When Mandara Revamped Equestrian from An Interest to A
Business, what does it carry?
Mandara: Treasuring the Reveling Horse
Case Synopsis
Mandara Equestrian Club (MEC) was the culmination of a dream for Mr. Faysal Urfali, a
Lebanese entrepreneur, and his wife whom lived in and loved UAE more than 20 years ago. The
dream started in 2012, when the Urfali family was vacationing in Spain. They fell in love with the
Arabian breed of horses, famous for their wide, flat forehead; soulful eyes; broad muzzle; erect
ears; slender neck; and flowing, shining mane. Arabian horses are also renowned for their beauty,
loyalty, strength, and intelligence. Arabian horses are an intrinsic part of Arabian tradition and
heritage as it always described in Arabic Literature as sign of pride, courageous and dignity
expressly in recitation legends of wars. The Urafalis did not have experience with horses during
that period, but that did not stop them from starting an equine business in the United Arab Emirates
(UAE), specifically in Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
Mr. Urfali started MEC in Al Rahba City, a small town in the north site of Abu Dhabi
Emirate. (Capital of UAE). At its inception, MEC was established for private use. In 2014, Mr.
Urfali decided to open the club to the public, due to high demand from visitors and horses lovers
whom were visiting the place to see the horses and request horse rides. MEC carries forward
Urfali’s passion for Arabian horses, as it specializes in the care and training of show horses. MEC
also offers other equine activities and services for both horse owners and horseback riders.
In early 2019, Urfali conducted a meeting to assess MEC’s financial statements and discuss
daily business operations. The meeting determined that the club was facing several business
challenges, and changes are needed to be made in order to maintain its smooth running operations.
Challenges were related to customer relationship management, customer attraction, and skill
shortages in the industry. Urfali understands that focusing on MEC as a business operation means
raising the marker of success to more than just the fulfillment of a dream. Will MEC be able to
keep its focus with such changes?
Keywords: Equine, Equestrian Club, Horses, Customer Service, Operational Management, United
Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi
Opening Statement:
In early 2019, Urfali met MEC key team members to review the financial statement and
have deep discussion over business operations challenges. Urfali started the meeting with MEC
startup story to remind all the members with the fundamental motivation of having MEC. As
motivational leader, Urfali believes involving all to the business story, will help in growing the
business success. He as MEC CEO is focused on streamline the business focus to grow the
business.
The meeting agenda items took three hours of discussion. The meeting started with the
regular financial statement review and input for Jamal Elghandour (Group Operations Director).
Mr. Jamal carried forward a focused presentation over the day to day challenges to the business
operation. The challenges were discussed in separate occasions to have quick solutions to move
the smooth running of the business. However, Urfali knew that the need for a focused meeting is
a must. Therefore, the meeting carried the challenges in different items. The items covered cost
discussion, customers’ and visitors’ services and their relationship trials and the club CSR
initiatives and its challenges.
The meeting concluded on major business focus changes to meet up with the future
expectation of new business opportunities along with overcoming the challenges. Keeping in
mind, the new focus will still carry the Arabian horses love.
Company Profile:
Mandara Equestrian Club (MEC) is a sub-company of Mandara Holding Company.
Mandara Holding was established in 2000 in the UAE by Mr. Urfali (co-founder). It holds a group
of sub-companies specializing in different industries, including oil and gas; real estate;
manufacturing; trading; equine; food and beverage; and advertising. These business are recognized
at local, regional, and international levels. MEC is the equestrian club of Mandara Holding, and is
also affiliated with Mandara Equestrian Equipment Trading, and Café Mandarina. MEC was
established in 2014 in Al Rahba City, in Abu Dhabi Emirate (Capital of Abu nm;/Dhabi). Al Rahba
City is divided in two areas. The first area is the community or residential area for Local Emiratis.
