Emirati business leader, Khamis Al-Shaibani, believes that the current crisis confirmed that the future will be for digital space, pointing out that the post-Corona stage will force the world to adopt new methods to coexist with the new reality, and the post-Corona era will be a golden age of growth and advancement again.
From his struggles to build his own house, Al-Shaibani was inspired by the idea of implementing "Rafik", to serve as a reliable companion for homeowners, to help them choose different service providers, thus becoming the first application of its kind in the Middle East. Al-Shaibani, who presented more than one project since 2004 until now, admitted in his dialogue with «Emirates Today» that he faced a lot of criticism from his colleagues about the lack of benefit from investing in this field, and that he is useless, expressing his belief that the electronic world has dominated Actually on transactions in the region for a long time. He added: «Through my experience presenting a number of projects in this field, which gave us great experience to look to the future in all projects. We have noticed during the past years the extent of the deterioration in the level of performance of traditional companies, which did not keep pace with these developments, as this caused a large number of them to exit from the market that witnessed growth during the same period. Al-Shaibani stressed that with the Corona pandemic, it became necessary for all owners of activities to be present in the electronic and digital world, in order to continue to provide their services and complete their usual transactions. I have personally noticed, through (Rafik), that the electronic world and similar digital platforms have enabled traditional companies to continue to complete their transactions and rationalize their expenditures, and thus these companies have become one of the leading companies in the region. I also expect that there will be a great demand from companies on digital technologies to upgrade their services and expand their activities, to continue to control their market share in the face of the expected strong competition.
Successful deals
On his direction for electronic projects, he indicated that he observed during his studies in the United States, and later in Australia, the extent of interest and dependence of the people of those countries on the electronic world, and since that time that world has intensified, he began working on establishing his first project, and was able during the first six years - That is, until the year 2010 - of creating and operating several successful electronic projects. He also managed to attract investments for some projects and end successful deals for other projects, as "Maktoob" company acquired one of those projects, which later became under the grievance of the company "Yahoo" Middle East . The Emirati business leader pointed out that the matter was not without challenges and difficulties, as he faced a lot of criticism from his colleagues about the lack of benefit from investing in this field, and that it is not useful, in addition to the immaturity of the region's markets at the time, and the lack of regulatory policies or government supports and incentives As a result of the weakness and lack of supply in that period, he was subjected to frauds and exaggeration in prices by anonymous development companies, which he had to deal with at the time due to the weakness and lack of supply.
Tips
Al-Shaibani advises young people wishing to start his own project, studying a detailed feasibility study for the project before launching it and seeking to put it on a segment of expected customers to know their opinions about it, and launching a pilot phase of the project during which you will actually test the opinions and acceptance of the target segment for it, and reflect the outputs of the experimental version on the established study, and use it Later on to develop and improve the project, in preparation for the actual launch of it. He explained that «the successful project is the one that has added value to the target segment, and that it is not a project adapted from another, as the added value can be a solution to a problem experienced by the people you target, or an innovative solution to implement a work that the beneficiaries have been implementing traditionally».
Revitalization
Al-Shaibani described the impact of the Corona pandemic on the economy in the coming period, as it is like a phase of reconstruction of the global market, or a state of patient recovery, and it will force the world to adopt new methods to live with the new reality, and countries will work to harness their natural and human resources to work on an internal local renaissance, In addition to adopting remote work practices, and this will be witnessed in the near future, and adopting more serious employment policies, reducing costs, guiding consumption, and other matters that will drive economic growth, as (the post-Corona era) will be a golden age of growth. The economy, even if steadily, especially focusing on benefiting, and attracting the skilled hands that were laid off to participate in the revival of the economy again.
He continued: «As for us in (Rafik), we have added accompanying services to owners of real estate and commercial buildings, to help them overcome challenges in the field of controlling the management of housing units and construction and maintenance work for those units, as well as expansion operations in the Middle East, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Egypt ».
Success recipes
Khamis Al-Shaibani said: «There are many qualities that help the entrepreneur to succeed, the most important of which is the passion, and it is the main characteristic of a successful entrepreneur, as he always searches for the field that he loves to work in, regardless of the field’s profitability and opportunities available» . The second characteristic is insight and availability of a vision that aims to achieve it, through a strategy that sets it, and always translates daily operational work into actions and projects that contribute to achieving the goals and vision set.
The entrepreneur must also be patient to face and overcome challenges and obstacles, and the quality of leadership that enables him to successfully deal with and benefit from human resources. Financial expertise and basic financial management knowledge.
"I faced a lot of criticism from colleagues about the lack of benefit from investing in this field."
"The crisis will force the world to adopt new methods to live with the new reality."