Entourage CEO Calls on Arab Creatives to Export Homegrown IP
Mohammed Tayem urges regional creative businesses to build original intellectual property rather than adapt Western concepts for local markets.
DUBAI — Mohammed Tayem, founder and chief executive of entourage and a partner and board member at TGW Live, issued a pointed challenge to creative entrepreneurs across the Middle East on Wednesday: stop borrowing international frameworks and start building exportable intellectual property rooted in regional culture and talent.
Speaking from Dubai, Tayem argued that the region's creative sector has long operated in a posture of adaptation — importing and localizing ideas that originated elsewhere — when the deeper opportunity lies in reversing that flow. His call to action positions homegrown talent and original IP as the foundation for businesses capable of competing on a global stage, not merely a regional one.
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The appeal carries particular weight given Tayem's dual role bridging the creative management and live entertainment industries through entourage and TGW Live. Those positions afford him a vantage point on both the talent pipeline and the commercial infrastructure needed to move cultural products across borders.
Analysts have increasingly flagged the Gulf's creative economy as an underdeveloped export sector despite significant domestic investment in entertainment, media and the arts. Tayem's remarks align with a broader institutional push — visible in government-backed initiatives across the UAE and Saudi Arabia — to diversify revenue streams away from hydrocarbons and toward knowledge- and culture-based industries.
For regional founders and creative professionals, the implicit challenge is structural: developing the rights management, distribution deals and brand equity necessary to make homegrown ideas viable as global exports rather than local curiosities. Continue reading at Economic News, Trends, Analysis.
