SME Success Series
Business growth conference Presented by
Ambitions in Abu Dhabi… and beyond As part of our ongoing SME Success Series, we decided this time to take the road show to Abu Dhabi. Presented by ADCB, in conjunction with our Exclusive Telecom Partner, du, the event brought experts and attendees together for informative workshops, one-on-one mentoring sessions and an opportunity to mingle and exchange business cards. We bring you the highlights.
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fter much positive feedback from the business community in Dubai with our previous SME Advisor Success Series events, we decided that a platform for discussion, debate and networking in Abu Dhabi was the next logical step. Registrations prior to the event far exceeded expectations, which only reinforced our belief that the demand for conferences of this kind expands across the entire UAE and beyond. Positive responses from attendees during the morning sessions made mention of SME Advisor’s unique style, where we offer not only sound business advice but also follow through with suggestions from the SME community on how to better our events. Guest speakers from INSEAD Business School, Salvus Strategic Advsiors and the American University in Dubai, participated in the form of workshops, wherein we aimed to not only provide attendees with informative presentations, but to also offer a platform for audience participation through multiple Q&A slots. We had hoped that healthy dialogue and debate would be a defining feature of this road show and that’s exactly what we got.
Exclusive Telecom Partner
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Publisher
Summit, which takes place on the 28th November. For further information and to nominate your business visit www.smeadvisor.com/awards/2011.
Adly A. Al Zoubi, Regional Head, SME, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, extending a warm welcome to the audience As with previous events, we provided an opportunity for attendees to avail of one-on-one consultations with not only the speakers, but also subject matter experts from our presenting partners, ADCB, offering SME lending advice, and Exclusive Telecom Partner, du, offering advice on SME mobility and technical solutions as well as general marketing techniques within the SME segment. This road show is one of multiple events we will be conducting during the last quarter of 2011. We are arranging a networking evening in October, multiple corporate golf days and of course the much anticipated SME Advisor Stars of Business Awards and
Strategic Partners
SME ADVISOR MIDDLE EAST OCTOBER 2011
Supported By
Knowledge Partners
Richard Judd, Managing Director, CPI Technology & Business addresses attendees For coverage of all our previous events and information for our up-coming events visit www.smeadvisor.com/events.
Date: 26th September Time: 9:00 am – 1:00 pm Venue: Al Mamoura Auditorium, Abu Dhabi For more event photos, visit http://www.smeadvisor.com/events/ ambitions-in-abu-dhabi/
Event Partner
Business Group Partner
Business Community Partner
SME Success Series
Business growth conference Presented by
Conference snapshots
Exclusive Telecom Partner
Publisher
Strategic Partners
Supported By
Knowledge Partners
Event Partner
Business Group Partner
Business Community Partner
OCTOBER 2011 SME ADVISOR MIDDLE EAST
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SME Success Series
Workshops
Business growth conference
Workshop 1: How to make your family business more entrepreneurial Stephen Mezias Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise, INSEAD Business School Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Chair in International Management Academic Director, The INSEAD Abu Dhabi Campus Academic Director, The INSEAD Innovation and Policy Initiative
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ome of the key traits that define an entrepreneur are initiative and risk taking, however, as the business stabilises or becomes a family enterprise passed down from one generation to another, these key traits tend to get lost in a comfort zone. Why “Broad participation in design ensures structures support can your business not afford to get complacent and why do you tasks and your systems should encourage feedback for need to continue to think like an entrepreneur? improvement. Employees are profit centres and if family Stephen discussed whether businesses should put more focus businesses are to become more entrepreneurial then on processes or profits and emphasised that making your firm their owners must understand that it’s not about lowest more entrepreneurial is realising structures are not a past time but possible cost, but about highest possible returns.” an on-going necessity.
Workshop 2: Defining your core corporate principles for sustainable growth Vikram Venkataraman Director Salvus Strategic Advisors JLT, Dubai, UAE Salvus Capital Advisors Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, India
“You must find the balance between business design and structures and always keep track of not only your own wallet but also your client’s wallet, in order to plan for future expectations.”
