Gulf Bank holds training session for Fikra Program

KUWAIT: Gulf Bank was pleased to lead a training session for participants of Fikra Program on non-financial analysis, session was conducted recently at Al-Hamra Business Tower. Omar Al-Muhaisen, Relationship Manager - Business Banking at Gulf Bank, led the training and focused on helping the participants understand techniques to conduct analyses of and make informed strategic decisions about how to establish their businesses.

The tools Al-Muhaisen focused on were Porter’s five forces and SWOT analysis. Porter five forces are used to analyze the competitive environment within an industry, often focusing on external forces, while a SWOT analysis tends to look more deeply within an organization to analyze its internal potential.

Gulf Bank is proud to be a gold sponsor of the Fikra Program for the second consecutive year. Fikra Program is an intensive entrepreneurship training program that provides aspiring entrepreneurs with the technical skills and business knowledge needed to launch their own businesses such as leadership skills, comprehensive business plan design, mentorship, financial analysis, media exposure, investment opportunities, and others.

For this edition, over 350 applications were received and filtered to 30, before the actual interviews process. Meshari Shehab, Assistant General Manager for Priority and Wealth Management at Gulf Bank, was on the judging panel which then selected 15 business ideas to enter the program.

Fikra Program is held under the patronage of Khaled Al Roudhan, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Minister of State for Youth Affairs and is proudly supported by Ministry of State for Youth Affairs; The National Fund for SME Development; Gulf Bank; Al-Hamra Real Estate Company; Ali Abdulwahab Al Mutawa Commercial Co; Markaz Financial Center; Lexus Kuwait as a part of Al Sayer Group; and Grand Cinemas. Fikra Program is managed by Cubical Services Business Incubator.