The second area is Al Rahba Farms which is the agriculture area owned by Local Emiratis
supported by the government to expand the green landscape in Abu Dhabi Emirate. The club
management team focused on the quality level of its product and services through getting
accreditation on three levels covering business quality, local and international certification.
On Business level, the club holds 9001 ISO Certification - International Standards
Organization (ISO). ISO 9001 is defined as the international standard that insist on requirements
for a quality management system (QMS). Companies use the standard to establish the ability to
reliably provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory requirements. Thus, it
certifies MEC products and services meet customer and regulatory requirements.
On local level, the club is accredited the Department of Education and Knowledge in Abu
Dhabi (ADEK)which was previously known as Abu Dhabi Educational Council (ADEC).
On international level, the club has two international accreditations in the Equestrian
Industry. First accreditation is by the United Kingdom Coaching Certificates (UKCC). UKCC
were introduced by the UK government and executed by Sport Coach UK to familiarize a tiered
level of Coaching Qualification. It is offered by over 20 different sports; Equestrian being one.
The UKCC certificates are recognizable to the general public as a level of Coach Education and
performance due to this broad use, accordingly attracting new customers from home and abroad
who are re-assured by the credibility of the awards. Second Accreditation is Fédération Française
d’Equitation (French Equestrian Federation, FFE). The French Federation for equestrian Sport
(FFE) is an association governed by the law of 1901 accountable for the management, promotion
and development of equestrian sports in France. It is also actively involved in the breeding of
horses for sport and leisure activities.
The club integrates a horseback riding school; show horse training and competition; livery
services; equine equipment; transportation; and clinical services. MEC has hired experienced staff
who cater to all of their customers’ needs. In addition to equestrian activities, customers can enjoy
the quality restaurant Mandarina Café which offers organic healthy food and brevages. Also,
visitors with children can feature dedicated play area for children. MEC specializes in training and
competition in show jumping, and Arabian show horse competitions. It brings together horse
lovers, whether they are owners or riders, and provides them with exceptional experiences across
the equine spectrum.
MEC started with a capacity for of X horses in 2014. It grew to xxx in 2019. The club is
expecting additional growth to (xx) horses in the future. It owns xx% of the horses kept on site;
divided into xx for competition in horse shows, and xx for horseback riding training. MEC serves
xx% of their customers in their stable.
The club membership base has grown over the last five years, from xx to xx depending on
Word of Mouth. and the customer satisfaction survey reached xx.
The Club Services, Products, and Social Involvement Activities:
Equestrian sports include a variety of competitions, including endurance, flat racing,
dressage, jumping, tent pegging, and eventing. Endurance is long distance racing. Flat racing is
the most common form of racing, where the horses follow an oval-shaped racetrack. Dressage is
considered the highest expression of horse training, as horse and rider are expected to perform a
series of predetermined movements. In show jumping, horse and rider are required to jump over a
series of obstacles, usually within a time limit. Tent pegging is a cavalry sport of ancient origin,
and refers to a range of mounted games involving weapons on horseback (for which the term
“equestrian skill-at-arms” is also used). Eventing is considered an equestrian triathlon, because it
includes three phases over two or three days (dressage, cross-country, and show jumping). In
particular, eventing tests the communication of the horse and the rider more completely than any
other competition (xx).
On that bases and related Urfali’s love for Arabian Horses Beauty, MEC business focused
on beauty show, training and riding education. It specializes in training show horses, and offers an
integrated mix of products and services to equine lovers of all ages, including a horseback riding
school; show horse training and showing; stable services; equine equipment; transportation; and
clinical services (xx). In addition to equestrian activities, the club environment provides leisure
activities, with facilities such as a covered indoor/outdoor riding arena, prayer area, seating area,
play area for children and a restaurant. Additionally, it organizes social events and activities as
part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative. The facility is open from 8 a.m. until
10 p.m. every day of the week (xx).
