Qatar Research, Development, and Innovation (QRDI) Council successfully concludes its third edition of the Corporate Innovation Leaders Program, which lasted four days from the 26th of February until the 1st of March 2023. The program was launched just last year and is considered one of the council’s main initiatives in supporting the QRDI 2030 strategy of enhancing the country’s innovation ecosystem.
Eng. Omar Ali Al-Ansari, Secretary-General of the QRDI Council, said: “Through the Corporate Innovation Leaders Program, we are witnessing a positive impact on the participating companies, as they are gaining practical knowledge and skills in the areas of innovation and competitiveness. The success of this program reflects our commitment to supporting Qatar’s vision of becoming a knowledge-based economy that prioritizes innovation. We will continue to launch initiatives that align with the QRDI Strategy 2030 to ensure the sustainable development of Qatar’s economy.”
The four-day workshop – led by QRDI Council in partnership with the leading Silicon Valley Accelerator Alchemist – aims to support and empower Large Local Enterprises (LLEs) in Qatar that seek innovation to drive business growth, competitiveness, and productivity. It brings together leaders from enterprises in critical sectors across Qatar to find out how to be champions of innovation and create effective partnerships with innovative businesses. It is also an essential element of QRDI Council’s strategy to develop Qatar’s innovation ecosystem through capacity building and connecting key national entities with innovators to further their operational and strategic goals.
The participants that participated in the third-edition of the Corporate Innovation Leaders Program gained the knowledge and skills required in innovation and competitiveness – enjoying benefits such as access to Alchemist’s invite-only network of global corporate innovators, startup founders, and venture capitalists. The participation has also opened doors for the LLEs who have contributed to taking part in other successful programs by QRDI Council – including the Qatar Open Innovation (QOI) program – to access a vast pool of innovators and solution providers to co-develop solutions following best practices in open innovation worldwide.
Mohammed Al Saqatri, Director Service Operations at Meeza commented: “At Meeza, as an IT and security service provider, we have innovated for local companies in Qatar. We also provide machine learning and data, where we collect data to do reporting, dashboard and predict any issues that might occur in the future. Innovation is required to improve the society – where we use key technology that helps our society improve and our community to grow”.
Commenting on the importance of innovation in the aviation industry, David Luong, Senior Manager from Hamad International Airport said: “Being able to connect our passengers with our airline company 24/7 is very important as innovation helps us to continue to improve our services for passengers and airline customers”. While Norman Pipitone, Vice President Continuous Improvement and Transformation from Qatar Airways, commented: “ I think innovation is always important. I believe it is a great moment now to kick it off in a new way. Now is the moment where we are the number one airline in the world, and we want to keep improving ourselves to remain the number one in the world.“
Commenting on the program’s benefits and the knowledge all LLEs gained along the way, Nicolas Stephan, Executive Director of Es’hailSat, said: “I learned many techniques such as pitching and how to create a positive mindset towards innovation. I think that was the most important part that I’ve enjoyed – giving the tools to try and change the mindset of people towards innovation.”
Dr. Mabrouk Ouederni, RDI Manager at QAPCO, said: “We learned about the open platform and new tools, as well as the partnerships that QRDI are doing to help the local industry. I think we will go back now and apply all these tools.“
Gwyn Balmes, Senior Manager at Gulf Warehousing Company, said: “Innovation is important because it is one of the best tools to grow as a company. We learned about culture change and the mindset, including the use of tools on how we use and introduce innovation in our companies.”
QRDI Council has successfully worked with many LLEs in Qatar, including Ooredoo, Barzan Holding, KAHRAMAA, Milaha, and Aljazeera. Es’hailsat, Alijarah, Sidra, Baladna, Qatar Airways, HIA, Meeza, GWC, QAPCO, and HMC. This list will keep expanding to support and empower all entities in Qatar to be players in an ecosystem characterized by innovation.
