A Study on the Opportunities and Challenges of Entrepreneurs, and Small and Medium Enterprises in the Kingdom of Bahrain”

Business Clinic ProgramAnnual Report

2017-2018

Entrepreneurs who 300 This study included about participated "Business Clinic Program"

CEO’s Message

Initially, we wanted to write a report on the performance of the Business Clinic Program by drawing information from about 300 Bahraini entrepreneurs who attended the program in batches in its first year, but eventually we found ourselves having a comprehensive study on the reality of entrepreneurship in Kingdom of Bahrain, we hope that we have contributed through this study to provide important information to decision makers and support their efforts to promote the advancement of entrepreneurs in the Kingdom

of Bahrain and raise the contribution of their companies and organizations in the national economy and the desired prosperity.Business Clinic program was inspired by the obstacles and difficulties I encountered in the beginning of my career as an entrepreneur. I included those obstacles and difficulties in the program topics in the form of challenges, with a practical explanation of how I faced them, where I failed and where I succeeded, leading to an integrated business guide for those who have chosen the path of hard work as they make their way to the top of success.In collaboration with the Ibdaa Hub team, we have put together 12 training courses that included theoretical aspects, workshops and advisory sessions, covering all aspects of administrative, financial, marketing and other processes, and drawing a clear roadmap for entrepreneurs in the Kingdom of Bahrain.At the end of the first year of Business Clinic Program, we were delighted with the end result, especially after realizing the positive impact of the program on the participants, making Business Clinic one of the top programs offered by the Ibdaa Hub Training Center in collaboration with Stradico. And we must emphasize on the importance of the support we received from the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, HE Mr. Zayed bin Rashid Al Zayani, who honored the sponsorship of Business Clinic Program together with the role of Tamkeen Fund in providing the full support for this program.

93% of the participants in Business Clinic Program were entrepreneurs versus 7% employees. We found that the themes and the topics of the program were more suitable for entrepreneurs, so we decided to keep pace with new trends around the world that focus on internal entrepreneurship. Based on that we designed our new program “Intrapreneurship and Innovation) that targets those who want to implement the concept of Entrepreneurship inside their organization and benefit their employees.

We are proud that nearly half of the participants in Business Clinic Program are women, an indication that Bahraini women are thirsty for knowledge and ready to enter the market.

55%

45%

93%

Entrepreneurs Vs Employees

Men Vs Women

7% EmployeesEntrepreneurs

Geographical Distribution

We recognize that entrepreneurship is an issue that needs to be touched by different segments of society. This is precisely what we have sought to include in Business Clinic Program by devising advanced training and

delivery methods so that anyone from any city or village can get experience from this program.

2% 6% Northern Muharraq

36% Capital

92% Southern

Introduction

his study was conducted over the course of a whole year. We had to re-evaluate the results of Business Clinic Program over and over to monitor the details, interactions, results, feedback, indicators, ease of information, clarity and application on the ground.We had to challenge ourselves at every step to make sure that our program will provide a real addition to this growing segment of Kingdom of Bahrain, whose focus on development can create a real and

sustainable support for the national economy.Yes, the experience was not easy, but as the end of the first year of Business Clinic Program approaches, we see ourselves making our first step in the thousand mile path. We have succeeded, and of course this opens up the door to more and greater challenges.We aware of that, and we are prepared for those challenges.

Innovation

EntrepreneursMonitor

the detailsRe-evaluate the results

Growth

Challenges Implementation

Overall Assessment

24% 4%27%

PoorSatisfactoryExcellent

The main challenge for us at that stage was to promote and strengthen the entrepreneurship culture of participants in the Business Clinic Program. Although we knew that they had taken the first step towards learning the keys to pioneering action in this area, we were aware that promoting what could be called a Culture of Entrepreneurship requires to ensure that participants have the necessary information and experience, and most of all ensure that after the program ends they will not return to the "comfort zone" they were in, and that

we have already ignited the first spark in them, spark of Entrepreneurship, a spark that will not be extinguished by the winds of challenges.The indicators we have identified have confirmed to us the ability of the Bahraini entrepreneur to accept new business practices and deal with them scientifically and professionally in his project, to the extent of the ability to innovate using tools and data available locally to ensure success and sustainability.

Indicators

The source of our real pride in these results is that we have established the foundations of scientific and accurate analysis of a set of questionnaires that were distributed to participants after each training course.

