Commercial Bank Continues to Support the Growth of SMEs in Qatar through Customer Workshops
11 March 2013
Commercial Bank, one of the leading full service banks in Qatar, collaborated with College of North Atlantic, Qatar (CNA-Q) to host another customer workshop titled ‘Low Cost, Effective Marketing Research’ for its Enterprise Banking customers at the Commercial Bank Majlis Room in the Doha Golf Club. The third in this series, the workshop was well attended by a select group of Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) business owners and key decision makers who shared their views on some of the challenges that affect small businesses today.
Commercial Bank hosts similar customer workshops regularly on topics relevant to the growth of SMEs. These workshops also provide a platform for Enterprise Banking customers to meet and discuss with their peers various matters that will generate new ideas to benefit their business. The Bank is committed to comply with Qatar’s National Vision 2030, which places emphasis on SMEs as being the key constituent of the country’s economic future and diversification.
“Commercial Bank is very aware of its responsibility to the community, and banks have a duty to facilitate growth for SMEs and provide value-added advisory services, arming them with the market knowledge to help them grow and succeed within their respective industries. I would like to thank CNA-Q for delivering a quality workshop on SME growth and look forward to further developing this collaboration,” said Kenneth John Clark, Head of Enterprise Banking at Commercial Bank.
The workshop was conducted by Brenda Lockyer, Chair of CNA-Q’s School of Business Studies, who has over 20 years’ experience in marketing and communications, public relations and fundraising management for the education, health care and charity sectors. Mr Shawn Brace, CNA-Q’s VP of Finance and Administration, supported the workshop by welcoming the participants and advising them of the various offerings and facilities available to SMEs at CNA-Q. He also lauded the efforts of Commercial Bank’s Enterprise Banking division and the support it gives to SME customers.
Topics addressed in the workshop were focused mainly around the emergence of social network sites, and how they are used for conducting consumer research nowadays, and at times play a key role in dictating marketing activities for businesses. Throughout the workshop, the importance of knowing your consumer was emphasized, as well as the value of using low cost marketing research to support the business needs. In addition, and in light of the 2022 FIFA World Cup and National Vision 2030 plans, opportunities and challenges facing SMEs and their preparedness to sustainably grow their business in the framework of the high levels of investments currently witnessed in Qatar, were also addressed during the workshop. At the end of the workshop, participants commended the ongoing efforts of both Commercial Bank and CNA-Q, which are aimed at developing such cooperative initiatives to support the growth of SMEs through hosting educational workshops and seminars for customers.
Customers interested in attending future workshops or learning more about Commercial Bank’s Enterprise Banking products and services can e-mail enterprise@cbq.com.qa or call +974 4449 5588.