Category: Business

London – a home for entrepreneurs and entertainment

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn Business, CareersLeave a comment

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London is the world’s leading financial centre and has been for some time. A 2017 global study by Z/Yen of the world’s finance cities shows that London still holds the top spot despite the uncertainty about the future after the ‘Brexit’ vote to leave the European Union. In response to the findings of the report, which placed New York, Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo behind London in the top five places, London’s deputy mayor explained why the city continues to dominate the financial world: “No other city can provide its unique environment for business success: access to the best talent from around the world, an abundance of high-quality office, co-working, start-up spaces, excellent connectivity, and an entrepreneurial and innovative environment.”

For me, his description captures the essence of London and why it attracts people from all over the world to work there. It has been able to recruit and retain the best global talent and there is a key historic reason regarding that.

Why London became a leader in finance

London got in early at the birth of modern capital markets and English Common Law was the first to impose regulations on the dangerous practice of fractional reserve banking. At the same time, the City of London boys were always looking at innovation in finance. The establishment of the Bank of England in 1694 turned the City into a financial centre and it is the place where modern banking was born, even if we have to go back a few hundred years. The development of Britain’s Empire helped it to gain great wealth and its aggressive traders and money men created an environment unmatched in other places.

Now London also has Canary Wharf annexed to the City and its financial businesses have continued to benefit from being located between America and Asia. Plus, its language is English, which is the international language of business, it has excellent centres of education and it’s in “a country with a high level of technological innovation and well-developed infrastructure, being in a country with a recent history/tradition of liberal economics and being in a country where the Law is strong and corruption, though ever present, doesn’t entangle business with too much risk and uncertainty,” says City analyst and writer Richard Guy.

There are also three good reasons that London will maintain its status after the UK leaves the EU. These are, says Simeon Djankov at Biznews:

  1. The pre-eminence of the British court system in upholding the rule of law, including the protection of creditor and shareholder rights.
  2. The superiority of the UK’s university education in economics and finance over its continental counterparts.
  3. The UK’s tax and employment regulation that is conducive to the industry’s health and profits.

London’s culture nurtures entrepreneurs

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I would add a fourth reason: London is extremely conducive to nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit; there is a vibe in London that anything is possible and people flock here to make their dreams happen. This is all supported by the rich culture of London: you can attend the Royal Opera House and on the way home drop into the currently fashionable ‘speakeasy’ bars opening up around Hoxton and Shoreditch, a hub of modern art and high tech start-ups. It has its West End theatres with world-class shows on the doorstep of Chinatown and Soho’s piano bars, some of which date back to the 50s when jazz became popular. Most of all, it has a kind of cosmopolitan mix that seems to spur people on to make what might seem impossible elsewhere happen. And, London has always welcomed this attitude and celebrated it, and I feel confident it will continue to deliver both a top-class service to finance and business, as well as make a major contribution to global culture.

 

 

 

 

Dubai is world’s 5th fastest growing city economy

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn Business, Innovation3 Comments

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I love Dubai. I have been living here since 2008, working as an independent consultant in telecommunications and mobile apps and in its booming ‘smart’ real estate sector, and I have been privileged to witness the growth in this city over the last decade.

Trade and tourism boost Dubai’s fortunes

Both trade and tourism have pushed Dubai into the enviable position of being one of the top five fastest growing cities in the world, according to a report by the Brookings Institute, which surveys metropolitan economies. Its stats show just how far Dubai has come in the last five years. For example, in 2013, Dubai ranked 13th in Brookings’ world city survey and in 2012 it was ranked at 167 out of 300. In 2010 it was placed at 149 out of 150 cities. Now it’s in the top five. Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates is nowhere near Dubai’s ranking, partly because its GDP relies on oil prices, which have fluctuated in recent years to Abu Dhabi’s detriment, whereas Dubai’s GDP has the international trade and tourism sectors to boost its growth. Small wonder that Abu Dhabi is working on positioning itself as more of a cultural hub, with the opening of international art galleries, as a way of diversifying its economy.