The diversity of training courses offered by Business Clinic Program is a double-edged sword. Tendencies and interest in the fields of accounting or management may not have

the same position of the means of social communication and means of advertising, this creates a real challenge for both the trainer and the trainee, but the percentages we have identified through questionnaires, confirmed that we have been able to exceed this constraint and bring together the various types of topics presented under Business Clinic Program for the participating entrepreneurs.

22%

70%

8%

No

Don't Know

Yes

Vision And Values Of The Organization

By reviewing the participants' answers to the clarity and accuracy of their company's vision and aspirations, we found the following observations:

Only 8% of participants could comment that the company's vision is clear and specific, and this percentage increased to 90% after the completion of the program.

70% of the participants before the program commented that they had no vision for their companies, while the percentage dropped to only 4% after joining Business Clinic Program.22% of those who answered that they did not know a specific answer to this question, their percentage dropped to only 4% after Business Clinic Program.

The Organization Has A Meaningful Written Mission

MetNo

Change Don'tKnow

UnderProcess

14% 6% 60% 20%

The formulation of clear strategies, general objectives, mission and vision of the organization are essential to the success of any business.Business Clinic Program empowers participating companies to meet these requirements that can be considered as the basis for any business.Many existing companies have started their first steps in the market without these details, and we know that the lack of these things doubles the probability of those companies stumbling.Through Business Clinic Program, we were

been able to monitor 20% of the participants who have achieved these requirements, while the vast majority, which amounted to 60% are still working to achieve. Only 6% were unable to do so, and 14% could not determine the extent to which these data were achieved.Although the majority are still in the process of implementation, we find positive indicators of the entrepreneurial awareness that the development of key strategies for any business is very important and sensitive, and may require some time and effort in some businesses.

Are The Organization’s Objectives Clear?

MetNo ChangeDon't Know

64%20%24%10%

Under Process

Business Clinic Program operates through the principle of information and training that directly and effectively affects the work of the person who harnesses the information to serve his work, and we believe that this effect should be useful in the overall level of organizing and overall planning of the organization.Through our review of the participants' comments, we found that the training sessions were clearly effective for 46% of the participants, a number we see as excellent and achieve many of the aspirations we sought, while 20% of the participants believe that they are still in the process of applying their experiences through the

program, and 24% said that the program was unable to make any changes in their companies, while 10% did not know the real rates of change in their businesses.

These indicators have led to an important conclusion, that a good percentage of entrepreneurs seek to learn the means of developing their businesses but are unable to accurately apply information on the ground due to personal differences in capabilities.

We recommend for this category to use a continuous or long-term follow-up method to ensure that desired results are achieved.

Are The Objectives Of The Organization Specific And Measurable?

Met

No ChangeDon't Know

6 % 4%

63%

54%

Under Process

During the entrepreneurial course of Business Clinic Program, we have repeatedly emphasized to participants that setting measurable and realistic plans and objectives is the basis for the development of the business, and that these general plans determine the business strategy of the company's roadmap to achieve success.

In addition to these plans, the development of a manual to deal with emergency and

critical situations will avoid many losses.

We found that more than half of the participants who represented 54% were able to achieve this goal, while 36% of the participants are working to achieve this, 4% were not able to monitor changes in their work in this area, while 6% are unable to identify their vulnerability or unable to apply what they learned.

40%40%14%6%

MetNo ChangeDon't Know Under Process

Are All Key Stakeholders Involved In The Planning Process?

One of the main principles of Business Clinic Program is to train participants that the information and experience they receive is a modus operandi that should be circulated to all other departments of the organization internally and even externally, so that everyone understands the organization's culture and objectives, especially decision makers in all the departments within the organization.

According to the interaction of in the Business Clinic Program participants, 80% of them were able to achieve this goal or are in the process to achieve it, while approximately 14% were unable to do so, and 6% did not find enough indicators in their work to determine their implementation.

Operational Plan

MetNo ChangeDon't Know Under Process

50%2%2% 46%

Under the umbrella of the comprehensive strategic plan, support plans should be developed, as well as the details of objectives, business processes, operational and implementation methods, division of responsibilities and tasks. Through these plans, the company will manage and develop its business.

In Business Clinic Program we found that 50% of the participants were able to achieve

this, while 46% in the process of implementation, 2% couldn’t do any change and 2% were unable to determine their ability to do so.