MEC Marketing Mix:
The marketing mix is set of marketing tools that the company uses to trail its marketing
objectives in the target market. Hence, it rears to four broad levels of marketing decision,
specifically: product, price, place, and promotion. The marketing mix has advanced through time
to reach to different levels (4Ps, 5Ps, etc.) (xx). MEC during the startup focused on the Four Ps of
Marketing Mix with focusing mainly on their products & People as below:
 Price: MEC did intial pricing study for the equine products and services by other clubs to
have fair price base within the market price and its quality level
 Product: MEC put huge focus on its product mix to reach to its goal of having the club as
home for all horse lovers covering
o Riding School
o Livery and farrier
o Clinic
o Transportation
o Equipment and tools shop:
o Show horses: training and competition
o Horse sales
 Promotion: the club depended on its promotion depending a lot on word of mouth and
offering corporate discounts. Also, they had initiatives related to it but the efforts were not
focused on the promotion under a full marketing strategy.
 People: the club focused on attracting horse lovers from all ages and levels
MEC Product Mix Approach:
Urfali & MEC Management are focused on making MEC a home where horse lovers can find
all of their equine needs. To reach to that, it followed a product mix approach. Product Mix
Approach is a sub-approach in Marketing Mix. It is also known as product assortment. it is an
important part of the business model of a company which is about the total number of product lines
that a company offers to its customers. All of these product lines when grouped together form the
product mix of the company.
The product mix dimensions are width, length and consistency. The width of the mix discusses
to the number of product lines the company has to offer. For e.g., MEC contribute in beauty
competition. they train their horses for beauty competition. As a result, the mix of the two products
means its products mix wide. Moreover, the club provide their clients livery service and offer
beauty training for them as well and hence the product mix of MEC is three products wide.
The length of the product mix refers to the total number of products in the mix. For e.g. MEC has
five product lines and average of two products under each product lines, the length of the mix will
be 10 [5 x 2]. The depth of the product mix is associated to the total number of products within a
product line. There can be variations in the products of the same product line. For e.g. MEC has
different options under the same product line like riding classes for children, adults, etc.
Product mix consistency related to how narrowly products are linked to each other. Fewer the
variation among products more is the consistency. For example, the club is dealing in just horse
sport related products/services so it has more consistency than a sport club that is dealing in all
types of sports.
For example, MEC contribute in beauty horse shows and in the same time offers beauty horse
show training to its customers. The following illustrate the Club products and services overview
and in depth:
Mandara Equestrian Club
Livery
Client
Horses
MEC
Horses
Beauty
Client
Horse
MEC
Horse
Contir
bution
Riding
School
Child
Adult
Affliator
Horses
Selling
Clinial
Transp
ortatio
n
Firries
Equipment
Individ
ual
clients
Cafe
Busine
ss
clients
Figure 1: shows illustration for MEC Product Mix
a. Services and Products:
1) Riding School:
MEC offers a specialized lesson program, offering horseback riding classes for interested
individuals at all levels, starting at four years of age with qualified riding trainers. Furthermore, to
encourage equestrian sport participation and increase its client base, it provides corporate discounts
on riding classes to employees (and their families) of participating government, semi-government,
and private entities. It also offers special discounts for university students. The current visitors and
the club members are coming depending mainly on word of mouth.
The club has a simple membership system; the customer need only fill out a registration
form and attach copies of their Emirates ID card and insurance card, as well as a passport-sized
photograph. Moving forward with the riding school options, it offers different class types to suit
different needs and budgets, from a single ride to a full series of classes. Membership options
include daily, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual plans. A single outdoor class is
210AED. Outdoor class packages cover four classes for 720AED, and up to 12 classes for
1730AED. Classes last 45 minutes. The only rule for packages is that they must be used within
one month of purchase. There are additional charges for indoor classes.
Also, it offers ladies private classes every Sunday and Wednesday in the indoor arena to
encourage female participation within the cultural aspect. Private classes must be booked in
advance, and are subject to availability.
