Zubair SEC offers their members an ecosystem of support that extends beyond the centre’s direct advisory, coaching, training, and acceleration services, to also offer a network of solid partners, says Lina Hussein, Head of Communications & Social Impact at Zubair SEC.
What is the role played by Zubair SEC in supporting the SME sector in Oman? What makes you stand out among the different initiatives?
Zubair Small Enterprises Centre (Zubair SEC) is one of the initiatives which emanated from The Zubair Corporation’s strategic vision for Social Responsibility. The mandate of Zubair SEC builds heavily on the strong belief amongst The Zubair Corporation’s shareholders that small enterprises, when well guided and provided the proper support environment, would form a major player in the socio-economic success. The Corporation has invested heavily in establishing Zubair SEC and equipping it with highest calibre of staff, advisors, facilities, and support platform to be able to extend top-notch services to Omani entrepreneurs and owners of small businesses in Oman.
The Centre was established in 2013 to become more than just an incubator for small businesses. Since its establishment, it clearly developed as a professional body known for its high professionalism, diversified offerings, local and international wide range of accumulated expertise, and a comprehensive incubation and acceleration approach. The Centre comprises a team of socially engaged and business savvy advisors who put all effort to contribute to leveraging the Omani community through equipping and enabling entrepreneurs and start-up owners to grow with their businesses in a sustainable and responsible manner.
We take pride in offering our members an ecosystem of support that extends beyond the Centre’s direct advisory, coaching, training, and acceleration services, to also offer a network of solid partners inside and outside the Sultanate, and a line-up of top-notch volunteering specialised advisors from across diverse business sectors who are offering their time and expertise to our members.
We also believe in the importance of networking and collaboration amongst the members themselves and between our members and other stakeholders; as such, we facilitate different activities and functions to bring our members together and exchange expertise, knowledge, and potential business cooperation.
Since June 2013 the Centre has welcomed more than 240 members, attracted 22 volunteering specialised advisors, and built 12 strategic partnerships.
Our efforts since establishment have been rewarded by being the first private sector initiative to receive the Business Entrepreneurship Award for Best Private Sector Initiative Supporting SMEs in Oman; this prestigious award is managed by The Public Authority for SMEs Development (Riyadah).
The Centre’s vision is to be a beacon for entrepreneurs in Oman providing full support for its members. Since its establishment, the Centre has embarked on nurturing successful and socially responsible entrepreneurs who will contribute to the sustainable development of the Sultanate and recognise more and more that they are key pillars and custodians of the nation’s future economy.
What are the major services offered by you for promoting SMEs?
For being successful in any business, one needs to be equipped with a number of skills which are gained from experience and practice. At Zubair SEC, we work hand in hand with each and every entrepreneur equipping them with the necessary skills and tools in a relatively short period of time.
In order to achieve that, we provide various integrated and comprehensive services and tools, which have proven to be of significant value to our members; to name a few:
One-to-one business advisory services by Zubair SEC’s team of experienced advisors in all areas of business strategizing, planning, management, and entrepreneurship.
Management tools and guidance to prepare Business Plans, Feasibility Studies, Organisational Structures, Market Analysis, Communications and Marketing Strategies, and more.
Specialised advisory services through our group of volunteering specialised advisors/mentors from inside and outside the Sultanate, who come from diverse business sectors, occupying highest business positions at their organisations, or being successful business entrepreneurs themselves.
Training and capacity building sessions, offered by experts in their field, tackling practical subjects that are raised by our members as main needs and challenges they usually face.
Networking events for our members with different stakeholders, which bring them exposure, insight, knowledge sharing, and opportunities for business collaborations.
Collaborations with strategic partners, as they extend special offers, preferred prices and benefits to our members.
Access to financial institutions including our partners.
Serviced offices, meeting areas, and business lounges that members can use to run their business from our two floor centre in Muscat.
The flagship Zubair SEC Direct Support Programme which rewards members who prove throughout their work with the Centre their commitment towards success and dedication in applying the consultancy and advice provided to them by the Zubair SEC team. These members’ projects and businesses also reflect proper strategic planning and accurate feasibility studies that reflect their owners’ eagerness to apply best business administration measures with the assistance of Zubair SEC. Accordingly selected members for the Direct Support Programme receive extra direct advisory and consultancy services, business development opportunities, in addition to a financial grant to support their businesses. And although all members of Zubair SEC benefit from advisory and training services, financial facilitation, and support that the Centre and its network of cooperative partners provide, only a specific number of members get selected every year for the Direct Support Programme, as an approach to create positive competitiveness amongst members and to encourage them to work harder and be more committed and dedicated towards achieving their objectives and ambitions.
What are the initiatives aimed at creating a culture of entrepreneurship among students?
