Liberating UAE Youth`s Entrepreneurial Spirit

28 April 2002

Mao's clarion call that "let a thousand flowers bloom" can be easily paraphrased to apply to entrepreneurs and just as well! Of course, this need not be tinged with the Chinese communist philosophy or Marxism - indeed to the contrary and to its anti-thesis. For entrepreneurial spirit to take roots and flower, we need heavy dozes of idealism tempered by moderation and realism, so as to make a good blend. Narrowing the context to the emirates, we have the benefits of a clear vision and support from the leadership at the helm and an environment that is relatively unfettered by the heavy hand of bureaucracy and uncluttered by having to devote constant attention to administrative and management details - i.e. elements that tend to drag down and bog down the budding entrepreneurs. However, can this process be nurtured into a holistic movement? The answer is and can only be in the affirmative; given that thousands of young qualified men and women emerge out of the colleges, year after year, having much of the mental equipment needed but little baggage in terms of experience and exposure. To expect the government departments, banks and insurance companies to take up the employment slack totally, would be both naïve (and literally) counter-productive. The answer therefore is not to create "sinecure" jobs or turn the young into privileged parasites but to exploit their energy, their initiatives, idealism, innovation, skills, so as to convert and channel these traits into viable 'long term jobs' that they can create for themselves.

This is where the financial institutions and the governmental authorities need to step in and identify areas where, in a small way, young nationals, can, at a low cost become self-employed entrepreneurs, professionals and businessmen. The Al Tomooh scheme is one of the early "head starts" and it was gratifying to note that they are moving ahead and persisting with what is a pioneering initiative. Indeed the exhortation by the Minister to extend it to other parts of the UAE and other activities, is to be welcomed.

However this whole movement needs to be a lot more specific along with a clear plan of action, deadlines and accountabilities. Good intent alone will not help or else will risk becoming a case of the road to hell being paved with good intentions - as the saying goes!

Some practical suggestions are worthy of consideration. For instance, franchising is an excellent entrepreneurial concept; especially if involving good brand names like the national oil companies i.e. ENOC, Emaarat, EPPCO, ADNOC - FOD etc. If what they are doing best can be disenfranchised (pun unintended; so to speak!). Say each of the filling stations, be given to young nationals to manage and make money or even convert the petrol filling stations into a family outlet with food, entertainment and a string of shops clustered around it. Rather than keep the ownership to themselves, these franchises if sold, would work wonders in retaining the young men and women close to their homes. Yet if they were to manage and service them efficiently, there can be a "flexi-time bonus" e.g. the young women can well combine her home and work - manage a family and the business with flexible convenient hours. Many UAE national girls and women coming out of colleges and universities are as well qualified and talented as the boys and men and often found to be much more deligent, skilled and with a better ability to grasp complex and conceptual issues. Such an experiment can thereafter be extended to banks, whereby small branches and financing units could then be franchised out. This can be also done with food outlets and there is no reason as to why with standard specifications and operating guidelines, franchising cannot be extended to many other economic activities. Post offices in far flung areas and in the cities can again be farmed out as franchises, to be owned and operated and yet centrally serviced. The required logistics and common elements can be provided by the owner of the franchise who can then build the same into service level agreements. This way, it can become a win-win situation for both the franchisees and franchisors. All the other stake holders can equally benefit from the efficient entrepreneurial spirit, harnessed well and structured / standardised upto a point but not too regimented as to discourage innovation and variation in quality and service!

Clearly entrepreneurial efforts ought to be supplemented by focused and constant training covering customer service, financial and operational management, work ethic, productivity and the need for up-gradation of systems etc. i.e. a whole host of honing of the skills to the franchisee and his / her team of staff. This process can be institutionalised in the form of a private and public sector joint initiative, aimed at 'on the job' and 'offsite' training and orientation.

At a later date, even small power sub-stations, food chains and insurance companies can be given out as a co-operative of young engineer-entrepreneurs. Effectively, by unbundling pieces of physical service delivery points and channels and transferring their ownership, the authorities can infuse abilities to invest, manage and produce results in the pschye of the youth of this country. The banks and the franchising entities can support this endeavour by way of soft loans and seed capital. May be all this is a little more radical than might be found palatable by the authorities; whose innate conservatism is to be appreciated and acknowledged as a healthy dose of realism.

There will always be a number of cynics and no-gooders who will frown on such experiments and might say that they will not work because the 'willingness and the ability' are just not there! But this patronising attitude smacks of negativity in what is a classic chicken and egg situation. Nothing will happen unless it is tried. Even in some cases, where they fail, this should not negate the value of successes here and there. Besides, a well endowed, prosperous country, like the UAE and others in the GCC, can well afford the cost of this experience and experiment. Indeed it will be an investment in the nation's human resources to help, turn and train them not just for white collar jobs in the private sector or into public bureaucrats but also into citizens who can grow into motivated nation-builders. The older generation in this region did this role exceptionally well, as traders in the pre-oil era and later on as heads of emerging business conglomerates, albeit using the 'agency' route to the hilt! Now with the WTO threatening to disrupt these previously cosy arrangements, there is need to re-think the business models.

Increasingly "sweat equity" and "knowledge capital" are becoming good substitutes for money and currency capital; of which there are plenty sloshing around in the financial system. Dubai has taken the lead, by creating a number of clusters (which it likes to call cities or centres). Some may even say that there is very little of physical Dubai, that is not now a free zone except perhaps a few roundabouts and a few residential areas(!) - and that you have huge swathes of land, where there are no ownership restrictions, smoothened by tax holidays and superb infrastructure to facilitate inflow of capital, experience and skills. Many of these features will attract reputable overseas entities to evaluate and establish a viable presence. But even they will need local support and participation by the country's youth; especially if they want to grow their business. Hopefully therefore there will be a happy marriage and blend of expatriate expertise and national employment aspirations and fulfilment. Such gainful employment need not take the form of fixed time, fixed pay jobs alone but assume different shapes and sizes of profit-sharing and / or entrepreneurial arrangements that can truly liberate and rejuvenate the productive assets of the country.

To the readers, all the above ideas may sound a little too utopian, flowery and high falutin! But then, as they say, 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' and if you do not dream the impossible, you will be left behind as a wakeful, tired work out case!

(The author (sureshk@emiratesbank.ae) is a General Manager in Emirates Bank Group. The views expressed in this article are not necessarily shared by the Bank.)

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