At the Pearl Initiative, we regularly meet business leaders from SMEs across all sectors in the region. Often, we find that the challenges they face are the same. Most SMEs are struggling to secure adequate funding, attract new talent, and grow geographically. Furthermore, SME business leaders are often sacrificing their own work-life balance to help drive their business in the right direction.

Does any of that sound familiar?

There is no magic solution to resolve all these issues at once. However, there is a simple way to drive positive change that will see your organization be better equipped to tackle these and other challenges. The way to do this is through the implementation of a cost-effective and practical approach to good governance.

We want to help you do just that and are launching a program tailored to your needs with tools, guides and resources. But to get that program right, we need your input. So, we’d like to ask you to take a ten-minute survey. Before we get to the survey, let’s take a general overview of what we’re trying to achieve and why.

Why is governance so important to the success of your business?

We can start simply by defining corporate governance. Corporate governance is a system of rules, practices and processes by which a company is directed and controlled.

Clear systems mean a business is better able to plan, find opportunities, and identify risks. It can make effective and well-informed decisions about what is going to lead to growth.

This makes a business:

• More attractive to investors and lenders who expect a return on their investment by being resilient
• Attractive to talent who would be keener to join a well-structured and professional organization
• Effective in winning business and expanding geographically by being able to anticipate and manage the needs and expectations of the market and stakeholders
• Structured for the business operations to continue even in the entrepreneur’s absence.

In short, it helps SMEs and entrepreneurs to be more competitive.

The first step in the process
SMEs and entrepreneurs who want to improve the way they run their business often find it difficult to locate the right tools. Time is precious and finding the appropriate information quickly and in a format that relates to your business is essential.

To address this, the Pearl Initiative is launching a three-year program specifically for the Micro and SME community in the Gulf region. We will develop a series of guides, resources, tools and workshops.

The first step is to hear what really matters to Micro, Small and Medium sized businesses in the Gulf. What makes a difference to the success of your business? What are the challenges and how do you operate your businesses now?

We’d like to invite you to participate in our program by taking our 10-minute survey. You could win a chance to have a case study on your organization featured in our regional publications. Give us your opinion by taking the survey and building the prosperity of the MSME community in the Gulf Region.