Diva Modelling And Events headquarters in Dubai

So, what’s a girl to do after her fulfilling her dreams as a fashion model? Unless you’re Heidi Klum, it may not be the most realistic idea to get back on the runway after settling down and having a family. Starting your own modelling agency would be fantastic, but that’s easier said than done.  Nicole Rodrigues has done just that in Dubai with Diva Modelling And Events, an agency that provides models, promotional staff, hostesses and entertainers among other services.  As Owner and Managing Director, she has grown Diva into become a top modelling and events agency in the region, working with a network of 15,000 professionals. She also manages Diva Holdings Company, a real estate investment fund that is today worth almost AED 100 million.

It all started with a holiday in 2003 that never seemed to end. Nicole, a former haute couture fashion model, visited Dubai with her husband and six-month old infant and instantly fell in love with the place. At that time, Dubai was still in the early stages of its real estate boom.  They relocated when the fashion industry in the Emirate was not very developed and Rodrigues saw it as the perfect time to fill that void and start a modelling agency that could set standards.

“Initially my stride was to create an institution that would protect rights of models, promoters and clients so there would be more clarity as to what was being done, how it was being done, where it was being done and what was not being done,”says Nicoe.  Part of Diva’s creed is reliability, long-term commitment and professionalism: three key qualities that she says are not always reflected from her competitors.

Walking through Diva’s headquarters, you forget for a minute that you are in Dubai. Instead of flashy and colourful, you are surrounded by an all-white, chic Manhattan-like interior decor. Multi-cultural (and fashion forward) staff are busy recruiting talent and planning the next big events and campaigns. Rodrigues can be found in the middle of the commotion, as she makes final decisions on the pressing issues of the day.

Over the past few years Diva has become a key player in high-profile events, including Dubai Fashion Week, Dubai Motor Show, Dubai Air Show and GITEX,  among others. Events is an area where the company shines, as Diva is fully capable of using its own resources to put together major events in the region. It’s this unique blend of services that has enabled the company to boost its brand and visibility. Companies like Unilever, Valentino, Missoni and Philip Morris have all partnered with Diva when building their brands in the region. Last year, Diva Modelling And Events was awarded the People’s Choice Award as part of the SME Advisor Stars Of Business Awards. It was also recognised as member of the Dubai SME 100 rankings and the Arabia 500.

Nicole credits the company’s rapid growth to a number of factors. She is grateful to have been able to launch in Dubai, which she says has a great eco-system for growth for SMEs and entrepreneurs. However, her exposure to international markets as well as financial expertise in the family has also helped her become a better leader. “My philosophy is that one must be completely rounded in business; you can’t just be great at finance or great at strategy and marketing;  you have to have all of it together to create a perfect combination.”

Her biggest pet-peeve is procrastination. When asked about her long-term goals, she adamantly says that she only thinks in the short and medium term.  “If there’s something I think I want to do in five years it’s on my agenda today. Procrastination, I fear,  is what restricts a lot of growth in a lot of companies. Just do it. Stop thinking. People spend too much time saying ‘should I do it?’ We figure out the way as we go along.”

For now, Nicole will be working to meet the goals she hopes to accomplish by the end of the year – including expansion into other GCC markets with the launch of Diva Bahrain, Diva Qatar and Diva Kuwait, as well as plans to expand into Turkey, India and Pakistan. The company has already extended its brand to in spas, beauty salons, laundry services and there are plans in the pipeline to launch a line of body shapers.

A major challenge that SMEs face in the region is, of course, access to financing and loans. Rodrigues advises entrepreneurs to look beyond just financing to raise capital. She says there’s a lot of accessible money in the local market if you have the right business concept, vision and plan in place. It’s just a matter of networking and pitching your plan to the right people. She was fortunate enough to have received a small sum of money from an angel investor when she was starting out, however, her warning to young entrepreneurs is to be wary of who they choose as partners and mentors. She sees great potential in them, but at the same time notices a lack of understanding among them on topics like finance, private equity, wealth management and venture capital.

“You don’t need to be a genius at one thing but more of jack of all trades today, a great rounded personality. You can’t be able to get your strategy, marketing, motivation; you need to round yourself completely,” she says. That’s exactly why she started NM investments, a platform available for new business plans and people who want to raise capital. The firm also provides financial advisory services to talent who are not very finance savvy and want to manage their money responsibly.

Another important lesson Nicole says every entrepreneur needs to learn, is how to get outside of your comfort zone to understand

Nicole Rodrigues, Founder and Managing Director, Diva Modelling And Events

your clients and customers. Dubai, with its unique population that comes from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, presents both major opportunities and challenges to SMEs who operate there. Not all businesses, she says, are able to understand their needs. So many startups fail relatively quickly, partly due to their lack of understanding of how international markets work, and how exactly to implement them locally.

Despite having achieved great success in such a short amount of time, Rodrigues stressed that there is always need for improvement, both personally and professionally. She is currently enrolled in the Owner/President Management programme at Harvard Business School, and aims to complete it in 2013. “Life is constant growth. I’m at 39 and I’m going to school. I do it to better qualify myself. It opens up all these windows, we get so lethargic in our luxurious lifestyles and we stop driving ourselves and I think it’s important to always have focus.”

The Dubai SME 100 initiative was launched by His Highness Sheikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum on 14^th March 2011. The initiative, aimed to identify outstanding SME performance and potential, forms a critical component of the DubaiSME five-year plan approved by the Economic Sector Committee in 2009.

“By ranking and recognising the top SMEs, we are opening several fronts. These top 100 SMEs have persevered to achieve major triumphs for their business models, innovations and brands over the years. They have become successful in their own right. Dubai SME’s role is to create a platform for evaluating these top SMEs. Investors, in particular will be interested to know who these promising SMEs are, and perhaps invest in them. Through Dubai SME 100, we hope to create an indirect pipeline of SMEs for a secondary SME listing market in Dubai. This will help SMEs gain additional external capital, new talents, markets and brand enhancements,” said Abdul Baset Al Janahi, CEO of Dubai SME, during the ceremony announcing the rankings.

The Dubai SME 100 ranking will act as a platform and catalyst to identify promising SMEs – to groom them to become bigger, better and sustainable enterprises; eventually graduating them to large globally-oriented companies. At its core, the ranking is aimed at:

- Celebrating Dubai’s top performing SMEs

- Creating greater awareness of the importance of SME development

- Creating a national motivational psyche in the nation’s social and business community

- Encouraging SME role models to share best practices.

- Marketing the capabilities of Dubai’s SME’s to regional and global investors

- Providing opportunities for SMEs  to raise capital

- Creating a base of SMEs for a potential secondary listing of SMEs (IPO) that can attract equity capital for growth.

- Providing development path for SMEs to graduate

- Creating a culture of transparency and corporate governance.

