Stride Plus Events and Marketing

04/11/2021

May this Diwali illuminate your life with health and prosperity.

HAPPY DIWALI!

30/09/2021

EXPO 2020 DUBAI LIVE

As the world gathers for Expo 2020 Dubai, Expo TV will bring all the best action and excitement straight to you. Don’t miss a moment with our live National D...

04/10/2020

Last Friday (2nd October) the Dubai International Airport turned 60.

In his book Qissati, HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, shares his dream of building Dubai's airport.

"When I first visited Britain, I stood bewildered at London's Heathrow airport. This was in 1959, when my father was visiting the British capital to try and persuade the then British PM, Harold Macmillan, to allow Dubai to build an airport. On that day, I dreamt of having our own airport."

That very year construction started on the airport.

September 30, 1960: Within a year, the airport opened its doors with 1 runway.

1983: Dubai Duty Free launched. Over the years, it became the largest airport retailer.

!984: 2nd runway launched.

1985: Emirates Airlines launched.

1998: Terminal 2 opened.

2008: Terminal 3 opened.

2013: Concourse A launched.

Several years ago, British newspapers appeared with a broad headline “Dubai Airport bypasses Heathrow Airport"

In 2019, Dubai Airport was the world's busiest airport for the 6th consecutive year with 86.4 million passengers, bringing over 20 million visitors to the city of Dubai.

In His Highness' words, "there is no impossible dream."

28/09/2020

Businesses MUST consider this a WAKE UP CALL 👀

Over the past few months, while millions of businesses downsized or went bust, prominent technology and digitally abled businesses doubled in value on average and investment/ M&A deal volumes were at significant highs.

Shopify, Amazon, Square, Reliance Jio, Instashop, Sarwa, you name it. World-over the trend was similar.

While it was a brutal, hostile and unfair situation to many, being on the right side, businesses could have come out unscathed and growing.

Businesses must consider this a wakeup call and learning experience.

Now more than ever before, is the time to develop strong digital capabilities.

Strong online ordering capabilities, digital customer acquisition channels, strong internal communications and remote team management.

Start now.

27/09/2020

Nike was founded as Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964.

In 1964, Nike did $8,000 in sales for the year.

In 2020, they do $8,000 in sales every 6 seconds.

It's interesting that Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike, wrote a paper at Stanford University on why shoes should be manufactured out of Japan (instead of Germany like Adidas), where the labor was cheaper with equal product quality.

This brought the inspiration to his crazy idea of manufacturing overseas for lowering the cost of production.

This is a perfect illustration that the inspiration for your next big thing might come unexpectedly.

Also, if something is important enough to you and you believe in it - 'Just Do It!'

23/09/2020

A fascinating piece of data. Do you see the opportunity?

Those individuals and businesses that use these new paradigms productively will do well.

20/09/2020

Is price competition killing your business? Read this.

In a market where price-competition has become the fundamental area of focus in so many industries, building a "better proposition" is too often overlooked.

Price reduction is great, but building better propositions is the purer form of innovation.

The iPod wasn't cheaper than the Walkman. It was just better.

The Macintosh wasn't just cheaper than a Xerox Alto, it was also a better proposition.

General Motors' models weren't cheaper than the Ford Model T. They were better.

Google Search was a better proposition than all other free search services.

Facebook was a better proposition than all other free social media services.

Uber rides aren't the cheapest. They're just a better proposition.

Rolls Royce isn't the cheapest luxury car. It is just a better proposition.

The following is an interesting graph comparing various brands and products that competed and won based on better propositions, based on the following key principles:
- improved performance
- improved quality
- improved capabilities
- wider range
- personalization

Build better propositions. Think outside the box of price competition.

06/09/2020

What was InstaShop's secret sauce?

At a 360M valuation, each InstaShop user is being valued at whopping USD 720.

For comparison's sake, at current valuations, each Facebook user is worth about USD 309.8 to the company.

They're not the largest. Carrefour is.

Competitors have similar or better features than them.

el Gorcer pulls in very similar revenues.

What was their secret sauce? And why did Delivery Hero single them out for an acquisition?

An article from our director, Shaumik Saha, commenting on the recent Delivery Hero acquisition of Instashop.

https://medium.com//what-was-instashops-secret-sauce-adeabb7d72fe

At a very nascent 500,000 total users spread over 5 different countries, a little over 5 years from inception, and uncertainty of…

25/08/2020

Perseverance.

You've got to be in this for the long haul, if you want to get far enough.

These are just the handful of the fanciest examples.

The successful local restaurant chain, mom and pop businesses, successful SMEs are no different.

Any established, financially sustainable business has most definitely had years of work put into it.

That's what it's about.

24/08/2020

How to find and engage the right consultants for your business?

An excerpt from an online event that our director, Shaumik Saha spoke at last month.

Finding the right talent and advice (in the way of consultants) for your business, is crucial.

Start by assessing your requirements and setting the right expectations.

Your requirements, the size of your business, etc. will help determine the sort of consultants you require.

https://youtu.be/5_wapzB51fI

Shaumik Saha: How to find and engage the right consultants for your business? Finding the right talent and advice (in the way of consultants) for your busine...

23/08/2020

The rewards of creating cheaper, faster and better products- a billionaire who traveled by bus.

Ignvar Kamprad started Ikea at age 17, as a mail order company.

5 years later he started selling furniture.

One day he couldn't fit a table in his car for delivery, and a friend suggested dismantling the legs.

Thus was born, the revolutionary concept of flatpacked self assembly furniture.

Kamprad realized that nearly 50% of the end cost of furniture was accounted to the space and complexities required to transport it.

If only he could persuade the customer to do the final assembly by engineering parts that fit together easily and providing unambiguous instructions, he could cut the price in half.

In a few years, he mitigated another major cost- warehousing. IKEA's large stores are the warehouse and retail outlet. The furniture made only 1 trip- from the manufacturer to the store- in stead of 3 (manufacturer - store - delivery to customer).

He picked the most cost effective store locations with a mammoth presence that served as a huge landmark or billboard of sorts for attracting customers.

A huge inventory almost guaranteed him high sales per store. Customers could find everything they needed.

The result: Kamprad furnished more homes than anyone else living or dead, building a company that was worth over $40 Billion in its hay day.

While it's core European furniture market grew by about 2% annualized, Ikea grew by over 14% annualized from inception till 2015 being at least 10 times larger than its nearest rival throughout.

In a famous public anecdote he was seen reaching to collect an award at a major business event via public bus- a man of great humility and a fan of simplification.

20/08/2020

In a much welcome announcement from Dubai Tourism- DTCM today, guidelines were outlined for the resumption of corporate events starting Sept 15, 2020 for some categories.

This is great news for the many event managers in Dubai that can get back to planning great events. Good luck to all.

https://www.strideplus.com/post/dubai-tourism-dates-for-resumption-of-mice-events-post-covid-19

In an announcement from Dubai Tourism dated July 20th, 2020, the following guidelines were highlighted for the resumption of MICE events in