Even though, the riding classes has wide options to suite different aspect from cultural to
budget concerns and timing, still the Club struggles in this aspect for different reasons where
Urfali’s concern to please and satisfy without struggling the business daily running.
2) Livery:
The club Livery services provide customers’ horses an exceptional place to sleep and live.
The customer can be assured that their horse is getting suitable care and treatment. The Club has
both indoor air-conditioned stables and outdoor stables. The prices for indoor stables are 3500AED
per month; with 2500AED per month for stables without air conditioning. Board includes feeding,
lodging, bedding, exercise, and grooming. Veterinary and farrier services are also available on site
upon request, but are not included in the livery package.
livery Clients need to fill out a Livery contract/agreement, which lists the horse owner’s
rights and obligations along with MEC’s rights and obligations. The contract includes penalties if
a party fails to meet an obligation. For instance, there is a clause on failing to pay the monthly fee.
The owner needs to understand the circumstances that may lead to their losing ownership of their
horse. If the owner fails to pay outstanding bills for a long enough period, where the total livery
cost equals or exceeds the price of the horse, MEC has the right to proceed with legal action to
take ownership of the horse.
Even if the club maintain the livery service under legal contract/agreement, issues appear
and disagreement happen which MEC management tries to avoid as it is associated with long legal
procedures with the related legal authorities.
3) Horses:
The club deals with three services for horses. First, professional show horse training by
dedicated staff who can help clients and their horses prepare for shows and competitions. Part of
this service, the club trains its own horses for beauty competition and their clients’ horses. In this
service, the club takes the up-to-date requirements in the beauty competition. The UAE Beauty
Competitions are considered at high standard level due to the level of the contributing horses by
the owners. Second, an extensive list of beautiful horses with prestigious backgrounds for sale,
and assistance with the buying process, especially if the buyer does not have expertise evaluating
horses, or knowledge of the steps involved in their purchase, such as the EFI Passport process.
Third, it offers world-class farriers to oversee care of the horses’ feet. The farriers service is not
part of the livery service. Besides, its professional horse transportation at affordable prices.
4) Clinic:
MEC’s medical clinic is specialized in reproduction and orthopedics for their horses,
clients’ horses and external stables. The clinical services is important as it servers horses’ owners’
ultimate need of increasing the number of their horses instead of buying new ones especially the
expensive ones. Off-site medical services can be arranged, but the expenses are usually quite high,
dependent on the specialization required for the medical condition of the horse. Still, the clinical
services don’t mean that the club don’t need external veterinary in critical situation and cases. The
external veterinary cost whether for MEC horses or the clients’ horses are at high cost due to the
specialty required for those creatures.
5) Equestrian Equipment Trading:
The club hosts Mandara Equestrian Equipment Trading as an affiliated business to offer
customers quality equine equipment and accessories, as well as horse care products and feed. The
shop offers its products in the branch where clients need to pass by to buy what they need.
b. Mandara Social Involvement Activities:
1) Participating in community events
As part of its Social Corporate Responsibility (CSR), MEC management is focusing on
contributing to and hosting social events and activities to involve the community in equestrian
sport, reflecting its status as a UAE traditional sport. For instance, it is participating in the 2019
Al Shahama Summer Festival, which is organized by the Department of Urban Planning Council
and Municipalities in Abu Dhabi. It also hosts school visits, allowing students to learn about equine
sports. By participating in the community events, the club is keen to promote for its activities and
giving back to the community.
2) Horse Assisted Seminars—Equine-Assisted Learning and Leadership
Development
As part of its CSR initiative, the club collaborates with partners and stakeholders to offer
activities for professional development, using equine leadership theory and the horse/rider
relationship. It partnered with Monica Kubik (the owner of MSB Connect) to conduct a women’s
leadership seminar as part of horse-assisted education, along with other activities for children.
