Former Irish PM Enda Kenny to address key leadership forum

Former Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny has been named as the keynote speaker of a prominent SME leadership and management forum due to take place in Muscat next month.

The forum, organized by the Omani Academy for Small and Medium Enterprises under the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (Inmaa), will focus on financial management and investment.

Salah bin Hilal al Maawali, Chief Executive Officer of Inmaa, highlighted some of Kenny's key economic achievements. "The upcoming leadership and management forum will feature Enda Kenny, the Prime Minister of Ireland from 2011 to 2017. Kenny created a big shift in terms of the economy in Ireland. At the time Ireland was in a really bad situation, with an unemployment rate of around 15%, which fell to 6% during his time as prime minister."

Kenny will discuss the importance of financial management in ensuring sustainability, and managing budgets and resources.

The forum will also host panel discussions on financial resources, investment leadership, and fintech trends.

The first edition of the leadership and management forum featured leadership author John C Maxwell, and over 1,400 people attended, according to Al Maawali.

The Chief Executive Officer provided insight into the speaker selection process. "We look for people who are making changes in their own lives and in their societies. Most of the people we feature are world-class speakers and writers, so we have a long process ahead of us."

According to Al Maawali, the process begins with a list of ten speakers, which is then reduced to five or six, of which three remaining candidates are then interviewed.

"Essentially we choose people who will create an effect on people," he shared.

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (Inmaa) was established in 2014 to support the SME sector in the country through entrepreneurial development, financing, nurturing and legitimizing. In 2019, Inmaa established the Oman Academy for SMEs to provide entrepreneurs with the necessary skill sets to succeed.