09.010MAGAZINE ISSUE

something for your mind

Digital Media and SME’sPeople often ask us why we are so passionate about digital media.

Opening doorsNow, more than ever, SME’s are vital to fuel vibrant, dynamic and innovative economies.

yeah, we did this!KAIR: Peace of Mind

2009 Annual Report

Making it in the world.

Keeping it real.Starting a business based on an idea

is brave and some would say foolhardy.

creditsIssue Writers

Anthony RymanMichael TuckerBarry Flaherty

Designer

Jason Anonuevo

Photography

Jason Anonuevo

Editor

Michael Tucker

KAIR: PEACE OF MIND

yeah, we did this!

Cover Artwork

Jason Anonuevo

Note to editors:

grow is a refreshingly creative Doha-based advertising and design agency focused on brands. For more information please visit our website http://www.growqatar.comgrow@growqatar.com

ChallengeThe challenge was to create a distinctive annual report that reflected the meaning of KAIR throughout: wealth, prosperity, good living and peace. We developed a theme grounded on these factors and designed the annual report to ensure visual elements reflected these aspects.

Creative responseThe cover of the annual report makes use of large ‘KAIR’ letters as a visual device to create a harmony between the company’s activities and who they are.

Carefully selected imagery inside continues the developed theme, with rich tones and landscapes. Yellow is the dominant colour throughout and chosen imagery symbolises prosperity, peace and wealth. Grey was used to compliment the yellow for a corporate look & feel.

The resultThe result is a fresh corporate design that distinguishes KAIR from other insurance providers in Qatar and clearly highlights the “Big Idea” of peace, prosperity and wealth.

The wonderful thing about digital media is the depth and breadth it offers to every size of organization in today’s world.

It can cater for all markets, budgets and all nationalities. Qatar is no exception. It has never been easier nor quicker to establish a digital presence across an amazing array of platforms for SME’s. Small businesses have to think deeper than just a website. This can be achieved via crowdsourcing and brainstorming business and creative ideas in online forums, posting videos and photos of your products on video sharing websites, establishing a blog, using Linkedin for recruitment and establishing Facebook and Twitter fan pages to drive awareness. Raising the profile of your start up and small business has never been easier.

Cross posting across these myriad of platforms, using your branding, logos, identities, taglines and messaging and listening, monitoring and tracking sales orders or “the buzz” around your brand is also exciting and should help you carefully tailor measurable marketing campaigns for your desired target market as a SME.

Customers out there are discussing your brand now, can you afford not to be involved in the conversation? Valuable business opportunities are waiting to be grabbed and digital media is the easiest and most accessible means at your disposal to drive real measurable business growth. You can after all only manage what you can measure and digital media is inclusive, open and cost effective.

People often ask us why we are so passionate about digital media.

Digital Media and SME’sby Barry Flaherty

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The term ‘enterprise’ has increased in importance. It can be defined as “a project or undertaking, especially a bold one” according to the Oxford English Dictionary. A Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) is an organisation that is typically defined within the parameters of headcount or turnover. There are many variations but typically, an SME is an organisation employing less than 250 people.

The pillars that create a thriving SME economy are core to align government and economic policies. According to a UK Government paper on ‘unlocking the UK’s talent’, published in 2008, the ‘enablers’ for the development of enterprise are:

Culture: creating a sustainable culture and raise awareness of rewards obtainable from enterprise. Reduce ‘fear of failure’; inspiring young people to start new businesses.

Knowledge & skills: developing appropriate skills and knowledge to support enterprise growth through education and business support mentoring.

Access to finance: ensuring easy access to finance for SME’s and better terms on loan guarantees.

Regulatory framework: improve the legal framework within which SME’s operate and reduce the costs/barriers for easier & cheaper compliance.

Business innovation: seeing innovation as the foundation to SME development, promote enterprise through liaison with universities.

Now, more than ever, SME’s are vital to fuel vibrant, dynamic and innovative economies. The recession of 2009 drew focus towards SME’s and their contribution towards stabilisation, innovation and economic development in the West. For years, the business landscape in Qatar has been dominated by large organisations. It is time for new horizons.

‘Enterprise Qatar’ (EQ) was launched in April 2010 to support and develop local SME’s. “It will become a leading voice and a pillar for SME’s within Qatar, helping strengthen and diversify Qatar’s economy” (Enterprise Qatar, 2010). EQ has a hill to climb but with the right vision, and collaborative agreements with industry, government and schools/universities provides a good starting point to bolster the growth of SME’s. It will develop the small business sector in Qatar in line with the above factors – how do these factors apply to Qatar?

EQ need to create a sustainable ‘enterprise’ culture. At present, too little is done to encourage young, aspiring individuals to create their own business. Whether the culture here has groomed youngsters to be risk adverse or that large companies are sucking up school/university graduates with the promise of large salaries and packages, it has created a culture, not conducive to the development of SME’s. It won’t be a quick fix solution, but in the long term, its vision will create the pathway for a new course of action.

