Ismail Al Rajab Contracting — SME Case Study (UAE)

This research work has been done to understand the models of organizational structures, concept of business, operational, and marketing strategies besides the abilities of a successful leadership. Anyhow, the whole discussion has been made by selecting a company of interest to put the light on the different perspectives of a business running inside the UAE, where hundreds of nationalities are living to earn, for business purposes or so. But the key aim is to know how a business can face in front challenges e.g. pandemic by taking certain steps. The operational strategies indicate the techniques and approaches that a business can use to achieve their business goals and objectives. Actually, with the operational strategies, a business can inspect as well implement innovative and effective structures in order to use the workforce, resources, and the work related processes (Flora Richards-Gustafson, 2019).

Ismail Al Rajab Contracting On the other hand, marketing strategies indicate an inclusive game-plan of the business for the attainment of potential customers so as to turn them into buyers of their services and products. Actually, a marketing strategy takes in the value proposal of a company, information on the target consumer’s demographics, messages for the key brands, along with other high level fundamentals. The selected company name is Ismail Al Rajab Contracting. This corporation is a leading Dubai based business. It has been active since 1996 in the sector of design and application of different kinds of projects, including residential buildings, small villas, maintenance besides building of supplements e.g. high quality boards and extensions in time with the help of specialized workers and professionals. A contracting company works by making legal agreements with the clients and customers so to agree upon work within the specified time period. This company is also contracted to construct buildings for the clients besides providing other available services such as renovation.

Mission Its mission is to build an innovative business in the field of Interior Design (since 2015), as a self-governing department allied with the Ismail-Al-Rajab Contracting, who are specialized in different types of interior designs from material selection, to the scheme and implementation. These Dubai based-companies mission also included the tasks to provide the civil contracting meant for both residential and commercial buildings solutions with best quality material and unique designs.

Vision They appeared in the market as an innovative business by offering quality construction, maintenance, cleaning and unique designing services.

Organizational Structure and Its Types Organizational structure indicates the alignment as well as relates different parts of a corporate in order to get maximum performance of business. Anyhow, selected structure will have an impact on the success of business e.g. in carrying out business strategies and obtaining goals. The following diagram shows the organizational chart, which is most suitable for a medium sized business.

Marketing Sales Services CEO Figure 51: The Organizational Structure of Ismail Al Rajab Contracting

A business can be of different types such as given below

A family owned business is a business in which more than one family member is involved or the mainstream of control and ownership lies inside the family. Businesses where several employees, executives or owners belong to one or similar family is quite a common practice, but there are several ways to form a family business (Emily Heaslip, Contributor, 2021). If you are going to establish a business along with your family members, following the ownership model, you need to know how to structure a business with ownership options such as: Partnership- According to this model, just leaders of a corporation will be its owners and can get financial benefits from the business. This will stop family members (who don’t participate in the revenue of business) from benefiting from others’ hard-work. Owner- According to this model, proprietorship and control is restricted to just one individual or couple. What is sole-establishment in the UAE? It is a legal body wholly kept by just one individual and that entity is legally responsible to full- extent of his/her assets for business liabilities without limit. Such an establishment may perform professional or commercial (defined in Article#5–6 in UAE’s Federal Law #18 of the 1993 on the Commercial-Transactions e.g.

real estate, trading, manufacturing, etc.) activities inside that Emirate after it has been registered (mimolegal, 2015).

Distributed

According to this commonly used ownership model, a family-owned distributed business will pass its proprietorship down to all or majority of offspring no matter whether they are working or not in the organization. Public- According to this model, a part of shares will be traded publicly. Characteristics of any Public Company may include: stockholder ownership, corporate leadership (CEO), board of directors and public financial/business information (MasterClass, 2020).

Nested- The structure of this model involves the portion of the family who is agreeing to have certain assets in cooperation while some other assets individually. This type of structure is known as “nested” because smaller family groups with proprietorship will be seated inside larger groups (Emily Heaslip, Contributor, 2021).