Vishnu Deuskar Managing Director Salvus Strategic Advisors JLT, Dubai, UAE
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ention the word sustainable and everyone thinks green. But being a sustainable business is actually about having the best shot at long-term survival and growth. It’s about having a strategy instead of a series of knee-jerk reactions, fuelling growth spurts that may not be viable in the long term. So how do you take your business from point A to B, without it being one step forward, and two steps back? Vishnu and Vikram made it clear from the outset that for businesses of any size, corporate culture is what you do and how you behave when no one is looking. Vishnu’s presentation concentrated on demonstrating sustainability by its need to have continued client focus and emphasised the dangers of becoming disconnected with clients and
customers.
Workshop 3: Matching your business vision to policies and upcoming opportunities Shadi Abouzeid Ph.D. Associate Professor of Decision Sciences American University in Dubai
“In many cases policies being drafted aren’t even being followed and people then begin to question what the point is; the follow through from senior management and owners is imperative if the policy is going to take root in any business.”
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SME ADVISOR MIDDLE EAST OCTOBER 2011
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roper planning is vital for growth. Another thing that could help businesses is being aware of how best to utilise the opportunities they present, while planning short and long-term strategy. Shadi explained that when introducing policies you should always be considering the triple Rs – record, report and regulation and it is not just about the policies themselves but how they are implemented and what comes after their introduction.
One-on-one consultations
SME Success Series
Business growth conference
Ezhil Venugopal
Senior Manager, Trade Sales ADCB
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zhil Venugopal is Senior Manager, Trade Sales at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. He has over ten years of experience, with the last eight years in trade finance. He has a wealth of knowledge in the trade finance arena having worked in varied roles such as sales, operations and electronic channels.
Stephen Mezias
Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise, INSEAD Business School Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Chair in International Management Academic Director, The INSEAD Abu Dhabi Campus Academic Director, The INSEAD Innovation and Policy Initiative
Trade and lending
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tephen Mezias’ current research focuses on cognitive and social aspects of institutional processes, especially as they relate to legal environments, the emergence of new industries, the production of culture, organisational learning processes, and cultural differences and similarities in performance evaluation. His publications have appeared in or are forthcoming in Management Science, Organisation Science, Administrative Science Quarterly, Strategic Management Journal, as well as numerous other journals.
Mohammed Samiuddin
Unit Manager, SME Abu Dhabi ABCD
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ohammed Samiuddin has 12 years of diverse banking experience in different departments in retail banking, commercial banking and risk management, during which he has handled varied portfolios. Currently as Unit Manager, his focus is on growth of existing SME portfolio with reliance on assets build up and to maintain the existing portfolio of varied SME clients.
SME lending
SME mobility and technical solutions/ Marketing techniques within the SME segment Raghav Mimani,
Marketing Manager, Enterprise SME Segment, du,
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aghav has over eight years experience in the telecom domain having previously led teams in the functions of marketing, sales and technology. At present he is the leader of operational teams, project manager and product manager for new and existing products at du.
Vikram Venkataraman
Director Salvus Strategic Advisors JLT, Dubai, UAE Salvus Capital Advisors Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, India
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ikram is a career banker with 25 years of experience in banking in India and the Middle East with various banks. His most recent experience in banking has been as the Head of the SME Business at Mashreq, which he left in 2010 to co-found an SME focused investment banking firm, Salvus Strategic Advisors.
Vishnu Deuskar
Managing Director Salvus Strategic Advisors JLT, Dubai, UAE
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ishnu Deuskar is the Managing Director of Salvus Strategic Advisors JLT, Dubai and Salvus Capital Advisors, India. Before establishing Salvus, he was Managing Director and Head of Global Markets-MENA region, ABN AMRO Bank and was responsible for treasury, bond origination, syndicated loans, project finance, structured products, derivatives, money markets and foreign exchange. Prior to that he was with ABN AMRO and ANZ Grindlays Bank in India. Since 2009 he has been on the international the panel of judges of the annual Wharton Business Plan Competition organised by The Wharton School of Business, USA.
Shadi Abouzeid Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Decision Sciences American University in Dubai
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fter receiving his doctorate, Professor Abouzeid worked for fiveyears as an operational manager for a pharmaceutical distribution company. He then moved to Dubai and joined academia. He is currently working on a three years project with Abu Dhabi Government that will improve the processes of their municipal system.
OCTOBER 2011 SME ADVISOR MIDDLE EAST
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