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Contents 

Intelligent SME | April 2018 

3

Content Page 

Sales & Marketing 

Heritage Branding: Where Nostalgia 

Boosts Market Value 

SME Tech 

08 15 

Leadership 

10 Marketing Influencers 

Entrepreneurs Must Follow 

12 

Blockchain Technology 

in Businesses: 

A Competitive Edge 

30 

CLOUDWORKS 

Manufacturing Success: 

Growing Sales in a New 

Customer Era! 

38 

Emerging 

Cryptocurrency 

Scams: An Investor’s 

Nightmare 

18 

SME Service 

Provider 

The Net Neutrality 

Debate 

21 

Security 

Meltdown and Spectre: 

The New Threat to 

Business 

24 

Enterprise 

Gig Economy to 

Become Mainstream in 

Business

26 

Finance 

You Can Explore Blockchain 

Technology without 


34 

Research Report 

Media Organizations’ 

Security Practices, 

Threats & Concerns 

Examined in New 

Akamai Research 

Report 

40 

Cloud & Big Data 

Loss 

Context in Raw Data 

Empowers Data-Driven 

Success 

44 

Data Governance 

Cambridge Analytica 

Breach Highlights the 

Importance of Data 

Governance 

50 

SME-Law 

Are you Aware of the 

Legal Issues in VR? 

32 

Technology 

Branding Authority to be 

Replaced by Blockchain 

Technology 

36 

Real Estate 

Real Estate to Disrupt 

by Autonomous 

Vehicles 

42 

Marketing 

Why Entrepreneurs Must 

Use Narrative Potential 

to Tell their Business 

Story? 

47 

Press release 

Allsopp & Allsopp 

Takes Arabian Business 

Property Crown 

52 

SME World 

Summit 

The most inspiring 

Celebration of 

Entrepreneurship 

SPI Group 

www.spigroup.ae 

www.theintelligentsme.com 

www.robustrak.com 

www.innovationandtech.ae 

www.innovationsummit.ae 

www.dubai-gbs.com 

www.smeworld.ae 

www.madeinuae.com 

Publisher & CEO: 

Shantanu A.P. 

Consulting Editor: 

Ramakrishnan Jayaraman 

Content Manager: 

Priyanka Kotoky 

Expert Contributors: 

Harish Krishnamoorthi 

Radhika Iyer 

Diksha Vohra 

Mohamed Khan 

Rohan Nathan 

Sirish Kumar 

Designer : 

Rahul A. Chauhan 

Distribution Department 

Jerry P. Sam 

Disclaimer 

SPI Publishing has endeavoured to bring out a 

publication that is reliable and informative. This is true to 

the best of our knowledge. The opinions presented are 

those of individual writers and not necessarily endorsed 

by SPI Publishing. The content in this magazine is 

protected by copyright law and is copyright to SPI 

Publishing unless credited otherwise, and may not be 

copied, reproduced or republished for any commercial 

purpose or financial gain. 


5

Publisher's note 

Shantanu Phansalkar 

Publisher, SPI Group 

“Entrepreneurship is neither a science nor an art. It is a practice." 

– Peter Drucker 

Dear Readers, 

The world of business had always fascinated entrepreneurs. The heady 

mix of technological innovation has made it all the more alluring. But one 

question in the business game always remains. How do you go about it all? 

We at Intelligent SME are here to give you that answer. 

This issue of Intelligent SME is all about the latest advancements in the 

business world starting from exploring the Blockchain to the art of Heritage Branding that can 

give your business that sophisticated edge. 

We believe in walking our talk and when it comes to providing a platform for entrepreneurs we 

are here again with the SME World Summit 2018. I would also like the opportunity to invite you to 

our biggest business summit where you get to interact with a mix of ambitious entrepreneurs and 

knowledge experts. Empower your businesses with knowledge, create new contacts and most 

importantly, get your every question about running a business answered here. 

See you all there! 

Happy Reading! 

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6 

www.theintelligentsme.com

Contents


Heritage Branding: Where 

Nostalgia Boosts Market 

Value 

Nostalgia – It 

strums a 

forgotten 

chord in some 

precious part of 

the heart. No one is immune 

to what nostalgia does to the 

mind. As a human race we 

look back at the past, at what 

had been with an affection 

that sometimes often 

perplex logic. The people 

who make up the business 

world, the entrepreneurs 

and the consumers are no 

different. Everyone unites 

at what had been. The 

evolution of business, the 

evolution of humans and life 

as we know it is one human 

story. People look back at 

a successful past for an 

assurance of a successful 

future. This is where heritage 

branding comes from. It is 

an assurance of companies 

that has a heritage to live up 

to the same expectations in 

the future. A company that 

is built on Heritage Branding 

is built on the foundation of 

trust, results and a promise 

of a better future. 

8 www.theintelligentsme.com


So what is heritage 

branding? 

To put in lay man’s words, 

heritage branding is the way 

of branding that taps into the 

company history and weaves 

into it consumer experience to 

procure loyalty and increase 

sales. 

One of the most popular 

brands globally that uses 

Heritage Branding is LEE. 

This company was founded 

in 1889 by H.D.Lee. This 

company has grown to 

be synonymous with ‘Blue 

Jeans’. The company works 

on its branding by telling 

stories and giving out content 

that honours the past. A past 

that also urges consumers to 

stay fashion forward. 

It is not necessary that the 

new age entrepreneurs have 

a decade long history to be 

able to do heritage branding. 

Every brand has some history. 

Some part in the making 

of a company that makes 

a connection with people. 

Something that evokes 

nostalgia in consumers. The 

idea is to evoke that nostalgia 

through your brand story. 

The fact there has been a 

shift in how people look at 

companies now works for the 

advantage of the new age 

entrepreneurs. Ever since 

the beginning of the business 

world, consumers looked at 

a company that has been 

around for a long time to be 

trust worthy. With changing 

times, trust and quality is not 

associated with how long you 

had been. It is associated 

with how long those people in 

business has been together 

and how efficiently they have 

met consumer expectations. 

Yes, the decade long history 

do subconsciously work on a 

consumer’s psyche, but you 

can out do that by telling your 

brand story in a fresh way. 

So how do entrepreneurs 

build a heritage brand out 

of their business that has 

been in the market for twenty 

years? Can heritage branding 

help a comparatively new 

company to stand at par with 

a company that has been 

successfully functioning 

since 1800s? 

Yes, it can. Here’s how? 

1. Pen your History: 

As an Entrepreneur there 

must be some business 

story in you. Maybe of 

humble beginnings, the 

struggle and the success 

that naturally you arrived at. 

If you have inherited your 

business maybe you have a 

family history that backs your 

present business. Tap into 

that history. Once you find the 

connect pen it down. Pen down 

and see how you can weave 

your story into the fabric that 

makes your consumers. Maybe 

your multi-dollar hotel business 

started off with the fame of a 

small shawarma stall ages back 

when your ancestors decided to 

fan the flames of Middle Eastern 

culture lest modernity took away 

from it its roots. Look at how 

your business history can make 

a connection to the consumer’s 

heart. Once you reach there, 

build up on it. 

But no matter how indistinct 

you might feel about your story 

do not fictionalise it to reach 

consumers. Keep it simple 

and authentic. Keep your story 

feeling like a conversation that 

you would have with your friend 

over a cup of coffee. A story that 

can be told, shared and related 

to. 

2.Focus on People: 

It is important that you tell people 

about the corporate elements 

that has built your brand. But do 

not stick only to that. Go beyond. 

Go to the story where people 

both consumers and in-house 

workers have worked together 

to build up the brand. Show your 

consumers how people-friendly 

you are. 

When you are working at this 

point of your brand story, throw 

in a mix of Nostalgia. Nostalgia 

can be evoked through any 

element of your brand story. The 

The idea is to evoke that nostalgia 

through your brand story. 


9


location, the product you sell 

or the people you cater to. For 

Example, if you are focusing 

on creating a heritage brand 

story by your location, you 

can start off by how your 

presence has shaped the 

locality. Showcase to your 

consumers how something 

that started off as a business 

has eventually become 

synonymous with living in that 

locality and an inseparable 

part of the locality history. 

Show how your future 

generations are committed 

to continue the legacy of the 

locality’s history. 

3. Do not forget to 

Innovate your Brand: 

TB_Intelligent SME_HP_April17_Final.pdf 1 3/20/17 10:53 AM 

We all love centenarians 

who are in sync with times. 

The present generation can 

make a connection to them 

because they bring with them 

the wisdom of the past and 

a great perspective for the 

future. The same holds with 

companies. No one would like 

to associate with a company 

that has not moved with the 

changing times, no matter 

how interesting or strong their 

heritage. Nostalgia is the 

foundation resting on which 

the dreams of future believes 

in itself. A company that is 

creating its heritage brand 

story must always act as that 

foundation that gives wings to 

the dreams of a future. 

Heritage branding has long 

existed in the business world. 

It had been communicated 

as word of mouth. Then 

came the way of creating 

legacy. The present age 

marketing scenario is very 

cut-throat and futuristic. 

Everywhere it is the same 

thing that every company 

is saying differently. A little 

mix of Heritage marketing 

would surely help a new age 

entrepreneur to create a great 

brand and customers. Give 

your company the wisdom of 

heritage branding and give 

yourself a fair chance. 

SPI thinktank 

initiative 


Contents 


11

SME Tech 

Blockchain Technology in 

Businesses: 

A Competitive Edge 

Ever fancied 

using Blockchain 

Technology in 

your company 

for a competitive 

advantage? No, it is not 

wishful thinking. While the 

business world is still at a 

pace where it is trying to 

understand what the whole 

Blockchain Technology is 

all about, there are some 

industries that are already 

planning a future, for some, 

a present that gives their 

company a competitive 

advantage with the use of 

Blockchain Technology. The 

discussion has long been 

focused on the advantages 

and disadvantages of the 

cryptocurrency, but there is 

a shift in focus now. People 

in business have come to 

understand that there is more 

to Blockchain Technology 

than just cryptocurrency 

and the more passionate 

ones are trying to explore 

this technology to help their 

company have a competitive 

advantage. 


SME Tech 

Why 

Entrepreneurs 

are going the 

Blockchain 

Way? 

The transparent nature of 

Blockchain Technology is 

the main reason that keeps 

entrepreneurs coming back 

to it for more. The fact that 

this transparency comes 

with a mix of security based 

applications make the 

deal even more alluring. 

It is very possible that the 

decentralised platform that a 

Blockchain Technology has 

will revolutionise the business 

world as we know it. 

Let us look at the industries 

that are going the Blockchain 

way to give their businesses a 

competitive advantage. 

1. Real Estate: 

Real Estate is one industry 

that moves really slowly 

thanks to the participation of 

a large number of people like 

buyers, sellers, agents along 

with the lengthy processes of 

escrow and processes of title. 

Entrepreneurs in the Real 

Estate industry are increasing 

looking at implementing 

the Blockchain Technology 

because it can reduce the 

risk and increase the trust in 

the real estate transactions 

thereby making it shed its 

slow image. 

The possibility of a home title 

being issued on the Ethereum 

Blockchain, something that 

has been experimented on 

provided with a solution to 

real estate’s long transaction 

processes. 

Apart from the transaction 

process, the Blockchain 

technology can also be 

used to give buyers the 

possibility to conduct a 

transaction through various 

cryptocurrencies. There has 

also been a report about how 

all types of homes are now 

being placed on the real estate 

market for cryptocurrency rather 

than only for Fiat currencies. 

Needless to say there is an 

increasing number of people or 

buyers who are interested in a 

real estate that gives them the 

flexibility of purchase options, 

the benefit of a fast transaction 

along with an assurance of 

security. Given this scenario, 

many entrepreneurs in the real 

estate market are looking to go 

the Blockchain way. 

This is one industry that is 

definitely trying to jump on the 

Blockchain Bandwagon to add 

a competitive advantage to their 

business. 

2. Banking: 

The Banking industry has 

been very sceptical about the 

whole cryptocurrency and 

Blockchain Technology. These 

very banks are now looking at 

accommodating the Blockchain 

Technology in their industry. 

The big guys of banking namely 

the Barclays, J.P.MorganChase, 

Goldman Sachs are some of the 

organisations that are looking at 

the applications that they can 

make use of. 

People in Banking are now 

opening up to discussions on 

Open Banking and the like. There 

has also been recent legislations 

that has forced banks to allow all 

third-parties access to client data 

via APIs. 

This has brought about a new 

banking system where different 

banks, deposit /Insurance 

accounts, Crypto Holdings/ 


13

SME TECH 

Exchanges etc., can all be 

accessed by using one single 

interface. 

There has also been the 

emergence of platforms 

like the ORCA which is a 

customizable open-banking 

platform. It connects all 

crypto and Fiat services. It 

also reverses things while 

aggregating only third party 

services, but it does not store 

any data. This is a first time 

when the banking industry 

has opened up to allowing 

consumers to combine 

traditional banking and 

cryptocurrency services. 

This is another industry 

that is opening up to using 

Blockchain. 

3. Legal: 

Digitally secure contracts 

have changed the way one 

looks at the vulnerability of 

a contract. The business 

world is opening up to 

digitally secure contracts 

and are looking at making it 

mainstream in all its spheres. 

This will naturally make 

law firms get involved with 

Blockchain transactions 

surrounding law. How 

legal contracts etc., are to 

be structured cannot be 

decided without the help of 

the legal firms. 

The Enterprise Ethereum 

Alliance is one such 

organisation that has taken 

this thought to reality by 

getting law firms invested in 

the technology. It has also 

gone on to add 14 more firms 

as members to encourage the 

development and adoption 

of Blockchain solutions in the 

legal industry. 