Ismail Al Rajab Constructing’s Legal Structure The legal type of this business is sole establishment, under the registration No. 70505 and its license is of commercial type. According to the license, activities include building cleaning services and building contracting. The sole owner is Ismail Hassan Abdulla Al Rajab Alneaimi. Moreover, this business involves the subsidiary entity as an independent department, which has been affiliated with Ismail Al Rajab constructing since 2015 to offer its quality services.

Organizational Structure Types An organization will put on a structure according to the work nature of this business. The following are some

commonly used structures

• Vertical type structure (divisional and functional).
• Vertical-and-horizontal type structure (matrix).
• Open boundary or boundary-less type structure

(virtual, modular, and cellular).

Vertical structures can be of a functional or divisional type. In the case of functional structure, the arrangement will divide the employees as well as the work by keeping in front the specialization and expertise categories. This structure is hierarchical, but incorporated vertically in the majority of cases.

It is focusing more on the standardization inside the organization and its processes for particular expert employees to a certain extent and in case of narrow jobs. For example, in the functional structure case, employees need to report to managers directly within their practical (functional) areas, and they will report to the chief officers of the company in turn. The key advantages of such a structure includes expert growth in their respective areas, assignment of tasks to proficient individuals, and easy to realize logical structure. This construction works fit for those establishments that stay centralized where most of decision-making happens by higher management (such as in the case of Ismail Al Rajab constructing sole establishments).

This will be because of the few shared objectives and concerns between business functional areas like IT, purchasing, marketing, designing, and construction.

A key benefit of centralized decision-making is cost- cutting at scale, e.g. centralized purchasing utilities/ functions (Shrm.org, 2015). Ismail Al Rajab Constructing is a sole establishment and the majority of decision making is done by the owner of the business. Moreover, divisional structure is usually classified employees and tasks by keeping in front the output, market, region or so on. Ismail Al Rajab Constructing can deal with business operations via trading, e-commerce or so.

For example, company products and services include cleaning AC and buildings (X), maintenance services (Y), interior decoration innovative solution (Z), etc. But the market indicates retail stores or outlets, catalog, etc. while regions to serve include Dubai, Sharjah and so on. This organizational structure type might look like

the following

Division Product X R&D Finance Marketing Division Product Y Division Product Z R&D Finance Marketing R&D Finance Marketing DIVISION ORGANIZATION CEO Figure 52: An example of divisional organization of a company

The key advantages of a divisional structure includes

focused and flexible core competencies in each division, more focus on generating specialized products, added coordination, faster, and customized decisions making with the help of employees from all levels. It means Ismail Al Rajab Constructing’s business structure is a combination of functional and divisional structure.

Leadership Style Creative leadership indicates the act of a business as they have the ability to realize the innovative ideas by means of the shared goals and drives to improve the business operations through enterprise restricting or formation.

Leasing, buying, or selling properties is perhaps the most vital life-decision or else investments related decisions that you make. Such acts involved certain financial, emotional, and somewhat personal processes, which can be demanding and hectic. Ismail Al Rajab Contracting is also offering a full-service real-estate business, covering the United Arab Emirates. So giving right solutions to customers by having talents means promoting the business and the customer centered approach is the key of the progress (hubbae, 2019).

Company distinctions- The success of the business shows that it is being groomed under the leadership of competent personalities and are distinguished in executing all strategies. They have capabilities to form creativity in both interior and exterior designs, as well in the field of construction. Working together with the consultant is a matter of adoption so to attain the right solutions to work out a proposal (design) that fulfills the demands of the clients/owner. Moreover, the completion of a venture within the projected time is the result of commitment to the working hours by management.

Restructuring is based on the question of how an organization needs to cope with the current pandemic.

Strategy Anatomy of Restructuring Culture IT Process People Figure 53: How to restructure an organization Business restructure during COVID-19- Restructuring will not be a simple step or process as it may involve changes in the operational, legal, financial, or other organizations of the business in order to make it additional resourceful and effective. As the above diagram shows, this process may involve the restructuring of IT (e.g. buying more equipment to communicate on a daily basis to accomplish the business tasks), people, strategies and so on. The key aim is to make it a more gainful organization. So to be active visibly in the current situation, the restructuring process involves the idea of having a business shift (for improvement) expert who will work carefully and closely with the management of this company as well with the other key stakeholders, in order to design a way to be accelerated (Julie Palmer, 2020).

