Importance of Operating Model for SMEs discussed at 3^rd Ro’Ya workshop for UAE’s women entrepreneurs

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), 22 May 2014 – Ro'Ya, a joint collaboration between MasterCard and the Dubai Business Women Council (DBWC) today hosted the third of the nine scheduled workshops for UAE's women entrepreneurs. The half-day workshop that witnessed strong attendance focused on the importance of developing an operating model for the success of a business enterprise.

Vincent Bellis, head of customer delivery for Middle East and Africa at MasterCard, conducted the workshop, which was hosted by the DBWC at the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and he elaborated on the important role of an operating model within the overall business strategy for any organization. The key objective of this session was to acquaint the attendees with the principles and best practices for establishing a well-defined operating model that will help entrepreneurs identify their core stakeholders at an early stage to maximize their outreach. 

"The core thought behind Ro'Ya is to equip women entrepreneurs in the UAE with invaluable knowledge and insights that will help them transition from an idea stage to setting up and running their businesses successfully. The nine Ro'Ya workshops hence focus on distinct and critical aspects of a trade and have been specifically designed to enhance the entrepreneurs' understanding of the finer elements of managing their own ventures," said Ngozi Megwa, Senior Director, Middle East and Africa, Mastercard.

During the session, the participants were also educated on various ways to enhance their sales skills and capabilities with regards to setting up other functions within the business model like; Supply Chain, Human Resources, Finance and Information Technology. Furthermore, Vincent also demonstrated the implementation of those principles by presenting relevant case studies which gave attendees valuable insights on how to work towards creating similar operating models.

At the end of the session, participants were divided into groups and were asked to share ideas on how to create a business model by applying the principles they had learnt earlier in the day. This was followed by an open discussion as votes were casted for the best submissions.

 "Creating a seamless operating model is imperative for the effectiveness of any business organization irrespective of its scale. With today's session, we aimed at educating women entrepreneurs about this critical aspect of business functioning, so they can incorporate the learnings to their respective plans that they intend to implement in the near future," added Ngozi.

The Ro'Ya workshops will carry through till October 2014. All sessions will be hosted at the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry and will be facilitated by industry experts along with exclusive sessions with internationally recognized industry specialists. Upcoming workshops to look out for are: Doing Business in the UAE - 12 June and Your People - 03 July.