Dubai has succeeded through ambition. It has ski slopes in the desert, an aquarium in a shopping mall, which also happens to be one of the most spectacular shopping malls in the world. It has an incredible selection of five-star hotels and its commercial and residential real estate has grown like daisies. Like Abu Dhabi, Dubai does sit on oil, but its rulers recognised that relying on oil would not deliver a sustainable income to the city-state; hence it wisely diversified into real estate and tourism.

It developed Emirates airline, which is one of the biggest in the world.

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In 2014, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum endorsed a $32 billion investment in developing a new mega-travel hub at Al Maktoum airport, which isn’t yet completed, but when it is finished, it will accommodate 200 million people

This is likely to make it a ‘crossroads’ for international travellers, and further boost Dubai’s position as major travel hub and as a result, its services sector will benefit from even higher numbers of visitors.

Dubai as an investment location

Dubai has low logistical and operational costs and an excellent infrastructure. It also has and international outlook and its more liberal government policies are attracting investors. Activities such as trade, transport, tourism, industry and finance have shown steady growth and helped the economy to achieve a high degree of expansion and diversification.

I can also tell you that it has a number of other advantages including cost, market and environmental advantages that create an ideal and attractive investment climate for both local and expatriate businesses. These things combined, place it at the forefront of the world’s dynamic, emerging economies. And, it is a time zone bridge between the Far East and Europe and a bridge to Africa for trade from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) that include Russia, Ukraine and all the ‘Stans’.

International companies setting up in Dubai are provided with competitive cost structures that are unavailable elsewhere and it offers a high quality of life to their employees. Dubai has come a long way in the last decade and whilst it has a bold vision for the future, it will handle it in a sustainable way that firmly establishes it as a meeting point for world trade, as well as a fantastic place to enjoy a luxurious holiday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tips on startup cash

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn Business, Careers, Success AdviceLeave a comment

Tips on startup cash

As an entrepreneur I am well aware that managing your cash flow in the early days of a business startup can be challenging. Not everyone has the comfort of a generous investor who provides a safety net, and those that don’t have sufficient liquidity need to take a ‘bootstrapping’ approach. This has saved many a new business from failing before it has barely begun and in my opinion, if you can rescue your business by yourself, you will be better prepared for what lies ahead. Therefore, I have put together 8 tips about the various ways in which you can bootstrap your business.

  1. Generate cash quickly

A business model that has the potential to generate cash rapidly is most likely to succeed if you’re bootstrapping and relying on your own finances. Not all business models will do this, so from the outset look at how you can bring cash in from the start.

  1. Watch your expenditure

Open a business bank account at the first opportunity. Using your personal bank account is risky because it is harder to keep track of incoming funds and outgoings. Discipline yourself to watch where cash goes and what demands more of it and when. There are free tools available that track spending and you should be monitoring your expenditure on a daily basis.

  1. Reduce personal spending

This is just common sense. You may have your own business but that doesn’t mean you can immediately start living the high life. You don’t have a salary as such, so think very hard about every purchase and only buy what is absolutely necessary. If possible, look at other ways to save money, such as reducing your rent by sharing with a friend.

  1. Do the job yourself

It would be lovely to outsource some tasks, but this is both an unnecessary expense and one that stops you from learning more about your business.

  1. Learn a new skill

This is related to the previous tip – if you don’t know how to perform a task that is required by your business, learn it rather than ask somebody else to do it. If you need to write code but have never done it before, now is the time to acquire the skill. You’ll save money and have a new skill.

  1. Learn the art of thrift

Apart from reducing personal spending, look at ways to reduce business expenditure. Make good use of all the freebies available, such as free versions of Dropbox and other online tools. Do you really need an office or can you work from home? Choose the latter first until you actually need to pay for premises.

