Abu Dhabi School of Management highlights role of entrepreneurship & innovation in organizational excellence

UAE, June 28, 2015 - The Abu Dhabi School of Management (ADSM), a business school focusing on developing entrepreneurial leadership, has emphasized the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation in achieving organizational excellence within the UAE, for both the government and private sectors. A subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Chamber, ADSM highlights how top-level executives around the world count innovation among the most important growth factors and adds that some of the biggest and most successful enterprises in Abu Dhabi and the UAE are explicitly committed to innovation.

In PwC’s recent report on ‘Breakthrough Innovation and Growth,’ 43 per cent of polled executives from 25 countries (42 per cent in the UAE) said that innovation is a ‘competitive necessity’ for their organization, with the number expected to rise to 51 per cent in 2018. Combined with entrepreneurial skills, innovation in a wide range of activities ranging from manufacturing processes to research and development has enabled companies in the UAE and across the region to maximize their competitiveness.

Professor Abdullah Abonamah, president of the Abu Dhabi School of Management, said: “Innovation has become fundamental to the sustained growth of modern business. Organizations in Abu Dhabi and across the region are embracing creativity as a means to optimize performance and competitiveness. If you look at companies such as Etihad or entities such as Masdar they have been extremely innovative and continue to evolve as market leaders.”

ADSM’s practical MBA curriculum emphasizes the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation not just in terms of the program but in their personal growth and future contribution to society as well. The school immerses its MBA participants within an entrepreneurial ecosystem that develops business innovation, investment and research skills.

“We are developing patriotic, business-savvy and imaginative young leaders who can support the UAE’s emergence as one of the world’s most innovative and dynamic economies in the near future. Some of the concepts the participants are developing here are revolutionary at both the local and global level. The UAE needs innovative leaders with entrepreneurial decision-making skills at all levels, in both the large public sector bodies as well as smaller family businesses,” added Professor Abonamah.

The UAE has declared 2015 as the ‘Year of Innovation.’ The government’s new National Innovation Strategy aims to transform the UAE into one of the most innovative countries in the world within the next seven years. ADSM is helping drive Abu Dhabi Vision 2030 and UAE Vision 2021’s goal of transitioning to a knowledge-based economy.

“ADSM’s core values include enhancing research, discovery and creativity, promoting entrepreneurialism, and supporting the socio-economic development of Abu Dhabi and the UAE.    The shift is now more apparent during the ‘Year of Innovation’ in terms of the ideas and energy surrounding start-ups and innovations that are being developed,” concluded Professor Abonamah.