Driving market competitiveness and export readiness for 16 MSMEs

Project: Employment Promotion Lebanon (EPL) – German Development Cooperation

Organization: ICON-Institute Consulting Gruppe / GIZ Lebanon

Role: Senior Marketing Expert – Business Development Services (BDS). Delivered 140 days of technical coaching and strategic consultancy to 16 MSMEs.

Region: Greater Beirut and Mount Lebanon, Lebanon

Period: January 2024 – September 2024

Project Focus 

Overseeing a high-impact BDS program for 16 MSMEs to strengthen their market competitiveness, operational efficiency, and export readiness.

What we aimed to solve       

To support local MSMEs in navigating Lebanon’s complex economic landscape by professionalizing their business models and helping them tap into new revenue streams and international markets.

The Context 

The GIZ "Employment Promotion Lebanon" project aimed to stabilize and grow small businesses to sustain and create employment opportunities in the region.

The Strategy  

A high-touch, urgency-led strategy designed to move firms from crisis management to structured growth. We focused on dismantling operational silos and replacing guesswork with a data-driven framework for branding, business modeling, and export-readiness.

The Process

The intervention followed a structured, high-touch roadmap designed to move firms from immediate stabilization to long-term informed growth:

• Situation assessment and diagnosis: conducted a deep dive into each MSME’s current operations to identify core bottlenecks and market standing.
• Strategic focus and intervention design: set a clear strategic direction for each business and design tailored interventions to address specific growth or stability needs.
• Professionalization through practical tools: supplied firms with hands-on, ready-to-use templates for business modeling and marketing to facilitate immediate professionalization of their workflows.
• Urgency-led implementation: identified and tackled the most critical business aspects first, providing direct support to the firms in executing the necessary work.
• Strategic decision-making: supported leadership in making high-level strategic pivots regarding branding, target markets, and export-readiness.
• Data and insight systems: established data collection and insight-gathering systems, training teams on how to use this information for daily, informed decision-making.

Evidence of Impact

• Operational excellence: professionalized the workflows of 16 MSMEs (Al KAzzi, Data Rho, EDM, Manalco, Meker, Mezzmix, Nakhoul Establishment, Retailing Solutions, Samu du Liban) by integrating structured templates and data-driven systems into their daily operations.
• Strategic clarity: guided leadership through critical pivots in business modeling and branding, moving firms from reactive to proactive market positioning.
• Informed decision-making: established functional insight-gathering systems that empowered teams to use market data for day-to-day tactical decisions.
• Export transformation: prepared local firms for international competition by producing 16 export-ready action plans grounded in rigorous market analysis.

Closing event, September 2024. Photo courtesy of GIZ/ ICON

Extension

Initially planned for 32 days during the original negotiations, the engagement evolved into a high-intensity intervention of 140 days to meet the deep operational needs of the 16 MSMEs.