Prioritisation of innovation key to staying ahead of competition

At the conclusion of this week's three-day Management Innovation Forum leading global thinkers and local industry practitioners agreed that, in order to sustain growth and success, companies in the region must embrace the challenges of innovation and explore new business models that focus on transforming organisational.

Mid- to senior level management from banking, finance, construction, telecommunications and media learned firsthand from leading management experts how innovation has transformed businesses around the world.

'The launch of the Management Innovation Forum is the direct result of feedback we received from participants at last year's Leaders in Dubai Business Forum. Based on the level of participation at this event and the enthusiasm of both the delegates and speakers, there is clearly a need and desire within this market for local business leaders to have a platform where they can learn and share ideas with international experts, particularly in the area of management innovation,' said Alan Kelly, Event Director, IIR.

One of the event's key speakers, Ricardo Semler, challenged conventional business models by demonstrating how the growth of his company was the direct result of empowering employees and challenging them to innovate. Renee Mauborgne captured delegates' interest with her Blue Ocean Strategy that allows companies to create uncontested market space while emphasising that companies' focus should not be on beating the competition, but on making the competition irrelevant.

Speakers from Tom Peters, author of the Circle of Innovation and Tom Kelley, Managing Director of IDEO to Dr Nancy T Snyder, Corporate President, Strategic Competency Creation for Whirlpool and Kip Knight, Vice President Marketing, eBay, North America, reiterated that innovation is not trial-and-error, but rather a process. As speaker Ram Charan noted in his presentation, innovation is imperative, if there is no execution then its hallucination.
During the Forum local business leaders Yaqoob Al Zarooni, Chief Human Capital Officer, Dubai Properties; Ahmed Bin Brek, Chief Executive Officer, Majid Al Futtaim Ventures; and Abdullatif Al Sayegh, Chief Executive Officer, Arab Media Group also hosted an interactive panel session with delegates on how innovation and creativity have helped drive their organisations forward.

Commenting on his participation, Yaqoob Al Zarooni, Chief Officer - Human Capital, Dubai Properties said: 'The discussion was a good exercise in discerning the pulse of the industry and our peers. As a young, growing enterprise, Dubai Properties believes that the key to innovation does not lie in creative thinking alone. It is also about creative practices and generation of opportunities both within the organisation and through continued interaction with partners and stakeholders.'

Following the successful conclusion of the first Management Innovation Forum business leaders can now look forward to the Leaders in Dubai Business Forum 2007 taking place 18 - 20 November. This year's theme is 'Networking for the Present, Ideas for the Future' and confirmed speakers include Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations, Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic, Steve Forbes, Robert Kaplan, Philip Kotler, Professor Muhammad Yunus and Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point. The theme for this year's Leaders in Dubai event is 'Networking for the present, ideas for the future.'