The whole idea of the firm is to 

function as a neutral space that 

explores Blockchain-based 

legal technology, develop 

standards for the smart legal 

agreements. It also plans to 

support emerging enterprise 

use cases and be answerable 

to any policy issues that is 

raised by the new technology. 

The Blockchain Technology is 

here to stay and entrepreneurs 

who want to stay ahead of the 

game must make sure that 

they are not lagging behind. 

These are the main industries 

that are going the Blockchain 

way but entrepreneurs must 

understand that one industry 

taking to the Blockchain way 

of doing things would lead 

to other industries following 

suit. This is not because 

others would want to follow 

but because they will need 

to follow. The business 

world has industries that 

are interconnected. All the 

industries that make up 

the business world are 

affected by the changes and 

developments in the other. 

Are you an entrepreneur 

whose business falls in the 

category mentioned above? 

If yes, it is high time that 

you jump the Blockchain 

Bandwagon and make way 

for a future of Blockchain 

way of business. If you are 

an entrepreneur who has 

not been yet affected by the 

Blockchain Technology take 

a close look. Is your business 

related even remotely to 

any of these industries? If 

yes, then you must make 

your business Blockchain 

friendly. The world is learning 

the language of Blockchain 

Technology. Entrepreneurs 

who want to thrive in the 

future must empower their 

business with the power of 

Blockchain. 

SPI thinktank 

initiative 

The transparent 

nature of Blockchain 

Technology is the main 

reason that keeps 

entrepreneurs coming 

back to it for more. 


Leadership 

10 Marketing Influencers 

Entrepreneurs Must Follow 

It is human nature to 

learn by emulating. No 

matter how strong the 

claims of originality the 

human species learn by 

observing and by emulating. 

Entrepreneurs tend to gain 

a lot by following people in 

business who know better 

and has something to teach. 

Knowledge is power and 

when it comes to business it is 

indispensable. The business 

world is thankfully brimming 

with people who have raw 

business experience and 

an inspiring business story 

to tell. From entrepreneurs 

who made it; to those who 

are a success in innovation; 

to marketing investors; there 

is a whole lot of human 

knowledge in the business 

world. These people are 

someone who dare to think 

out of the box and prove 

themselves right. Marketing 

influencers like Aj Agarwal 

for example, interestingly 

teaches large brands to think 

like SMEs. Jon Youshaei is 

one successful entrepreneur 

whose graduation speech is 

ranked alongside Steve Jobs 

and Sheryl Sandberg. People 

like them and many more are 

not only very good at what they 

do but are also eager to share 

their knowledge with those who 

are willing to listen and evolve. 

Who are these people and what 

can you gain by following them? 

Here’s a look. 

1.AJ Agarwal: 

Aj Agarwal is a Fortune 500 

marketing consultant who 

specializes in making large 

brands think like start-ups. He 


15

Leadership 

What do 

you earn by 

following 

marketing 

influencers? 

Well, a great 

insight into 

businesses and 

how things 

work in the 

business 

world. 

works mainly to help brands like IBM and 

the like with their marketing strategies. Like 

all great minds, he shares his business 

knowledge through his personal blog. 

Entrepreneurs who are looking at adding 

new growth-hacking strategies to one’s 

company can follow his blog. 

2. Jon Youshaei: 

Jon Youshaei works as a YouTube 

marketing manager. He has worked closely 

with Eric Schmidt, Adam Grant and Neil 

Strauss to market their bestselling books. 

He is the founder of Every Vowel. He also 

delivers on stage. His speech has been 

ranked as the best ever, alongside Steve 

Jobs and Sheryl Sandberg. 

3. Ann Lewnes: 

Ann Lewnes is the chief marketing officer 

of Adobe. She has thirty years of marketing 

experience and has also served as vice 

president for marketing for Intel. Lewnes 

has a lot of digital marketing software 

solutions and can identify future marketing 

trends. 

Lewnes can be followed on Twitter where 

she shares marketing content with her 

followers. Entrepreneurs who are looking for 

bite-sized information related to marketing 

trends can follow her accounts. 

4. Brian Evans: 

Brian Evans is the founder of a fastgrowing 

advertising and marketing 

agency named BDE Ventures. He 

also has a new age digital publication 

named the Influencive.com that is 

aimed at an audience of millennials 

and unconventional thinkers. He is also 

actively involved in the Blockchain and 

Cryptocurrency movement that is creating 

ripples of innovation in the business world. 

Entrepreneurs who want to know 

everything about the Blockchain 

Technology can read his columns on 

Blockchain. 


Leadership 

5. Joel Comm: 

Joel Comm is a bestselling 

author, a keynote speaker 

and also an advisor to big 

brands. He has worked with 

Yahoo as an online games 

developer initially in his 

career and later moved on to 

create his own brand. 

Armed with a good amount of 

business knowledge he can 

be followed on his Twitter and 

social media accounts where 

he shares great business 

stories and insights. 

6. Kim Garst: 

Kim Garst is a small business 

owner and an entrepreneur. 

She has a following of 

500,000 plus on social media. 

Kim Garst shares actionable 

advice through easy to read 

blog posts and e-books. She 

focuses mainly on sharing 

knowledge that can help 

marketers to use social media 

platforms more effectively. 

7. Beth Comstock: 

Beth Comstock is the CEO 

of GE. Entrepreneurs can 

look at the perspectives 

that she has shared on TV’s 

‘MacGyver’ as a great model 

for business innovation. Her 

personal stories that she 

shares on Leaning In is also 

worth following. She talks 

mostly of business innovation, 

creativity and leadership 

challenges. 

8. Nicolas Bordas: 

Nicolas Bordas is the VP of 

TBWA/Europe. He writes 

everything from ‘Gagnam 

Style’ to ‘Analog technology’. 

His posts are full of insights 

on insider views on branding 

and digital innovation. 

9. David Edelman: 

David Edelman is the 

partner at McKinsey and 

Company. He specialises 

in Digital Marketing. His 

thoughts are all about why 

marketing needs to focus on 

the language of the C-Suite. 

He also focuses on Africa’s 

consumer market that he 

believes is getting ready 

to explode. Entrepreneurs 

who are interested to 

receive great insights on 

social media, analytics 

and consumer research 

can follow his social media 

accounts. 

10. Charlene Li: 

Charlene Li is the founder 

and the partner at Altimeter 

Group. She focuses on 

discussions that talk about 

the importance of evaluating 

one’s career every year and 

half. She also focuses on 

the importance of getting a 

company’s employees on 

social media. Entrepreneurs 

who are interested in social 

business strategies can follow 

her social media accounts. 

What do you earn by 

following marketing 

influencers? 

Well, a great insight into 

businesses and how things 

work in the business world. 

Second, latest updates on 

business that might be of 

interest to you. Third, details 

of what to watch out for in 

the business world. Keeping 

oneself up-to-date brings 

an entrepreneur a step 

closer to business success. 

Busy entrepreneurs do not 

necessarily have the time to 

research on these details. 

Following the experts on the 

field can give them the much 

needed pieces of information 

that can surely keep 

them updated on various 

information without having 

to browse through a lot of 

unnecessary information. 

The business world is always 

changing. What is news today 

will be mainstream tomorrow 

and what is mainstream today 

might be out-of-use tomorrow. 

This applies to technologies, 

ideas, and marketing, 

everything that makes the 

business world. Following 

a knowledge expert can 

help an entrepreneur to stay 

ahead of the chaos of change 

and chaff the information that 

he/she might need for his 

business. It does not take 

much to follow someone. A 

few clicks here and the latest 

updates are there in your 

inbox. Keep yourself armed 

with knowledge and make 

success a choice. 

SPI thinktank 

initiative 


17

SME Service Provider 

The Net 

Neutrality 

Debate 

Net Neutrality is 

one concept that 

had kept people 

discussing 

about sometime 

back. The buzz about Net 

Neutrality started after the 

Federal Communications 

Commission’s net neutrality 

repeal. The repeal would 

naturally affect internet based 

start-ups, e-commerce 

stores and businesses that 

has a web presence to make 

it simple. It has the potential 

to affect even a company that 

has a static website. 

What is Net 

Neutrality? 

Net Neutrality in lay man’s 

words can be said to be the 

principle abiding by which 

internet service providers 

should give access to all 

content and applications 

without any partiality to the 

source, products or websites. 

The last year December 

saw the FCC repeal its net 

neutrality rules of 2015. 

This had earlier prohibited 

ISPs from either blocking or 

slowing down websites or 

apps as long as it displayed 

lawful content. It also 

prohibited ISPs from paid 

prioritization in exchange 

for a pricing that might be 

done for companies and 

consumers. Paid prioritization 

as the name suggests makes 

business slower for those 

who are paying less. 

With Net Neutrality repeal 

the whole concept of paid 

prioritization will change 

given that it is the ISPs that 

would hold the right to create 

differently priced internet 

packages that are based 

on the content that users 

wish to access. However, 

the consumers on premium 

packages would have the 

access to all sites at normal 

speeds. 

How will it affect a 

Business? 

Businesses big and small 

both will be affected by it. 

Every business has a digital 

presence. Almost every form 

of marketing and commerce 

is done on the internet. It is 

important that all businesses 

maintain a good internet 

presence to have that kind 

of popularity that can make 

every visitor a loyal customer. 

The fact that a lack of net 

neutrality will give charge of 

a business website to ISPs 

will mean that businesses 

all over will need to pay to 

have their websites run at 

a normal speed. This might 

not be much of a problem 

for the already established 

big platforms but for other 

companies, this will surely 

affect business. 

Let us take a look at the three 

main ways that it might affect 

small businesses. 

1. Organic and Paid 

Traffic: 

Marketing has been the 

main force that enhanced a 

business’ popularity in the 

market online. There have 

been many companies 

that based its marketing 

on organic and paid traffic. 

The speed of a site plays a 

very important role in traffic 

acquisition. 

In the world of internet speed, 

if a site takes 2 seconds 

to load, then naturally the 

average bounce rate would 

be 9.6 percent. If a site takes 

4 seconds to load then, the 

bounce rate would double 

up to be 17.1 percent. Paid 

prioritization would make 

businesses have slower 

websites comparatively. This 

would result in many visitors 

leaving even before a page 

can load. 

This would lead to a high 

bounce rate which would 



make google rank a business 

lower in Google Search 

Rankings. The slow page 

speed and the minimal time 

that is spent on a page will 

affect SEO negatively. 

Those businesses who have 

ads as the main source of 

traffic would suffer too. The 

paid prioritization would slow 

down a business website’s 

landing pages too. This 

would also lead to a business 

spending a huge amount of 

money on ads that visitors 

click but do not wait to hear 

what it says because of the 

poor speed. 

2. Conversions: 

Businesses will see lower 

conversions. It is natural that 

a slow website would lead to 

fewer conversions. Slower 

conversions will directly 

affect the revenue that a 

business had the potential 

to make. This is something 

that makes businesses think 

that it is in fact meaningless 

to have a website at all. 

Lower conversions would 

not only affect e-commerce 

businesses but will also 

affect the SaaS companies 

trying to get sign-ups on their 

websites. 

3. Low Performance and 

User Experience: 

The blocking and slowdown 

will naturally affect the internetbased 

software and all mobile 

applications. SaaS tools, audio/ 

chat/video communications 

tools, Internet-of-Things, all of 

these will be affected by ISPs 

taking charge. This will lead 

to many applications being 

blocked or not functioning 

properly. There had been 

violations earlier too. 

For example AT&T had blocked 

Facetime unless the users 

upgraded their plans. Verizon 

also had earlier blocked Google 


19


The paid prioritization 

would lead to a business 

spending a huge amount of money 

on ads that visitors click but 

do not wait to hear what it says 

because of the poor speed. 

Wallet to promote its own 

payment service. The repeal 

will now allow to renew these 

practices. 

ISPs might Target 

Small Businesses 

ISPs might target the small 

businesses initially. It might 

try to get access fees from 

companies that deliver 

traffic for many other sites. 

Companies that have a 

contract with traditional 

webhosts to connect to 

larger internet and consumer 

broadband networks will be 

targeted. 

ISPs will target these 

intermediaries because one 

can get payment simply 

through these companies. 

The Good News 

There are many companies 

that are now opposing 

paid prioritization including 

the giants like Facebook, 

Google and Amazon. 

The effectiveness of the 

policy depends on how 

much support it gets. The 

fact that many states and 

corporations are standing 

against it gives out a 

shimmer of hope to small 

companies. 

Big Organisations can also 

contribute to spread this 

shimmer of hope across 

the world by being a part of 

the opposition campaign. 

Spread awareness. Talk to 

your consumers and local 

business groups. Burger 

King had done a video on 

the effect of net neutrality. 

Track your social media 

followers and put up videos 

that educate them about net 

neutrality. A small business 

can also take the issue to a 

local political representative 

or support other groups, etc. 

Net Neutrality can really 

damage businesses that 

have an online presence. 

The effect will be felt more 

by the small businesses 

because they do not have 

the money to cover the 

bumps that net neutrality 

might bring to their 

business. The fact that many 

people are opposing paid 

prioritization, there is this 

shimmer of hope that seems 

to grow big. Join the group 

that supports net neutrality 

and give yourself a chance 

to win. 

SPI thinktank 

initiative 


Security 

Meltdown and Spectre: 

The New Threat to Business 

Cute looks do 

not necessary 

mean that it is 

harmless proves 

Meltdown and 

Spectre. Meltdown and 

Spectre are two security 

bugs that can affect all 

digital systems in the world. 

Armed with cute logos, many 

people confuse them to be 

something harmless unless 

their potential was known. 

They are almost similar 

to Magneto and Venom, 

the only difference is that 

they affect businesses. 

Entrepreneurs must 

understand what these 

security bugs are and how 

to protect their businesses 

from it. 

