Muscat – A strategy is being prepared for the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector in line with Oman Vision 2040 by the Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises (ASMED).
The new strategy seeks to extend a supportive environment for SMEs through the development of mechanisms and programmes that strengthen the integration of all entities related to entrepreneurship.
It is also being prepared to augment the contribution of SMEs to the gross domestic product (GDP), raising the Sultanate of Oman’s indicators in the field of entrepreneurship and also to bring in new initiatives to generate employment opportunities in the country.

The total number of SMEs registered at ASMED at the end of May 2022 increased by 46.9 per cent to reach 78,089 compared to 53,166 SMEs during the same period in 2021, according to the data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information.
The Governorate of Musandam recorded the highest increase by 100.5 per cent, followed by the Governorate of Dhofar by 77.7 per cent, the Governorate of Al Wusta by 70.8 per cent and the Governorate of Al Dhahirah by 32.8 per cent.
The Governorate of Muscat registered the largest number of SMEs till the end of May 2022 reaching 26,374, followed by the Governorate of North Al Batinah at 12,030 and the Governorate of Al Dakhiliyah at 8,821.
Earlier in June 2022, a raft of new measures was announced for the SME sector. It provided an additional package of subsidies for SMEs, entrepreneurs and insolvent persons. Also, to alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the package included a number of subsidies and payment of overdue fees by entrepreneurs.
These included waivers for entrepreneurs who are Riyada card holders (for beneficiaries of emergency loans) issued by the Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises, waivers from fines and fees payable by SMEs against delays in loans to the Lender Portfolio (earlier called the Al Raffd Fund) until the end of this year and waivers in payments of overdue fees by entrepreneurs and SME owners who face prison charges following prosecution on account of bad cheques drawn on insufficient funds.
The measures also included postponement of lawsuits against individuals/ establishments not abiding by the provisions of loan agreements signed with the Lender Portfolio until the end of 2022

Fueling the blur of combat is a radical shift in brand growth models. Within the span of most executives’ careers, advances in technology have reshaped how consumers engage with brands. In the US and UK, more than 60% of consumers now discover products online, and 85% of millennials trust reviews from a faceless stranger more than traditional advertising. The same technology advances have dramatically altered the competitive landscape. CMOs can no longer forecast forward their current profit pools only by looking to fill in geographies and nearby product market segments. That process risks ignoring the industry’s disruptive trends, as profit pools shift quickly from products to services to experiences and communities, and as mass products evolve into new segments with accelerating personalization. Growth strategy today requires consumer products companies to look “present forward” and “future back”—to create a faster horse while envisioning the car—in order to define new growth platforms beyond their current products, business model and capabilities.

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Fueling the blur of combat is a radical shift in brand growth models. Within the span of most executives’ careers, advances in technology have reshaped how consumers engage with brands. In the US and UK, more than 60% of consumers now discover products online, and 85% of millennials trust reviews from a faceless stranger more than traditional advertising. The same technology advances have dramatically altered the competitive landscape. However, the transformation still required across the industry is significant, involving far-reaching changes to consumer products companies’ growth models and the largest buckets of their discretionary spending. And it’s urgent, as consumers and new competitors are moving faster than incumbents can react.

“I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure. It is: Try to please everybody.”
DAVID OSWALD

What’s the right path forward? Reinventing the brand growth model requires more than a reallocation of marketing budget to digital. CMOs need a reassessment of growth platforms and future brand portfolios, a new understanding of the consumer journey, a supporting strategy on data and technology.

The consumer journey has fundamentally changed, and so has the role of the brand manager. Once guardians of the brief to agencies, today they must lead hands-on content generation, data management.