Unlike other rankings which are based mainly or purely on financial indicators, the Dubai SME 100 ranking places a balanced emphasis on financial and non-financial dimensions that affect enterprise performance and development. The non-financial dimensions cover innovation, international orientation, human capital development and corporate excellence.  The ranking will also serve as a tool for helping SMEs identify capability gaps for improvement. This is the real long-term value that the rankings will bring to the table for SMEs.add of Dubai SME 100.

The basic criterion is that the applicant must be an SME based on the official definition of Dubai’s SMEs. In addition, it must have audited financial statements for at least three years, and be an independent entity registered in Dubai (under DED or the Free Zones).  SMEs will be ranked only after they have submitted all relevant information voluntarily. Hence the ranking does not necessarily represent Dubai’s top SMEs, but SMEs that have undergone the Dubai SME evaluation process for ranking.

Key facts and figures

1. A total of 1092 SMEs registered for the initiative, of which 196 SMEs applied to move on to stage two of the application and evaluation process. From these 196 serious applicants, the top 100 were selected and ranked based on complete submissions of financial statements, supplemented by either a management interview or site visit to ascertain facts and evaluate the merits of each case.

2. Of the 100 ranked SMEs, based on Dubai’s official SME definition, 15 % are classified as micro SMEs, 52% as small SMEs and 33% as medium-sized SMEs.

3. In terms of sectors, 62% are from the services, 13% are from the manufacturing and 25% belong to the trading sector.

4. The combined turnover of the top 100 SMEs based on their latest financial records is estimated at AED 2.3 billion. Their estimate total assets are worth AED 1.4 billion and the combined profit is AED 220 million.

Name: Dimensions Healthcare

Dubai SME ranking: #1

Sector: Health care

Dimensions Healthcare swept into the top spot and after speaking to its Managing Director, Dr. Omar Ghosheh, it’s clear to see why. Established in 2008, it has since become a leading healthcare informatics and consulting firm in the region, assisting both private and public sectors with transitioning and streamlining services and healthcare systems.

More specifically, it also deals with medical coding and revenue cycle management, drug databases and decision support systems, pharmacy benefit management, and eClaim solutions.

Since its inception, Dimensions Healthcare has blended healthcare information, technology and experience to build, implement and train to provide evidence-based solutions for healthcare providers. At present they serve 2,100 healthcare entities and 15,000 clinics across the UAE and Oman, with plans for expansion into the KSA market in the near future.

“Through our partnership with MedImpact International we are striving to implement the American system, whereby all systems will be streamlined; from solutions to enhance clinic management tools to solutions for pharmacies to manage their inventory and so on,” said Dr. Ghosheh.

So what feedback did Dubai SME give to Dimension Healthcare after the results were announced? “Their feedback report is very thorough. As far as outlining where our strengths lay, they pinpointed our innovative strategies over the past four years – we have consistently strived to better our performance and services year-on-year and this was highlighted with both our financial records and our in-house management style,” he says.

Dimensions Healthcare have also been instrumental with the implementation of the UAE government’s introduction of eclaimlink.com, whereby health claims can be lodged electronically. It is part of the UAE’s wider green initiative of switching most of paper driven processes across to electronic and Dimensions Healthcare have dealt with the full process systems and processes involved. “There is a calendar in place for the phase out of paper and it is hoped by January 2013 the remainder of government departments will have followed suit,” said Dr. Ghosheh.

So what does he believe has been one of the major contributors to the companies accelerated growth and success? “I know this is rather cliché but its human capital. We may not have a huge number of workers but it’s a firm belief in quality over quantity – we promote and recruit young talent and nurture that talent and as more projects evolve then more staff is brought on board,” he says.

Indeed, from talking to Dr. Ghosheh and from a glance at the staff in and around the office, there is a young vibrant feel to this company. He notes that with a staff of less than 50 in Dubai, most of this number are within the mid-to-late twenties category. “It’s the efficiency and innovative approach of this young staff base that drives our success with any project we undertake,” says Dr. Ghosheh.

So how is it exactly that Dimensions Healthcare can react so well to market demand, especially with the health sector presently experiencing a boom in the region? Dr. Ghosheh explains that they work very closely with policy makers and committees and in many instances offer close coordination through recommendations.

“We are continuously striving not only to complete current projects for the private sector, but also to assist with both the best practice policy implementation, and the practical follow-through, where streamlining the healthcare sector is concerned. To be involved with these policy makers and committees allows Dimensions Healthcare to serve the public interests in healthcare as best as possible,” he says.

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Name: Intercoil International

Dubai SME ranking: #4

Sector: Manufacturing

Intercoil International was incorporated in 1974 and today the company’s core business is the production and distribution of (wholesale, retail and export) of PU foam, furniture and orthopaedic sleep products under two brands; Intercoil and Therapedic. Intercoil presently exports to all the countries in the GCC, North Africa and South Asia.

At present Intercoil has over 220 employees and 20 factory outlets across the GCC. Their products are distributed and sold through retailers. Accreditations include ISO 9001 certified by KPMG in 2000 and it is a member of the International Sleep Products Association (ISPA).

As well at the announcement of its top ten placing in the Dubai SME 100 ranking, Intercoil also achieved the Dubai Quality Appreciation Programme instituted by the Government of Dubai and Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED). Held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the certificates were handed over at the Business Excellence Awards 2012 ceremony held April 4^th at Dubai World Trade Centre.

The award was received by Hassan Al Hazeem, Managing Director, of Intercoil International, from Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. When Hassan spoke to SME Advisor he made it clear from the outset that this locally grown Emirati business places emphasis on preserving quality and maintaining its sense of social responsibility.

What is perhaps most striking about Intercoil is its capacity to provide products at both national international levels. Upon receiving the Quality Appreciation certificate Hassan, he noted: “Business excellence models take a holistic view and audits the quality culture followed at all levels of the organisation. The Dubai Quality Appreciation Programme Award is a major milestone for us, but we cannot rest on our laurels, we need to sustain our amazing growth, through innovation and continuous improvement. This recognition is a major impetus for our strategy — augmenting our manufacturing capabilities and expanding our retail footprint across the region.”

Indeed their exporting capability was one of the main features highlighted in Dubai SME’s feedback to the company after the announcement of their high ranking.

“We received very comments regarding our exporting ability and our ability not only to maintain our high levels of output, but also on our innovative plans to expand and grow,” says Hassan. So what are these plans for expansion and how best can they be achieved.

“Currently the main plant is here in Dubai but there are plans in place to shift full production to Ras al Khaimah (RAK). There are also plans to expand further into untapped market in North Africa, including Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, with original deadlines delayed because of the Arab Spring,” said Hassan.

Hassan also explains that the adoption and implementation of the latest technological advances has helped Intercoil increase production through automation. “Full automation is in place for the foam division but the long-term plan is of course to utilise industrial technology to automate across all divisions,” he says.

So, how did Intercoil find the entire application process regarding the Dubai SME rankings? “What better way to evaluate your own business than to expose your strengths and weaknesses to a competition of this kind? The application was thorough in terms of innovation, financial, performance and human capital. The process allowed us to take a look at all aspects of the business and to recognise elements that may need refined – areas that we may have overlooked or become ignorant to over time,” said Hassan.