How Do Meltdown and 

Spectre Work? 

Meltdown and Spectre are 

two security bugs that can 

affect all digital systems 

in the world. They are 

supposed to be dangerous 

than both Magneto and 

Venom because of the way 

that these operate. When it 

comes to the operation of 

a security bug, most bugs 

affect either the software or 

the hardware of a system. 


different because both 

these bugs are found at an 

architectural level within a 

system’s processors. With 

Spectre and Meltdown, 

the data passes through 

a kernel, which is the core 

of a computer’s operating 

system. The data passes 

through a plain and 

unencrypted form. 

Every system 

has powerful 

protections that are 

designed to shield 

the unencrypted data from 

being interfered with by other 

sources. But Meltdown and 

Spectre are bugs that have 

techniques that can get around 

these protections too. 

The fact that these bugs work 

from the kernel of a system 

make them the most dangerous 

security bugs. This is because 

the bug allows anyone to 

observe all the actions that 

one takes on a computer 

starting from password details, 

accessing private information or 

sending any form of encrypted 

communications. 

Meltdown and Spectre were 

discovered by three separate 

groups that were working at 

the same time. The people 

who discovered these bugs 

were Jann Horn who worked 


21

Security 

in Google Project Zero, 

Werner Haas and Thomas 

Prescher who worked 

with Cyberus Technology, 

and Daniel Gruss, Stefan 

Mangard, Moritz Lipp and 

Michael Schwarz who were 

from the Graz University of 

Technology. 

What do Meltdown 

Affect? 

The bug Meltdown was 

named because it melts the 

boundary of security that 

are enforced by a system’s 

hardware. Meltdown affects 

Intel Processors. It breaks 

through the shield and 

prevents applications from 

reaching the kernel memory. 

Meltdown works by breaking 

down a barrier. Meltdown 

also affect cloud providers 

that use Intel CPUs and Xen 

PV as virtualisation. Cloud 

providers that do not have 

patches applied are naturally 

the ones that are affected. 

The cloud providers that 

do not have real hardware 

virtualisation and relies on 

containers that share one 

kernel are also affected. 

What do Spectre 

Affect? 

Spectre was named on the 

basis of the root cause that is 

root speculation. 

Spectre affects Intel, AMD 

and ARM processors. 

Spectre can penetrate 

through smartphones, 

wearables and everything 

that has a chip in it. 

Spectre works by tricking 

an application to reveal 

protected information. 

Difference between 

Meltdown and Spectre 

The difference between 

Meltdown and Spectre is 

that Meltdown breaks the 

mechanism of a system 

that keeps application from 

accessing the arbitrary 

system memory. Meltdown 

makes it possible for 

applications to access 

system memory. 

Spectre on the other hand 

tricks applications to access 

arbitrary locations in their 

memory. 

The similarity between both 

Spectre and Meltdown is that 

both use side channels to 

obtain information from the 

memory location of a system. 

How Does it Affect 

Businesses? 

If you are an entrepreneur 

unaware of these two security 

bugs then you should be 

careful. This is because, if 

anyone uses either Spectre 

or Meltdown to spy on your 

business then, it is possible 

that that person would be 

able to pass through the 

passwords and compromise 

data. 

However the entrepreneurs 

can make use of software 

patches that can protect 

one’s business from 

Meltdown and Spectre. 

These software patches 

can help an entrepreneur to 

guard one’s system against 

these bugs from present and 

future attacks. 

What can 

Entrepreneurs do to 

guard against Spectre 

and Meltdown? 

Given that Spectre and 

Meltdown can break your 

businesses it is important 

to move beyond just the 

software patches to enhance 

the security of your systems. 

1. Update all Devices 

Used in Business: 

It is important that 

entrepreneurs update all 

devices that has important 

information about their 

business. It is also safe to 

update personal devices 

too. Make sure that all the 

devices that you use are 

equipped with the protection 

of the latest OS and software 

updates. Entrepreneurs who 

have devices that update 

automatically will have these 

software updated. 

2. Recheck the Status 

of Important Accounts: 

It is possible that one’s 

system has been affected 

before the patches could 

be applied. It is important 

that entrepreneurs check 

the most important accounts 

in business. If you see any 

suspicious activity, you must 

report it immediately and take 

the required measures. 

3. Change Passwords: 

It is important that 

entrepreneurs keep changing 

the password of their 

businesses. Choosing strong 

passwords add an extra layer 

of protection to your business 

accounts. 

4. Keep Yourself 

Updated on the Latest 


Security 

Spectre and Meltdown 

News: 

Entrepreneurs who want to 

stay ahead of the problems 

that Meltdown and Spectre 

might give shape, must keep 

themselves updated on 

the developments that are 

happening in the security 

bug world. Keeping oneself 

updated would help an 

entrepreneur to handle 

problems that might arise. 


the new security bugs that 

have threatened the business 

world. These bugs have been 

present the last twenty years. 

It has been discovered now. 

Businesses can guard their 

systems with the knowledge 

that these discoveries have 

made. Entrepreneurs must 

identify all the vulnerable 

areas of security that his/ 

her business has and take 

measures to make their 

systems secure. The best 

part about these bugs is that 

now that they are detected 

entrepreneurs can protect 

themselves against them. 

The most important thing 

entrepreneurs should do is 

keep themselves updated 

on all the technological 

advances that are touching 

the security bug world. Keep 

yourself armed with the power 

of knowledge and stay ahead 

in the security game of your 

business. 

SPI thinktank 

initiative 

Meltdown 

and Spectre 

were 

discovered by 

three separate 

groups that 

were working 

at the same 

time. 


23

Enterprise 

Gig Economy 

to Become 

Mainstream in 

Business 

The gig economy has always been present 

in the business world. We have just not paid 

much attention to it. The discreet way it 

worked also made it quite elusive to the loud 

business world at large. The Technological 

Revolution that the world has seen in the last few years 

has made it possible for the gig economy to thrive. There 

is also a whole new breed of entrepreneurs that has 

been created by the emerging Gig economy after the 

technological revolution. The gig economy has evolved 

over the years and today it stands not only as a part that 

assists a small scale company but it stands with the big 

companies shoulder-to-shoulder, as an integral part of 

their organisation. 

It is old news that Uber has asked the Washington State 

leaders to provide contract workers for them who also 

have an access to health benefits. It is like an alliance 

of the gig economy with the policies of a full time job. 

Surprising, though it may seem it in itself is a tremendous 

change and policy makers of the industry must look at 

how to make their company streamline their working 

with the ways of the gig economy. It is not only Uber 

but also companies like Handy and TaskRabbit that are 

taking in a lot of individuals who can take a lot of jobs in 

their company to help them make an additional income. 

Looking at the way that the gig economy is growing it is 

possible that the concept of doing work might also shift 

to this side of business largely. 

Uber in its conversation with the Washington State has 

raised the concept of ‘Portable Benefits System’. The 

portable benefits system is a way by which freelance 

workers can have access from a company to health and 

retirement benefits. The possibility of this happening is 

at a conversational level but the fact that the possibility 

has been raised it is very possible that the business 

world would, like other concepts, try to 

make gig economy a part of structured 

working. However, there is more than 

meets the eye. A company must 

make many amendments that are in 

accordance to the state and local laws 

of business to accommodate the gig 

economy. 

True the transformation clearly will 

take some time. But time in business 

is a very fleeting word and means a 

different pace to different companies. 

It is best for entrepreneurs now to 

understand the paradigm shift that 

the gig company is going through 

and if possible accommodate it in its 

work structure. The gig economy is 

changing the structure of the business 

world and it is not limited only to one 

sector. It has made its presence felt 

across all the sections of a business 

world be it technology or the traditional 

business world. 

The gig economy provides quite an 

opportunity but one question remains. 


Enterprise 

How can you as an entrepreneur tap 

into the gig economy? 

1. You can use the Gig 

Economy to Staff up in your 

Peak Business Hours: 

Work-on-demand is something that 

has become very popular with the 

business world. The success of a 

company is naturally proportionate to 

the amount of work increasing. A lack 

in supply for the demand would again 

make the company need to start from 

the basics. 

The work-on-demand allows a 

company to augment staffing of the 

employees in their busy seasons. 

Every company from retail to 

warehousing are looking at workon-demand 

platforms. One famous 

example of this is Papa John’s. This 

giant posts one-off pizza delivery gigs 

on an app named Wonolo whenever 

it feels that it needs extra staffing. 

Entrepreneurs can use the gig 

economy like Papa John’s is using. 

2. You can use the Gig Economy to 

Crowdsource to make Additional Deliveries: 

Home Deliveries and the accuracy and the availability of 

the feature is one thing that makes or breaks a business. 

No longer are people interested in the traditional way of 

shopping. 

This has made the retail entrepreneurs to explore how 

they can offer individuals the possibility to earn additional 

money through supporting home deliveries. This thought 

has already materialised with Amazon Flex that allow 

people to deliver local Amazon orders. 

The concept is gradually growing on the new age 

entrepreneurs who are in sync with the changing business 

world. Consumers and businesses alike are now looking at 

how Ikea would evolve after it Integrates TaskRabbit in its 

customer services. 

3. You can use the Gig Economy to bring on 

Flexible Hires to your Company: 

Entrepreneurs can wish away the lack of workers from their 

company. The Gig economy is now making it possible for 

entrepreneurs to turn to online freelance services for hiring 

flexible workers during a company’s busy season. 

Samsung for example is one company that is leading the 

way by teaming up with the freelancing platform Upwork 

to meet its requirements. Resorting to Upwork has also 

helped to reduce the administrative costs of the company. 

It also helps a company to have an access to a younger 

and more collaborative workers. 

It is clear that the gig economy is here to stay! The 

convenience of working that it provides to both companies 

and employees; the flexibility that it adds to an organisation; 

and the reliable back-up that it provides to an organisation 

makes all companies big and small want to make it an 

integral of their business organisation. The gig economy 

makes business life easier and manageable. It is important 

that entrepreneurs start to think about incorporating the gig 

economy culture in their organisation. The companies who 

have the support of the gig economy is clearly reaping 

the benefits of its association. It is not only creating a new 

class of entrepreneurs but is also challenging the way 

the business world understands work. The way the gig 

economy is becoming popular it is very possible that it will 

be the future of the new work culture. Make your company 

flexible enough to welcome the gig economy and see your 

company transform. 

SPI thinktank initiative 


25

Finance 

You Can Explore 


without Cryptocurrency 

Blockchain and 


are the new 

favourite of the 

business world. 

Even AI has had to pave way 

for these new technologies. 

It has definitely created 

a ripple in the business 

world that has quite shaken 

the financial concepts 

that define it. Bitcoin had 

been the most talked about 

currency although there have 

been others that have been 

launched recently. 

Bitcoin as we are all 

aware now was created 

by a Japanese person 

who used the alias name 

of Satoshi Nakamoto. 

Bitcoin and the others are 

alternative currencies that 

exist outside the financial 

systems without banks or 

governments involvements. 

The value of this currency 

is generated mostly by 

scarcity and possibilities. 

The cryptocurrencies are 

also compared to gold 

as a hedge against fiat 


Finance 

currencies. This currency 

is also expected to have an 

implied value as a hedge 

against currency fluctuations. 

This has also resulted in a 

number of exchanges that 

have sprung that allow the 

traders to buy Bitcoin and all 

the other cryptocurrencies. 

The Blockchain Technology 

is associated with 

cryptocurrency which 

can also be called 

the internet of money. 

Blockchain essentially is 

a large electronic platform 

that allows one to build 

many applications. Yes, 

Cryptocurrencies are just 

one of the application that 

is built on the Blockchain 

Technology. 

However although people 

in the business world are 

accepting the Blockchain 

Technology as something 

promising, there is a lot 

of discussion that is going 

on regarding the Blockchain 

Technology. After the initial 

success of Bitcoin, it has lost 

a 50% of its value. There has 

also been this discussion 

about government regulation 

of Bitcoin, less-expensive 

currencies. These and many 

such discussions worked to 

buyers losing a lot on Bitcoin. 

But it has to be noted that the 

early buyers of Bitcoin made a 

lot of money. As is apparent by 

this experience, one can get 

wealthy by investing in Bitcoin 

but it is not a stable way of 

making money because of the 

high risks that are involved. 

Given that the Blockchain 

Technology is an opportunity 

that might bring in a lot of 

profits, many entrepreneurs 

are eager to go the Blockchain 

way. Moreover, the Blockchain 

Technology can be said to be the 

future of finances in the business 

world. This is reason enough to 

get oneself familiar or involved 

with the Blockchain Technology. 

But, is there a way to bet on the 

Blockchain Technology without 

Cryptocurrency? 

Yes, there is! 

Overstock.com 

The e-commerce company 

called the Overstock.com 

is one of the most loved 

alternative to Blockchain 

and cryptocurrencies. This 

e-commerce platform has been 

in the industry for a long time 

and have been competing as an 

online retailer. 

This company went public in 

the year of 2002. It can boast 

of having generated 40 million 

visitors in a month. The company 


27

Finance 

has gone through the ups and 

downs of the business but it 

can also claim of an overall 

quarterly profit that has been 

positive. The revenue of this 

company reached an amount 

of $1.8 million in the year 

gone-by. 

Why Overstock.com matters 

to Entrepreneurs interested 

in Blockchain Technology 

without the Cryptocurrency? 

The company has been 

investing in a lot of early 

crypto adopters in an attempt 

to transform itself into the 

Blockchain currency leader. 

This has resulted in the 

company stock to drive up 

to a high of $89. 80 from an 

amount of $h13.75 before 

the correction. Looking 

at its success Overstock. 

com is thinking of selling its 

traditional retail business and 

moving into Blockchain. 

