'Collaborative entrepreneurship vital'

Dubai - Focus on Mena's economic and employment needs beyond Expo 2020

Working with smaller companies is essential for the success of today's big corporations, highlighted Expo 2020 representatives at the inaugural Collaborative Entrepreneurship Summit. The initiative, organised by Expo 2020 and Wamda, offered a platform for startups, SMEs and corporations to build collaborative networks towards a sustained economic growth.

"We need to work on having collaborative entrepreneurship to scale up smaller businesses and reenergise and renovate larger ones," said Reem Ibrahim Al Hashemi, Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director General of Bureau Expo Dubai 2020, during her opening remarks. "If you are not able to renovate yourself [big corps], you will become obsolete very quickly." Al Hashimi added that the aim is to address Mena's economic and employment needs beyond Expo 2020.
Speaking on the sidelines of the summit, Marjan Faraidooni, vice-president of Legacy at Expo 2020, stated that connections between executives and startups offer mutual benefit needed to help in economy scaling.
"We want to hopefully be part of the story where we create more jobs and healthier economy for UAE and region as well," said Marjan. "Big corporates cannot afford not to work with smaller companies. They need to be innovative and quick and it takes time to do that on their own."
As for small companies, the event highlighted that they have their own challenges to overcome. Generating revenues, building a team, obtaining investment and expanding into new territory were the top challenges faced by Mena startups in 2016. Mudassir Sheikha, founder of Careem, the chauffeur cab booking service, said finding talents is a main challenge for any startup. "People look to work in multinational corporations, not many are willing to take the leap for a startup," he told Khaleej Times. When Careem started, Sheikha gave stocks to people joining to create the feeling of partnership rather than employment. With fundraising being another challenge, Sheikha stressed on the importance of cooperating with big corporations. "As a startup, you need services like a bank account, internet line, telecommunications. Large companies will help establish the whole service although the process takes a long time."
But Sheikha noted that awareness of collaborative entrepreneurship is growing. In a panel discussion, Mouayed Makhlouf, Mena regional director of the International Finance Corporation, said banks are more reluctant to lend startups for failure to assess risks.
"Only eight per cent of assets are given to SMEs, while there are 23 million SMEs in Mena," said Makhlouf. "It is important to bridge the gap and invest on credit to banks that target SMEs," he stated as a way to combat high unemployment rates. Speaking of her experience, Najla Al Midfa, founder of Khayarat, a UAE-based employment agency, said the youth is struggling from a guidance gap.
"From my interaction with the youth, I noticed a huge gap in career guidance not provided by universities," said Al Midfa during a panel discussion. "There's a lot of guidance and handholding that needs to be done."
Upon establishing Sheraa, Sharjah entrepreneurship center, she said she felt the necessity to establish an academy that bridges between academia and the workplace upon noticing a big skill gap.
"The most common skill gap is soft skills such as problem solving, critical thinking and communication. We need to solve this before creating entrepreneurs," she said. The summit was attended by global entrepreneurs, business leaders, influencers, experts and investors at an outcome-oriented event. - sherouk@khaleejtimes.com