This past spring, we partnered up with a group of researchers from Seneca College in Markham, Ontario to perform an intensive applied research and innovation project. The goal of this project was to undertake exploratory secondary market research on five Middle Eastern countries including: United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait and evaluate those that might offer attractive business opportunities for Sport Systems moving forward.
This project took place over a fourteen-week period in which all the work involved was undertaken in collaboration with and with guidance from the Seneca College Applied Research and Innovation Department, with the ongoing help of the Seneca College Library Specialists and the support staff of the Faculty of Business.
All of the secondary market research used in conjunction with this project was carried out according to the Forum for International Trade and Training’s (FITT) format and requirements.
Working closely with our management team for the duration of this project, Seneca’s researchers introduced a number of weighted factors based on our preferences, such as country size and future growth potential, political characteristics, strength of demand of associated products, commercial infrastructure and more.
In assessing the country size and estimated growth potential, researchers analyzed regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP), GDP per capita and GDP growth rates in each potential market. The researchers then went on to assess each region’s capacity and expectations for infrastructure spending in the near future. They also went a step further and identified, to the best of their knowledge, the projected portion of infrastructure budgets in each country that would be used primarily for sporting infrastructure projects.
The research team closed out the project with highly detailed findings regarding doing business in the region as a foreign entity. They clearly defined a number of barriers to entry and performed intensive competitive research into the companies currently operating in similar industries in the Middle East.
Overall we were extremely impressed with the final project which was spread across three volumes of reading material for our executive team and is something we will continue to reference as we embark on our expansion across the Middle East.