Companies like Overstock 

prove to be the real deal 

because they are a mix of 

real revenue generation 

and proven management 

experience that is topped 

with a strong understanding 

of the involved technology. 

The stock of this company 

is gaining momentum that 

it had before the retreat. 

However, before moving 

forward it is important for 

entrepreneurs to understand 

that this company is not for 

conservative investors. This 

is for those experiential ones 

who are eager to participate 

in a complicated area that is 

equally dynamic. 

Ark Innovation Web 

Ark Innovation Web is another 

way that entrepreneurs 

can get some exposure to 

Bitcoin. Ark Innovation ETF 

and Ark Web x.o ETF are new 

kinds of funds that have 10% 

of Bitcoin Exposure. These 

funds are considered to be 

the safest for entrepreneurs 

who want to get some 

exposure into cryptocurrency 

without risking a lot. 

Microsoft 

Microsoft is another big 

name that is dipping its 

fingers into the world of 

Blockchain Technology. It is 

currently testing Blockchain 

technology with the IOTA 

foundation which is a German 

non-profit organisation that 

oversees its virtual currency 

IOTA. IOTA differs from other 

cryptocurrencies in the fact 

that it allows users to buy, sell 

and share data without the 

need of any transaction fees. 

Some of the other names that 

entrepreneurs can try out to 

get involved in Blockchain 

are 

Xinyuan Real Estate 

Co., Ltd. This real estate 

company has interestingly 

entered into a 

strategic partnership 

with IBM in 2016 to develop 

a Blockchain Powered Real 

Estate Technology platform. 

The NextGen Economy 

ETF is a fund that aims 

at long-term growth by 

investing in Blockchain 

related companies. It 

has been created through a 

partnership between Reality 

Shares and Nasdaq. 

The Amplify 

Transformational Data 

Sharing ETF is another 

fund that is actively managed 

to invest 

in companies that are in the 

Blockchain space. This fund 

operates on a global level. 

The business world is 

surely going the Blockchain 

way and it is important 

that entrepreneurs give 

Blockchain a little more 

importance than mere 

curiosity. It is natural that 

many entrepreneurs fear 

to experiment with the 


because of the ups and 

downs that it has been 

facing after its initial success. 

But it is not wise to keep 

one’s business away from 


either because it is the 

future of business finance. 

But the good news is there 

IS a way out to create a 

relationship with Blockchain 

that involves a lower risk 

for entrepreneurs. Explore 

these possibilities and give 

your business a chance to 

understand the workings of 

Blockchain technology. 

SPI thinktank 

initiative 


Intelligent SME | April 2018 29

SME Tech 

Manufacturing Success – Growing Sales in a New Customer Era! 

Forces of 

Change 

The manufacturing 

industry is in the 

midst of a huge change. 

There are 3 powerful forces 

that multiply opportunities as 

well as dangers. 

1. The ways companies 

make, design and sell 

products is under constant 

transformation and the pace 

and extent of change has 

never been greater than it is 

today 

2. Products are more complex 

than ever, as are the ways 

to configure and market 

them. There are ways to 

outsmart these challenges by 

connecting complex products 

and complicated front- and 

back-end processes in order to 

simplify the way your business 

runs and unlock productivity 

gains. 

3. Channel partners need 

more than a great product 

– they are eager to find 

new opportunities together, 

share information to close 

more deals and move 

more products. You will be 

rewarded if you satisfy these 

needs. 

Speed – the Ultimate 

Game Changer 

Speed has become the 

ultimate game changer 

and deal maker – The 

first to the deal has the 

advantage of shaping how 

the deal, bid, proposal or 

negotiations unfold. ABB, the 

manufacturing giant focused 

on lowering environmental 

impact through the use of 

electricity, robotics and 

production automation is a 

great example of putting the 

customer at the centre and 

embracing the requirements to 

success. 

Before using Salesforce, the 

company lacked a single view 

of all its customer information. 

Disparate CRM systems from 

different vendors layered on 

top of ABB’s ERP systems 

and back office processes 

slowed the work of employees. 

Compounding the problem 

was rapidly growing data from 

customers and connected 

devices. Sales reps had an 

incomplete view of customer 

accounts and were missing 

key data. Sales Cloud 

Lightning has revolutionized 

the process – with all the 

information accessible in the 

right place and right now. 

Reps use Salesforce1 Mobile 

App to update records from 

anywhere in the field – saving 

time, speeding up deals and 

gaining insights into buying 

cycles. Sales and production 

can share real time leads and 

other valuable customers 

information. Collaboration 

breeds faster delivery of 

products & services to 

customers. 

Integration of Systems 

Unlocks Sales 

Productivity 

Synergy between front- and 

back-office apps is imperative. 

Every sales step – from 

inquiry to closing to sending 

out order needs to be fast 

and fluid. Let’s look at the 

example of GlobalFoundries, 

a circuit board manufacturer 

and operator of the largest 

silica foundry in the world 

with thousands of employees 

working across Singapore, 

Germany and the United 

States. Before Salesforce, it 

lacked the right combination of 

processes and technology to 

achieve business targets and 

deliver the product on time. The 

company had made a large 

investment on an on-premise 

CRM system which was barely 

being used. The integration 

with front- and back-end 

ERP was rough. Every sales 

order was customized from 

thousands of configurations 

and reps worked around and 

not within the software. When 

GlobalFoundries migrated its 

CRM system to Sales Cloud 

Lightning (which took less 

than 2 months), the company 

now had an efficient system to 

support its sales backed by a 

solid integration with its backend 

Oracle ERP system. 

Driven by more connected 

data, Sales Cloud Lightning 

automates much of the 

order process to speed 

manufacturing and 

distribution, while limiting 

errors. Customers can 

even control their own 

configurations directly, 


SME Tech 

improving accuracy and 

accelerating timelines. With 

lead management, data 

cleansing, cross-company 

collaboration and automated 

contract management, 

sales leaders can manage 

processes easily. 

Channel Partners – Key 

to Maximising Growth 

Having one portal for all 

partners – distributors, 

resellers, contractors, 

wholesalers and retailers - 

reduces channel conflict 

and enhances visibility, 

collaborative selling and 

partner-deal registration. You 

can thus scale your business 

effectively. 

With the advent of the Internet 

of Things (IoT), Honeywell, 

the heating industry pioneer, 

was forced to change how it 

sold, serviced and made its 

products. Honeywell created a 

line of connected thermostats 

that lets customers manage 

and monitor their homes’ 

temperature and energy 

use from anywhere on their 

smartphones or tablets. 

The idea behind these IoT 

devices was to connect them 

to Honeywell’s vast networks 

of independent contractors to 

enable new business models, 

increase revenue growth and 

change the way customers 

buy. 

Salesforce Partner Community 

and mobile app has enabled 

a swarm of opportunities 

for channel growth among 

independent service 

technicians. Every Honeywell 

connected thermostat can 

be connected back to a 

contractor with the ‘find a 

dealer’ button built into the 

app. Contractors can see 

real time data and a history 

of customer interactions with 

every device. Armed with 

information from the app, 

contractors can proactively 

schedule maintenance, load 

the right parts onto a truck, 

train customers on how 

to run their systems more 

efficiently and find ways to 

speed service and deepen 

relationships. 

With Salesforce making the 

connections, these channel 

partners provide a new level of 

personalized service meeting 

customer needs that is 

unmatched in the industry. 

Next Generation 

Customer Price Quote 

(CPQ) – Close More 

Business 

Products today are only 

growing more complex. 

Manufacturers need a 

simple way to get around the 

complexity and get orders 

and configurations right 

the first time around. More 

spreadsheets, emails and 

long approval cycles is not the 

answer. It’s the right software 

solution again to the rescue! 

Mitsubishi Electric Cooling 

& Heating, which makes 

and sells residential and 

commercial heating and 

cooling equipment, had 

sales reps wasting time 

wading through hand-drawn 

faxes, emailed PDFs, Excel 

spreadsheets and paperwork 

instead of chasing deals. The 

results were costly – inventory 

gaps, unpredictable revenues, 

and loss of business 

opportunities due to lengthy 

sales cycles and quoting times. 

A combination of Sales Cloud 

Lightning, Partner Community 

and Salesforce CPQ modernized 

the sales process by making 

everything available online and 

available to use for distributors 

as well as for the internal sales 

team. They were able to respond 

to projects faster and win more. 

Using Salesforce Mitsubishi 

Electric’s sales teams can now 

see leads in the pipeline, work 

together to convert them into 

opportunities, and generate 

accurate, up-to-the-minute 

quotes within a single system. 

Salesforce has given the company 

a toolkit to improve profit and 

loss management and inventory 

planning while freeing reps from 

the inefficiencies of quoting on 

paper with file attachments. 

In conclusion, successful 

manufacturers today are the 

ones thriving by going to 

market faster, supercharging 

team productivity, redefining 

successful channel partnerships 

and delivering the correct 

products on time, every time. 

And all this is enabled by 

implementing a customer-first 

CRM solution like Salesforce. 

Author Credits 

Souphien Akhrif, 

Managing Director, Cloudworks 


31

Technology 

Branding Authority to be 

Replaced by 


Branding has 

been the veil of 

every company 

through which 

it told its story. 

Branding has been a part 

of a business story even 

before people understood 

the meaning of a brand or 

had the formal contracts 

surrounding one. 

Before technology took over 

the business world, business 

was run mostly on trust. 

Everyone has experienced 

their grandmother’s tales of 

how milk from ABC store was 

better than XYZ store because 

ABC store did not add water 

in cow’s milk. Branding is 

all about trust and quality. 

People in business promise a 

certain quality of product and 

an assurance that it would 

deliver the same quality the 

same way. Consumers buy 

into this assurance and by 

buying regularly and giving 

it a name, they create a 

brand. A brand is not created 

by a company alone. For a 

brand to survive, it needs the 

consumer’s loyalty. 

The Misuse of Brand 

Name 

Branding has gone through 

a lot of evolution over the 

years. From being a wordof-mouth 

assurance it had 

gone onto secure itself with 

laws and copyrights. This 

need arose because of the 

misuse of one brand name 

by another. It is natural for 

entrepreneurs to want to win 

in a competition and in this 

attempt when Entrepreneur A 

saw that entrepreneur X sells 

better because of his/her 

product name, entrepreneur 

A too changed his product 

name to what entrepreneur X 

was using. 

How did it affect 

business and 

consumer mentality? 

Well, entrepreneur A gained 

some popularity because of 

the change. Entrepreneur 

X lost out on some trusted 

consumers. Consumers who 

brought a product trusting 

entrepreneur X’s quality felt 

cheated that it did not match 

the expected standards. This 

rose the need to protect one’s 

brand name. This gave rise 

to the beginning of brands 

as we know it. Rules and 

legality arose to preserve the 

authenticity of a name. 

The world of Brands went 

on quite well with the legal 

protection that entrepreneurs 

had. People all over started 

to associate a certain quality 

to a certain brand and expect 

the same from it all the time. 

The Emergence of 

Fraudulent Brands 

The faith that people had on 

a brand gave it a name that 

was never questioned. The 

faith of the consumers said it 

all. 


Technology 

The new found unmovable 

faith that some brands 

received made them 

believe that they are beyond 

questioning and they can sell 

whatever they please in the 

brand name without anyone 

ever raising a question. This 

resulted in the middlemen 

and also some entrepreneurs 

to change the quality of 

products to save money. 

For example, we are all 

aware of the Tesco scandal 

where the company sold 

horse meat in place of beef 

burgers. Interestingly this 

was not detected even when 

there were food standard 

agencies and European 

Directives, certificates and 

unannounced inspectors 

on factory visit. Tesco lost 

an amount of £ 300 million 

because of the scandal. This 

is but one example of how 

trusted brands sometimes 

fail to keep up with the faith 

that they are bestowed with. 

Blockchain 

Technology to 

Replace Branding 

Credibility 

This brings us to the stage 

where people because of 

fraudulent experiences with 

a brand had been seeking 

to have something more 

than documents to assure 

its authenticity. Consumers 

have been losing their faith 

on brand names because 

of experiences where their 

faith had been toyed with to 

save the company a couple 

of dollars. 


seems to be the answer 

that consumers and 

entrepreneurs all over are 

looking at. A company 

is not always to blame. 

Sometimes, it is also the 

middle man who intentionally 

or unintentionally ends up 

compromising on a brand 

quality. So for consumers 

and entrepreneurs alike there 

has been an urgent need to 

replace brand credibility with 

something more concrete 

and reliable. 

Branding is made of a 

supply chain that has many 

agencies in between. A little 

carelessness in any of the 

agency that make up the 

whole can lead to a damage 

of reputation that might take 

years to rebuild. It is an 

industry wide problem that 

is not limited to a company 

alone. The Tesco issue is 

one of a kind where some 

investigators decided to 

do a DNA test on the meat. 

But it is not possible to do 

the same for all products. 

This is where Blockchain 

Technology can help. The 


creates a digital record that 

is connected to a product 

that is going through the 

agencies. 

For example, the digital 

record of the product is tied 

to the real world product. 

This digital record as it uses 

cryptography, it is inviolable. 


can be used like businesses 

use packing notes that 

accompanies a consignment 

of goods. This would help 

businesses to prevent supply 

chain frauds from happening. 

The Blockchain records, unlike 

the written or digital records 

cannot be changed without it 

showing up as being changed. 

The cryptographic strength 

of the record would flag any 

change in record as a hacking 

attempt. 

For example suppose there is 

a consignment of olive oil to be 

coming from Italy. If someone 

tries to switch the lorry with a 

lorry carrying some different 

quality oil from Greece, it would 

show up a different route on the 

system which would naturally 

be flagged on the system. 