“It certainly gave us the initiative to propel the business, to promote better corporate governance going forward and, as we achieve a larger status, to maintain a standard of professional excellence and quality driven products,” he concludes.

Name: Paramount Computer Systems

Dubai SME ranking: #9

Sector: Professional services

Founded in 1992, transformed in 1999, and re-invented in 2007, Paramount Computer Systems is a regional provider of technology and services for securing the information assets of enterprises. The company’s services range from the development of a security policy, security awareness training, through to the delivery of solutions that encompass perimeter security, secure content management, identity and access management, vulnerability assessment, risk, policy and compliance management.

In short, Paramount assists businesses in the Arabian Gulf Region, understand, monitor and mitigate the risks in their IT infrastructure. Its clients include banks and financial institutions, airlines and transportation companies, telcos, universities and large corporate entities in the region. With six offices and over 90 staff, it can boast partnerships with some of the region’s biggest IT security layers, including McAfee, EMC and Juniper.

So what motivated Paramount to enter a nomination for the Dubai SME 100 rankings? The company’s CEO, Premchand Kurup, explains that it was out of desire to see what the outside thought about his company. “Who better to judge you than your piers – it was this very reason that Paramount was first established – to have a company working for the customer that was also respected among both peers and the professional market,” says Premchand.

Having been placed within the top ten of the rankings list gives an obvious indication of the quality of services Paramount provide, but what were the key elements outlined in the comments from Dubai SME? “We scored high with innovation and with an understanding of the direction the company is going as well as being commended for our willingness to allocate the necessary resources for continued growth and expansion,” he says.

“We place a lot of emphasis on human capital development, with training and education an important component built into every employee’s career path. We respect the need to maintain high employee morale by balancing processes with relationships, encouraging individualism as well as team work and continuing transparency from top to bottom. The hierarchy of the company is not strictly enforced and as far as approaching management, it’s well communicated that the door is always open,” says Premchand.

What is also rather impressive is Paramount’s mature corporate governance policies. There are regular and strict audit processes in place as well as quarterly reviews, where each department heads meets with management to give assessments and updates pertaining to outlined strategies and targets.

So, what is next for Paramount? “We will take the next three to five years to expand into other markets. We are confident that with a careful planning and a solid strategy in place that Paramount can enter the more mature markets of Europe and the US and recreate the success we have here in the Middle East,” Premchand grins.

Uday Singh

Uday, a budding entrepreneur, is a senior at the Philips Academy, Andover, USA. Philips Academy is a preparatory school and was founded to provide education to bright young minds from all over the world.

Talking to Uday, one cannot help but observe that he is acutely aware of the opportunities that have been given to him and has worked hard on making something out of these opportunities. Talking passionately about his school, the Philips Academy, Uday believes that being elected as the President, in March 2011, provided him with a platform to put his ideas to action and execute them.

Elaborating more on his entrepreneurial startup, he said that he got his first idea in his freshman year, when he realised that it was not easy to order food on campus and students didn’t know where to order from, and what options were available.  Andover has very high restaurant density and the Academy gave him the opportunity to create www.andovertakeout.com, where he collaborated with local restaurants  and created discount deals. Uday put the menu of the restaurants online and students could access the Website and know what eating options they have. At the same time, it gave the restaurants free publicity.

The Website has done well with 16,000 hits since its inception and a lot of students use it. Moving forward, Uday has a lot of innovative ideas. He said “We are in the process of building another Website called the Andover Exchange, which is something like an eBay for prep school.” The idea came to him when he was leaving for holidays and did not know what to do with his stuff and he realised that most students didn’t know either. So he is working on setting up a site, where students can put their stuff for sale and the highest bidder gets it.

Thinking about his other entrepreneurial startups, Uday went back in time and told us about his “Big Blue Bikes.” In his sophomore year, he and his friends noticed that it was very difficult for students to keep bikes on campus. They gave it some thought and came up with a plan to rent cycles on campus. So they found a bike vendor who was ready to rent for two hours and thus came the idea of the Big Blue Bikes. They applied for a USD 10,000 grant, which was approved by the Abbot Association Academy.

Uday found a local vendor in Andover Cycles, and it was a first-of-its-kind deal and for the vendor it was a win-win situation, since it got him free publicity and more sales.

While for the bike venture, they got the funding from the association, the Website for the restaurants has been funded by Uday and his friends. He added that not much funding is required for the takeout Website because it’s non-profit Website and is not very expensive to run it. The only work involved is to go down and meet restaurants and they encourage students to do that since it is great for students, who want to have some entrepreneurial experience.

The Website was initially accessible to only the school but now is open to all; however some deals are restricted to only the students.

When we asked him if there are any basic rules that he has learnt along the way, Uday was quick to point out that he was taught to always write down an idea. “You should always write down your idea. Whenever you see something and wonder ‘what if it was….’, then write down the part after that ‘if’ because sometimes that part can end up to be something awesome.”

To create an idea is not about sitting and intentionally thinking about ideas, but noting the thought down every time something innovative strikes you. The second part is feasibility. Once you have a great idea, you have to know if it’s possible to put it together and how feasible it is.

And he emphasised about not giving up. “There will be a lot of bumps. For instance, we ran into a difficult situation with our bike venture and as a result lost our subsidised store and facilities. We were stuck with the problem, of who will supply us with these rates and hours. So we decided to change the whole model, rather than making it hourly rentals, we changed the offer to monthly, term-long and yearly rentals, since we could not maintain the bikes anymore. For us that was a huge bump and we wondered if we should shut it down. But we didn’t want to and we looked around and we thought of getting student mechanics, who could volunteer to maintain and service the bikes.” And this is how Uday said, they overcame this hurdle.

With so much done, in such little time, Uday definitely has a long way to go and he has a lot of dreams and ideas, one of them being that when he returns for his school reunion ten years hence, students will still be riding the big blue bikes. Touché to that!

Bayt.com was established provide a link between job seekers and employers in the Middle East by leveraging the Internet to provide free access to employment opportunities in a region that has historically had limitations on the flow of both information and people. The motivation that powers Bayt.com is an obsession to empower others to lead better lives, by creating technologies that will help people lead the lives that they want for themselves.

What is your management philosophy and vision?

Bayt.com’s management philosophy and vision revolve around leadership and empowerment. At Bayt.com, we believe that the most effective leaders in the world history are those who:

- Are admired and respected by their peers and reports

- Lead from the front and are not hidden away in ivory towers far away from the action

- Form strong personal relations with their team that transcend just a working relationship

- Are supportive and respectful

Every Bayt.com employee is actively required to be a leader as well as to empower others. We do this by ensuring that our corporate culture preaches respect, and allows the freedom to act independently within a framework. People, planning, perseverance and passion are the four basic Ps of a successful business. This is what we believe in. We are here not to make quick money, but to build a successful business that we are passionate about.

