Girish Narayanan
Girish Narayanan started his Dubai company before he turned 40. The IT professional is the Founder and Managing Director of Granteq, a distributor of integrated audiovisual and IT technologies for the hospitality, health-care and education sectors.
“Our aim is to bring unique and innovative technologies to the Middle East and Africa (MEA) market and deploy these technologies through our strong local channel partners for the benefit of end users,” he tells GN Focus. “The technologies we offer help our partners differentiate themselves from the competition and offer something unique and valuable to their clients.”
Granteq’s team of more than 80 professionals cover the UAE, Saudi Arabia and India with over 200 partners across MEA. Business is growing at the rate of 25 per cent year-on-year.
Having launched the company in India in 2004, he set up a UAE base in 2013 to reach markets across MEA, thanks to the country’s position as a hub for the wider region. Reaching Africa is a particular aim of operating from the UAE, he says — 15-18 per cent of the company’s business comes from the continent. “Dubai is ideally located and having a base here provides stability to our overall operations. Granteq works through partners in Africa and we are keenly looking to establish a direct presence there, particularly Kenya and Nigeria, providing professional support services, yet business enablement will be executed via authorised partners.”
Although the 46-year-old Indian’s company is licensed by the Dubai Economic Department, he says banking and structured finance were a major problem. “Being a start-up we had to find our own money to establish, then create a sustainable business model. [Only] when we were reasonably established did we approach banks for proper structured finances. Today we can even boast of high-value cross-border financial instruments that cover three continents.”
Despite that, the company broke even in the second year of operations and was growing so fast it needed a bigger office by the third year.
So what would he advise would-be entrepreneurs? “Build a base that’s strong, continue to innovate and be honest and truthful.”
Anand Kapoor
For Indian entrepreneur Anand Kapoor, now in his early forties, Dubai was a logical expansion point to reach new markets within Africa. His Dubai-headquartered Midcom Group, situated at Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, straddles industries as diverse as telecommunications, commodities, commercial and residential real estate, dairy products, foreign exchange and education.
The conglomerate, whose annual turnover exceeds $1.5 billion (Dh5.5 billion), operates in 17 countries across Africa and the Middle East, with more than 2,000 employees.
“We were present in East Africa up until 2008, then in 2009 we decided to enter West Africa, which is when we moved our headquarters to Dubai,” he says. The emirate’s strategic location allowed top management to travel easily to different markets of operation. “Emirates has direct flights to each of our countries, and it is easier to attract talent to Dubai than to some of our markets. Also, a major portion of our business is in the Middle East, hence we set up in Dubai.”
There have been challenges, however. “The UAE environment is highly sophisticated and competitive,” he says. “Setting up business in the UAE is relatively easy compared to some of our markets and it is supported by great infrastructure, but as a result it becomes a highly competitive environment where one needs to be careful. So it is more of a business challenge than a challenge of setting up the business.”
Kapoor went into business after working ten years as a forex dealer. “I realised it would take me ten years to get promoted to the level I was expecting. I couldn’t wait that long and decided to venture out myself.” To say he’s succeeded beyond his expectations would be an understatement. What’s he working on now? The launch of Fero, a brand of made-in-the-UAE mobile phones that offers 16 models, from entry-level feature phones, with prices beginning at $8, through to sophisticated premium smartphones.
His advice for wannabe entrepreneurs? “Diversify to avoid dependencies on one industry or geography. Never chase money, instead look to build sustainable businesses to reward yourself in the long run.”
— With input from the GN Focus team
