Numéro 22 | PAGE 17
ECO NEWS
| in english
1. Creativity is a remarkable‘ equalizer’. It is not uncommon for a small enterprise or a start-up to be propelled to the ranks of big( ger) players in its sector in a record period of time consequent to its developing an innovative product.
Examples of stellar growth abound on the international scene: the developers of Angry Birds, a computer and smart phone game application, introduced their software in 2009, made $ 50 million in revenues in 2010, and a staggering $ 550 million the year after. In 2012, the company contemplated going public, but then reckoned that its cash flow was large to preclude recourse to additional equity capital for growth financing. For enterprises in the creative economy, the passage from drawing board to big-enterprise status is hence typically short.
2. Creativity knows no bounds, and so should creative enterprises that should design a strategy for cross-border development and growth. The local market may offer valuable testing grounds for innovation, but innovative enterprises should eye that market’ s position as jump board to the region and beyond.
3. An innovative product rarely retains that quality for long, even in countries where patent laws confer
WITH YOUR IDEA AND OUR ASSISTANCE, EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE
If you are a young entrepreneur and have an innovative idea or project that you are willing to share with at least one European or Mediterranean partner, the FARO fund, that is managed by the Chamber of Beirut and Mount-Lebanon, offers you technical and financial assistance at a symbolic rate to build your project. to the innovator / inventor a monopoly status for the production and distribution of that product over a period of time. Protecting the product’ s turf through investment in branding and fast expansion may impose itself as a business strategy early in the game.
4. In a competitive environment, intricate professional-grade financial analysis is decisive to monitor closely returns on creative assets, to maximize efficiency and productivity of the business enterprise, to decide on the timing of product introduction and possibly divestiture.
5. Continuous benchmarking is vital to creative businesses. These should continually compare themselves to competing players on about every parameter, with a view to maintaining competitiveness. Knowing the best, worst, and average performance in one’ s sector of activity helps direct improvements and further innovation.
6. Creative entrepreneurs need to integrate their businesses within clusters, or“ eco-systems”, that generate synergies conducive to further creativity and product development.
For more information please call 1314 ext 14 https:// www. facebook. com / CCIAB https:// www. twitter. com / CCIABML
The First International ADR Trainer’ s Network in London
Dala Ghandour Coordinator of the Lebanese Mediation Center
The Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution( CEDR), under the auspices of CEDR Foundation, organized its First International ADR Trainer’ s Network in London- UK on the 13th, 14th and 15th of May 2013.
CEDR is a UK-based professional service consultancy which provides access to expertise in a range of commercial problem solving disciplines used to achieve resolution of conflict in business. For more than twenty( 20) years, CEDR had a formidable reputation in skills-based training delivery and design. They are experts in developing organizational structure; and the Lebanese Mediation Center( LMC) at the Chamber of Commerce benefited from their services.
All of the sixteen( 16) mediators on the LMC panel are CEDR accredited; Seven( 7) among them undertook the training of trainers program and are trainers now, and two( 2) achieved the training of the lecturer program to be able to teach mediation in universities.
The International ADR Trainers Network, created by CEDR in 2011, brings together high quality trainers to provide a forum for the sharing of ideas about current practices worldwide, innovations in the field of ADR training delivery, developing standards and good practice for ADR Trainers.
The thirty( 30) trainers came from Pakistan, Italy, France, Egypt, UK, Bulgaria, South Africa, Greece, Nigeria and Lebanon. The ADR Trainers Network not only refreshes knowledge, but also is an opportunity to understand the perspective of trainers from diversified cultural backgrounds. It helps immensely to build consistency and harmonized approach towards ADR and ADR Trainings.
Mediation being one of the main ADR core themes, we discussed the evolution of commercial mediation in the respective countries and put together a benchmark to an international training course, in addition to the international standard that must be shared with international mediators: Ethics and Training. While ethics would ensure the confidentiality, independence and neutrality of the mediation process, the proper training would empower the mediator with the skills needed to go through the relationships, process and content of mediation. In a brainstorming session, we discussed the best way to assess the role of the potential mediator by giving feedback on a one-toone basis, and coaching as group learning. We also tackled about the length, the different learning styles one should use to pass on the content to different types of attendees. As usual, CEDR strikes us with their pragmatism and facilitative approach that emphasizes the learning by doing element.
In the last day, we had the opportunity to meet the CEDR mediators in their annual meeting. We attended a workshop on how to organize and handle meetings with large number of participants, and how to deal with them when in multi-party mediation cases.
This event brought together coordinators of training centers from various countries, and provided an interesting opportunity to discuss the issue of the development of mediation in each country, and challenges and prospects of undertaking alternative dispute resolutions solutions. For instance, the Chamber of Commerce of Florence had to deal with 30 cases a month before the implementation of the law in 2011, whereas this number doubled by to times after the promulgation of the law. These numbers underline some important facts: The importance of commercial mediation in the world, the urgency of having a law regarding mediation in Lebanon and to lobby towards it, but also the need for more coordination and network within the mediation centers, especially in the Euro-Mediterranean region.