Bayt.com has 227 employees in 12 different countries. 73% of the workforce is Arab, 27% is non-Arab and we have 15 different nationalities.

What is innovative about your approach?

At Bayt.com, we are constantly striving for innovations that anticipate and meet the needs of both job seekers and employers. Our teams work very hard to ensure relevancy, above all else, and that requires a lot of innovation. Our goal is to ensure that job seekers have relevant job recommendations, have access to relevant career development resources, and have the ability to create CVs and cover letters that are relevant to the jobs they seek.

During the past 11 years, we have innovated a lot to achieve relevancy. Some of our innovations are technological; our proprietary industry-leading CV search tool, for example, has very intricate algorithms that were custom designed by highly specialised teams at Bayt.com. Other technical innovations include Bayt.com Salaries, Bayt.com Career Watch, Bayt.com People and Bayt.com Classifieds.

Some innovations are related to services; Bayt.com’s Career Services team for instance help job seekers on a case-by-case basis in order to ensure they are maximising their professional branding and career planning.  And some of our innovations are related to culture and team spirit.

What challenges have you faced along the way and how did you deal with them?

The story of Bayt.com’s success has been a story of hard work, persistence and an unwavering commitment to excellence, innovation and integrity. When Bayt.com was founded in 2000, the main two challenges were the very limited Internet penetration in the Middle East at the time and also the task of very speedily educating our various stakeholders about unique features and huge unparalleled benefits of online recruitment we were introducing in the region.

How has the company fared during period of economic slowdown? Did you have to change your approach in the past two to three years?

One of Bayt.com’s key strengths as a sustainable business has been its flexibility and ability and willingness to recognise, anticipate and adapt to change readily and in an optimal fashion. Bayt.com recognised early on that the economic slowdown would actually only further consolidate our leadership position across the region as a heightened emphasis on sourcing only the very best human capital, coupled with drastically shrunken HR budgets and an increased attention to maximising HR ROI in sophisticated corporations across the industry spectrum. We have used the period of slower economic growth to build stronger, more endearing and more creative relationships with our clients, to increase their loyalty, and to increase and diversify our product offering further to take advantage of new opportunities to deliver value.

What insights can you provide about the job market in the UAE? Are there any particular issues that anybody entering this field should pay special attention to?

The UAE remains a very robust attractive place to live and work and a popular hub for highly competitive top-grade talent looking to settle in a modern, cosmopolitan environment with a world-class business infrastructure. The attractiveness of the UAE globally as a work destination has meant that local employers over the past decade have had the luxury of being able to attract and retain world-class talent with very little difficulty.

Currently as per the latest Bayt.com Jobs Index Survey it seems that the hiring expectations trend across the region suggests more hiring activity in a year’s time than in the coming quarter. The UAE is not an exception with 62% of companies considering hiring within a year according to the latest Bayt.com Jobs Index survey, and 49% looking to hire by January 2012 with the private sector being more likely to hire in the next three months, especially multinational companies

What are the salient features of your HR policies and training for staff?

A very important aspect of success is constant training, and Bayt.com is well aware of that. We have a STARS Training methodology that is applied company wide. In STARS, employees undergo periodic training related to:

1. Systems: The understanding of our internal and external software processes

2. Techniques: The systematic procedure by which a task is accomplished

3. Activities: Measurable amount of work performed in converting inputs to outputs

4.Role-Plays: Acting out actions in a simulated situation

5. Stories: A true account of a client interaction where a lesson learned was applied towards a successful outcome

Aside from the STARS system, all employees are encouraged to participate in external trainings and seminars, for which we cover the costs. We also have the Speaker Programme, where leading individuals come to our offices on a monthly basis to talk about topics that are interesting, like innovation through moviemaking and the psychology of change.

Rabea Ataya

Are your processes eco-friendly?

Green processes are at the heart of all our activities at Bayt.com. Here are just a few of the ways green thinking is the very core of our business operations:-

- Online recruitment has meant paper CVs, paper files and physical letters and filing cabinets and storage space associated with the recruitment process are both unnecessary and inefficient.  Video CVs also enabled have also meant less of a carbon footprint associated with the screening process and less inefficiencies and waste.

- Branded career channels have allowed leading organisations across the MENA to tap into Bayt.com’s green platforms to eliminate inefficiencies associated with the traditional recruitment process.

- Virtual job and education fairs have also greatly elevated the green ethos in the region by eliminating the need to create expensive venues.

- We have eliminated our sales collateral in favour of online presentations and live tutorials which are more targeted, more engaging and more eco-friendly.

Are there any CSR initiatives undertaken by your firm?

We have had many CSR initiatives over the past 11 years, as they are a part of our identity as a company. These include – sponsoring orphans from all over the world on behalf of each and every employee with a long serving history with us, donating a fixed percentage of revenue to charities, offering free job postings, university outreach programmes and roadshows.

What are your plans for the next five years?

We have huge plans for the next five years.  Bayt.com will continue to deliver on its longstanding commitment to the region to deliver the indisputable best recruitment technologies, tools, services, insights and local customer support available in the region today and also the greatest amount of recruitment choice for both talent and employers.  We expect our leadership margins to be widened significantly further as several key initiatives we have only soft launched this year including Bayt.com Salaries, Bayt.com Communities, Bayt.com Career Watch and Bayt.com People become more formally entrenched in the regional recruitment landscape. At the same time we will continue to launch new products and iterations and grow our professional communities.

Saeid M. Hejazi is the Founder and Managing Director of Nahel.com, one of the largest online shopping sites in the Middle East. Established in Dubai in late 2008, Nahel.com’s original business model won the University of Toronto’s National Business Plan Competition, having beaten 470 teams. At present, this online shopping forum offers over 20,000 products across more than six departments.

7:00 am: I turn on the laptop; I’ve been having problems for months getting my emails on my BlackBerry. I have acquired special skill where I can turn on my laptop, without being completely awake. Usually, the only email I get are from the US, because of the time difference. Of course, I check on how many orders we got over night. This can either make or break my day. Lately, it’s been getting me off to a good start.

7:15 am: Swim time! This is something I just picked-up again, because it’s the only cardio I can do. After coming back from a month long trip in the US, I’ve definitely gained some weight. America has the best pizza, wings, and nachos, all of which I ate too much of while on vacation.

8:30 am: I leave for Costa coffee across the road with a sandwich in hand.

9:00 am: I arrive at work, usually as most of the team arrives.

10:00 am: I review various departments’ daily tasks with marketing, operations, Web development and business development. I go over operational reports that cover average delivery time, supplier performance, incoming calls, emails and customer complaints.

I have another coffee and then sit with the marketing department; we go over CPC, CTR and conversion rates and then optimise for better results.

11:00 am: Work on business development and finding new business opportunities.

