Middle East International Business Awards welcomes Dr Dahman as one of its panel of judges

The RSM MENA Regional Leader emphasises the importance of embracing technology and innovative ideas.

Dr Bassam Dahman, a co-founder of RSM Dahman in 1996 known as RSM UAE, is a main player in the field of consultancy and auditing and has been the Partner in Charge of clients for financial, oil and gas, transportation, ports management, real estate, construction, and many other sectors.  He also launched the RSM UAE IT Consultancy company in 2018.  

As the Regional Leader for MENA (Middle East & North Africa), he manages the growth and development of RSM in 42 countries in various regions.  

Middle East International Business Awards welcomes Dr Bassam Dahman as one of its judges in the prestigious awards programme. In an interview with Asian Business Review, he shared about how businesses that embrace technology and innovate new revenue opportunities succeed in the ever-changing market. 

How should Middle Eastern companies approach the new market moulded by the after-effects of the pandemic?

Though the immediate impact of the pandemic is receding, there are many other factors at play today affecting the new market. The new market is fast-changing and full of surprises. Thus, organisations need to be able to adapt quickly to changing market conditions. We noticed during the pandemic that organisations that responded the fastest had the biggest chance of succeeding. One way to be agile is to introduce a higher level of digital transformation leading to the optimum deployment of resources. With a hint of global recession setting in, these organisations will have a longer survival cycle. Work-from-home (WFH) culture assisted humans to embrace digital technologies efficiently and so in summary, organisations that rely heavily on technology will be faster, more efficient, and able to adapt to the ever-changing new market.

In a post-pandemic market, who do you think would be the biggest winners and losers, and how can the latter catch up in terms of competitiveness?

During the pandemic, there has been a significant shift in consumer behaviour. Business owners need to understand and analyse the changes in consumer behaviours and adapt to the changes. Focusing on technologies will help to meet the challenges.

In the post-pandemic market, successful business owners need to focus on identifying new revenue opportunities, Digital efforts, automation, understanding, reacting to consumer behaviour changes, and building long-term competitive advantage instead of short-term reactive moves.

Amongst your clients in the MENA region, are there innovations or remarkable efforts that you would want to highlight?

We noted that amongst our clients, the ones which are operating especially in the in-technology sector and wealth advisory fintech etc. have thrived during the recent period. 

The wealth management industry is undergoing a serious transformation with traditional methods of providing financial advice being disrupted by new and innovative forms of technology. With the unprecedented widespread adoption of the internet and digital devices, customer expectations have changed over time. Robo-advisors provide personalised, automated financial advice based on certain algorithms. They work without the need for human intervention and make such advice cost- friendly.  

Companies involved in innovative robo-advisory and fractional real estate based on AI and digitisation have secured funding from interested investors.

What sort of leverage should companies start investing in if they want to succeed?

The two biggest game-changers in any business are going to be Technology and Human Capital. I believe all businesses, regardless of the industry or size should invest primarily in technology and should invest in their people. Some of the biggest recent successes have been those where people have reinvented the wheel with the use of technology and innovative ideas. Instead of the traditional Return on Investment model that businesses use with any significant assets, businesses should start thinking more long-term in terms of Return on Character.