12/03/2014
From the time when the SME Symposium that was held in Seih Al Shamikhat in the Willayat of Bahla, number of initiatives emerged from the private and public sector to promote SMEs in Oman. The underlying objective is to leverage on the skills and capabilities of Omanis and help create an economy that is less dependent on Oil and Gas sector.
Supporting Entrepreneurship and SMEs is on the agenda of many organizations now. A greater emphasis is laid on embedding entrepreneurship at schools and academic institutions so that the students at schools are ready, willing and made capable of establishing their own enterprises in the future.
A recent collaboration between Sharakah and Lighthouse might provide the starting point for assessing the current status of the readiness of young Omanis to successfully manage their own enterprises tomorrow. The results of the collaboration are mainly twofold. First to develop a tool that will assess the entrepreneurial capability of an individual. Second is to establish and identify the gap between the capabilities of students with respect to the required skills and traits to become successful entrepreneurs.
The research was focused on the following objectives:
1. Assessment of entrepreneurial DNA of Omani Entrepreneurs and identifying reasons for their success in terms of individual skills and competencies
2. Develop a tool that can assess the capabilities of potential entrepreneur and identify success rate based on entrepreneurial DNA of Oman.
Says Ajay Singh CEO of Lighthouse
During the first phase of the study Lighthouse consultants interviewed 103 Omani entrepreneurs and also carried out their psychometric profiling using their proprietary tool – TLH Profiler. TLH profiler is capable of defining behavioral characteristics that leads to good performance using clusters of responses made by the participants.
“It took us more than 1 year to conclude phase one of the research. There were many challenges faced by our team during data collection. No two businesses are same. The skills required to be successful in a small business is radically different than managing a large corporation. Skills required to manage a traditional family owned business is completely different than that of a first generation entrepreneur” said Mr. Abdullah Jufaili, General Manager of Sharakah.
In order to address this issue Lighthouse employed its proprietary enterprise classification tool that can classify business into different categories using point ranking method.
“It is to be understood that SME’s vary in size, complexity and the nature of their business and each category of SME will have its own set of needs that needs to be addressed and skills required to be successful. A one size fit all approach may not be completely successful in understanding them and nurturing them. Another reason to classify SME’s into specific categories is that it will help the respective agencies like SME funds, banks, SME incubators etc. to provide a concerted and tailor made effort to suit the needs of a particular category. By classifying them into various clusters, concerned authorities in the government will be able to focus on each cluster and support it with specific solutions aimed to nurture and strengthen them. This will also help SME’s in those respective sectors to develop a roadmap for success and achieve their milestones” said Mr. Ajay Singh CEO of Lighthouse.
The Lighthouse classified businesses into following categories based on point ranks:
Total Point Range |
Enterprise class |
Enterprise type |
Enterprise type |
Number of companies surveyed |
51 – 175 |
LEC 1 – LEC 5 |
Micro business, Sole proprietors, Sole trader, Professionals, Self-employed individuals |
Micro organization |
14 |
176 – 250 |
LEC 6 – LEC 8 |
SME – 1 |
Very small |
30 |
251 – 325 |
LEC 9 – 11 |
SME – 2 |
Small |
13 |
326 – 400 |
LEC 12 – 14 |
SME – 3 |
Small – Medium |
16 |
401 - 475 |
LEC 15 – 17 |
SME – 4 |
Medium |
11 |
476 - 550 |
LEC 18 – 20 |
SME – 5 |
Medium - Large |
19 |
551 and beyond |
Large companies |
|
“Once the businesses were classified then data collection became more focused and assessment of skills that made entrepreneurs successful also became very relevant to their categories. Further analysis of these skills was carried out to arrive at top skills based on cluster of behavior identified.” Said Mr. Ajay Singh CEO Lighthouse.
The common skills required to be successful conducting business in Oman across all categories of businesses are:
- Ability to take risk and spot opportunities
- Timely decision making
- To be resilient to vagaries of business
- Aggressive approach towards performance
- Heroic customer service
- Ability to build and lead teams
- Cost consciousness
- Keen eye on quality delivery
- To be patient with results
“These common traits are easily assessable in any individual who is running a business or wants to start a business, through our proprietary tools. These tools are online and the tests can be taken in Arabic and in English and reports can be downloaded instantly.” Said Mr. Ajay Singh
The report is helpful in ascertaining the gaps and the steps that needs to be taken by the individual to equip themselves to be successful entrepreneurs.
“The tool is not only helpful for anybody who is doing a business or want to start a business. It is equally helpful for funds engaged in providing financial assistance to SMEs, incubators can tailor-make their courses to suit the need of the SMEs, universities and colleges to align their courses to the requirement and promote entrepreneurship amongst students and above all the Government to align their policies to develop entrepreneurs.” Said Abdullah
He also mentioned that Sharakah and Lighthouse will now increase the sample size of the entrepreneurs to 500 in next phase of the research. They will profile entrepreneurs in Sohar, Nizwa, Salalah and Sur to further strengthen the data and align it with the assessment tool. The phase two of the study will be concluded in next 6 months and the report will be shared with all the key players in the ecosystem.
Lighthouse has also launched a dedicated website (www.smeadvise.com) to promote and impart advice to SMEs. The website provides information on key players in SME ecosystem, free usage of Lighthouse Enterprise Classification tool and unique business ideas. Lighthouse & Sharakah invite businessmen who are willing to be profiled during the next phase to register themselves online. They will be provided with a complimentary enterprise classification summary and behavioral report.