Monica Kubik is a certified trainer for HorseDream. She is also a qualified partner of EAHAE
International (European Association for Horse-Assisted Education). HorseDream is an equinebased leadership training program for the corporate world that uses horses as training partners. The
concept was developed in 1996 in Germany by Gerhard Krebs and his wife Karin, and has spread
across more than 35 countries. The latest international conference saw 71 members of the EAHAE
come together to discuss future leadership. All licensed HorseDream partners offer courses based
on their founders’ principles, building on a strategy that has proven to be successful in different
cultures for more than 20 years, including Costa Rica, Hong Kong, the United States, the United
Kingdom, Russia, Mexico, and Spain, among others (MBS website).
3. Horse Rescue Initiative:
The club is partnering with and supporting the Ride to Rescue initiative by Yasmin Sayyed
(horse rider and caretaker). Yasmine Sayyed runs a program in UAE that rescues old, sick, and
injured horses. Care for the rescued horses’ costs 3000 AED. The project also offers programs for
children and adults to learn about horses, and about themselves, by showing that horses are healers.
The initiative is open for donations (Ride to Rescue website). The initiative is putting additional
cost to host those rescued horses as sometimes those horses need extra care due to their conditions.
4. Other concerns:
The club pays attention to its customers’ well-being and safety. Therefore, in special weather
conditions, like extreme heat, it keeps the indoor arena available to all with no extra charge. Such
action, sometimes put pressure in indoor capacity and dis-satisfy some client whom were not able
to have indoor slot as it is upon availability not payment.
Furthermore, it hosts awards events for equine-related certification, and all financial gains are
used only for charitable purposes. One such event was the French Certificate Award event.
Mandara Equestrian Club Business Focus:
Encouraged by Mr. Urfali’s management direction, Mandara Club (MEC) envisioned
being the best equestrian club in the United Arab Emirates, and the customers’ first choice of
equestrian clubs. Their mission was “to provide our clients with the best equestrian facilities
available in the United Arab Emirates.” Mandara Club as a business has optimized efforts to bring
together lovers of all things equestrian, providing them with exceptional experiences across the
equine spectrum. Passion for horses and horseback riding is inextinguishable, and MEC looks
forward to building a stronger and larger equestrian community within the UAE.
Since its establishment, MEC’s focus as a facility has been to create a comprehensive
environment for their customers, serving their unique needs. The club aims to support both families
and individuals. For families, a secure children’s play area is available, as are pony rides.
Individuals, riders or not, are able take free tours of the facility.
It has streamlined all horsemanship needs, covering training classes for beginners of all
ages; an equipment shop; transportation services; buying and selling services; boarding; and
clinical support. Services also include training for show competitions.
As part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) involvement, MEC has partnered
with different organizations for outreach and education, and maintained its quality level through
accreditation.
MEC Operational Activities Spotlights:
Customers and Visitors Growth:
Urfali’s and MEC management has built and grew the club customers and visitors base
through reputation of its services and based on word of mouth. At the establishment period, it was
working effectively knowing that Beauty competition, Beauty training, Mandara Equipment
Trading and livery clients were the fundamental base for the other services such as the Riding
School Classes. Adding to that, they promote youth awareness of equine sports by hosting school
visits to increase the riding school services. Today, during the 2019 meeting, the topic was
discussed to move forward with the business growth and to meet up with changing trends in
promotions and technology.
The club has its Instagram and Facebook accounts which were used at minimal level to
post related post for their services and events. It was not enough to increase the customers’ number.
In line with that, it had reached out social/tourism newsletters to promote for their activities such
as Abu Dhabi Timeout. There was no focused marketing strategy for it.
As consequence, Urfali’s as CEO and leader is looking to optimize the different
tools/channels to serve the business ambitions. Urfali and his team decided to increase the focus
on social media and looking to establish full social media/marketing strategy to promote for the
club and increase its customers’ numbers. They are looking for the options to move forward with
Social Media whether through external agency or hiring dedicated Media Specialist. The decision
is still under study.