Ismail Al Rajab has a consultant and Dorreve department to work in collaboration with them. But to meet the current demands of business, it needs its official website (an online platform to conduct business remotely to make the staff safe) to come online. Anyhow, more investment is needed and this challenge can let the management to change the legal status of the firm, such as shifting from the sole establishment to the partnership business model.

For successful restructuring of the business, the following

steps can help

¡ Understanding initiative goals e.g. more advantage in low cost.

¡ Understanding the worth of IT e.g. in pandemic can serve as a bridge between customers and business.

¡ Determining capabilities needed in future e.g.

optimizing particular IT functions.

Products and Services Products are the tangible items that are to be placed on the marketplaces for acquisition, consideration, as well as for consumption. On the other hand, services indicate intangible items, which rise from the outcome of one otherwise more people. Ismail Al Rajab Constructing is offering the following services including: full construction services, cleaning AC, volume and pricing calculation services, maintenance service, demolition services, cleaning building services, creative design ideas, and interior decoration solutions by keeping in view the needs of the clients.

Business strategy is a must for every organization that is looking for growth in its business by following a strategic way. But what really would be a business strategy? Simply, it indicates a set of clearly described plans, schedules, activities, and goals that will shape how a company can strive in a precise market with its particular services and products. Also, business strategies are usually based on business plans (must be clear to communicate), clear customers’ value proposal (how to become better than competitors e.g. by offering something different), and competitor’s analysis (how to promote the business, how much will new plan cost, etc.) besides positive cash flow e.g. how to earn in timely manners (Bernard Marr, 2017).

To develop excellent business strategies, the following steps can be taken: Leadership Vision- Good strategies will usually derive from the business leaders, so holding a clear cut leadership vision will be a key preliminary point. Vision is generally based on where business is going well and why. Moreover, strategic marketing plans can contribute to a successful business strategy’s accomplishment, but an inspirational and strong management is needed to put into practice the business strategies. Furthermore, the culture or work environment will serve as a key driver for a successful business strategy implementation. There is no doubt that a supportive culture will help you to achieve success. Also, resources (e.g. IT related resources) and effective and competent business systems all work well in implementing your business strategies successfully.

Strategy Statement Unique Value for Customers Competitive Advantage How you will win in the Market Customers and Markets Served What You will NOT DO Figure 54: Ismail Al Rajab’s Strategy Statement Ismail Al Rajab Constructing is going well by collaborating with consultants to give satisfactory solutions, having competent staff that exhibit the proficiency of its HR department in selecting the right faculty. Moreover, its assurance of on time delivery to the client is mirroring implementation of successful strategies.

Your Competitor Plotting your Positioning Strategy....

Total Customer Market Your Organization Where we often think we need to Compete Your unique advantage Your next strategic market focus Your competitor’s advantage Where yor customer drives price/cost discussion 2.

1.

4.

5.

3.

Figure 55: A chart to explain a company’s positioning strategy Designing a positioning strategy is necessary to know at what position the customers and price are so to comprehend the level of competition in order to compete in the market.

The unclear nature and uncertain span of COVID-19 has placed the businesses in a tough condition (disruption).

It is also critical for the business leader or management to plan the exact courses of actions for the ultimate recovery right now.

Disruption Coordinate for action Quickly mobilize and initiate mitigation actiors to confirm business continuity Recovery Get out the gate smartly and swiftly Rebalance the business, recover with agility and rebound faster than competitors Resilience Embrace and manage capabilities you wish you had today Establish resilience capabilities to better sence and respond to the new normal and extreme disruption Competitive advantage Capitalize on the new normal Leapfrog weaker competition, strengthen financials, and help capitalize on new market opportunities and competitive respositioning Figure 56: Operational Strategies to deal with COVID-19 But virtual existence is the best possible opportunity to avail as it can somewhat ease the ongoing tension of pandemic such as simple execution of the business processes. In this way, strengthening relations with customers as well as rebuilding the customer’s confidence and achieving their loyalty along with market share can be carried out via recovery.

