When considering the theme for the concluding event for

2011 it seemed appropriate that attendees should be offered the opportunity to listen and interact with some of the leading SMEs in the region. It is often asked how SMEs, especially within the more challenging economic climate, manage to overcome the various hurdles that appear on a daily basis and push ahead with impressive strategies.

With this in mind we asked the three winners to give short presentations, mapping their success story and at the end of each session audience members were encouraged to make full use of the Q&A platform. More time to interact with speakers through audience participation and networking opportunities during coffee breaks and lunch was something conveyed to us by attendee feedback and so we created an opportunity for this value-driven interaction.

Meet our winnersAs this was our last event within the SME Advisor Success Series

for 2011, we decided to invite three winners from the SME

Advisor Stars of Business Awards to come and share their story

with attendees. Presented by ADCB, in conjunction with our

Exclusive Telecom Partner, du, the event was a chance not only for

established businesses, but also budding entrepreneurs, to hear

first-hand how these companies plotted their route to success.

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SAS, contributing advice on effective visibility solutions and business analytics, respectively.

The event was concluded with all attendees and speakers attending a lunch, where all were encouraged to mingle and mix and enjoy some food.

It proved a great end to the 2011 event calendar and if there are any events which you may have missed then please visit www.smeadvisor.com/events for the written and photo updates on all the year’s activities.

We will of course continue to build on the momentum of 2011 with an exciting list of events for the coming year. Keep an eye on our Website www.smeadvisor.com for all updates.

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Date: 20th DecemberTime: 9:00 am – 1:00 pmVenue: The Address, Marina, Dubai

For more event photos, visit www.smeadvisor.com/wp-content/themes/wp-clear-basic/powerlunch-sme/fbphotos.php

Guest speakers Shabana Karim, Managing Director, The Nail Spa Winner in the categories of Health and wellness and Admirable Woman Entrepreneur of the Year.

Rabea Ataya, CEO and Founder, Bayt.comWinner in the categories of Technology and online and Business Star of the Year.

Dr. Ata Atmar, Managing Director, Bateel InternationalWinner in the categories of Retail and Manufacturing.

One-on-one consultations have proved a big hit at our events during 2011 – it is an opportunity to sit and have a casual, yet, informative, discussion with subject matter experts from the various companies and government entities that we have as partners. With this event, the speakers also very kindly offered their time to sit and talk with attendees. We had consultants not only from our presenting partner ADCB, offering SME lending advice, but also from Zawya and

Nilanjan Ray, Sr. Vice President, Head, SME, ADCB, extending a warm welcome to attendees

Chris Stevenson, Commercial Director, CPI Business, addresses the audience

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Shabana Karim, Managing Director, The Nail Spa Shabana discussed how she saw a niche in the UAE beauty industry because of the lack of professionalism in customer service and training for staff in salons and the lack of affordable luxury services. So she took up the challenge of exploring this business opportunity.

She made note that The Nail Spa is a home-grown brand and it was basically about tweaking and repackaging

Rabea Ataya, CEO and Founder, Bayt.comSpeaking at the SME Advisor Stars of Business power lunch, Rabea started his presentation by raising a question about the importance of SMEs, especially with the background of the Arab Spring.

He asked the audience what their take was on the Arab Spring and when will it come to an end and then continued to elaborate on why he believed that the uprisings will not end anytime soon. According to him, the uprising is a result of three factors; youth, unemployment and the Internet.

Dr. Ata Atmar, Managing Director, Bateel International Dr. Ata spoke about how it took his company twenty years to create, support and sustain the brand, as well as a heavy investment across all its business operations like farming, manufacturing, sales, distribution, R&D and brand management. Today, the company has a strong market presence in fifteen countries, from cities like London to Jakarta.

Presentations

“I always assume that competition is better than us and that is what keeps us on our toes, because for a business to be successful it is very important to pay attention to details, and we at The Nail Spa are continually striving to be the leading specialists in our industry, not only by providing quality service, but also by focusing on how it is offered.”

“Brilliant people, plans and perseverance can only happen when there is passion. There needs to be passion about why someone is doing a business.”

“The biggest advantage that Bateel had was a first mover advantage, as we created a market that didn’t exist. Innovation led to our success. We instantly became a market leader which created high barriers of entry for our competitors.”

something that was old and to present it to the market in a unique concept. She outlined her role as Managing Director, as one which focuses on innovation, marketing and culture building.

She went on to talk about culture and how it is an important part of her organisation. Trust and integrity are primary values, which she noted were vital and went on to mention that training and development is a major part of The Nail Spa, owing much of her success to her staff and their development with her.

Taking it further and talking about his journey so far, he talked about the challenges he has faced and what kept him going. The four Ps that have been the cornerstone of his success are; people, planning, perseverance and passion.

Businesses are built with people and it is important to hire the best in the field to succeed. The second focus was on planning big. “If you start building small, then you can’t expand. So we started big; we got the best external advisors and we planned to be massive,” he said.

Rabea concluded by stressing on the aspect of “goodness”. “It is goodness which should be the focus of business and not making quick money,” he said. He thanked the people who run SMEs and have persevered in tough times because he believes that the only way this region will get better, is if SMEs continue to grow and others follow them as well.

In order to grow a range and quality of dates, not available from any other source, Bateel uses state-of-the-art farming and processing methods in its own extensive date groves. The company owns a date farm in Al-Ghat that has 50,000 date palms and produces 20 varieties of dates.

Dr. Atmar pointed out an interesting snippet about Bateel that many are not aware of. Bateel has a wholesale trading unit that supplies dates to supermarkets, hotels, airlines and duty free outlets, under the brand names Bateel, Liege, Jomara and Puratos. The dates are those that do not cut the standard for dates sold in Bateel stores. This wholesale business is supported by strong sales and logistics capabilities in the KSA and UAE.

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