Customer Management Issues: The meeting also discussed the customers service
management issues for the riding school and boarding.
a. Riding School Classes:
During the classes registration and renewal, the form content and classes expiry condition
are clearly explained by the office administration assistant. The club still struggles with customers
in three areas.
First area is many of the club clients are committed in their classes subscriptions but they
have busy schedules and trying their best to maintain their classes attendance. Still, sometimes
they are not able to commit to the classes expiration timeframe. As a result, they ae not satisfied
with the expiry for their pre-paid classes package. Therefore, clients do not want the series of
classes they have purchased to expire, and would like to receive extensions on the time limit
between purchasing their classes and their expiration date. They would like to have wider freedom.
Upon each purchase, the client receive e-receipt to confirm the payment and the registration.
During the meeting such small issues were discussed and MEC management offered exceptional
cases for extension. The club does offer extensions for reasons such as sickness, if the customer
presents a medical note. If classes are postponed by trainer unavailability, or a public holiday, the
club extends the expiration period. In addition, the club registration administrator reminds
customers of their class expiration date upon registration, and this information is available in the
Tokin system printing paper. The issue is challenging as keeping the expiry open for unlimited
time is not a solution. It has future consequences as sometimes it might lead to interrupt the daily
operations covered the second and third issue.
The second area is the club faces a problem managing customer attendance as most of the
clients has busy schedules and sometimes they low prioritize the classes to maintain their busy
schedule. Urfali wants the clients to feel the experience as leisure and relaxation time from work
and life stress. But, this doesn’t mean harming the daily business operations running. Keeping
balance between client leisure and club business commitment is difficult.
Therefore, it encourages clients to communicate with their trainer and the registration
administrator to ensure the availability of a training slot. The club’s administration and the
horseman staff are friendly, and does their best to satisfy customers if appeared without
communication and do not follow the guidelines. However, miscommunication can sometimes
interrupt class schedules. Unplanned attendance leads to different problems. Unplanned attendance
overloads class capacity, which affects safety procedures, especially in children’s classes, where
more horses and riders can distract the trainer as per Safety guidelines and ISO quality
requirements. Infrequent attendance affects class plans, and disturbs the progression of the
students, which dissatisfies customers.
The third area is customers’ assurance and commitment are important for improving their
riding skills. The club is trying to build a long-term transparent relationship with the clients, to
benefit both sides. Every detail in practice matters to avoid tragedies. Unfortunately, in some
occasions, the club clients sign the registration agreement form without careful reading, which
leads to potential problems; specifically in medical declaration and the club/client rights and
responsibilities. For example, in MEC’s registration form, there is a clear section where the student
declares their medical fitness; but sometimes customers don’t disclose issues like previous or
current injuries, asthma, or heart problems. So, for instant, if the trainee had a medical condition
after the class, they will directly blame the club.
In the same aspect, the trainee’ progression in the riding skill. Clients (adults or children), when
they start the classes, they have the eager to progress quickly to be able to ride the horse alone.
The club takes careful steps in the trainees’ progression decision to avoid hurting them specifically
for children. The coach is qualified to assess the progression and deciding especially in children’s
classes to move forward with advancement to avoid injuries. As example, an enthusiastic parent
might ask for training to move more quickly, but the trainer must explain their assessment and try
to adjust expectations. However, the dissatisfaction will still appear and some clients’ pullout from
the club and move to another equine club.
b. Livery Service Clients:
The Livery service clients are required to fill Livery contract. The contract has detailed
clauses on each party rights, responsibilities and obligations especially the financial obligations
and what does it cover. The primary concern is to keep clients to meet their financial obligations
to avoid legal consequences related to failure to pay. The club is trying their best to avoid legal
action. In middle of 2017, an expatriate livery client lost his job and left the country without closing
or terminating the livery service contract. Unfortunately, the horse was kept and the club continued
to serve the livery for more than one year; knowing that the club started the legal action after the
fourth month of delayed payment. The process took long time period due to the lack of Equine
legal expertise to assess the situation and the horse cost in the market. The total cost unpaid Livery
reach to 140,000 AED which was above the estimated horse cost of 100,000 AED. During that
time, the club tried to reach to the client to reach out for solution with no success. Based on the
signed contract between both parties, the club has the right to move the horse ownership but after
taking the official legal action with the related authorities.
