEAM? TRACTION? REVENUE?
Startups gripe about investors in the
region relentlessly. Somehow, they
expect investors to give them money
simply because they have a working
product, despite having no revenue,
little traction, and an unproven team.
Know this: technology is cheap today.
Building a product is cheap and is
only the first step in a long journey to
startup success. So many tech prod-
ucts are launched daily that nobody
has ever heard of. You need to sell
investors more than a live product.
What is it that you’re selling?
Our investors invested in us for two
reasons: traction and team. We have
yet to start monetizing, so revenue
is non-existent. However, we know
our strength lies with our strong
traction and a team that executes
quickly and effectively. These are the
things we can prove and therefore
what we emphasized. When you

E. GET THE FIRST ONE DONE AND
THE REST ARE IN THE BAG.
Human beings feel safety in numbers,
and investors are no different. A
startup that already has an investor
on board is much more attractive
than a similar startup that doesn’t.
Call it the herd mentality if you like,
but once you get your first term sheet,
other investors are soon to follow. So
focus on closing your first deal. Do
your homework on your first real in-
vestors, give them everything they ask
for, don’t hold anything back. If they
show some doubt about something,
make sure you clarify it until it’s
crystal clear.
One of our early investors raised
a doubt about our monetization
strategy. We explained in some detail
over a voice conversation and via
email. However, in order to drive the
point home, we prepared a 15-slide
deck explaining our strategy in
detail, including other channels we
discounted, details on procedures,
partners, market research done, and
cost structure. While that took a long
time, this investor committed soon
after he received this and we were
able to use this subsequently with
other investors.
Your first investor is your most im-
portant investor because he is taking
the greatest risk by being the first and
potentially the only. So treat him or
her like a VIP even if that ends up be-
ing the smallest cheque.
F. THERE ARE TIME-WASTERS
OUT THERE, SO CUT THEM LOOSE
IMMEDIATELY AND DON’T WASTE
YOUR TIME IN PURSUIT.
Don’t be fooled; there are a lot of self-
proclaimed investors in Dubai who
are simply time-wasters. Startups
deserve respect just as investors do.
Do not be afraid to ask potential
investors what they have invested in
previously (and preferably in the last
six months), and don’t be surprised
by those who have no answer, they
are many. While there are legitimate
first-time investors, they don’t usu-
ally call themselves angel investors
or VCs. Those who do but haven’t in-
vested in anything in the last year are
wasting your time, so cut them loose,
and just as an aside, owning shares in We wasted too much time on so-
Facebook or Apple doesn’t count. called angels and VCs who we quickly
discovered don’t invest in startups in
HUMAN BEINGS FEEL SAFETY IN NUMBERS, AND Dubai. They led us on and asked for
INVESTORS ARE NO DIFFERENT. A STARTUP THAT meetings and info only to disappear
ALREADY HAS AN INVESTOR ON BOARD IS MUCH when we asked for a commitment.
MORE ATTRACTIVE THAN A SIMILAR STARTUP However, don’t let these people
THAT DOESN’T. CALL IT THE HERD MENTALITY IF get you down. Just recognize them
YOU LIKE, BUT ONCE YOU GET YOUR FIRST TERM and move on to the real investors
SHEET, OTHER INVESTORS ARE SOON TO FOLLOW. that are the lifeblood of our startup
SO FOCUS ON CLOSING YOUR FIRST DEAL. ecosystem.
JUNE 2015 ENTREPRENEUR 89
START IT UP ECOSYSTEM | WHO’S GOT VC | Q&A | STARTUP FINANCE

TRY TO GENERATE AS MUCH AWARENESS OF YOUR

BUSINESS AND ACCEPT OFFERS OF SUPPORT FROM
EXPERTS AND BIG BUSINESS AS POSSIBLE. MOST
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS SEE LACK OF CONSUMER
AWARENESS AS A SIGNIFICANT BARRIER FOR SCALING
THEIR VENTURES AND SOLUTIONS. ORGANIZATIONS
LIKE CROWDFUNDING PLATFORMS, FOR EXAMPLE,
ARE EXCELLENT RESOURCES FOR HELPING SOCIAL
ENTREPRENEURS GROW AND ESTABLISH THEMSELVES.

4. BE PASSIONATE AND
BUSINESS-SAVVY
Making the right business decisions will
likely translate into positive outcomes
for your social mission. Remember that
business sustainability can lead to the
sustainability of your social impact.

5. REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE

A BUSINESS
Socially-minded businesses still need
to generate revenue, pay employees and
provide services. Don’t be afraid to reach
out to fellow social entrepreneurs and
businesses to find out how they did it.
Pablo Gonzales of Café Punta del Cielo

Five tips on
talks about the importance of getting
your idea from being conceptual and

becoming a successful
out into the marketplace, “Some people
think that ideas are very valuable, but
the ideas only get their value when they

social entrepreneur are done. So we always tell entrepre-

neurs that if you have an idea, you have

W
to [take] it to the market.”
e know that success doesn’t come overnight. All
entrepreneurs know too well. For The Venture’s
global report, Redefining Success in a Changing
World, more than 550 social entrepreneurs were surveyed
about how they reached success. Here are five tips from
some of the most successful social businesses.
1. AIM TO HAVE IMPACT IN EACH LAYER 2. SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS
OF ACTIVITY OF THE BUSINESS Try to generate as much awareness of
Your business model has the potential your business and accept offers of sup-
to have a positive impact on your port from experts and big business as
employees, supply chain and end possible. Most social entrepreneurs see
consumers, as well as serving a societal lack of consumer awareness as a signifi-
need. The model needs to be designed cant barrier for scaling their ventures and SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR
with multiple, mutually reinforcing solutions. Organizations like crowdfund- SAHAR WAHBEH ADVANCES TO
impacts in mind from the outset. That ing platforms, for example, are excellent THE VENTURE GLOBAL FINALS
will make it more successful and allow resources for helping social entrepre- “I believe through design, we have the
you to turn a profit. neurs grow and establish themselves. power to shape our world for the bet-
ter.” That was Dumyé founder Sahar
3. PARTNER WITH BIG BUSINESS Wahbeh’s pitch at the Gulf finals of The
“SOME PEOPLE THINK THAT IDEAS ARE Not only will established enterprises Venture, a global competition seeking
VERY VALUABLE, BUT THE IDEAS ONLY have potentially helpful connections for the most promising social entrepreneurs
GET THEIR VALUE WHEN THEY ARE DONE. you and your business– they can include around the world for a chance to win a
you in their supply chains and you may share of a US$1 million fund. Vote for
SO WE ALWAYS TELL ENTREPRENEURS in turn inspire them to adopt social en- Sahar Wahbeh and her social enterprise
THAT IF YOU HAVE AN IDEA, YOU HAVE TO trepreneurial practices within their own to win at the global finals of the Venture:
[TAKE] IT TO THE MARKET.” company as well. www.theventure.com/gb/en/finalists/dumye

90 ENTREPRENEUR JUNE 2015