The Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (DAFZA) has completed the fourth phase of its ‘Innovation Champions’ programme in line with its internal and national innovation strategies.

The company honoured 22 managers, heads of departments and employees as part of the fourth phase of its ‘Innovation Champions’ programme.

The freezone is the first government entity to complete all stages of the ‘Global Innovation Management Institute’ program which falls in line with its innovation strategy launched by Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the chairman of Dafza.

The program developed by Dafza's strategic partner “ShiftIN Partners” in October last year undertook a detailed evaluation of the capabilities and skills of the organization’s work teams through a series of sessions and advanced analysis.

The program was divided into four phases, with the 22 employees from Dafza who successfully completed were honored as champions of innovation and highly qualified individuals who play key roles in Dafza's position as the most innovative and attractive freezone for foreign investments.

The first phase of the program, ‘Eureka,’ taught trainees how to use tools for generating ideas and implementing them by creating many new ideas.

The second phase, ‘Pursue,’ focused on implementing the ideas of the first stage and the creation of new ideas to enhance the position and growth of Dafza.

The third ‘Organizational Mastery’ phase then honed the innovators' understanding of innovation management techniques and methods that they need to know to succeed.

The fourth and final phase, ‘Innovation Management’  comes in line with the third phase which trained employees on how to face real challenges and create clear solutions and visions for innovation management in the organization.

The ‘Innovation Champions’ program’s importance lies in its creation of an advantageous environment for innovation and research, with the benefit of qualifying employees with high levels of innovative skills supported by a culture that encourages them to be business champions and do the best to achieve their professional goals and thus be successful in their job while uplifting the company’s reputation.

The program promotes a diversity of ideas and initiatives by strengthening skills and information through training and practice.

Under the program, employees managed to launch three disruptive innovative ideas that create a unique experience for Dafza customers in terms of providing non-traditional and innovative services based on new technologies, as well as encouraging investors to establish their businesses in Dubai and the UAE in general, in order to attract more foreign investment which in turn will increase the national GDP.

Amna Lootah, the assistant director-general for finance, commercial, and customer relation division, and foster innovation and future unit of Dafza, said: "This is an important achievement which represents the first innovative program to be done within the country’s freezone sector."

"Today, we graduate 22 innovation champions at Dafza who have been able to pass the four stages of the program and will embark on innovative work to form an important pillar for our innovation-based economy," she stated.

Lootah praised the strategic cooperation between Dafza and ShiftIN Partners, noting its commitment to making innovation a day-to-day approach and a well-established institutional culture.

“Through the graduation of Dafza's first generation of innovation champions we look forward to improving the experiences of existing and potential customers, as well as making outstanding contributions towards achieving the goals of the National Innovation Strategy and UAE Vision 2021," she added.-TradeArabia News Service