The conference was attended by more than 55 entrepreneurs and senior executives from Bahraini medium scale companies participated and shared their experiences in running their businesses, said a press release.

The conference, held at the Intercontinental Regency hotel, was opened by KPMG in Bahrain managing partner, Jamal Fakhro and facilitated by Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at INSEAD, Professor Filipe Santos.

The purpose of this conference was to discuss the building blocks of a successful and sustainable business model and equip the entrepreneurs to analyse their business from an all-round perspective, identify the key issues and focus on the growth opportunities, it said.

KPMG Managing Partner, Jamal Fakhro said “we recognise the growing significance of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector in Bahrain.”

“Through our owner managed business function, we have greater focus on SME’s and Family owned businesses in Bahrain and, this conference is another testament of our focus on this critical sector for Bahrain’s economy,” said Fakhro.

INEAD’s Prof Santos said that entrepreneurial businesses are the backbone of any economy and the greatest source of employment creation.

“However, building and managing a firm in a global business environment is increasingly difficult. Owner/managers need to step back from the complexity of day-to-day business decisions and focus on the essential elements of their business model – their source of competitive advantage,” said Prof Santos.

“By asking, what is the essential customer problem their business aims to solve and how it delivers value, participants will look at their businesses from a new perspective and will find areas to innovate and improve their operations,” added Prof Santos.