All through the recovery time period, the worldwide impact of COVID-19 eruption will make known changes e.g. consumers’ behaviors, supplier positions, or so. If a business will understand such changes comprehensively and quickly, it can get a distinctive competitive advantage by understanding the needs of time. For example, the realization of the fact that the rare knockbacks to a system facing disruption can supply opportunities to smarter with expertise companies to expand their scope inside the markets.

The following image presents the possible ways to be adopted as marketing strategies specifically in case of the pandemic.

Figure 57: Marketing Strategies for companies to use Marketing strategies also involve the promotion of business through websites so the above image is showing some possible tasks to be considered so as to be the desired outcome by aligning involved business jobs.

Let Data Drive Innovation Online platforms including Facebook and Google are taking control over audience targeting (exactly what you would expect) as marketing moves away from manual attempting skills to online ad posting, etc.

Use of Profile, Catalog, and Work Related Videos Use of business related videos and catalogs (e.g.

construction processes and done work) will offer digital marketing opportunities, so business can expose its activities more by spending less.

Business/Legal Challenges and How To Overcome Them To keep on attracting customers as well retaining existing clients will be a challenging situation for this business. Moreover, to expand the business scope for the deployment of latest technology, more investment is needed so shifting to partnerships can be considered in this regard to achieve such goals (legal challenge). The following steps can also help in overcoming challenges

such as

¡ Having online existence to cope with the pandemic situation.

¡ Having a centralized network to accommodate business (e.g. smooth running of business certain activities) as well as employees (e.g. financially).

¡ Most of all, a positive mindset will help in getting an optimistic work environment.

The best business practices include collaboration, commitment to deliver work on time, focused effort, hiring of specialized staff, and variation in serving customers.

Actually, with a collaborative work environment, businesses will have the ability to introduce products and services to the marketplace faster. Moreover, focused effort is possible with a teamwork approach. All such steps can help in getting compatibility in communication and business functions besides speeding up the whole process of business operations.

Some common reasons of business failures include lack of funding and investments, inadequate marketing initiatives, holding an insufficient or poor management and team members besides not satisfactory business infrastructure. Also, the selected business outcome is satisfactory, but it is really a challenging thing to accommodate all of its employees in the current pandemic. Any lack in this regard may form a disappointing situation, so having an appropriate IT solution can be a good practice for the business.

Ismail Al Rajab Contracting is improving its worth by expanding the range of services with the passage of time.

It has been practicing business since 1996 in the UAE, so it means specialized workers and professionals are moving forward successfully by increasing services. Anyhow, it is gaining confidence by following the vision of the company to appear in the market as a state-of-the-art business by providing quality construction and other services.

Once you are online, it is recommended to update the content on a regular basis, while the logo and website design should be attractive enough to grab the visitors attention.

Moreover, easy-to-use and understandable websites can let customers browse the pages of their interest confidently or place orders online. Besides this, technical staff can let the business promote its work profile and display its success stories online. Businesses can promote their activities and products by using affordable online platforms. All of these will give an inspiring impression to the business too.

Lesson Learned ¡ A small business can be turned into a valued one with the hard work.

¡ Failure should not be the end of effort, but should be taken as foundation to improve the business in a competitive business environment.

¡ Facing difficulties can open the door to success and reinforce the business.

¡ A positive mindset will assist in overcoming the challenges aroused from pandemic.

¡ Nothing is impossible if you are committed.

The case study of the selected business Ismail Al Rajab Contracting showed that this sole establishment has earned a good name in the UAE with the help of its unique solutions, professional attitude, and accomplishments of projects without compromising on quality. Though the world is facing a hard time nowadays, online media can facilitate a business if its strategies are appropriate and its management is competent in handling the tough situations like Ismail Al Rajab Constructing.