GEC NEWS WIREEtisalat and Harvard Business School held their third debate event – Do Breakfast or Be Breakfast, as part of Etisalat’s ‘SMB Leadership Circle’ series, UAE’s exclusive debate platform for Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs). The debate focused on how SMBs can turn threats from new age start-ups and millennials into opportunities.
The dynamics and the rules of doing business have significantly changed. Digital technology has democratized access to information, thereby distributing the power to succeed to anyone who knows how to use it effectively and efficiently. While traditional SMBs are slow to adopt change, technology savvy millennial-led start-ups that are creative and agile, become much more attractive to sponsors, investors and strategic partners. In this context of technology disrupted business environment, no company is too big to fail or too small to succeed.
Esam Mahmoud, Vice President/SMB Marketing, Etisalat, said, “The digital revolution has narrowed down the geographical and to some extent, the experience between start-ups and the more established yet traditional SMBs in the region. Our third debate event saw some very compelling thoughts and ideas being discussed in an open forum comprising industry leaders and achievers from the global business community.”
Panelists and participants at the event also discussed the importance of experience, disruptive ideas, and innovation for UAE’s SMBs to succeed and grow their business in the long term. The event shed light on how traditional companies need to reinvent their business to bring in more flexibility, creativity and the ability to adopt digitisation.