The smart contract of the 

consignment would want the 

lorry to be coming from Italy 

and a fault in the origin would 

automatically alert the smart 

contract before completing. 


promises a lot when it comes 

to authenticating a brand 

value and keeping the trust of 

consumers alive. This can also 

help entrepreneurs from any 

surprise loss of brand value 

caused by an agency in the 

supply chain. The Blockchain 

Technology as a replacement 

for branding trust has become 

a very important topic in the 

business world. It is a point 

of discussion that would soon 

become a streamline process 

in the business world. Branding 

would soon be replaced by the 

security that the Blockchain 

Technology would provide to 

business. 

SPI thinktank 

initiative 


33


Media Organizations’ Security Practices, Threats & Concerns Examined in 

New Akamai Research Report 

The 

State of Media 

Security’ 

Survey 

Finds that 

Few Media 

Organizations 

are ‘Very 

Confident’ 

in their Current Security Measures 

SUBHEAD 

Dubai, United Arab 

Emirates – 8th April 2018: 

Akamai Technologies, Inc. 

(NASDAQ: AKAM), the world’s 

largest and most trusted cloud 

delivery platform, has released 

new research in a report titled, 

“The State of Media Security.” 

Based on a survey of 200 media 

technology influencers and 

decision makers conducted 

by BizTechInsights, the 

report aims to evaluate 

and better understand 

how media companies 

are securing their online 

properties. Among key 

findings is that slow site 

performance and downtime 

is the number one securityrelated 

concern among 

media leaders. 

The report also takes a 

deep dive into the most 

common types of attacks 

media organizations’ overthe-top 

(OTT) properties 

are facing, the measures 

currently in place to combat 

those attacks, top security 

challenges and concerns, 

and how they are addressing 

the management of bots – 

which can account for up 

to 60 percent of website 

traffic according to Akamai 

observations. Notable 

findings include: 

Top security 

concerns go beyond 

protecting content. 

While premium video 

content protection ranked 

high among respondents’ 

top concern when it comes 

to securing their online 

video business (23 percent), 

the most-cited concern 

was slow performance or 

downtime due to DNS attacks 

(26 percent). Other areas of 

high importance included 

DDoS mitigation (13 percent), 

managing the impact of 

bot traffic (15 percent), and 

enterprise application security 

(20 percent). As the media 

threat landscape continues 

to shift, so too are priorities 

for protecting their OTT 

businesses. 

Attack vectors span a 

broad spectrum. 

When asked which type 

of security breaches 

their organization has 

recently experienced, the 

top responses were SQL 

injections (23 percent), DNS 

attacks (21 percent), pirated 

content (20 percent) and 

distributed denial of services 

(DDoS) attacks (17 percent). 

Other attacks reported 

included account hacks, 

website defacement and 

cross-site scripting. Media 

entities are increasingly facing 

a broad spectrum of attacks 

that go beyond content piracy 

and present a real danger to 

the business. 

DDoS defenses lag behind 



other industries. Respondents 

reported employing a broad 

range of technologies for 

addressing DDoS attacks, 

including a network firewall in 

the data center (31 percent), 

a dedicated DDoS mitigation 

“scrubber” (26 percent), 

data center-based intrusion 

prevention system (17 

percent) and ISP-based DDoS 

mitigation (11 percent). Most 

surprisingly, only 14 percent 

of media organizations report 

using cloud-based content 

delivery network (CDN) DDoS 

mitigation – a measure that 

has become widely adopted 

in other industries. 

Inadequate bot traffic 

management measures 

persist. 

A surprising one-third 

(33 percent) of survey 

respondents reported that 

they employ a manual 

process of investigating logs 

and blocking individual IP 

addresses to address bot 

traffic, while 45 percent of 

respondents leverage an 

existing firewall, and one 

percent don’t do anything 

at all. Only one in five 

respondents (22 percent) 

leverage a purpose-built 

bot management solution, 

revealing widespread risk 

of bot-based threats like 

credential exploitation to 

circumvent attacks or steal 

content. 

Substantial web 

application defenses 

employed – but room 

for improvement 

exists. 

An overwhelming 84 percent 

of media organizations report 

using a web application 

firewall (WAF) -- either 

cloud-based, on-premises 

or a combination of the two 

-- to defend against web 

application attacks. Sixteen 

percent rely on application 

security audits and testing 

alone. 

“Media companies are 

online businesses, operating 

websites and maintaining a 

wide variety of proprietary 

and sensitive information. 

They need to broaden their 

perspective on security and 

look closely at approaches 

like zero trust architectures 

and protecting enterprise 

applications to secure their 

content along with everything 

around it,” said Dave Lewis, 

senior global security 

advocate at Akamai. “Steps 

are being taken to address 

common threats like DDoS, 

bots and web application 

attacks, but almost none of the 

media influencers we surveyed 

are very confident their 

organizations are protected, 

indicating that businesses 

have a long way to go on the 

security front. At a broader 

level, it’s going to take media 

companies coming together 

as a community to establish 

forums, industry standards 

and closer connections with 

government bodies to move 

the confidence needle and 

create a more security-aware 

and protected industry across 

the board.” 

Akamai is exhibiting at the 

2018 NAB Show April 9th 

through April 12th at the Las 

Vegas Convention Center, 

where its media and security 

experts will share best practices 

and strategies for protecting 

online properties. Akamai’s 

Dave Lewis is also presenting 

on “Data Breaches: Barbarians 

in the Throne Room,” as part of 

the NAB Broadcast Engineering 

and Information Technology 

Conference on Saturday, April 

7th. 

To learn more about how Akamai 

can help protect your media 

business, visit them at NAB 

booth SL3324 or arrange an 

appointment through Akamai’s 

NAB site. 

About Akamai 

Technologies 

As the world’s largest and most 

trusted cloud delivery platform, 

Akamai makes it easier for 

its customers to provide the 

best and most secure digital 

experiences on any device, 

anytime, anywhere. Akamai’s 

massively distributed platform 

is unparalleled in scale with 

over 200,000 servers across 

130 countries, giving customers 

superior performance and 

threat protection. Akamai’s 

portfolio of web and mobile 

performance, cloud security, 

enterprise access, and video 

delivery solutions are supported 

by exceptional customer service 

and 24/7 monitoring. To learn 

why the top financial institutions, 

e-commerce leaders, media & 

entertainment providers, and 

government organizations trust 

Akamai Please visit: 

www.akamai.com, 

blogs.akamai.com, or 

@Akamai on Twitter 


35

Real Estate 

Real Estate to Disrupt by 

Autonomous Vehicles 

Everything in 

the world is 

interconnected. 

A little change 

here affects the 

complete framework that 

make up the business world. 

The Real Estate is one gold 

mine of a business opportunity 

and many things are created 

around it. Although in itself 

it is a business giant, the 

real estate dimension of 

the business world is still 

affected by the waves of 

change that create ripples 

of revolution in the business 

world. Technology is one 

thing that has continuously 

disrupted everything from 

finance to e-commerce in 

business. It has also affected 

the real estate in its own way. 

But one of the most surprising 

technological evolution that 

seems to be affecting the real 

estate business of the world 

is ‘driverless cars’. 

Yes, you have heard it right. 

Driverless cars are going 

to be a normal part of our 

life in the near future. Many 

countries around the world 

are testing autonomous 

vehicles and intend to 

make them a regular part of 

commute for people. The 

big names involved with the 

experimenting and initiating 

the driverless car revolution 

are Google, Uber, Audi, BMW 

Ford, GM, Volkswagen and 

Volvo. This might seem like 

a great automobile revolution 

in the history of mankind but 

it has far reaching effects in 

all aspects of the business 

world. 

So, how would driverless 

vehicles affect the Real 

Estate Business? How are the 

two aspects connected? 

The first and foremost thing 

that people today look at 

while exploring real estate 

are the transit hubs. No one 

would like to stay in a place 

that is tucked far away from 

the business centres without 

any option to commute. The 

autonomous or driverless 

cars will erase the need to 

build a community around 

transit hubs and this would 

naturally bring down the value 

of a real estate business. 

We are all aware of places 

in a country where the price 

of real estate had been 

low before the arrival of 

a transit hub near it. The 

close proximity of office and 

residential buildings make or 

break the value to be attached 

to a property in today’s world. 

A big transit infrastructure 


Real Estate 

acts as a stimulus for the 

development of real estate. It 

has been the norm for so long 

that real estate entrepreneurs 

decide to develop their 

business on the basis of a 

transit hub present already 

or something that has the 

potential to develop a transit 

hub. Even the remotest of 

resorts are judged and made 

popular by the accessibility 

that it balances with its exotic 

location. But all that is going 

to change. 

Here’s why? 

Let us look at the changes 

that might happen after the 

introduction of autonomous 

vehicles. 

•Autonomous cars would 

encourage ride-sharing 

among commuters. This 

would keep people from 

buying cars 

because of the convenience 

that these autonomous cars 

would provide. Traffic jam, 

parking spaces and high 

maintenance cost of cars 

these reasons have always 

made people think twice 

before investing in a car. 

Autonomous cars will add one 

more reason to the list making 

people choose driverless and 

safe commute rather 

than have one’s own car. 

There will be a greater shift 

towards an inclination to 

access public or shared 

transport rather than own a 

car. 

•Secondly, there might be 

another trend that might grow 

with the rise of autonomous 

vehicles. People might 

lose interest in transit hubs. 

Cost efficient self-driving can 

easily shift people’s interest 

away from 

conventional public transport. 

• Thirdly, when the world is 

filled with driverless public 

transport and private cars it is 

possible that 

the real estate properties that 

had earlier seemed to be less 

alluring because of a lack of 

transit hub, 

might suddenly become a 

valued property. This would 

naturally bring in higher 

values for the property. 

It is also possible that 

areas that have been well 

connected might lose its 

value because of the 

convenience that autonomous 

cars would provide to people. 

People might get used to the 

conveniences of an 

autonomous vehicle and 

attach less importance to 

transit hubs and its relation to 

the value of a real 

estate property. 

What about 

Commercial Real 

Estate Business? 

Autonomous cars have the 

potential to pick up a user, 

drop him/her at a destination 

and again go back to where 

it came from. It can also park 

itself in a less prime area and 

make the need of finding a 

parking place less important 

to the user. Some cars would 

also be able to move on to 

pick the next customer after 

dropping off one. 

A reduced need can have 

a mixed effect on the 

commercial real estate. 

Entrepreneurs who believe that 

they need to have a parking 

lot can save up financially. 

Parking lots define the value 

of a commercial place. The 

possibility of not needing any 

parking lot would naturally 

disrupt a lot in the real estate 

market. It might work differently 

with different entrepreneurs. 

The ones who were not doing 

well because of a lack of 

parking space would see the 

market open up for them. 

The entrepreneurs who were 

thriving because of the parking 

spaces will see a rise in 

competition in the market. But 

they can do a lot on the space 

that is left unused. It can also 

become a reason why people 

come to their commercial 

place. All they need to do is 

think ahead and think well. 

The rise of autonomous vehicles 

seem to be very non-disruptive. 

But, it has the potential to disrupt 

everything on the business 

world. The effect that will be 

caused by this disruption must 

be watched out for. Real estate 

is something that no one would 

think would be disrupted by the 

emergence of these autonomous 

vehicles. But if you look into the 

details, the real estate market 

is going to be disrupted quite 

deeply. Entrepreneurs in the 

real estate world can prepare 

their business plans in a way 

that it can use the autonomous 

vehicles to their benefit. The only 

way to succeed in the business 

world is to keep oneself updated 

and evolve with the changes. 

SPI thinktank 

initiative 


37

SME-Tech 

Emerging Cryptocurrency 

Scams: An Investor’s 

Nightmare 

It is wise to move with 

caution when you are 

an entrepreneur and 

there is an experimental 

technology luring 

you. The Blockchain and 

the Bitcoin Euphoria has 

been the favourite of the 

business world ever since its 

inception. This favouritism 

has also led to many 

entrepreneurs giving their 

caution a back seat. 

What has resulted 

from all of this? 

Well, the world got to witness 

a lot of hype about alt-coins. 

The frenzy and hysteria 

around alt coins have been 

so high and it made things so 

volatile that there have been 

news of the Chicago Board 

Options Exchange (CBOE) 

halting bitcoin trading on 

10th and 13th December. 

Coinbase also have been in 

the news because it halted 

Litecoin and Ethereum 

trading on 12th December. 

The excitement of trying 

out a new technology that 

promises business benefits 

always throws caution in the 

air. Same is the case with 

Blockchain technology and 

Bitcoin. Financial analysts 

have long warned people 

in business about investing 

in Bitcoin because of the 

risk factors attached to it. 

They have even clearly 

stated that it is not a safe 

investment. But it is difficult 

for entrepreneurs to simply 

sit and watch as a new asset 

class emerges. They need to 

get involved. 

But it is equally important 

that people in business 

understand the risks that is 

involved before deciding to be 

a part of this new technology. 

It would be helpful for Bitcoin 

hungry entrepreneurs to know 

that the market of Bitcoin 

has been suffering from 

cyber-attacks and scams. 

It has cost entrepreneurs 

millions of dollars. The fact 

that cryptocurrency is not 

protected by FDIC makes it 

clear that theft of bitcoins may 

not be covered. 

Are you still interested to 

explore the world of Bitcoins? 

If yes, keep yourself on-guard 

by understanding the risks 

involved. 

Before we move on to the 

basics of the Bitcoin scams 

that you as an entrepreneur 

must be aware of, let us first 

see how scammers target 

investors. 

Attack the 

Infrastructure 

The scammers have a way of 

attacking the digital wallets, 

mining companies, web host 

services, etc. These are 

mainly the infrastructure that 

hold the coin markets. If one 

goes by the report by Reuters 

then it is possible that there 

have been a theft of 980,000 

bitcoins since 2011. This 

amount is equivalent to $15 

to $18 billion dollars if we 

look at the current prices. 

