Annual Report 2015

Sheikh Saeed bin Ahmed Al Maktoum’s private office
collaborates with DBWC to host workshop on Customer
Discovery
The workshop focused on business idea testing to better understand customers’ needs and how to satisfy them
– an exclusive session presented by Hisham Al Gurg.
December 8, 2015
The Dubai Business Women Council (DBWC), hosted its December Network Majlis titled, “Customer Discovery”.
The workshop, facilitated by Mr. Hisham Al Gurg, CEO of the Private Office of Sheikh Saeed bin Ahmed Al Maktoum
and SEED Group, focused on customer development and how to test a business idea to better understand your
customers’ needs and how to satisfy them.
The in-depth three-hour workshop, which is designed for entrepreneurs who are looking to build a business or a
startup that is profitable and scalable, gave the DBWC members the chance to learn the Lean Startup mind-set and
the first step of Customer Development: Customer Discovery. Attending members also learned how to state
hypothesis about a business model and how to test assumptions, build and run interviews with potential
customers in order to gain insight about the problem they are trying to solve and acquire early adopters. At the
end of the workshop members had the necessary knowledge to “go out of the building” and “test the problem”
successfully.
“Customer understanding and development is what defines a business and determines its longevity,” said HE Dr.
Raja Easa Saleh Al Gurg, President of DBWC. “One of the very first tasks a new business must undertake is to
understand its target audience and their demographics in order to understand how to best serve them, and their
needs, and how to develop its offerings so that they are attractive to the masses. Through customer discovery this
is possible and we thank Mr Al Gurg for facilitating this session today as every business owner should continuously
be reminded of the importance of their customers and the ongoing processes of understanding them.”
Mr. Hisham Al Gurg has more than 01 years’ experience in setting up and running new ventures in the MENA
region. He is also the Executive Counselor of Al Fajer Investments & Development, an investment division of Al
Fajer Enterprises. Currently, his main day-to-day activities are focused on managing SEED Group. He is also the UAE
partner of the Chinese petroleum giant "Sinopec Petroleum".