12:00 pm: More coffee and then get back to some business development and opportunities

1:00 pm: I sit with the Web development team. The focus recently has been on back-end development and modules in order to scale the business. With the increase of orders monthly, we need to make sure we are maintaining our level of customer satisfaction, and delivering faster than we promise. This means working with the warehouse, operations and our various suppliers.

2:00 pm: Social media time; the team monitor our Facebook Twitter and see what our followers have been up to, what they have to say and how we can help them. Then we analyse the campaigns and their results and plan for future campaigns.

3:00 pm: I spend some time going back over some more emails.

3:30 pm: We normally hold a conference call around this time with our business and web development teams in Beirut and Amman; focus has been on the folding of a major Arabic books ecommerce store, into Nahel.com.

5:00 pm: I have a meeting with the special projects catalyst on various initiatives Nahel.com is working on.

7:00 pm: Again I go over emails and follow ups, using the time difference to make international calls and follow-up with new partners and promising opportunities.

7:30 pm: Wrap-up work and go home.

In a nutshell

Name: Zayan Ghandour

Designation: Co-owner, Creative Director and Head Buyer

Company: s*uce

Industry: Retail

Date it was founded: February 2004

Number of employees: 25 – 50

Location: Dubai, UAE

Website: www.shopatsauce.com

s*uce is a fashion and lifestyle concept founded in 2004 by three young ladies living in Dubai. Zayan Ghandour, Fatima Ghobash and Dina Saleh realised there was a niche that needed to be filled in the UAE fashion market. The concept of s*uce grew out of a desire to fill that niche with everything that was fashion forward including clothes, accessories, lifestyle, and all aspects of glamour and design in general.

s*uce now has five locations in the UAE offering a curated mix of unique pieces by up-and-coming designers, limited edition collections from contemporary international brands and diffusion lines, as well as quirky lifestyle items and home interior accessories.

Zayan Ghandour, Co-Owner, Creative Director and Head Buyer, gives us more insight into this unique boutique business.

What is innovative about your approach and what sets you apart from your competitors?

First and foremost, we ensure that everything you find at s*uce is special and unique. We are not a cookie cutter retailer and don’t believe in cookie cutter fashion.  That is why we view our collections as curated. Every single item in store is handpicked and customised with our customer in mind. We travel to as many trade shows as possible, always on the lookout for the next big thing, or the coolest as-yet undiscovered designer.

s*uce embarks on a series of annual initiatives that truly differentiate it from any other homegrown brands in the region. In September 2009, s*uce launched the Stars in Our Eyes shopathon: an annual platform for local and regional s*uce designers to launch their new collections. The shopathon takes place annually at s*uce boutique in The Village Mall, Dubai.

We also launched the DesignaDress in order to give a greater number of people a chance to achieve designer stardom. Each year, s*uce sets guidelines in line with autumn/winter trends and everyone is encouraged to apply. The winning designer gets sponsorship from s*uce and a chance to create an exclusive first collection retailed at the boutique.

s*uce collaborates with local and international artists every March to coincide with Art Dubai, selling original artwork by French graffiti artist, Fafi in 2008, and commissioning multimedia collagework by local artist Lema Alireza in 2009. We also curated an installation by Boston based assemblage artist Polly Becker for the Bastakiya Art Fair in March 2010.

In March 2011 s*uce’s SugarVintage designer, Leila Al Marashi, created her first artworks, exhibiting the 12 pieces at s*uce for two weeks, before moving the exhibition to The Pavilion, Downtown Dubai. The pieces garnered a lot of attention and Leila has acquired a bit of a cult following with her iconic tongue-in-cheek twists.

Not only does s*uce support brands that benefit local charities, such as Chamaille and Braveheart, but it also holds a dedicated breast cancer awareness campaign every October. Every year s*uce designs and produces a special item, which is adorned with Swarovski crystals and sold in store. All proceeds go to local charity Friends of Cancer Patients.

For 2011 we have tied up with Harper’s Bazaar International and Browns as the exclusive retailer of their designer charity t shirts.

Harpers International & Browns Fashion asked six designers (Donatella Versace, Angela Missoni, Veronica Etro, Frida Giannini forGucci, Alberta Ferretti and Rossella Jardini for Moschino) to design t shirts to be sold in aid of Women for Women International.

s*uce also recently launched a community art campaign, the s*uce benches project www.sauceloves.com/benches,  where we asked designers and artists to customise standard benches which were on display at Art Dubai and around the city. The initiative was extremely well received, and we realised we aren’t the only people who love benches! Our aim is to increase the use, appreciation and number of benches in the city. We are currently launching a phase two with Etihad airways which will take the campaign internationally.

What is s*uce gifts at XVA?

In March 2008, s*uce launched a new concept store, “s*uce gifts at XVA”, in one of the most fascinating and charming districts of old Dubai: Bastakiya. The new gift store concept focuses on quirky gift items and local and regional designers with a s*ucy twist.

What is your trademark problem-solving style?

Over the past six years s*uce has consistently placed the greatest emphasis on experience driven retail. As a small business, there was no budget allocated for traditional print advertising and so the marketing strategy had to rely on word of mouth, creative PR activities and creating the most rewarding multi-sensory shopping experience.

In a nutshell

Name: Carolyn Deed

Designation: Director

Company: Photobooth-ME

Subsidiary of: Blink FZE

Industry: Events and entertainment

Date it was founded: March 2011

Number of employees: under 25

Location: Dubai, UAE

Website: www.photobooth-me.com

Recognitions:Partnership with Quintessentially – a VIP member’s club

Photobooth-ME is a mobile photobooth photo pod based in Dubai and designed by a photographer to bring a fun and interactive dimension to social or corporate events. It offers professional quality images, flattering lighting, and is easy to use.

The booth fits up to eight people standing, who can check out the live viewing screen to preview the shot, press the start button and wait for the countdown. After they are done, in under ten seconds, the photo strips appear – complete with the chosen logo or message. Every booth is accompanied by a suited Booth Butler on hand to help and keep the party or corporate event photos flowing.

With no photographer looking at you, even the most photo-shy guests play up to the camera to produce memorable and often hilarious sequences of images as event keepsakes. Within two days of the event, all guests can go online to view and download free images from a private (locked) online gallery, with the option to upload straight to Facebook.

Besides that, it is possible to brand the entire booth, custom brand the background, or have logos and messages on every instant photo. You can also link to projectors to show the live fun on a big screen, or add fun props which could tie into the event theme.

Carolyn Deed, Director, Photobooth-ME, tells us more about her fun business.

What is your trademark problem-solving style?

Working in the events industry is fast moving and often changing so we live by the ethos “bite off more than you can chew; then chew it.”

What is innovative about your approach?

Photobooth-ME is a premium photobooth, meaning we do not cut corners and have a product of VIP event level. As photographers we focus on photo output, use professional cameras and the world’s best event printer. Every effort is placed on making events different, offering high energy customer service at the event and for the client, and adding innovations every several weeks to keep it fresh and different.