An important part of our strategy at Zubair SEC is reaching out to the community through interactive sessions and events to raise awareness on the potential within the entrepreneurship world. As such, students have been a main segment that we have been approaching. We have worked with a number of organisations such as Inajaz Oman and AIESEC Oman in efforts to leverage youth capacity and expertise in the entrepreneurship arena. Moreover, throughout the past two years, a team of advisors from Zubair SEC has held rounds of workshops across universities to raise awareness on business entrepreneurship and social responsibility. This initiative came as part of the Centre’s strategy to engage with the academia, acknowledging the significant importance of planting seeds of entrepreneurship in the mind-set of students prior to them joining the working force after graduation. Throughout the sessions, Zubair SEC team engaged with the students on topics relating to their future ambitions, how to recognise entrepreneurship within oneself, and what is needed to pursue a business project. The team also worked with students to emphasise the importance of social responsibility, and what corporations and individuals can do towards having a more sustainable and scalable social impact through the jobs or businesses that students will lead after graduation.
Tell us about your Direct Support Programme for SMEs and how beneficiaries are selected? What is the feedback you are receiving?
The Zubair SEC Direct Support Programme runs on an annual basis and rewards members who have joined it through existing or potential business projects and have proven through their engagement with the Centre’s team remarkable commitment towards their goals and sincere perseverance in taking to heart all guidance and advice provided by the Centre. Their projects are based on proper strategic planning and accurate feasibility studies that reflect its owners’ determination to apply best business administration practices and standards. As selection criteria, we look at the member’s personality, experience, characteristics of the products/services offered, the targeted market, financial considerations, and the venture team. Members who are carefully selected to join the programme will enjoy further incubation and acceleration services through advisory and financial support. We have so far announced 18 winners through the two rounds of the programme since December 2013. This programme has been put in place as an incentive for our members and to create a sort of a positive competition amongst them. It has proven to be a tremendous success and brought to light success stories that are the pride of all of us at Zubair SEC.
How do you rate the success of SME members of SEC who have access to your services and receive your support?
In the past year or so since establishment, we have been receiving increasing interest and growing numbers of applicants to join the Centre, and today we have more than 240 members on board. Zubair SEC has been enjoying more and more credibility amongst multiple stakeholders, chiefly its members, and hence our members themselves have been our best ambassadors.
We also take special pride in the winners of Zubair SEC’s Direct Support Programme; 18 of highly ambitious and engaged entrepreneurs and startup owners with whom we’ve worked so closely to bring their businesses forward. Throughout the two rounds of the programme so far, we have witnessed remarkable progress with each of these businesses and many of their success stories have been featured and rewarded nationally by private and public sector recognitions. We have tens and tens of other high potential members to become winners of the programme in its next round, and whom we are keenly working on building their capacity and sharpening their business skills.
Our goal is to keep enhancing our offerings and capacity to cater for the needs, and to make sure that all effort we put collectively through our ecosystem would be increasing the chances of our members’ success and business growth. We run a dynamic model, and this gives us the flexibility to keep enhancing in our approaches and programmes to cater to the raising needs and challenges that our members face, in a way that their challenges become our challenges that we take to heart to find for them best ways to overcome them and move forward.
What are your future plans for the development of SME sector in Oman? What are the factors which SMEs in Oman need to focus to emerge successful?
I believe a fundamental challenge here is the ability to scale up. If small enterprises remain small, then the entrepreneurship support model in place will not be effective. Major efforts need to be in place to create a culture that encourages scalability; this starts by working on a paradigm shift for the entrepreneurs themselves and enabling them with the proper supporting environment. Sufficing with a small business that would generate a reasonably acceptable income should not be the main objective of most entrepreneurs. We need to raise entrepreneurs who seek growth and work on scaling up their business in a sustainable manner. In many economies, few large businesses contribute immensely to the national GDP; many of those businesses started small, but thought big…they thought global in the essence of their mind set. So basically, it is not the increasing number of SMEs that would contribute to GDP, but rather the quality of the numbers.
Many commended efforts have been already put in place to promote SMEs inside and outside the Sultanate; but I also believe that micro-support, if you may, is required. Meaning; on a daily basis in Zubair SEC we realise the increasing need for holding the hands of our members, living their businesses, and guiding them on the micro level, as well as the strategic level. With micro I don’t mean micro-management, but rather helping them with the specific challenges they face, and the opportunities that cross their path. As such, the model we run at Zubair SEC helps provide a 360 degree of support, through our team of advisors and mentors. At times we coach entrepreneurs through projects they run, tenders they bid for, or strategies they put in place; we hold their hands through business leads and opportunities; we capitalise on all aspects of strength we have through our wider ecosystem, and that for us is the core value that our members enjoy.
At the end of the day, we strongly believe that entrepreneurship could also present a social and political risk; the success of SMEs is a necessity for the sustainable development in any nation. The risk of them failing would have severe implications on many levels beyond mere financial levels, as owners of small businesses represent a wide percentage of the society and have direct impact on the very nuclear social level…the family and the individual. As such, the Zubair SEC model focuses highly, amongst other objectives, on risk mitigation and increasing the probability for success; in the case of funding for example, we help mitigate risk for multiple stakeholders – our members and the financial institutions. By providing members with the proper guidance and advisory, whether through working with them on well put business plans, thoroughly prepared feasibility studies, market analysis and strategic planning, we are significantly reducing and mitigating risk of them defaulting and even better equip them to be more financially healthy and bankable.
It is our major role as SME-supporting organisations to raise the potential and means for SMEs to mature and grow sustainably and to equip them to become responsible business owners who are up to the challenge of being the custodians of tomorrow’s economy.