This case raised the issue of lack of equine legal expertise by the legal authorities and the case was
open for Equestrian Federation to involve. At that period, there is no doubt that UAE sport law
was mature in term of legislation and legal framework on horse races and competitions legal
framework and licensing the equestrian clubs.
In 2019, Emirates Equestrian Federation is working on finalizing the framework for arbitration
committee to solve similar issues that equestrian clubs suffer from as business-to-customer (B2C)
issues and relationship management. Hopefully, its governing laws need to be part of sports law
because they have unique elements that are not covered in basic consumer protection laws. When
it comes to moving sport into a business, specialization is needed to cover all parties’ rights and
obligations. Still, the club will need to prepare their business on this major update for equestrian
sector. They might need their legal framework and specialty with the equestrian arbitration
committee.
The secondary concern is sometimes on emergency cases clients’ horses in the livery might
need external veterinary support which comes to additional cost. The club tries to reach to the
clients to get quick approval over the estimated additional cost but it is struggle especially if the
client was not reachable at that time specifically at night.
Livery and Arena Flooring Issues:
The meeting re-highlighted the Livery and Arena Flooring Issue. The club has three concerns with
Livery services which are related to the associated cost for offering the service). The First concern
is the operational and administrative cost of boarding. The cost of offering livery services is high
in order to provide a suitable atmosphere for the horses. Stables are important in caring for horses.
Stables needs ongoing cleaning, monitoring, flooring change and staff availability. for illustration,
flooring in the stalls where the horse sleep and rest is fundamental to ensure their comfort, safety
and disease control. Materials used in flooring are a main component of any stable. The flooring
market offers different options, from replaceable mats to wood shavings. In the early startup, the
club used to import high quality wood shavings, and importing fees were assessed on their
shipment. Today, the club produces its own shavings of the same quality through its Equipment
Trading afflicter. Also, it offers these shavings to their external clients. But still it is constant cost
element for daily operations. The club pays attention to the horses' place of residence. it preserves
the safety and insurance of their main product “Horses”. Therefore, providing them with high
quality service and comfort is fundamental to avoid injuries, and diseases spread to avoid risk of
losing them.
On the other hand, livery has operational costs linked with veterinary high cost. The high
cost comes from the shortage in the specialty and medicines cost. There are only 45 veterinarians
approved by the Emirates Equestrian Federation list of approved veterinarians (xx). The shortage
of approved practitioners increase the cost of veterinaries visit cost. The club is highly positive
that new Veterinary graduates from Untied Arab Emirates University (UAEU) will help in
decreasing the shortage and lowering the cost.
The third concern is associated utilities cost. Horses need Air-conditioning and water spreads
conditioning with taking care of the horses, especially in the summer due to the hot weather in the
UAE. The options may vary between the Arabian Gulf region and the rest of the world. The options
differed depending on the environment and climate, and perhaps the habits of each region. Such
considerations are important in establishing stables to avoid diseases and injuries for those
expensive animals. Therefore, the atmosphere and weather condition control. In UAE, Horses need
Air-conditioning atmosphere as most of them imported from Europe to keep the temperature
within XX degree. The club on average cost spent xx on monthly bases.
Riding Arena Flooring needs specific riding surface which should be cushioned, provide
traction, not too slick or dusty, not overly abrasive to horse hooves, inexpensive and easy to
maintain. The arena needs continuous care to avoid injuries if the surface was not well managed.
After each ride session, the staff prepare the area for next ride session which requires effort and
time to not affect the sessions timing schedules.
MEC Next Steps:
Urfali and his team discussions concluded major action plan to support the business challenges in
the short term and long term.