What are your immediate plans, and where do you see yourself and your company five years from now?

Within a three month launch period, we’ve been thrilled to work with major name multinationals, top brands as well as VIP private events. We are expanding both the number of booths and style to cater for a wider range of event needs and through the course of 2011 will be looking to establish a presence in other Gulf centres.

Are your processes eco-friendly?

We can cater to the green technology market by having digital only photo processing (no prints). The booth can be “greened” and even covered in grass for environmental events.

Which of your processes are IT enabled?

The photobooth is software driven and our online gallery also utilises instant Facebook and Twitter uploads, so we have a team in the USA for software and the UK which handles uploads.

How effectively do you use online and social media?

We are active with Facebook, Twitter, and also our own innovation of instant Facebook and Twitter uploads via our Web photo gallery so guests can post to profile. Our photostrips can also uniquely be placed as Facebook profile photos which leads to high ROI for clients and their brand presence. We also run competitions and highlight top photos via our sites and feature photos from each event in our monthly videos.

Kim Thompson is the owner and Manager of Raw Coffee, which set-up its first roastery warehouse in Dubai in 2007. In 2009 Kim won runner-up position in the Inaugural UAE Barista Competition and has recently returned from Colombia where the Raw Coffee team competed in the World Barista Championships.

8:15 am

O arrive to work, make a coffee and chat to the team who are getting ready for the first regulars that pop in and grab a coffee on their way into work. I check my emails and look at the plan Matt and I (my business partner) made at the end of the day yesterday, outlining what we all hope to achieve.

9:30 am

Our first appointment is with the Operations Manager of a new start up from Abu Dhabi. We have already prepared an initial proposal and we think we know what he is looking for but will spend some time showing him around, tasting different blends, listening to his vision and matching our coffee to his menu and concept.

11:00 am

Our guys have loaded the delivery vehicle with a full espresso fit-out for a new customer who is very excited to finally have his electricity and water connected. We have conducted the first barista training sessions here at the roastery and we are now installing and doing another training session. His café is ready to open and all the preparations and hard work are coming together. We try to ensure we organise everything coffee related for them as it can often be a stressful process.

1:15 pm

We dash back for lunch and of course an espresso. Matt checks orders that need to be invoiced and delivered, and I start preparing the details for the coffee contract and equipment specifications from our meeting this morning. SJ, our Retail Manager, is working on branding and new coffee packaging and we meet to discuss her progress.

3:15 pm

Now we take some time to talk with our roaster, make sure he’s happy with all the profiling of coffee beans as we have received a new shipment of new seasons green beans. We roast each origin separately and after we have rested the coffee we will blend and package. We need to keep aside samples for cupping tomorrow.

Kim Thompson

4:00 pm

Our business is growing and we are doing a lot of training at the moment. Matt has been working personally with Okku and has formed a good working relationship so he will conduct the training – it’s important for us that we maintain a good synergy within all our partnerships.

4:30 pm

Old customers, who have purchased Raw coffee since we started four years ago, contact me as they are finally thinking about buying one of our espresso machines.  I see a few more familiar faces out having a drink, savour a little time chatting to them and squeeze in another coffee.

5:00  pm

We close up the roastery, I head back out to the office and take a call from my husband. He is currently in Ethiopia sourcing some good staff as we import three different varieties of Ethiopian coffee.  This is a good time when the front of our business is closed to catch up on communications, make any calls and to plan tomorrow. The filing can wait another day!

Looking at the list of Tala Badri’s accomplishments one wonders how she manages to remain so humble and, yet, she does just that. She is not only musically talented, but confesses to playing tennis for the UAE, can speak fluent French as well as Arabic and English, and dabbles with photography while balancing running her centre and family life.

She swept to victory at the SME Advisor Stars of Business Awards 2010, taking the trophy for Admirable Woman Entrepreneur and Emirati Entrepreneur of the Year. In April this year, Tala’s passion for musical arts was recognised and honored at the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Patrons of the Arts Awards 2011, when she was awarded with the Friend of the Arts award.

Witty and quick to laugh at every opportunity, it’s clear this lady just isn’t going to take herself too seriously. “So this dictaphone picks up everything? Oh, I’d better be careful then,” she remarks, before busting into laughter.

Tala took a decisive step towards a musical career when she went to Royal Holloway, University of London, to study music. “I got a full scholarship from the Dubai Government – at the time they would give scholarships to nationals studying abroad if they couldn’t study what they wanted within the country,” she recalls.

After three years she returned to Dubai in search of a teaching position but recalls that at the time it was only the British schools in the city that offered music classes and they already had well established staff. “They couldn’t reconcile how an Emirati, with a British degree, could possibly teach music,” she rolls her eyes. It was at this time that Tala verged off the path of music, albeit only temporarily.

Temporary divergence

“I did what a lot of graduates do when faced with unemployment – I went back to study for a second degree. But this time I studied business and management, again at the Royal Holloway in London. It was a case of me becoming a little disillusioned as to whether I could carve a career out of music, so I thought practically and went back to get qualifications in something that would get me a stable job.”

After graduating she took a job with Barclays Bank, working in a training scheme in London. So was she content to stay in the UK or was it a case of staying simply for the job?

“It’s funny you should mention that! After the training, Barclays requested that I go to Dubai to work for them because of my languages and because they wanted to set up a risk assessment branch in the UAE. I’m a Dubai girl – it was perfect – I got to come home and with a secure job.”

So how does one go from a potential career in music to risk assessment for a bank?

“It was a great experience but it didn’t take me long to realise I didn’t want to do finance. I kept having to tell people no, but at the same time I worked on some fantastic accounts.” Again Tala starts chcukling and tells the story of how she was involved in the negotiations with Carrefour to open up in Deira City Centre. She concedes to questioning the need for 20 checkout counters and couldn’t see the justification for them. “But they certainly had better foresight than me! Deira City centre opened in 1996 and Carrefour was packed all the time,” she says smirking.

It was also at Barclays that Tala met her husband. “We had to let the company know that we were seeing each other and policy forbade this so I made the decision leave,” she recounts. Admitting it was actually a blessing in disguise, Tala then found a job with Mars. “Oh, I loved that job so much!” she says, beaming from ear to ear, the memory obviously still clear in her mind.

“I spent seven years with Mars, starting off in payroll and worked my way up to HR Director for the MENA region, where I was in charge of practices and policies, recruitment and training and eventually managing a factory with over 200 people.” It was with HR that she found her calling.

It’s at this point that she starts to smile again and you know she is ready to reveal yet another surprise decision. “I left Mars after seven years because I had a baby girl. I tried going back after her birth but the travel demands proved too much and as my husband just received a great job offer, I made the choice to put all my energy into my family.”

Back to her first love

It was with the birth of her baby daughter that Tala began to reignite her passion for voluntary work, admitting that sitting around the house was simply not an option. “I got involved with the Dubai Drama Group and was asked to sit on a board to help raise funds for a community theatre. So after some time Majid Al Futtaim offered the space in the newly built Mall of the Emirates.”

