Naderi General Trading — SME Case Study (UAE)

The company in this case study is a small company with eight employees. The company is based in the UAE and it is a general trading company whose office is in Bur Dubai. The company trades goods and provides goods to the wholesales market. The owner of the company is Fakhraddin Naderi and he founded the company in 2006 and the company is growing.

The company name is Naderi General Trading. The company was founded in 2006 by Fakhraddin Naderi Karvan and to this day, the company is open, but in the beginning, he started a real estate company which helped him eventually to open his current business which is Naderi General Trading and Nader Wholesale Company. The company has eight employees and has an office in Bur Dubai and Ajman, but according to the founder “we had to close the Ajman office due to not Naderi General Trading enough customers.” Its mission is to build the company to being known in the entire UAE, but Fakhraddin’s mission and vision is to make sure that the business will be successful so that one day his children will run the business successfully. The company’s vision is to have their names well-known all around the UAE.

Fakhraddin hopes to one day give the company to his children so that they will be able to run the company on their own. Currently, two of his oldest children are working in the company to learn how the business works so they will be able to run the company on their own in the future.

Organizational Structure

The CEO of the company just manages and does his work from home, where he tells the managers what to do in the offices. They manage the other six employees that work in the office, which includes the two accountants, one receptionist, one employee that manages the IT structure, one worker that provides tea and water to customers and lastly, security, who makes sure that everything is safe in the office. The company does not focus on just one product since it brings various products from overseas and sells them to customers here in the UAE, but it brings them from overseas under a different company that Fakhraddin owns, which is Nader Wholesales Company.

CEO (Fakhraddin) Manager (Faham) Manager (Fahad) Receptionist Security

IT Figure 34: Departments of the company

Its business strategy is to provide customers with their needs and wants so they will be satisfied, “Satisfied customers will always come back for more,” Fakhraddin said.

Business Strategies Never Over Promise Communicating with employees and Customers Planning everything ahead Marketing Sure Customers Satisfied Figure 35: The business strategy of the company When asking Fakhraddin about the business strategy, he told me that the most important strategy is making sure that customers are always satisfied, even mistakes are from his side, and to never over promise to the customers, for example, promising about the price or deadline. The other thing that he told me is to make sure that everything is planned ahead before taking any steps which will also help with communication with the employees and the customers, which makes them feel like a family in the office.

Customer asks for a product Contact different manufacture provide Sample Get a best quality price Making sure that the product get delivered in time Delivered to cutomer on time Figure 36: Operational strategies of the company According to the report that I obtained, the customer comes to the office and asks for an already existing product or not existing and the company will contact different manufacturers to see if it can provide what the customer needs. The company will provide samples which are provided to the customers and if they like the product and are satisfied with the product samples, they will order according to the customer’s needs. If the customers are not satisfied with the samples, they will contact the manufacturer to make a few adjustments to meet the customer’s needs and satisfaction, then they will show the new samples to the customers to make sure that everything is fine with the customer and finalize the deal. Once the deal is finalized, it will provide the customers with a deadline for when it is able to obtain the products and make sure that the deadline provided to the customers is accurate and not late, since they pride themselves in providing the best care for its customers.

The company does not have a big marketing strategy.

Its only marketing strategy is word-of-mouth, hence it is trying its best to make sure that customers are satisfied so that they will talk about the company, which will help grow the business. “Word-of-mouth is worth more than just paying for advertisement,” said Fakhraddin. In my opinion, that is true personally. I would rather use word- of-mouth over everything else.

• Making sure that customers are satisfied.
• Once customers are satisfied, they will talk about

it.

• Getting

potential customers from current customers.

4PS P P P P Price Promotion Place Product Making sure that they provide the best prices and the best qualities of product to the customers Products differs from cutomer to other since they ask we provide Heart of Dubai business where all the business from overseas located Dubai, Bur Dubai Word of mouth is their only marketing strategy currently but they hope to expand their marketing strategy in future Figure 37: The 4 P’s of Small Business

¡ Covid-19 When I asked about the challenges that he has had in the past, he mentioned that at the start of the coronavirus pandemic when they closed all the boarder, flight, and freighter where unable to come to the United Arab Emirates, it faced problems since it was unable to get some of the products from overseas to customers, which led to the business going into a drop. But in the end, it overcame that challenge since the customers understood the situation. But the business had another problem which was paying salaries but it had capital reserved for the hard times and it was able to overcome that challenge too, but it was going low on the reserved capital. According to Fakhraddin, “You always learn from the challenges that you face and learn from the failures.” ¡ Hard times in the beginning At the start, Fakhraddin said that he started the businesses with a capital of 500,000 after he saved enough from his old business, which was the real estate company he sold. Then after selling the business, he started the general trading business. At the start, the income was low, as low as having a profit of 50,000 per year but currently, the income is 1,000,000 annually. But due to the current situation, last year the profit was nearly 600,000, which is a big difference after nine years of the business existing, which is still going and growing, but the company still isn’t global and currently, Fakhraddins goal isn’t to go global. He said that he has one office in Iran and two in the UAE. Now it is one since he had to close the Ajman office.

In my opinion, I would recommend marketing his business and consider other options and not just the use of voice of words, which will help the business grow faster. Also, he should consider going global to grow the name of the business so people will know it all around the world, which will lead to increasing the income of the business.

SWOT Analysis STRENGTHS OPPORTUNITIES THREATS WEAKNESSES S W O T  Not being Global  Competitor having partners in different sectors  Marketing strategy in order to grow faster  Competitors having lower price for the customers since they are global and partnered with manufacturers  New Competitors entering the market  Big Global companies ebtering the market  Manufactures dealing with the customers directly  Going global  Growing more than just in Dubai and Iran  Partnering with big manufacturers in order to lowwer the cost  Making deals with Global Organization  Being on of the first in the market  Providing great customer care  Having loyal customer  Providing the best service to meet the customers need and wants Figure 61: SWOT analysis of the company The biggest strength the company has is that it was the first in the market allowed to obtain customers which were new and loyal. A weakness of the company is that it is not a global company, which leads to opportunities that can grow into becoming a global company, which will increase its income. The biggest threats that the company is currently facing are the new competitors and big manufacturers dealing with customers directly since the website Alibaba is getting known more and more everyday.

¡ Start small and grow.

¡ Do not rush things.

¡ You might face challenges but never to give up.

¡ Work hard and have dedication.

¡ Learn from mistakes .

¡ Word-of-mouth is the best marketing strategy.

¡ Make sure customers are always satisfied.

¡ Do not give up if you fail.

¡ Customers always have rights.

¡ Do not expand too fast.

In conclusion, Fakhraddin is an entrepreneur who started from nothing and grew his business to become this incredible thing without losing hope and never stopping.

When you fail once, failure is a lesson to be taught and there is nothing better than failing and learning from your mistakes. Fakhraddin is my father and seeing him grow his past businesses and this current business inspires me to be like him and start from nothing and grow as an entrepreneur and to never give up on my dreams and aspirations.

Case Study Questions

• Is Mr. Fakhraddin considered as an entrepreneur?

Explain the reason.

• What do you think about Mr. Fakhraddins approach

to growing?

• What

other marketing strategies would you recommend to grow the business?

• In your opinion, do you think that all entrepreneurs

start from nothing? Explain.

• Do you think the way Mr. Fakhraddin handled

challenges was good? If no, explain the reason.