Building Better Businesses: Significance of Corporate Governance for Start-ups & SMEs

The impact of COVID-19 has dissuaded entrepreneurs from starting new and innovative businesses, and this could affect the landscape adversely. Additionally, research across the Gulf Region is limited, and MSMEs are reluctant to share information on their internal corporate governance. These concerns are further amplified as MSMEs and startups tend to deprioritise the implementation of good corporate governance mechanisms in attempts to keep their businesses profitable.

Global research has shown that organisations with good corporate governance policies and frameworks demonstrate increased stability and trustworthiness. As they have the benefit of having largely built the necessary robust relationships to make them more resilient to economic shocks, they are also deemed as more ‘bankable’ and as though they ‘know the system’.

This session highlighted the following objectives:

• Understanding the fundamentals of corporate governance policies and procedures for Tech companies
• Looking at the functional governance frameworks versus the structural governance frameworks that tech startups can adopt
• Understanding the current tech startup environment in the Gulf and future trends in this space