Realising there was extra space, Tala was offered the extra rooms for her teaching. Until this point she had been giving music lessons in her spare time, something she maintained even during her corporate stints.

“I had built a small music hut at the bottom of my parents’ garden – so when given a chance to take the classes to a larger space it didn’t take me too long to agree.” So after sitting with her husband and brother she made a plan and decided from a business perspective that it could be done.”

After six months Tala received a small business loan from a bank and with the help of some very generous donations she opened the Centre for Musical Arts in September 2006. “You meet certain people along the start up process who can help and who have similar ideas and you think its all luck and by accident, but it really isn’t.”

Tala recalls how the Centre went from strength to strength over the next three years, until the economic downturn arrived in 2009. “We were hit really hard – there was an exodus of students because their families lost their jobs. We are a very family-orientated business; it’s not just the children we teach, but their siblings and their parents too. If you lose one family member you essentially lose them all!”

She recalls it led to a 30% drop in student attendance and for the first time since opening the Centre she was faced with the situation of having to let staff go. “This definitely made me stop and start taking a more cautious approach going forward. But things have started picking up again over the past year and we seem to be doing okay.”

Just okay? Again Tala maintains absolute modesty and admits reluctantly that things are going well – she is cautious about being over confident. “I’m just not convinced we have seen the worst of it yet; not here or anywhere else.”

Tala also talks about the disappointing reality she is faced with on a daily basis. “The Centre for Musical Arts is a non-profit organisation that relies solely on patronage and donations to develop the Centre’s resources and expand the facilities it offers to the local community.”

She explains that while the Centre does not make a profit, they must conduct day-to-day operations like a business in order for it to run effectively. “There simply aren’t enough people out there who believe enough in what we are doing to make regular and substantial donations.

But her ideals run much deeper – frustration at the distribution of wealth, the wastage of wealth and the simple indifference of so many to even basic charity. She threatens to blow a fuse: “If I hear of one more person bidding thousands of dollars for a stupid car registration plate; such stupidity and wastage,” she vents.

And then you see the determined streak reveal itself; she admits that regardless of such “occupational hazards” over 4,000 music students have been trained and nurtured over the last three years and over AED 3.5 million has been invested back into the centre with equipment and facilities.

At present the music centre has 1,300 students on its books and 25 members of staff. Tala takes great pride in the fact that most of her staff have been with her from the beginning and they share a loyal family trust between them. “I am a firm believer in corporate social responsibility – it’s something I picked up at Mars and have never forgotten.

Tala with her staff at the Centre for Musical Arts

“You can’t operate a cohesive business nowadays without looking after your staff. Because of the nature of how we operate, I can’t afford to pay large salaries or give big bonuses, so I try my best to pay my staff in other ways – trips away, extra paid leave and I bought them all iPads last Christmas.”

The road ahead

So is she happy to maintain the status quo or does she plan to expand? Starting in September, Tala is introducing several new programmes and schemes – a Kinder music class, where children from as young as six months old are exposed to music with special techniques, as well as a new percussion class, which at present no one else is offering in Dubai.

“This diversification will definitely expand the business and it will leave me with the dilemma of needing more space; we are already bursting at the seams. Emaar have offered me more space right next door to where we are; it’s just a matter of knocking down the walls.”

Tala's Centre for Musical Arts caters to over 1,000 students

So what is holding her back? She admits that, as with most things, it’s cost.

“The rent we are being offered for the new space is very reasonable but it’s the cost of kitting the place out – you’d be surprised how expensive sound proofing is!” she remarks.

But, as always, she laughs and continues, “I am quite ambitious and my dream is to have an all-purpose-built facility that is 20,000 square feet and which has a performing arts centre; and I have the plans for it! Now all I need is to find someone to build it for me!”

Tala makes no bones about the fact that she needs someone to build this space; – she talks about attending meetings, looking for a generous person to lend a hand, and, having to exercise tact. “My passion for this lands me in some trouble from time to time and more often than my husband would like, but this is not something that is just for me; it’s for the community, it’s for the promotion of culture and it’s for music,” she concludes emphatically.

Mediastow is a media consultancy firm established in 2005 which provides communication evaluation, measurements and analysis to support its clients’ communication programmes. At the 2010 SME Advisor Stars of Business Awards, Mediastow was a finalist in the category of Media and Marketing.

Its founder and Managing Director Mo Elzubeir moved to Dubai shortly after graduation, attracted by the possibilities that it presented.

“I had the idea after working on a development project with my former employer for a company that did the same thing. At the time, the idea of starting a media monitoring company was the farthest thing from my mind. I do remember, however, that I saw several flaws in how they did things and, despite my recommendations, they ignored it,” says Mo.

“I was just a developer for their software vendor and simply did what I was told. I met with one of their former employees who worked at my department and we started talking about the possibility of setting up a similar company in Jordan. I thought it was an interesting idea but didn’t believe Jordan was a viable market; so I went back to the drawing board, put together the business plan and then quickly proceeded to write the software that would drive the company’s system. It took me two weeks to write the code and get things started,” he continues.

Mo has had his fair share of failures. He quit his first job in Dubai, joined a start-up that failed, and then joined a publishing company where the entire dept was laid off. But by then he was ready with his business plan. “I was about to hand in my resignation when I found the termination letter on my desk. I was the only one in the whole department with a smile that day,” he grins. “I decided it was time to be in control of my own destiny.”

But he admits that starting out on his own was no cakewalk. Although his experience was in technology and media, he knew little about management and finances. “I made a lot of mistakes and learned along the way,” he confesses. “The thrill of going into uncharted waters excites me. The idea of building something from scratch is what keeps me going.”

Starting young
You can tell Mo likes to buck the trend. His incisive and often controversial comments on Twitter are just the tip of the iceberg. Apparently he was a trouble maker (a smart one, in all fairness) right from the start. 

“My elementary school teachers would tell you that I was a bright but troubled child. I didn’t always answer the questions even when I knew the answers. If I didn’t like the question, I would critique it instead. I didn’t care for conformity,” he reveals. “Maybe it was attention seeking; maybe it’s just me screaming look at me!”

In junior high, he started his first business with a friend selling pirated games to computer shops in Bahrain. “It was a good business and we were responsible for most of the games available in the market at the time. This was back when 3.5-inch disks were new,” he says with a straight face.

In high school (a different school, he clarifies), Mo started his first underground magazine with another friend. It was a satirical take on school which made fun of the administration, teachers and students. The magazine proved to be popular among both students and teachers. “In fact, it was written so well that even when we were caught, the principal found it difficult to punish us for it. We managed to put out five issues, before someone told on us. We knew we were going to get caught and did it just to see how far we could take it. It was a good run!” he beams.

While studying computer science at the University of North Texas, he founded Arabeyes.org, which was responsible for bringing Arabic support to Linux. He put together a team of volunteers and a platform for collaborations which resulted in applications adding Arabic support, translations for popular applications (like FireFox) and new applications, among other things.