To give recent examples, 

Nicehash Hack that lost 

$64million dollars of money 

from investors, Tether hack 

that lost $30million and then 

there was this software bug in 

parity that resulted in freezing 

of about $160 million dollars 

in all investor’s accounts. As 

you can see, this is a very 

effective way of scammers 

attacking investors. 

Target Investors 

Directly 

The second approach is 

when scammers target the 

attackers directly. There are 

many ways that scammers 

target investors and they 

mostly use social engineering 

to attack them. The only good 

part about these scams is 


SME-Tech 

that investors can protect 

against them unlike the threat 

to infrastructure. Here is a list 

of the main frauds that might 

threaten your security and 

how to guard against them. 

ICO Frauds: 

There are two kind of ICO 

frauds. An ICO is when 

a new cryptocurrency is 

launched in the market 

to investors. This is an 

unregulated activity and is 

also targeted by scammers. 

Scammers can target 

investors in an ICO fraud first 

by creating a fake ICO and 

then by stealing money from 

investors. There has been 

an example of this kind of 

fraud when the SEC had to 

shut down the PlexCoin ICO. 

It amounted to a 15 million 

dollars fraud. 

The second way that 

scammers can target 

investors is by impersonating 

a legitimate ICO and the 

tricking investors into paying 

them instead of the real 

company. Kik’s ICO is one 

example of a company that 

suffered this scam. 

Security Tip: 

Entrepreneurs must do a 

complete research about an 

ICO before investing on it. 

One can also use the help of 

industry insight and look at 

sites like CoinDesk to verify 

the legitimacy that is claimed 

of an ICO. It is important that 

one stay away from hard sell 

tactics or something that 

seems to be too good to be 

true. The messages received 

over social media and 

emails need to be thoroughly 

verified as this is where 

phishing happens. 

Fake Digital Wallets: 

Cryptocurrency is stored 

on virtual wallets. The fake 

wallets appear online and in 

mobile app stores and people 

steal investors’ savings. The 

bitcoin gold wallet scam is an 

example that stole an amount 

of $3million dollars. 

Security Tip: 

Entrepreneurs must use 

services that have a solid 

track record. One can also 

use an offline hardware 

wallet. These are some of the 

safe wallets that one can use. 

Bitcoin-Stealing 

Malware: 

Malware has been in the 

technological business world 

for a long time. There is an 

emergence of a new malware 

that specialises only in Bitcoin 

stealing. This software can 

steal log-in credentials, it can 

steal the wallet itself or get in 

the middle of a transaction. 

Security Tip: 


protect themselves from this 

malware need to use a strong 

anti-virus and an inbound/ 

outbound firewall to protect 

one’s system. It is also 

important that one uses a two 

factor authentication and a 

password manager to secure 

the log in of a system. 

The world of cryptocurrency is 

full of risks. It is important that 

entrepreneurs do not forget 

to take protective measures 

before deciding on getting into 

it. The cryptocurrency world is 

mostly unregulated. This is the 

charm of cryptocurrency and 

also something that is a threat 

to investors. Entrepreneurs 

must understand why they 

want to deal with bitcoin in the 

first place. Is it really worth 

risking security? If the answer 

is yes, then arm yourself with 

the best security protection and 

explore the promising world of 

cryptocurrency. Take added 

measures and do not forget to 

update your security measures 

as per the need. This will help 

you explore without worry. 

SPI thinktank 

initiative 

The 

excitement of trying 

out a new technology 

that promises business 

benefits always 

throws caution in 

the air. Same is the 

case with Blockchain 

technology and 

Bitcoin. 


39


Context in Raw Data 

Empowers Data-Driven 

Success 

Data is a major 

part of every 

business 

organisation. 

Ever since the 

business world teamed up 

with technology to work 

as a team with data, the 

world of data has come a 

long way. The terms like 

Zettabyte, Yottabyte and 

Brontobyte has become very 

streamline in our business 

conversations. The amount 

of data that the world 

generates every year is 

sure to quadruple in future. 

Data was the introduced 

to ease the humans from 

the need to keep track 

of too much information. 

But, the data stored in an 

organisation is so large that 

many employees accept 

that they discard stored data 

without fully reading it. The 

information stored is so high 

that people in business says 

that having to sort through 

them itself puts a lot of 

pressure on them. Having 

to browse through so much 

information also makes 

the quality of work poor of 

employees. 

Data in itself is important 

but data that has no context 

becomes meaningless. So, 

instead of relieving it adds 

more pressure to employees 

who need to make sense of it 

all. 

The presence and growth 

of data in an organisation is 

important for its business. 

But it is important that 

entrepreneurs are able 

to convert that data into 

actionable insights that add 

to the organisation rather 

than just take company 

space. Many companies 

are also struggling to 

make sense of data when 

needed to drive decisionmaking. 

Data seems to 

leach productivity rather 

than increase business 

value for many organisations 

because entrepreneurs do 

not understand the relation 

between data, context and 

insights. 

Entrepreneurs can 

understand the relation by 

seeing how each part forms 

the whole of the whole data 

structure. In other words, the 

raw data of an organisation is 

the foundation on which rests 

the formatted information 

that provide one with the 

necessary context. The 

necessary context is what 

helps an entrepreneur to get 

an insight that can be used 

to make important company 

decisions. 

Many companies 

boast of being datadriven 

but still see no 

difference in business. 

Here is why? 

The unprocessed, computer 

friendly facts that make up 

databases and spreadsheets 

are helpful and quite 

important for an organisation 

but it is mostly noise to the 

employees. This data when it 

is not processed is stays as 

noise for employees. 

Every business organisation 

generate a large number of 

information on a daily basis. 

The fact that an organisation 

can generate a lot of 

information in very less time 

works against the employees 

who lack the advanced 

analysis skills to mine the 

information. As a result, many 

organisations are heading 

towards a chaos rather than 

an organised data structure. 

However, an entrepreneur 

cannot simply wish the chaos 

away. Data is becoming an 

important part of business 



decision making. It is also 

extending to people who 

have little or no training at all 

in data use and interpretation. 

The way data works is it 

comes in various formats 

and is then stored across 

many complex systems that 

are spread across different 

departments. Many firms and 

organisations are data driven 

but simply being data driven 

has not made any change in 

their business. The reason 

why being data driven has not 

helped business is because 

raw data has limited value 

without the required context. 

Raw data that does not have 

context do not provide the 

employees with the needed 

information or background to 

get an understanding of the 

same. 

Questions like what is it, 

where did it happen, what 

use it has are not answered 

by raw data. It is important 

that entrepreneurs do not 

only provide employees with 

raw data but also process it 

for analysis to help them to 

leverage the data to its full 

potential. 

What should 

Entrepreneurs do with 

Raw Data? 

The difference between 

raw data and data with 

context is that one is not 

easily understood while the 

other provides information. 

Information is nothing 

but a collection of data 

that answers the ‘who, 

what, where’ questions. 

Entrepreneurs must take raw 

data and process, aggregate 

and organise them into more 

human friendly formats that 

allows for data visualization 

etc. 

Data that is contextualised 

helps in transforming data 

into information that can be 

used as an actionable insight 

to make business decisions. 

An entrepreneur who wants 

to use data of an organisation 

the correct way must provide 

the decision makers of the 

company with information for 

analysis rather than raw data. 

Data with Context 

Leads to Actionable 

Insights 

What makes a data-driven 

company successful? The 

ability to maximise the 

actionable insights that 

are received from the data 

collected. 

It is only when an organisation 

has data with context that it 

can have valuable insights 

that can help a business to 

answer important questions. 

But for a data-driven success 

an entrepreneur needs to 

draw conclusions from data 

that allow them to influence 

decisions and bring in 

change. It is not enough to 

have insights that can answer 

a question. It is natural that 

all insights that are driven 

from data will not necessarily 

be actionable. It is important 

for an organisation to be 

able to detect relevant and 

personalized information to the 

right person and use company 

data to make success driven 

decisions. 

Every company is datadriven. 

There is no other way 

to be in the present business 

world. But not all data driven 

business has the same amount 

of success that some others 

have. The reason behind this 

is many entrepreneurs assume 

that creating and generating 

data is all that is needed to 

be data-driven. But collecting 

data in itself do not drive the 

success of a company. The 

collected data must be put to 

use. It must be processed from 

raw data and presented to the 

employees who would then 

work on the actionable insights 

and make data the basis on 

which the success of decision 

making rests. There is more 

to being data-driven than just 

collecting data. Entrepreneurs 

who want to succeed as a 

data-driven company must add 

context to their data and base 

their decisions on the insights 

received. 

SPI thinktank 

initiative 


41

Marketing 

Why Entrepreneurs Must 

Use Narrative Potential to 

Tell their Business Story? 

The Pokémon 

go game has 

revolutionised 

the AR and VR 

experience. It has 

brought to life a dimension 

that is more interactive to a 

user. Storytelling as we know 

it is sure to revolutionize. 

Entertainment content 

and others more business 

focused content will see 

more user engagement than 

ever before. This requires 

entrepreneurs who wish 

to be ahead in the game 

to explore the dimension 

of storytelling with AR and 

VR experience. True it is 

possible to create a neverheard-before 

storytelling 

experience with AR and VR 

but before one attempts 

this it is important that one 

understands the meaning of 

a narrative potential. 

What is Narrative 

Potential? 

Simply put narrative potential 

is the opportunities that 

an immersive environment 

provides to create a user 

engagement experience. 

Storytelling as we know it 

has always been the domain 

of the storyteller. But the 

emergence of AR and VR 

has made it possible for 

the audience to create 

worlds that allows for users 

to participate. This makes it 

possible for users to create a 

story for themselves. 

User engagement is 

something that increasingly 

makes a product more 

appealing for users. From 

light-weight mobile apps 

to the very deep virtual 

experiences, narrative 

potential can transform 

everything to a more fulfilling 

experience. AR and VR 

allows a creator to drive 

interaction. 

Why is Narrative 

Potential Important to 

Business? 

The fact that narrative 

potential is not limited to only 

story-driven entertainment 

experience but can be applied 

to all types of content that is 

applied in business starting 

from apps to advertisements 

makes this important for 

businesses. Entrepreneurs 

all over would surely look to 

upgrade the experiences 

that they give to users. If 

you are an entrepreneur who 

have a digital presence in 

business it is important that 

you understand how to best 

tell a story that would suit an 

audience that are keener on 

having an interactive user 

experience. 

Let us take a look at the three 

ways you as an entrepreneur 

can use the advantages of 

the AR and VR application to 

create a great experience. 

1. Evoke Experiences 

from Space: 

Space is an important factor 

that gives life to a user’s 

experience. For example, 

the kind of space one walks 

into tells the story of the 

space that an individual is 

in. A space that has rows of 

books together and seating 

arrangements says a story 

of a reading lounge. The 

details that are in a particular 

space help users to make an 

assumption as to what can 

be expected from that space. 

The way that users interact in 

that space become the story 

of the user in that time. 

An entrepreneur can make 

use of this space details when 

creating a virtual experience. 

For example if one wants to 

make the user feel soak in 

freshness, one can use the 

details of a rainforest that has 

been recently been soaked in 

fresh rains. 

This kind of details when 

implemented in a business 

app or content revolutionises 

a user experience to a great 

deal. Narrative potential 


Marketing 

is important to make your 

business popular. Maybe you 

are making an advertisement 

or maybe it is simple a 

walk through your business 

website, bringing in a 

narrative potential to it will 

surely make a difference. The 

secret to using the powers of 

narrative potential effectively 

is using them based on the 

target audience’s desires 

and habits. 

2. Use Properties of 

Objects to Tell your 

Story: 

The way one uses or positions 

an object says the story of a 

company. Suppose you are 

a business that deals with 

flower delivery. While creating 

an AR advertisement it is not 

important that you create 

a whole garden. You can 

simply whiff fragrances from 

the flowers that you deliver. 

This would definitely give 

your users a great insight 

into your services and also 

help you to create a great 

user experience business 

advertisement. 

AR does not need to be 

always grand. One can 

create AR that focuses on the 

details of an object of your 

business. It is important that 

a business stays true to what 

it stands for and bring that 

out in the experience. Every 

entrepreneur must think really 

seriously about the properties 

of objects that make their 

business and base their 

narrative potential on it. 

3. Make your AR 

story Encourage 

Engagement: 

Every entrepreneur who is 

creating an AR experience 

would like to know how to 

create an experience that the 

audience is interested in? 

Well, the answer lies in 

creating experiences that are 

make the user interact and 

not simply direct the user’s 

behaviour. 

If your story simply makes 

the user follow cues, then it 

is possible that he/she might 

lose interest. If on the other 

hand your AR story touches 

all the points of interests of 

a user then chances are 

that the user will be more 

interested and interact. You 

can include questions and 

create different stories based 

on the answers given. All 

these things make using 

narrative potential a success. 

The world has already 

dipped its fingers in the AR 

VR world of storytelling. Many 

businesses have started 

using the benefits of AR and 

VR to make their business 

shine through. There are also 

those entrepreneurs who are 

still thinking that they have 

the time to catch up. The 

business world keeps its 

pace with the technological 

developments of the world. 

The entrepreneurs who think 

they have time are sure to 

see a different world emerge, 

and see their business 

ads become redundant 

in the blink of an eye. 


stay ahead must explore the 

opportunities that AR and 

VR provides for storytelling. 

It is important to develop an 

understanding for the same. 

The businesses of tomorrow 

will all have a very engaging 

storytelling ads, websites, and 

interactions. For those who do 

things the traditional way will 

find themselves lagging behind. 

Catching up would become 

a very time consuming and 

expensive affair. Keep your 

business up-to-date with the AR/ 

VR way of storytelling powered 

by narrative potential and let 

your business taste success. 