Education in Qatar offers traditional courses and skills learnt are not always geared towards industry demand. This has been recognised by some universities in Qatar Foundation offering courses in line with industry demand (e.g. Texas A&M offer degrees in Petrochemical Engineering). But the stimulus for ‘enterprising behaviour’ needs to come much earlier in the talent development cycle. In conjunction with EQ, secondary schools should offer courses in small business development and involve industry (through

by Michael Tucker

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seminars, sponsorship). Whatever the solution, Qatar should embrace the needs of industry and re-evaluate the education on offer. Education needs to promote “innovation.”

Access to SME-specific finance in Qatar remains limited. Banks have not opened their doors to SME’s, probably due to the (up until now) low demand and risk of closure/bankruptcy. Doha Bank has made an effort with their “Tatweer” account. However, one look at one of the eligibility requirements – to have been in operation for 3 years and you start to wonder how a business, starved of start up capital with great potential can make headway and enter the market? This requirement is a barrier to entry. Why can’t loans be granted on merit of a successful /promising business proposal rather than pre-defined conditions? Qatar needs to promote start-ups, not drive them away.

The regulatory framework for business start-up remains tight. Sponsorship law governs the set up and operation of business. These are being loosened and should create an environment conducive for SME development and a freer movement of intellectual capital (people) and resources. If businesses cannot benefit from the resources they require, it will stymie business growth.

Qatar is beginning to stimulate an enterprise culture. It is, I am sure, already looking at appropriate means to stimulate and incentivise entrepreneurs and open the doors for SME’s to build and thrive.

Governments, industry and education establishments need to accept the risks of small business start-ups and respond in meaningful ways to support them. Enterprise Qatar has a role to push this agenda.

The success of the ‘Doha Debates’ has been well documented for politics; couldn’t Qatar introduce a localised version of the ‘Dragon’s Den’? I’m sure there’d be a huge demand!.

Making it in the world. Keeping it real.Starting a business based on an idea is brave and some would say

foolhardy. All the fundamentals really need to be in place: research,

market analysis, business plan, funding, contacts, systems and

processes etc. to start you or your way.

by Anthony Ryman

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Not everyone can develop the killer-app or BIG IDEA that will make you a Zillionaire by spotting a market opportunity that changes the way people live, making a fortune for you on the way. Not everyone is Henry Ford or Steve Jobs.

But you can find a way to develop a business that gives you huge job satisfaction and a means to survive and prosper.

Everything depends on your belief and desire. You have to believe in what you’re doing; not focused on the outcome, the rewards or the fame, but focused on the here and now, maintaining an ironclad and unwavering belief in what you’re doing. The going will be tough and possibly painful and your trust in humankind will be stretched to say the least. It’s easy to say that cash flow is king, or get sucked into ROI’s, CRM’s and KPI’s. Most of these acronyms serve as mechanisms to build, assess and run organisations. But the lifeblood is human energy, desire, belief and commitment.

Being certain about who you are and what you stand for - your true essence, is more important than ever. This certainty of self gives one the courage and confidence to overcome all obstacles and stay with the real, dropping the superfluous.

If you have a good idea, even a great idea, that you can believe in, that represents an expression of you in the marketplace, then you’re partway there to creating an enterprise that will stand for something, including the test of time.

People generally say that there are 4 types of capital:

• human (college education, learning a skill)

• physical (a screwdriver, an asset)

• financial (money, everyone knows that one!)

• social capital (people networks)

Most people get hooked on the financial.

I would add a fifth: enterprise capital. In the words of Captain James T Kirk and the Starship Enterprise… “to boldly go where no man has gone before.” The compelling urge of man to explore and to discover, the thrust of curiosity that leads men to try to go where no one has gone before is the DNA of an entrepreneur. Even if the path is well trodden, there is always a new insight, a better mousetrap, an Aha! moment or niche opportunity to drive you into action.

At grow, we’re running a business based on intangibles. Our ideas combine all the 5 elements of capital. We’re distilling ideas over and over until we get to the very root, the very DNA, the brand essence. From here we create compelling and powerful communications.

We’re brand creators, design engineers, storytellers, value generators and visionary thinkers.

We’re only ever as good as our next project. This keeps us sharp. We create refreshingly powerful ideas and make them real to grow your business and in this way, we grow ours.

“Growing your brand IS growing your business” - this drives us. And the desire to create powerful ideas to achieve standout and differentiation that increase your bottom line and reduce your customer acquisition costs. But more than that, we want you to stand for something real, something authentic and compelling. Something to believe in.

And we do this through clear thinking and creativity. Everything else is process.

“Growing your brand IS growing your business”

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