Abu Dhabi: In any talk of business activity in the UAE, one word seems to be attracting much of the attention in recent times — entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship, as Professor Stephan Schubert defines it, is the life blood of an economy and, therefore, of a country. "If you look at an economy like Germany which is one of the largest exporters in the world and if you look at the exports, most of them don't come from large companies like Siemens, but from small and medium sized companies that really drive the dynamics of the economy," said Schubert, an affiliate professor of entrepreneurship at Insead's Abu Dhabi campus.
According to him, entrepreneurship is at the same level as sustainable growth and economic dynamics, and the UAE has gone past the awareness level by which entrepreneurship is supported to a very strong commitment level.
During the first half of the year, the Ministry of Economy turned its focus on promoting the growth of the SME sector through strategic agreements with a number of countries. It reported that economic committee meetings were held with Italy, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Algeria and Syria.
The Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development, which supports home-grown entrepreneurial talent, has approved 224 SME projects since its launch in 2007 and provided more than Dh450 million in funding. It is a similar situation in Dubai.
Finetune operations
Supported by the Dubai Government, the Entrepreneurs Forum, launched in 2004, is a platform for business owners to fine-tune their operations. It has about 1,700 members.
"We provide, through our partners, up to Dh5 million in financial support per business," said Abdul Saheb Al Sajwani, the Forum's secretary. "We also have an agreement with the Dubai Industrial Zone to give us stores at 25 per cent off for our members."
For one entrepreneur, being in the UAE helped his business get off the ground. Mohammad Bitar, managing director of Just Falafel, opened his first shop in 2007 with help from a local partner and friend. "It was an idea and we wanted to see if people were willing to pay an extra dirham for a premium falafel sandwich," he said. Today there are five branches and 24 franchise agreements.
Bitar worked with a US company to help him turn the business into ‘a franchise-able brand.' "It's a dream come true," he said. "I've always wanted to create something Middle Eastern and something that would become global."
Entrepreneurship
The word ‘entrepreneur' is of French origin and was coined in the 19th century, when it started to mean what it is today.
Professor Stephan Schubert said entrepreneurs see solutions and opportunities where others only see challenges. "They are inspired and motivated by something that seems hard to achieve," he said.
"They believe there's a solution and they try as much as necessary until they find a solution, so [they] have a positive mindset and attitude, looking from different perspectives and have the necessary resilience. After years they come up with the right business idea to launch the right business."
