(MENAFN Press) Dubai SME, the agency of the Department of Economic Development in Dubai mandated to develop the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, successfully conducted three seminars during May-June 2012 to train SME owners and entrepreneurs in strategic business management skills and building customer-focussed organisations.
The seminars, organised as part of Dubai SME's continuing initiatives to enhance SME competitiveness, were led by reputed experts in guiding and counselling organisations and businesses across the region.
More than 100 people, including entrepreneurs and SME representatives, attended the seminars.
"SMEs in the UAE operate in a highly competitive and diverse business landscape. A thorough understanding of the strengths and attitudes that win over customers and sustain growth is therefore very essential.
Dubai SME has a rich training and education portfolio, aimed to support SME capacity-building," said Farid Karmostaji, Director of Entrepreneurship Development Division at Dubai SME.
"Since Dubai SME constantly engages with a growing number of businesses and service providers in the SME domain, we are able to offer practical and customised solutions in developing SME capabilities," added Karmostaji.
In view of the importance of negotiation skills in establishing and advancing a business, Dubai SME used one of the seminars to emphasise the power of non-verbal communication.
Led by Dr. Mutasem Al Titi, a leading non-verbal communication expert in the Middle East, the seminar showed how the right body language can help communicate with confidence and conviction in a negotiation.
The power of excellent customer service was the focus of the second seminar, led by Anas Abu-Hamam, Managing Director and Co-Founder of the project management and consultancy firm Platinum CPD.
The seminar drew an outstanding response from the SME community, indicating a high level of interest among them in integrating customer service as a key competency.
Participants in the seminar were taken through the fundamentals of service excellence and ways in which SMEs can leverage customer service to close gap with large enterprises. "We thank Dubai SME for this inspirational seminar on the power of customer service.
It was informative and will help our employees advance their skills and performance," said Waleid Abdulkareim, Chairman of On Time Management, a Dubai SME member firm, which sent eight of their employees to attend the seminar.
The third seminar was aimed to encourage entrepreneurs to apply innovative project management techniques for improved efficiency, problem solving and resource utilisation.
Omran Zbeida, an experienced corporate trainer and certified programme development director led the seminar, presenting proven ways to plan and manage successful projects and the impact of such strategies on business expansion and bottom lines.
Dubai SME designs the training programmes after evaluating the knowledge gaps and opportunities in the SME sector from member requests and trainee surveys held every year.
The training programmes will continue in September 2012 after summer break.