  1. Invest in your website and business incorporation

This is one exception to the being thrifty tip. Make sure you use a respected incorporation service, because in the long term a shoddy service may come back to haunt you. Also, buy the web domain you want from Day One and build your brand around it from the start. It won’t cost less if you wait and you’ll miss the opportunity to establish your branding.

  1. Refuse to take ‘No’ for an answer

You might find that when you are small some suppliers don’t want to work with you. It’s essential that you build a personal relationship with these people, because by doing so you are more likely to get the service at a price you can afford. Tell them your story and what you are trying to achieve – appealing to people’s emotions is all part and parcel of running a business.

I can tell you that none of this is a walk in the park as they say, but if you follow these tips, the pay-off is considerable and you’re more likely to find you have a solid, long-term business.

I hope you enjoyed this and found it useful. Please subscribe to my blog if you’d like to receive an alert when I post new content.

 

 

 

The World’s Most Innovative Companies

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn Business, Digital InnovationLeave a comment

Most Innovative Companies

Who are the world’s most innovative companies?

This isn’t an easy question to answer, because the criteria used to select them varies between the different publications that publish the league tables. Some attempt to take an objective approach and others are clearly more subjective. Is one better than the other? Well, ‘objective’ is logically superior, but in my opinion, it doesn’t always result in an unequivocally definitive answer. For example, there are two highly respected publications that pride themselves on being objective – Forbes and Thomson Innovation – yet when you examine their lists of the Top 100 most innovative companies, there is not one company that shows up on both lists. The reason for this lack of consensus all comes back to different definitions of ‘innovation’.

The usual suspects

If I asked you to name the most innovative companies of 2017, who would you choose? Surveys show that many people name companies like Nike, Apple and Google. This has more to do with these firm’s high visibility and what marketing people call ‘brand equity’, which means they get selected because they create an impression of always being on the cutting edge. But does that mean they actually are being innovative? In many cases the answer is yes. Some may be riding the waves of previous achievements, but others continue to innovate based on their existing platform, and to me that is a sign of a successful innovator.

For example, The Fast Company, which publishes an annual league table of the most innovative companies, puts Amazon in No.1 spot. Its table is based on consumer and marketers research. So, that needs to be kept in mind when assessing their list. Why is Amazon at the top of its list, because consumers perceive it as “offering more, even faster and smarter?” Scrolling down its list, there are a lot of the usual suspects in the Top 10: Uber, Google, Facebook and Netflix are all there, as you might expect.

Communications innovation features strongly

However, if you look at the winners by sector, there are less well-known names, and these really interest me, partly because more than a few are in my field of communications. Tencent’s WeChat messaging app is so popular that it “has more users than there are smartphones in China.” It has reached this level of popularity in China because it isn’t just a messaging app; users can also book a taxi, or a restaurant and even pay the bill for dinner without leaving WeChat. Alongside, Alibaba, an innovation winner in the retail sector, these are the two most valuable companies in Asia. BBK is in the smartphone market and one of its innovations is targeting the rural areas of China with solid, low cost mobile handsets. This approach has given them domination of the Chinese market: BBK sells through 200,000 independent retailers who receive healthy commissions for sales in this historically untapped market. As you can see, Asia features prominently in mobile communication innovation.

Open Whisper’s Signal app

Open Whisper Systems and its Signal app is another winner. Its open-source protocol, “which ensures messages are visible only to their intended recipients, is used for confidential messaging in apps collectively installed by more than 2 billion users.” The business has achieved this without ever placing an ad or having a marketing budget. It relies on just a handful of staff paid with funds from grants and donations, as well as code contributions from a worldwide community of developers and users. This is an extraordinary achievement and certainly deserving of an innovation award.

So, innovation comes down to who you ask. As the Global Innovation Institute says: “Ultimately, innovation effectiveness has to measure actual, real value delivered to the marketplace (customers) and the innovation–based growth that happens inside of companies as a result of that.”

Who would you nominate as an innovative company based on the above criteria?

I hope you enjoyed this and found it useful. Please subscribe to my blog if you’d like to receive an alert when I post new content.