LET'S EXPAND & BUILD A LEGACY IN CYPRUS

Lebanon is passing through difficult times. The companies are facing many difficulties and all the economic sectors are in crisis. But in every dark side, there is always a light.

BLIS 2021 (Beirut Life Insurance Seminars) and Legacy Builders with Expand launched a virtual meeting with many participants from different countries to explore how companies can survive through hard times and why Cyprus is the most popular region to expand from Lebanon.

The moderators Mr. Naji Haddad founder of Legacy Builders, Mr. Jade W. Dagher a Certified Management Consultant from Expand turned the webinar into an exciting one.

A survey was given to the participants and the questions were debated in an interesting way.

In his speech, Mr. Jade W. Dagher highlighted that most of the business people, due to the situation in Lebanon, try to expand outside the country and consider Cyprus because of its proximity. It’s like driving a car throughout Beirut and it is 30 min far away. The weather is the same and the internet is fast and reliable.  

Also, Cyprus is the gate to Europe. So if you want to establish a business in Europe Cyprus is good starting point.

From his side, Mr. Naji Haddad affirmed that the business is growing and there are big opportunities to explore. We are in the same era like the civil war. People can’t send any more money to Lebanon so they have to look for another market outside. Many offshore companies moved to Cyprus to grow. Having a financial plan is a must.

Moreover, Mr. Jade W Dagher shed the light that most of the companies have an auditor and a lawyer by law. Also many of them started marketing more due to social platforms and so they have a marketing expert also. However, very few hire a management consultant.

A certified management consultant, CMC® is extremely valuable in companies these days. CMC® is the highest level of consulting whose role is to assess, plan, train & develop businesses to optimize their performance and ensure a clear flexible strategy. A CMC® builds a bridge between the owner, the key people and the key experts of the company; like a key holder to make sure every single part of their strategy is aligned.  Ideas need planning, motivation is very important but without a strategy and follow up nothing gets achieved properly. If you are expanding the business, you have to develop your sales team. It is important to integrate the sales team into marketing.

Furthermore, Mr. Naji Haddad said that we work on promoting business and financial planning. It’s all about leadership, communication, marketing and management skills.

Also, Mr. Sergio Moukarzel from Expand talked about the role of the leader in hard situations. Three topics are important for this: context, assessment and communication. The active positive attitude is a main point to achieve. Although, communication is the language of leadership. Lots communicate but few connect.

Leadership has changed with time. It was more about authority, later on it turned into democracy, and starting 1970s it developed to become situational.

Besides, Mr. Naji Haddad explained that the main role of the financial advisor is to provide consultancies regarding succession planning, income replacement and inheritance taxes for the assets.

To have immediate money, insurance can do a great business. This will help a lot with the life insurance by passing the assets to the second generation with fewer problems.

Moreover, if any of the competitors gives the key people a better offer, they might leave and thus lose the investment done on those people. The financial advisor can give good recommendations for key people retention.

In his answer, Mr. Nikos Stavrinidis declared that every person works for personal needs. Every business has several risks that must be analyzed, reduced and well managed. Planning is the key for a bright future.

The role of the insurance consultant in this process is very important. With his/her know-how people and businesses will be guided to realize / understand the need for a risk management plan, what dangers they are exposed to, the estimated economic impact and ways of transferring those threats to a solid insurance company. The consultants must stay close to their client to properly re-evaluate and improve the protection design.