Entrepreneurship & innovation key to biz growth

Dubai / Emirates Business

Describing SMEs as the backbone of Dubai’s economy that are in turn furthering entrepreneurship and innovation — the key pillars of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s (Dubai Chamber) strategy to support and enhance the competitiveness of local businesses — Essa Al Zaabi, Senior Vice-President, Institutional Support Sector, and General Coordinator of Tejar Dubai, Dubai Chamber, spoke to delegates gathered at the INSEAD Alumni Leaders Forum held recently.
Al Zaabi said, “The Dubai Chamber already has in place programmes and initiatives, including the Tejar Dubai Entrepreneurship Development Programme, the Dubai Smartpreneur Competition and the Dubai Startup Hub, to help SMEs and startups expand, improve their services and products and maintain a competitive edge while contributing to the sustainable growth of the emirate’s economy.”
The Forum was hosted by Dubai Chamber and sponsored by UAE Exchange, Philips and Mundipharma. Promoth Manghat, CEO, UAE Exchange provided perspectives on the disruption witnessed across different segments of the financial services industry in a session titled ‘CEO Talks: Digital Disruption in Financial Services’, during which he emphasised the importance of collaboration between traditional players and Fintech entities to foster innovation.
Manghat said he was impressed and encouraged to see a large number of startups in attendance at the forum, noting “We have already identified multiple opportunities for collaboration coming out of the event.”
“Events like the INSEAD Leaders Forum provide an excellent setting for regional industry leaders, startups and policymakers to come together on a common platform to discuss the innovation and disruption witnessed across industries and have the capacity to propel innovation to a new level altogether.”
Dr. Ashraf Allam, Vice President of Mundipharma Middle East & Africa, participated in the session ‘The CEOs Perspective: Leading through Digitisation and Disruptive Innovation’ while Aarati Ajay, Head of Business & Corporate Development, Middle East, Africa & Pakistan, MundiPharma moderated the ‘INSEADers leading the way’ discussion. Aarti completed her Masters of Business Administration (Strategy, General Management and Finance) at INSEAD in 2013.
Dr. Allam said, “The global healthcare industry has seen a transformation over the last decade driven by advances in biopharmaceuticals, medical technology and surgical procedures. Although most pharmaceutical companies have not yet formulated a concise digital health strategy, I expect that within the
coming few years, it will be adapted by many companies to activate
new business segments as well as to significantly improve their competitive advantage.”
He noted that pharmaceutical companies could use their expertise to enable a more holistic digital solution that would have greater success in engaging patients, healthcare providers and payers.
The audience also had the opportunity to engage with Dr. Arjen Radder, CEO of Philips Middle East and Turkey during a ‘Fire-side chat with a CEO’ session while Celine Abbas,
INSEAD alumnus and Philips Business Controller, moderated the ‘Finance Reimagined: Rise of Fintech and Disruption, in the Financial Services’ segment.
Dr. Radder commented, “Our world is changing, challenging us to focus. We have a growing and ageing world population that are experiencing a dramatic rise of chronic and lifestyle-related diseases, global resource constraints, while undergoing a digital revolution. These trends are driving demand and creating opportunities for a new approach to healthcare. Our mission, ‘Improving lives around the health continuum through meaningful innovation’ is leading the way to digitalization. Technology will enable connectivity and is the key to delivering better health care at a lower cost.”
Simran Kaur, President, INSEAD UAE Alumni Association added, “The INSEAD Alumni Association UAE’s mission is to inspire and to be inspired by providing an engagement platform to drive thought leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship which can impact not only business but the society as a whole. It’s a time of unprecedented changes, where technology and innovation are
transforming the way we live. The opportunities are enormous and the role technology can, and will, play is truly remarkable.”
A recent INSEAD study done in partnership with business and marketing consultancy ‘this fluid world’ titled ‘The Real Impact of Digital – As Seen from the “Virtual Coalface”’ included quantitative and qualitative research involving 1,160 managers, executives and board members across regions representing a wide range of organisations, industries, and functions. Among the key findings was that 30% of organisations surveyed have no digital strategy.
Executives from MBC Group, UNHCR, IBM, McKinsey Digital Labs, Philips, Cerner, Mundipharma Middle East FZ-LLC, Siemens LLC, Wamda Capital, MAGNiTT, Roland Berger, Souqalmal.com, Emirates NBD, Beehive Group DMCC, GE, Falcon and Associates, The Luxury Closet, Flat6Labs Abu Dhabi and Deliveroo took part in the sessions. The event touched upon topics including digitization, artificial intelligence, Industry 4.0, fintech, online retail, autonomous vehicles, digital healthcare and entrepreneurship.