Strategy · Business advisory · Dubai
We work with leadership teams and investors on the decisions that shape their business: where to compete, where to invest and how to improve performance. For companies expanding into the UAE, our market and feasibility studies test the opportunity before capital is committed. Once the decision is made, we stay on to see it through.
What is on your agenda?
Is there enough demand, who are we up against, and will the investment pay back?
Strategy & business advisoryDo we have a documented strategic plan with clear objectives and KPIs, and the performance management and governance to deliver it?
Strategy & business advisoryWhat is it worth, and which assumptions does the number depend on?
Investment advisoryHow do we redesign how we work, digitise key processes, and turn an approved plan into results across many teams?
Transformation & PMOWho will drive the plan through to results, on time and on budget?
Transformation & PMOCan our managers read the numbers and build a business case?
Management trainingViva Business Diagnostic · free
Answer about 10 one-tap questions. In about three minutes you get a preliminary diagnostic plan: what the problem may point to, and the analyses we would likely start with.
Executive Training
Advisory-built programmes that teach finance through hands-on business simulations. Participants make real decisions, see the financial results, and apply them to their own unit.
Consulting
Corporate strategy, and the market and feasibility studies behind decisions to expand.
Valuations, business plans and investment cases that hold up when the board questions them.
Running the programme once the plan is approved.
Client impact
Delivered the feasibility study, and introduced the client to leading nutritionists and specialists and to key suppliers.
Private investor · Dubai, UAEStrategy & business advisoryThe client entered the UAE market with a competitive offering and used Viva’s research in its marketing campaign.
International remittance provider · UAEInvestment advisoryGave decision-makers the market evidence and financial case to take an informed decision on a major investment proposal.
International consultancy (end client: semi-government conglomerate) · Kuwait City, KuwaitOur method
We use the same three phases on every engagement. Each one ends with a clear deliverable, and the client decides whether to go on to the next.
Build the fact base
Financial and operating data, market evidence and stakeholder interviews, structured around the key questions the decision depends on.
Compare the options
Develop and test options against market evidence and financial impact, with sensitivities on the assumptions that matter most.
Implement the plan
We set up the PMO and governance, update the operating model, policies and procedures, train the team, and track progress against the business case.
Clients and partners
Insights
Strategy & business advisorySales are up, yet every month-end is a scramble for cash. Growth turns into receivables and stock before it turns into cash. These five causes explain most of the gap.
Investment advisoryMany feasibility studies are written to persuade the sponsor. Lenders read them to find the weak point. Five things separate a study a bank can work with from one it will not.
Strategy & business advisoryA trade licence can be issued in days. Whether the UAE is the right market, at the right price, through the right route, takes longer. The 20 questions we work through before capital is committed.
Strategy & business advisoryMost organisations do not lack KPIs. They have too many, and most of them count effort rather than results. How to tell the difference, and five rules for KPIs that work.
Strategy & business advisoryThe habits that build a business are rarely the ones that scale it. Five signs that a founder-led or family business needs to institutionalise, why waiting makes it harder, and what changes when it does.
Management trainingManagers make decisions every day that move the numbers, yet most were never taught how. They do not need to become accountants. They need four things.
Strategy & business advisoryBefore choosing a licence or a location, test whether the market will support the investment. These are the questions our market and feasibility studies are built to answer.
Transformation & PMOIn our experience, transformation programmes rarely go wrong because of the strategy itself. The problems usually start in the months after approval.
Investment advisoryBefore approving an investment on the back of a feasibility study, check the assumptions behind it. These five questions help.
Founder
Founder, strategy and investment advisor
Iyad has spent more than 20 years leading strategy, investment and transformation work for public and private organisations in the UAE and across the GCC, from post-merger integration in Dubai to setting up an investment function in Riyadh.
He holds an MBA in Strategy and Finance from Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), City St George’s, University of London.
Book a 30-minute call. There is nothing to prepare, and by the end you will know whether we are the right fit.