Tough guy?
Mo is of Sudanese origin and, unless prodded, he doesn’t like to talk about some of the hard knocks he took because he had to fight just that little bit harder at times.

“As a kid, we moved a lot. Only one of my siblings was born in Sudan; I went to Denmark, KSA, Bahrain, Qatar, Cyprus, back to Bahrain, then Texas, and back to Bahrain again. I don’t think there are any equal opportunity employers here. Even I have prejudices and cannot claim to be a completely fair employer. But the law allows it and so I can get away with it,” he admits.

“I am not cynical – I am a realist. I recognise what’s good and what’s bad. For example, I am very proud of Sudan’s ability to hold a referendum and allow the South to succeed but do I have to discuss my pride at length? Do we get coverage for it, because we are still considered a symbol of drought and war?” he asks.

Mo refuses to play the victim. “When I first started this business, everybody said you will never make it because you are not a certain nationality – and that is kind of true but it didn’t affect me and I didn’t give up. So I don’t understand the ‘poor me’ attitude some people have and I don’t like playing the victim. I don’t respect ‘victims’.

“I grew up in KSA and was beaten up plenty of times for being black and other times for being from Sudan, but so what! It didn’t break me. I may have become cynical, but I think of it as no big deal – they were stupid kids and I grew up and learned how to earn respect. Although there are prejudices, they are just challenges. That’s life – it’s not worth living without challenges.”

When Mo’s dad was dropping him off to his university in the US, his parting words were, “You know what, you’re black, you’re Muslim, you’re Arab and your name is Mohammad – good luck!”

But Mo just shrugs, “It didn’t bother me; I’ve grown a thick skin, so when people complain I simply think ‘deal with it.’ It’s just another challenge.”

Scaling it up
Speaking of challenges, what hurdles did he face with Mediastow?

“The first problem we faced was getting translators and editors who are working online and motivated enough to perform to their maximum potential. We initially implemented a flat pay scheme, which is also used by our competitor, but we found it to be lacking. Then we started to pay per article produced and show the earnings on the dashboard so the translators and editors could see what they were earning as they worked. This has boosted productivity by 37%,” says Mo.

He then continued to implement performance-based schemes where completing the target earns the translator a bonus in cash. “The results of these two measures alone allowed us to compete with our competitors not only on deliverables – and we were able to deliver faster and more efficiently – but also for the talent pool who preferred to work with us. The concept is simple: you work hard, you make more,” he explains.

Another challenge Mediastow faced was the original system, which slowed things down considerably.

“Our current system automates the entire process and removes a lot of the paperwork we initially had to deal with,” reveals Mo. “Our initial system was a Web-based platform where we would scan and then upload the images into a Web system, assigning attributes to each article clipping (keywords mentioned, date, source, and so on). This process proved to be very time consuming and did not scale very well.

“The other problem we faced was that as the customer base grew, the number of keywords needed to be memorised by the readers grew exponentially. Mistakes were easier to make. Another challenge was that it took approximately six months to train a reader. It was also very difficult to find if the candidate hired was actually capable of performing the job until much later on. We then decided to develop our own media system which would automate the process and allow us to scale it. A single reader can now produce 500 article clippings per day. This has created tremendous scale. Our system was also designed to let staff work from anywhere. This allows us to further scale and move the operations to any location worldwide, without compromising on the efficiency.”

All these measures allowed Mediastow to focus on its core task, which was the analysis of media content and brand perceptions. “We were the first company in the Middle East to receive an international award for our media research work. In 2008, we were awarded the Bronze Global Communication Effectiveness Award for the best use of integrated media evaluation/research by the Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC). We were also the first to join AMEC from the Middle East,” reveals Mo.

“The competition was a monopoly and effectively had near 95% market share when we started out. We had to be lean and quickly shed any excess weight that slowed us down. Reaching profitability can be very challenging and you either need to have impressive stamina – that is the funds and appetite to lose money for years – or the agility to out-produce with fewer resources. We succeeded with the latter. We even comfortably survived the financial crisis,” says Mo.

Mo’s management style
What has their track record been with employee retention?

“We experienced a period in Dubai where jobs were very available, salaries were high, and people jumped around quite a bit. That contributed quite a bit to churn, not just in our organisation but in general. So at times it was difficult to retain talent,” admits Mo.

But it was on the operational side where they were really affected: “We were affected by the fact that you have to be in office by 4:30 in the morning. That takes a toll on you after a while and it’s difficult to maintain. We are changing that now and introducing shifts.”  

Mo believes in incentivising, but throws in a caveat: “Personally, I feel incentives can be negative as well – for example, people don’t steal because of moral incentives; sometimes they refrain because they don’t want to be arrested.”

It’s not very effective to incentivise through equity either, according to Mo. “To be honest people prefer the cash rather than a stake on paper, especially when you’re a small company, though that might change when you’re bigger. Equity is interesting, but it has to be quick and tangible. If your company has nothing to offer except percentage – 5% of zero is still zero,” he doesn’t mince his words. 

He believes that honesty is the best policy: “I always tell my staff that they have to think about how I am thinking. Don’t think I’m doing it because I’m a nice guy; it’s because I’m being selfish and my selfishness ends up being to your benefit. So I’m giving you a raise because I don’t want to lose you. Then I’d have to bring in someone new and train them, and then find out if they are good enough. That’s a very expensive process and it’s in my benefit to give you a raise.”

But honesty works both ways, so he’s not averse to also pointing out, “And I also know the job market is not so great, so it’s in your interest to do a good job because even though it’s expensive, I will not hesitate to let go of anyone who is not performing. We have a very clear understanding in the office.”

Being so incredibly blunt means Mo isn’t exactly in the running for the “Miss Congeniality” crown. “I have had mixed reviews; I can’t say everybody loves me. There have been people who said you’re blunt but we respect you and then there are people who want to see me run over by a truck. But that’s life,” he admits.

Do it yourself
Mo isn’t a fan of outsourcing unless you’re just starting out. “It’s okay with non-essential things,” he feels. “It’s not about the money; it’s about how much control you have over it. I want to be able to improve and optimise to the best of my ability. When you mention donkey work, I have technology to take care of that. For anything that needs a human factor, I’d rather have a person within the office.

“I have the advantage of being tech savvy. That helps. Sometimes you overdo it and bring in systems that no one understands, so we scrap it and start over.”

Mediastow even has an internal wiki where employees can look up everything from policies, to procedures, manuals, company information, client information and more.

What next?
“We are now at the point where we can either be another media monitoring company, or truly innovate and create new and creative products leveraging all the content that we have compiled throughout the years. The next five years will see Mediastow reinvent itself, adding B2C to its services, and making it a policy to remain a first-mover,” informs Mo.

Expansion is also on the cards. “We are looking at Qatar very seriously,” concludes Mo.

Well, Mo is on his way and Qatar has been warned!