We understand through these indicators that the road to the comprehensive strategic plan comes through plans that separate the tasks and responsibilities and ways of carrying out business operations.

A Focused Mission

MetNo ChangeDon't Know Under Process

32%30%28%10%

The development of a comprehensive strategic plan and a basic operating plan is important for any organization of any form and size, but many entrepreneurs share the problem of incompatibility or inconsistency of their objectives in a smooth and logical way with the master plan, which causes a lot of confusion in the work of any organization.

Through Business Clinic Program, we found that 32% of the participants were able to create the appropriate returns and consistency between their master plans and

operational plans, while 30% were still working on matching plans, and 28% found it difficult to achieve this goal. We found that there is a need to work intensively on explaining the differences between types of plans, and this percentage should be studied carefully.

This percentage leads to another percentage that found itself unable to determine its exact position towards its plans, which was close to 10%.

Financial Knowledge

NoYes

38%48%14%

According to the company’s’ financial position indicators before and after joining Business Clinic Program, we found that 14% of the participants applied good financial practices in their companies or had good knowledge of these practices, this percentage increased up to 90% after the completion of the program.

48% of participants could not be sure that they would apply prudent financial practices within their companies before joining the

program, but after the completion of the program, this percentage dropped to only 10%.

While those who commented that they could not determine their understanding of their status, which were close to 38% before the program, decreased after training in Business Clinic Program to 0%. Which makes us proud that we have been able to make this point clear to the participants.

Don't Know

No

Yes

22%

70%

8%

Managing Assets

Don'tKnow

One of the most important elements in business is how to deal with the assets and how to use these assets to generate sales revenue.In the begging of the course, only 8% of the participants knew how their assets help them in generating more sales, where 22%

didn’t know and 70% thought that there is no relationship between managing the assets and revenue.After attending the program, 92% of participants knew exactly how to manage their assets, while 8% still had some difficulties in this area.

Teaching Skills Of The Trainers

%6%4

%8%4

0

20

40

60

80

100

%78

%78

%68

%28

%80

%20

%18 %

34

%58

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

One of the main principles of Business Clinic Program is that it is a dynamic interactive program that can be developed and modified to suit the nature of the recipient, his needs and the field of his work. It does not rely on one trainer or advisor only, but periodically seeks to attract the known names in each field according to the subject of the course to bring it closer to the realities of the Bahraini entrepreneur.There is no doubt that the presence of 20 to 25 business owner and Managers in one training course, each with his own area of specialization, is a major challenge unless the instructor or advisor responsible for the

course is able to contain the diversity of the group.

Returning to the interaction indicators between trainees and trainers, we found that we were able to achieve high rates of positive interaction ranging between 60% and 80% when talking about different aspects of the training course, taking into consideration that between 15% and 30% found some difficulties or did not motivate them at a high rate, while between 4% and 8% of the participants found that the courses are complicated and unsatisfactory to them.

Available & Helpful EffectivelyUsed time

Clear & Organized Effective LecturerStimulatedParticipants

Ineterest

Program Content

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

100

72%22%6%

48%48%4%

44%50%

6%

82%18%

68%28%4%

Available & Helpful

Allow All Participants ToParticipate Fully

Workload Was Appropriate

Organized & Well Planned

were Clrar LearningObjectives

Business Clinic Program adopts the principle of diversification in sources and linking them to local reality by quoting and referring to local and global real-world experiences, in addition to providing information and applications inspired by the scientific rules of working in small and medium enterprises.

In light of the interaction indicators of the

participants with the content, we found that this method in the formulation of the training courses facilitated the trainee's idea, and enhanced the opportunities to benefit from the experiences gained from the topics presented, and made it easy to communicate with reality and can be achieved through the implementation of steps.

Why Did You Choose This Program?

Business Improvement

Business Requirments

Self-interest

Self Improvement

8%

40%

28%

28%

This was always the question we were asking ourselves when promoting this program. Why would the entrepreneurs choose Business Clinic Program specifically to learn how to develop their businesses?

Certainly, the answers and reasons will vary. The idea of learning and development is

seen from different perspectives. Nearly 40% of participants said they joined the program because the business requirements force them to learn, which is considered a good indicator. Yet, many entrepreneurs do not realize the importance of continuous learning and searching for tools they had not previously owned.

Media Coverage of Business Clinic Program

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