SPI thinktank 

initiative 

The 

world has 

already 

dipped its 

fingers in 

the AR VR 

world of 

storytelling. 


43



Breach Highlights 

the Importance of Data 

Governance 

The case of 

Cambridge 

Analytica is 

proof that security 

measures are 

not evolving at a pace that is 

needed in the business world. 

Interestingly the business 

world is so enamoured by 

the conveniences that the 

technological revolution has 

brought in that it refuses that 

something like data breach 

exists. Apart from the data 

breach of Facebook and 

Cambridge Analytica, there 

has been a new news of 

breach of 880,000 payment 

cards from an online travel site 

named Orbitz. There has also 

been a news of a data breach 



The Facebook 

Data Cambridge 

Analytica has used 

data that might 

have helped them 

achieve their ends, 

but they missed out 

on the questions. 

of 112,000 FedEx customer 

records. People in business 

have started to regard 

data breach as something 

mainstream. These things 

come and go and work goes 

on as usual. This is a very 

careless mind-set that needs 

to change. True we cannot 

do away with technology 

but we do not need to pay 

something far more than 

what is justified to enjoy the 

benefits of technology. In 

case of businesses, data 

security is very important. 

A data breach can shake 

the very foundations of an 

organisation. It is high time 

that people in business take 

a firm stand against data 

breach that threaten the 

security of organisations. 

Are you ready? 

If you are let us take a look 

at the importance of Data 

Governance and the lessons 

that we can learn from Facebook 

and Cambridge Analytica 

Debacle. 

1. Data Governance is 

not Only about Security: 

The threat to data is not getting 

less with the advancements in 

technology. It is estimated that 

given this scenario, one-third 

companies of the world will 

experience a material breach 

that might involve a number of 

10,000 records in the future. 

Looking at the Cambridge 

Analytical stories it has been 

clearly stated by the people 

involved in important positions 

that it is not correct to call the 

whole affair a breach. Maybe 

this was not a breach of security, 

but it was a breach of policy and 

trust. The fact that Cambridge 

Analaytica did not have to hack 

Facebook to obtain data makes 

users feel very insecure about 

the experience. 

It is a written and most times an 

unwritten rule that organisations 

that are entrusted with customer 

data must do everything in 

their power to govern it well. 

Governing data well does not 

only mean taking care of the 

security measures but also 

involves the need to create 

meaningful and thoughtful 

policies that states how data 

needs to be managed. One must 

also ensure that the controls 

are in a place from where an 

organisation can control and 

audit those policies. 


45


2. Organisations must 

guide their data in 

sync with the legal and 

ethical requirements: 

Organisations must go 

beyond the question that 

answers only about data 

that is fit for the purpose. 

Fit for purpose must also 

include questions like, ‘Is 

it ethical, legal or for that 

matter appropriate to use 

certain data for a certain 

purpose. The Facebook Data 

Cambridge Analytica has 

used data that might have 

helped them achieve their 

ends, but they missed out on 

the questions. 

An organisation that manages 

data that is entrusted to it by 

others must always go beyond 

the question that answers 

‘Is it fit for the purpose?’ It is 

wise for organisations to take 

this question at par with a 

governance organisation. 

3. Organisations must 

understand that Data 

cannot be taken back: 

The fact that once data 

is shared it stays outside 

forever. In case of 

Cambridge Analytica raw 

data was used to make 

psychographic profiles. 

Moreover, data that is out 

combines with other data 

and gets redistributed 

elsewhere. This takes us 

to the fact that even if the 

raw data is deleted in case 

of the Facebook profiles, 

the profiles will still exist. 

Organisations must therefore 

understand the uses to which 

they put their company data. 

There must be extra caution 

practised if the product of 

the data is in some way 

shared with others. 

What can 

Entrepreneurs Learn 

from the Facebook 


lesson? 

The three lessons that a 

business can learn from the 

Cambridge Analytica Affair 

leads us to the conclusion 

that organisations all 

over must think seriously 

about implementing data 

governance in their company 

policy. It is possible that 

an organisation suffered 

from the carelessness that 

someone in the company 

caused, but no matter who 

did what, consumers will 

always look for solutions from 

an organisation involved. 

A company that has never 

had to handle data breach is 

unheard of. How a company 

handles a data breach makes 

or breaks an organisation. It 

takes a long time to build trust 

but not much to break it. 

Companies that are 

eager to safeguard their 

organisation must focus 

on data governance. Data 

Governance is the process 

by which a company applies 

policy to data. These 

policies define how a data 

sources, manages and uses 

data. Data governance is 

all about communicating, 

enforcing and auditing that 

policy. Data breach and 

cyber security has never 

matched the need of the 

business world. Businesses 

must try to at least keep up 

with the minimal security 

requirements that can keep 

their companies safe from a 

careless security breach. 

Everything in business lies in 

the hands of an entrepreneur. 

A well informed entrepreneur 

who emphasises on the need 

to have data governance in 

place can never go wrong. 

Data governance is not 

a simple affair. There are 

many things that need to 

be discussed, implemented 

and checked time and again 

and audited time and again. 

It takes a lot of time and 

effort to have a proper data 

governance in place. Many 

businesses and entrepreneur 

look at data governance as 

‘ a lot of work’ and try to do 

away with it. It is possible that 

a company might do great 

without it for years. But if a 

single breach is reported, 

then the damage would 

involve a lot more than what 

an organisation has shirked. 

It is wise to always keep 

safe. Implement a strong 

data governance in your 

organisation and let data 

breaches just be ‘news’ for 

your business organisation. 

SPI thinktank 

initiative 


ALLSOPP & ALLSOPP 

TAKES ARABIAN 

BUSINESS PROPERTY 

CROWN 

Dubai-based 

real estate 

agency Allsopp 

& Allsopp is 

adding more 

silver to its trophy cabinet, 

having been announced 

Best Real Estate Broker of 

the Year UAE, at the annual 

Arabian Business Real Estate 

Awards at the Ritz-Carlton in 

DIFC yesterday evening. 

Lewis Allsopp, CEO of 

the award-winning estate 

agency, says: “This award 

underlines our commitment 

to our brand values – trust, 

integrity and a continuing 

commitment to excellence. 

We are understandably 

delighted with this award, 

which adds to our enormous 

accolades gathered in our 

ten years of business both 

here and in the UK. Since 

2008, we have been growing 

organically here in Dubai, 

and we have a strong vision 

of continuing client-led 

market innovation.” 

In the highly competitive 

Dubai real estate market, 

Allsopp says it’s his 

company’s commitment to 

exceeding customer needs, 

technology and thinking 

outside the box that made 

the company clear winner. 

“Our staff are 

all highly driven, 

highly trained 

and experts in 

their areas – 

from our growing 

mortgage 

services team 

to our RERAcertified 

brokers, we all 

work together to 

push the market 

Press Release 

Leading real estate brokerage awarded Best Real 

Estate Broker of the Year 

forward. With 

this additional 

award – adding 

extra weight to 

our cabinet of 

more than 22 

local, regional 

and international 

awards, we are 

looking forward 

to the next few 

years, when we 

will continue to 

push the envelope 

as market leader,” 

says the ebullient CEO. 

Allsopp & Allsopp, 

headquartered in Business Bay, 


47

Contents Press Release 

Dubai, has an ambitious 

growth plan, with three 

new community-based 

brokerages opening this 

year, as well as a strong 

online presence for client 

convenience, regardless of 

location. 

The innovative company also 

launched a one-stop online 

service for mortgages, from 

searching the best deals 

– including an exclusive 

link-up with HSBC – to 

securing the right finance. 

With an eye on providing 

unbeatable customer 

service, it also purchased 

PuzzleWorks, a wellrespected 

local mortgage 

provider, and launched QR 

codes across its ubiquitous 

‘For Sale’ boards, allowing 

casual property seekers 

the chance to gain full 

property information with a 

smartphone photo. 

British-owned Allsopp 

& Allsopp operates to 

international service 

standards, having won more 

than 22 international property 

awards. The company is 


Press Release 

proud shirt sponsor of the 

UK’s Coventry City football 

club. 

The company has been the 

number one lead generator 

on all local online portals like 

Dubizzle and Propertyfinder. 

ae in recent years & for the 

last 3 years has been the 

number one sales agent 

for most properties sold on 

Dubai Land Department’s 

broker’s app. 

FIND OUT MORE: 

About Allsopp & Allsopp 

Allsopp & Allsopp is a familyfounded 

real estate business 

with operations in the UK. 

Set up in 2008 by CEO Lewis 

Allsopp and Managing Director 

Carl Allsopp, the UAE arm 

focuses on residential sales 

and lettings in Dubai. The 

award-winning company also 

offers property management, 

conveyancing and mortgage 

services. 

Allsopp & Allsopp prides itself 

on delivering levels of customer 

care well above industry 

benchmarks, while strictly 

adhering to the regulatory 

framework governing the Dubai 

property market. Employees 

follow business methods, which 

demand exceptional honesty, a 

stringent code of conduct and 

total transparency to the client. 

Allsopp & Allsopp is based in 

the prestigious Vision Tower 

in Business Bay and employs 

around 170 staff. 

www.facebook.com/ 

AllsoppAndAllsopp/ 

Twitter @allsopp_ 

allsopp 

Instagram 

allsoppandallsopp 

www.allsoppandallsopp. 

com 

PR Contact – 

Shakespeare Agency 

Dubai, UAE 00 971 

50 296 0503 ananda. 

shakespeare@live.com 


49

SME-Law 

Are you Aware of the 

Legal Issues in VR? 

The bright side 

of technology 

has always 

enamoured 

people. The 

business world is brimming 

with entrepreneurs who 

cannot stop discussing the 

latest in technology. The 

bright side of technology is 

so appealing that people 

forget that there might be 

another side to it. 

There has been many 

cases where technology 

has proved time and again 

that it can be misused. To 

give a few examples the 

settled dispute between the 

game maker ZeniMax and 

Facebook where Facebook 

was accused of ‘stealing the 

source code’ throws light on 

the infringements that VR/AR 

possesses. Facebook had to 

pay an amount of USD 500 

million dollars for the breach. 

The illegal betting on a FIFA 

VR game that was referred as 

FUT Galaxy last year and the 

English VR gamer who was 

caught for stealing virtual 

property by hacking other 

gamers’ profile in a game 

called Runescape are just 

other global examples about 

how Virtual Reality has been 

used illegally. 

A misuse of the AR/VR world 

brings in a lot of loss to a 

business. It is great if one is 

aware of the laws that can 

help one out of the mess. 

But in many cases, people 

are not aware of the laws that 

might help them out of a tricky 

situation. Entrepreneurs who 

are looking at venturing into 

AR/VR must not jump into the 

AR/VR bandwagon without 

understanding the legal 

issues that arise through the 

use of AR/VR. 

Here is a list of the legal 

issues that arise out of AR/VR 

usage. 

1. Intellectual Property 

Rights: 

Everyone in the business 

world is aware of the 

Intellectual Property Rights. 

However, the use of 

intellectual property is more 

of a concern than a relief in 

the Virtual World. 

Why? 

The VR world allows one 

to import music, brand 

names, and photographs, 

name anything through their 

system. A VR system does 

not need to obtain necessary 

permissions from an owner 

to get materials that are 

protected by IP laws. 

Secondly, VR users can log 

in from any country. The 

VR laws in every country 

is different. This leads to 

jurisdictional problems while 

trying to enforce claims 

against VR users. There is 

a huge potential for IP laws 

infringement in the VR world. 

The traditional IP laws work 

very differently. It works in a 

way that helps a VR user to 

escape liability. For example, 

when one in incorporating 

virtual material like music, 

photographs, etc, the 

traditional IP laws stipulate 

obtaining permission 

regarding applicable rights. 

In many countries including 

the USA, for a trademark 

right to be infringed, it is 

important that the use of 

trademark is ‘in commerce’. 

This leads to a user using a 

brands’ logo escape liability 

by claiming ‘no commerce’. 

There is also this ‘fair use’ 

exception in copyrights that 

makes it possible for a VR 

user to infringe original works 

through derivative works 

available on VR platforms. 

2. Privacy: 

Privacy in the Virtual world 

is next to nothing. There 

are certain data protection 

norms that are applicable 

to AR/VR in almost all Asian 

countries but this is not 

enough. 

VR gaming platforms has a lot 

of data that is stored based on 


SME-Law 

the personal information that 

users provide. This data can 

be easily used. For example, 

one can share details related 

to age, race, etc. that form a 

person’s digital footprint. This 

can be used in real life for any 

purpose. 

The fact that privacy is a 

vulnerable thing in the virtual 

world is no more a secret. 

Researchers have pointed 

out that governments and 

organisations can get a lot of 

unprecedented power over 

people by tracking human 

emotions, behaviour and 

expressions. There has also 

been a growth of jurisdictions 

that emphasise that ensure 

that in a company proper 

accountability is maintained. 

The US senator for example 

asked for data accountability 

that is obtained through 

the use of the VR headset 

Oculus. But the problem with 

these claims to VR privacy 

violations seem to be quite 

far-fetched. This is because, 

users usually agree to the 

terms and conditions before 

using these devices. This 

naturally give companies the 

right to share whatever data 

they have at hand. 

The Way Out 

Legislation in the VR world is 

something that is necessary. 

But it is not easy to legislate 

the VR world given that it is 

a huge domain that exists 

globally and is subject to 

different laws per region. 

Moreover, a rigid legislation 

law might also come in the 

way of proper technological 

evolution. Self-regulation 

by VR companies seems to 

be the only solution at the 

moment. There are also some 

measures that companies 

can take regarding VR 

regulation. 

