Dynamic U.S. marketing expert Paul Rand recently
addressed over 200 diverse business stakeholders at Sheikh Faisal Center for
Entrepreneurship in the Middle East in Doha as part of its entrepreneurship and
business development initiative.
Rand, who is recognized worldwide as a visionary business
strategist, spoke about “word-of-mouth” marketing and his take on building a
business brand organically in conjunction with the two-year-old program. The center
endeavors to keep Qatari entrepreneurs up to date on business strategies,
marketing trends and technology, or “smart” tools.
Additionally, the entrepreneurship center places a high premium
on fostering Qatar-U.S. business relations with an emphasis on nurturing commercial
talent. Qatar has made efforts to strengthen the small-to-medium business
sector over the last decade, acknowledging the net worth to the overall national
economy as well as the value of added diversity.
“SMEs are more constrained by financing than large
enterprises,” Faisal Center Director Mandy Terc said. “Through this
presentation, we are giving new ideas, derived from firsthand experience from a
leading entrepreneur, on increasing the value added by applying innovative
methods in promoting and marketing their businesses.”
The Sheikh Faisal Center for Entrepreneurship in the Middle
East, founded in May 2014 in partnership with Chicago-based DePaul University, operates
a mutual student exchange program by letting DePaul students study abroad in
Qatar and welcoming Qatari students to its Driehaus College of Business campus
in Illinois.
“We are honored to be collaborating with leading institutions
in Qatar such as Qatar Business Incubation Center (QBIC), Qatar Science and
Technology Park (QSTP) and Bedaya,” Terc said. “(W)e look forward to further
enhancing our partnerships in the future to strengthen Qatar’s entrepreneurial
capacity and to connect entrepreneurs in Qatar and the U.S.”