Short-term plan – MEC Product Complexity Reduction:
Urfali followed marketing mix with a focus on product mix in MEC products and services
for clients during the past five years. After the meeting discussion and after clear consideration,
Urfali had taken strategic change in the product mix by following the complexity reduction
approach.
Complexity reduction helps MEC simplify their product and services strategies, their
organization, products, processes and information technology (Brain & Company). The
Complexity Reduction approach helps companies use to Identify and strengthen core
capabilities, Build the business around customer needs, Create a disciplined approach to
releasing new products or services and trimming those that customers no longer value, Design an
organizational structure to support critical decisions and Maximize process efficiency (Brain &
Company). The approach is aligned with MEC Marketing Mix but it combines the different input
related to the situation. It requires business managers to:
 Understand the sources of complexity and examine trade-offs between operations
and variety or customization for customers
 Identify opportunities to simplify products, organization structures, business
processes and information systems to save costs while strengthening core
capabilities and increasing the focus on customers
 Take steps to stem the return of complexity by reexamining the hurdle rates for
new products and other expansion activities
 Simplify decision making by clarifying roles and processes
 Complexity Reduction helps reveal hidden costs and allows companies to
determine which products are making money, what customers really value and
which organizational or process bottlenecks are getting in the way of effective
actions, setting the stage for greater growth and increased profits.
Align information systems with business objective Urfali’s business expertise and the
reduction approach will in the short term allow MEC to focus on three elements. First element is
the club will increase its focus on advancement in the riding school activities due to the increasing
demand. Riding school advancement will consist of expanding the riding education for
professional accreditation. It will consist of the professional riders’ program with different levels
under international certification. Second element is the club will reduce its contribution to horse
shows, while still offering show horse training. By this movement, the club will reduce the pressure
of competition contribution to be balanced with the business return from the service to other
clients. Beauty competition participation plays part in the reputation in the equestrian sport. It is
not consisted profit returns. Third element is the club will increase its use of social media to reach
more customers. The club management will be responsible of checking what approach to be
followed to increase the customer growth as social media is consisted with different elements. The
club will need to build up huge focus to do it in the right way.
Long term plan:
In 2019 meeting, Urfali discussed two traits in for the future which will raise the bar for
MEC. The first trait is the club management team must work hard to create change in the equestrian
industry and equestrian sports by partnering in efforts to promote sport tourism in Abu Dhabi. It
will help in expanding equestrian business in the emirate and the profit return for the business
owners in the same time. In particular, the club is looking to include equestrian clubs as tourist
attractions. The second trait is looking to support its CSR activities by empowering locals skills
and specialization in equestrian sector. Mandara is hoping to be able to encourage locals to join
their business in different kinds of specialties and enrich the sector with local expertise.
Furthermore, Urfali highlighted that if the club was successful in attracting locals in their business
as employees it will fill important role of human resources in any organization, to recruit, train,
and retain talented staff especially for local Emiratis(xx). Unfortunately, there is a lack of interest
in available jobs in the private sector from local Emiratis. The club is focusing on high-skilled
jobs, not labor jobs with professions include veterinarians, horse trainers, show trainers, and
farriers. There is another challenged associated with empowering local Emiratis expertise which
is the lack of local certification institutions that specialize in equestrian professions. For instance,
in the UK, a farrier has the necessary blacksmithing skills to shape metal shoes to fit horses’
hooves. It is fundamental that farriers acquire the educational background to understand the
makeup of a horse's hoof, and training in blacksmith skills to work efficiently with metal shoes.
The related job skills should be built on different stages and experience.
Conclusion:
Urfali and his team in MEC is working hard to move forward with their business products
and services and provide the best quality in the market, along with its CSR initiatives. Urfali
understands that focusing on MEC as a business operation means raising the marker of success to
more than just the fulfillment of a dream. Will MEC be able to keep its focus with such changes?
Will the short-term plan support MEC to overcome its issues? What MEC needs to consider further
more?