The Power Couple Who Coached Businesses Through the GFC

In Conversation With the Makarems?

Biz in the Emirates had the chance to speak with the Makarem Duo, the married couple of business coaches who run the J&R Consultancy since 2008. Surprisingly, they are the first business coaches from the Entrepreneurial Playbook Series to have been educated in the field of business.?

With Mr. Samir Roger Makarem being an economist and Dr. Lama A. Makarem being a specialist in business administration, management, and leadership as well as being a psychologist, their consultancy has been set for success. Operating in the UAE for over a decade, J&R Consultancy has established its legacy across the Middle East, Asia, Europe, North America, and Africa.?

Both the Makarems were lecturers before the foundation of J&R, Dr. Lama taught at Baker College in Michigan, and Al Ain Women’s College in UAE for 10 years, whereas Samir has had a longer teaching career of 17 years at Baker College, Al Ain Women’s College, American University of Dubai, Zayed University, and Davenport University where he still is part of the online faculty.?

Academics to Coaches

So, how did these academics get into business coaching? As a favor to a training manager, Dr. Lama participated in one of his training sessions as a translator for an Arabic-speaking trainee. Later, the manager asked Lama if she would take over the next scheduled course to which she found herself enjoying the work and shared the experience with her husband.?

To which Samir being an economist identified the opportunity during the Great Financial Crisis, with the recession challenging businesses across various industries, J&R was able to guide multiple businesses through the turmoil of the crisis. Against all odds J&R has grown and maintains a legal presence in the US as well, accommodating businesses with international expansions.

Having worked in the UAE since 2005, the couple has witnessed the evolution of the country and its different business industries. With an ever-evolving business landscape, J&R maintains its mission to empower entrepreneurs and hone their unique skills. Being a psychologist has enabled Lama to develop the soft skills of her trainees, as soft skills are a big component of business success.

She has mastered building soft skill competencies which she believes need to continuously be improved and worked on. Her approach has been personalized for each trainee’s personal and professional growth. In fact, her coaching style is the unique selling point of J&R, the approach to building a personal connection and understanding with the trainees.

Mistakes & Failure

Moreover, Coach Lama ranks neglecting human connections as one of the top 3 mistakes business owners must avoid, emphasizing that whether it’s customers or employees, all humans are driven by emotions. Therefore, the human aspect of business must be a priority.?

The duo ranked targeting money-making as a goal rather than as a result and not setting SMART goals i.e., Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound, as the next mistake. The third and final one being obsessed with defeating competition instead of focusing on product differentiation and working with the competition.?

All these mistakes stem from the rush and hurry first-time entrepreneurs have to make it in the market leading to losing out on the long-term sustainability of the business. Having worked across more than 40 industries, the duo believes that no particular industry presents insurmountable challenges for startups, rather the biggest challenges arise from within the businesses themselves.?

Hence, taking time and carrying out adequate research for every strategic decision is important. J&R’s first trainee was from the automotive industry which Coach Samir and Lama consider special for them. However, their most successful trainee is from the education industry, the entrepreneur - Rania stands out for J&R despite having many other successful trainees because she leaves a mark on her industry.

What about entrepreneurs who do not want to grow big? The duo of coaches stated “Remaining small in business doesn’t necessarily mean not being ambitious in life. Remaining small and profitable is better than becoming big and struggling.”?

When businesses grow initially they experience economies of scale which is when the cost per unit decreases as output grows, however, it does not take long for it to turn into diseconomies of scale which the duo credits to business owners not being aware of their priorities and their alignment with their operations. It all comes down to the management, basically becoming ‘too big to handle’.?

J&R has trained entrepreneurs at different stages of their business journey, from dreaming to success and failure. So, how do the power couple of coaches handle the responsibility of being a business coach? The duo mentioned how they consider it as an indirect responsibility instead of being directly responsible for the success or failure of the business with the main responsibility being training the entrepreneur to give their best.?

They highlighted how dealing with entrepreneurs facing failure can be challenging due to the frustration trainees experience, which sometimes stems from an unknown source even to them. The J&R coaching style involves understanding the personal triggers of the trainee to allow the entrepreneur to achieve their full potential at work. With so many things going south during a business failure, one can miss the key driver of it all.

Despite the issues and mistakes of the entrepreneurs, Samir and Lama use them as their source of inspiration, their strengths and even weaknesses have motivated the duo to build J&R. As technological developments have progressed rapidly in the past 30 years, they have transformed the whole business landscape, threatening jobs and businesses alike.

Technology and Business in the UAE

Notably, it has been the cause of many business failures such as Kodak - the photography company that failed the transition from film cameras to digital ones. When we asked Lama and Samir about technology’s role in business, they deemed it a threat and an opportunity, stating how it is adopted as a tool being a key player in it becoming a strength or weakness for the business.

What about AI? Can it replace business coaches? To this, the duo articulated how any form of technology serves as a tool, whilst it can provide valuable information, it cannot perform the full role of a coach or any human. There is a lot more to coaching than just valuable information, a coach can save a business from failing assuming there is transparency, commitment, and accountability throughout the process.?

As follows, the UAE is known for its technological integration which Lama and Samir declare to be among the key features that make the UAE more business-friendly than other countries besides its economic and political stability. J&R has coached entrepreneurs all across the country with some businesses even having branches across all 7 emirates.

Both the founders of J&R aim for expansion, maintaining their ambition to empower. As the UAE has become more global and diversified it has maintained its fast pace which has some businesses struggling to catch up. The duo expressed how entrepreneurs struggling in such an environment need to perform feasibility studies to check the practicality of their business operations, eloquently saying “It is not just about doing things right but it is also about doing the right thing.”?