1. Define Liabilities: 

IP holders must very clearly 

define liability in their contract. 

They must specifically state 

the ownership and liability 

that might arise in case of 

a breach or an unfair use of 

property rights. 

2. Self-Regulation: 

As stated above, selfregulation 

is something that 

companies can resort to. 

VR solution providers can 

also take part in creating 

industry friendly policies and 

take steps in formulating 

strategies that are both 

legally and ethically sound 

to deal with any kind of 

infringement. 

3. Misuse of ‘Fair Use 

Standard’ : 

People in VR business must 

try to raise the misuse of 

the ‘fair use standard’ issue. 

The ‘Fair use standard’ has 

always been misused and 

the future does not seem to 

be any different. 

Creating awareness about 

the loopholes in the VR world 

would lead to a solution. 

Entrepreneurs who want 

to join the VR bandwagon 

must work towards this end 

to create a VR world where 

privacy n infringement of 

Intellectual Property are not 

mere terms but enforceable 

laws. The business world would 

not exist without technology. 

Technology would evolve in 

the future. It is wise for industry 

people to start looking at 

making this partnership a lawful 

one while it is still possible. 

Join hands and work towards 

creating a future where the VR 

world thrives with the security of 

legal protection. 

SPI thinktank 

initiative 

It is 

great if one is 

aware of the 

laws that can 

help one out 

of the mess. 

But in many 

cases, people 

are not aware 

of the laws 

that might 

help them out 

of a tricky 

situation. 


51

SME World 

The Most Inspiring Celebration of Entrepreneurship 

Knowledge is power and 

when exchanged becomes 

an omniscient force 

that penetrates through 

everything. The business 

world is all about having and 

applying the right knowledge 

at the right place. It is only 

the intelligent that survive in 

the business world. 

Being intelligent is easier 

said than done in the 

business world. The new 

innovations, strategies and 

laws that keep evolving 

every minute make it 

impossible for entrepreneurs 

to keep a track of everything. 

Would not it have been 

better if entrepreneurs had 

all the details of business 

news, innovation and 

changing laws served up all 

at one place? 

The Intelligent SME is all 

about taking this vision 

forward. Enhanced with 

cutting edge business 

focused magazines and 

business events that 

entrepreneurs love to attend, 

we at Intelligent SME are all 

about providing the correct 

platform for entrepreneurs 

to assess and explore their 

potential. We believe in 

keeping promises that we 

make to our entrepreneurs 

and our SME World Summit 

stands testimony to our 

belief. 

This year is no different as 

we bring to you the SME 

World Summit 2018. Our 

agenda for this summit is 

‘Let’s learn the battle tested 

strategies of building a great 

business’ 

Why Battle Tested 

Strategies? 

The people who have 

gone before us no matter 

how different has always 

something to teach us. This 

is because an entrepreneur 

no matter at which stage he/ 

she is in business shares the 

same experience. 

The SME World Summit is 

studded with entrepreneurs 

who has been there and 

done that. Their story do 

not provide an insight to the 

new age entrepreneurs only 

but also work as a source of 

inspiration for entrepreneurs 

who are at par with them. 

There is never an age or 

time to learning. But there is 

always a benefit to learning. 

Come listen to the stories of 

the entrepreneurs who had 

made it big. Come and learn 

what needs to be applied to 

your business story. Maybe 

the answer you are seeking 

for is right here in this 

summit. 

What do we have in it 

for you? 


all about power speakers, 

knowledge experts and 

ambitious entrepreneurs. 

In this summit we plan to 

cover discussions that can 

give your business a great 

competitive edge. Our topic 

of discussion are listed 

below. 

- Overcoming obstacles to 

growth-the tech way 

- Panel discussion on 

Governments Role in 

Supporting SME’s. Are 

SME’s aware and truly 

benefiting? 


SME World 

- How to drive business 

growth & scale up fast? 

- Role of entrepreneurship in 

smart cities 

- Creating a culture of 

ownership and accountability 

in businesses 

- Interactive panel discussion 

on Building a great & 

sustainable business. 

- Panel discussion on holistic 

wellbeing- Why it’s a must for 

successful entrepreneurs. 

It is only when consumers 

know a business that 

entrepreneurs can run a 

business. We understand 

the importance of an 

entrepreneurs’ need to 

showcase what they have to 

say. The SME World Summit 

provides entrepreneurs a 

platform to tell their story 

with the Elevator Pitch that 

follows the power packed 

discussions. 

This is followed with 

Interactive Group 

Discussions & Structured 

Networking for key business 

verticals – Consulting, IT & 

Software, Financial Services. 

Build your Contacts: 


throbbing with Business 

Owners, C-level Executives, 

Accredited Investors, 

Service providers, Media 

and Government dignitaries. 

Everyone will gather together 

to engage with each other 

and learn from today’s 

visionary leaders in business 

& technology. 

An entrepreneur who attends 

this summit goes back not 

only with information but also 

with long lasting business 

relations. Sometimes this 

is all you need. The right 

person, the right partner or 

the right leader who can take 

your business from where 

it is to what can it be. The 

SME World Summit is where 

powerful alliances will be 

formed that give birth to the 

next dynamic offspring of 

growth and change. This is 

where access to resources 

and capital is unlocked and 

made available. 

Ideas that can change 

the world are advanced 

into action and scalable 

solutions to global needs are 

propelled forward. 

Partners 

We as an organisation 

believe in business 

relationships. We do not 

have sponsors but business 

partners who have been with 

us for a long time. 

Without our partners, we 

would not have been able 

to publish great magazines 

and host prestigious B2B 

events like the SME World 

Summit. Needless to say we 

owe a big Thank you to our 

partners. 

We are also open to 

like-minded business 

organisations who would like 

to partner with us. 

Benefits to Partners 

smeworld.ae 

1. Gain access to 2000 sought 

after Entrepreneurs and Senior 

Executives from different 

industry verticals who will 

attend this amazing conference 

2. Brand alignment with SPI 

Great Sands group and its 

unrivalled credibility 

3. Demonstrate thought 

leadership around the current 

critical issues affecting the 

industry; 

4. Benefit from sustained 

visibility through our cuttingedge 

business magazines, 

advertising and marketing 

campaigns utilizing outdoor 

media, ATL and Digital formats. 

We at Intelligent SME welcome 

you to our event this April at 

Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai. 

Give yourself and your business 

the chance to learn from those 

who made it big in the business 

world. Give your business the 

audience that it needs to help 

it reach success. You might 

be one of those entrepreneurs 

who have been around in the 

business world for decades. 

You are welcome too because 

you get to have a look at how 

the business world is evolving 

and how you need to shape 

your business for the future. 

The SME World Summit will 

surely leave all your questions 

answered, all your inspiration 

delivered and give you all the 

exposure you need. 


53

Rare & Fabulous 

WATCHES YACHTS DESIGNER JEWELLERY BOUTIQUE REAL ESTATE GADGETS EXOTIC DESTINATIONS FINE DINING 



Vuzix Blade Augmented 

Reality Glasses 

Considering Alexa has made its way into just about every Internetconnected 

product, it was only a matter of time before the digital 

butler arrived in smart glasses. The Vuzix Blade augmented 

reality glasses will support Alexa so that wearers can ask for 

things like the weather and directions. The Vuzix Blade’s display 

also sits more prominently in the wearer’s field of view than Google Glass and 

looks much more crisp and colorful. If developers create compelling apps that 

blend Alexa’s capabilities and augmented reality, the Blade AR glasses could 

have some promising potential. 


55


Fitness First: Fitbit Ionic 

At a glance, the Ionic looks like a cross between the Apple Watch 

Series 3 and the Fitbit Blaze, thanks to a rectangular touch LCD 

that stands out from many of the circular smartwatches on the 

market. The screen measures 1.2 by 0.85 inches (HW), about 

1.5 inches diagonally, and features a resolution of 348 by 250 

pixels. It's surrounded by a bezel, thicker at the bottom than at the sides or 

top, which gives the face a square form factor. While the bezel isn't the most 

attractive design element, the screen itself really pops with rich colors, sharp 

image quality, and 1,000cd/m2 of brightness. That's due in part to a curved, 



Apple's Homepod Aims 

To Revolutionize Smart 

Speakers 

The Homepod is Apple's latest attempt at changing the way we listen 

to music forever. These voice-controlled smart speakers are the 

first to be fully integrated with Siri and Apple Music. The speaker 

hardware itself is cutting edge and uses special sensors to visualize 

the room it's in and adapt it's settings to emit the best acoustic 

experience possible. In addition to being a music station, the Homepod is 

also designed to be an artificial assistant that can answer questions, make 

schedules, and control other devices in your house. 


57

Editorial Thinktank 

Ajay Bindroo, 

CEO & Managing 

Partner, Clasico 

Brands 

Within a span of 18 

months, Ajay has 

established a global 

venture that caters to 

consumer goods 

ranging from beauty and personal care, 

grooming products to oral care, bath and 

hygiene, hair care and homecare products. 

Under the flagship of “CLÁSICO BRANDS”, 

over a dozen brands have been created 

and are in the process of being launched 

worldwide. Ajay is a true visionary and 

makes sure that the company's concept and 

strategies are right on track. 

Alexandar 

Williams, 

Director, Business 

Development, 

Department 

of Economic 

Development (DED) 

Alexandar Mathew Williams is presently the 

Director, Business Development, Department 

of Economic Development (DED), 

Government of Dubai. He has more than 20 

years of experience in SME development and 

business creation. He is interested in the life 

cycle dynamics of firm growth and mentoring 

entrepreneurs. In his current job, Alexander is 

responsible for developing new initiatives for 

DED to take it to the next level as a knowledgedriven 

economic development agency. 

Akram Miknas, 

Chairman & 

Founder, 

PROMOSEVEN 

HOLDINGS B.S.C.C. 

(P7H) 

Akram Miknas is known 

to be one of the pillars of modern marketing 

communications in the Middle East. His involvement 

in real estate development, especially 

after the successful completion of 

the Pearl Towers (Abraj Al Lulu), anchored 

him as a leading accomplished developer 

in the Gulf. In early 2000, he branched into 

the hospitality business and successfully 

managed and built several hotels and outlets 

in Bahrain. His success in this business 

was crowned by becoming the franchisee of 

McDonald’s in Lebanon; where he built the 

business from seven to 26 restaurants in just 

five years. 

Deepak J Babani, 

CEO, Eros Group 

Deepak Babani has been 

with Eros Group for over 

30 years. Mr. Babani 

has spearheaded the 

growth of Eros Group 

from a turnover of Dhs 

six million in 1981 to over Dhs four Billion in 

2010. Under his leadership, Eros Group has 

established itself as the leading distributor 

for Consumer Electronics, Home Appliances, 

Telecom, IT and Air-conditioning products in 

the UAE, GCC and East African regions. Mr. 

Babani joined Eros as Marketing Manager 

and was promoted to General Manager in 

1988 and subsequently to CEO in 2002. and 

subsequently to CEO in 2002. 


Editorial Thinktank 

Mishal Kanoo, 

Deputy Chairman, 

The Kanoo Group 

Mishal Kanoo serves as 

the Deputy Chairman 

of The Kanoo Group, 

one of the largest, 

independent and longest running familyowned 

group of companies in the Gulf 

region. He is also one of the most iconic 

business figures in the Middle East, featured 

on various magazines and listed in the ‘Top 

100 Powerful Arabs 2013’, and ‘The 15 

Wealthiest Arab Businessmen in the World 

2012’, among others. Subsequently, he 

worked at Arthur Andersen in Dubai as an 

auditor before taking up his current position 

in 1997. Mishal Kanoo adheres to family 

values and ideals in pursuit for quality and 

excellence which has greatly influenced his 

corporate policies and goals for ‘The Kanoo 

Group’ as a reputable company. 

Reg Athwal, 

Founding Partner 

& MD, RTS Global 

Partners 

Reg Athwal is the 

Chairman of RAW 

Group and the 

Founding Partner & 

MD of RTS Global Partners, the leading 

family business advisory firm in Africa, 

Middle East and Asia. The company has 

been supporting hundreds of clients in over 

150 disciplines spread across 57 countries 

with offices in Dubai, UAE and Nairobi, 

Kenya. Reg’s vision is to grow into a major 

company of 1000 members in 22 countries 

by the year 2022 with the primary aim of 

transforming 22,000+ family businesses 

and impacting millions on the way. 

K. Rajaram, CEO, Al 

Nabooda Automobiles 

K. Rajaram has more 

than three decades 

of experience in the 

automotive industry, 

starting his career in Oman 

in 1983. He moved to the 

UAE in 1996 to lead Al Nabooda Automobiles, 

the exclusive dealer of Audi, Porsche and 

Volkswagen in Dubai and the Northern Emirates. 

Under his leadership, Al Nabooda Automobiles 

has changed the face of the UAE automotive 

market by setting the highest benchmarks in 

customer service and pioneering the automobile 

ownership experience. 

Rizwan Sajan, 

Founder & Chairman, 

Danube Group 

The Danube Group was 

founded and established 

by Mr. Rizwan Sajan in 

1993. Over the last 22 

years, the group has come 

a long way since its humble beginnings of a 

small trading shop in Deira to being the region’s 

leader in construction, building materials, 

home interiors and shop fitting industries. The 

head office & logistics facilities are present at 

the Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZA). Danube has 

coursed a path that transformed only one shop 

with three employees to over 40 locations in 

nine countries worldwide including UAE, Oman, 

Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Africa and India, 

in addition to procurement offices in China with 

employee strength of over 2,200 people. Being a 

top ranking business icon, Mr. Rizwan Sajan has 

been a source of inspiration for driving Danube’s 

business by leaps and bounds. 

source of inspiration for driving Danube’s 

business by leaps and bounds. 


59

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ISME April 2018

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