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→ EDWARD HAMOD
GREAT IDEAS
is the founder and CEO of SWITCH FOODS.
EUREKA!
EDWARD HAMOD ON HOW TO MAKE AN IDEA A GREAT ONE
IMAGES COURTESY SWITCH FOODS
}Truly understand the problem that you would like to solve “Most of these problems come up in our daily lives or through daily experiences which we don’t really focus on, whether at work, at home, during travel, etc. Once the problem or the issue is identified, an individual should never be content with the status quo of the current problem, and they should never assume that people have already looked into it and we’re at the maximum line. Today’s advances in technology offer new solutions to problems on a daily basis.”
SWITCH FOODS
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s per global data and business intelligence platform Statista, the plant-based meat market is expected to be worth US$33.99 billion by 2027. And while that should be incentive enough for one to start an enterprise in this arena, for Edward Hamod, who founded Switch Foods in the UAE in 2022, one of the drivers for his foodtech startup -which locally produces plant-based alternatives to meat- was his personal experience working in the F&B industry. “I’ve been working in the food business since 2005, and I have owned, operated, and led many successful food companies across the region,” Hamod reveals. “But in 86 / E N T R E P R E N E U R . C O M / February 2024
2017, I started to learn more about the effect of our food systems on the individual’s health, and our planet as a whole. In the years since, I have shifted my mindset from being solely commercially-driven, to focusing more on the purpose of what I do, and how I can use my experience and network within the food industry to build something ‘good.’ I quickly understood the severe effects our food systems have on our health and the environment, and that animal meat production and consumption were a major part of the problem. I also quickly found out that the alternative healthy and sustainable choices to meat on supermarket shelves did not taste good, or provide the consumer with a seamless }}
}Don’t believe that a brilliant idea will strike after an hour -or even a day- of thought “Great ideas take time to develop, articulate, and process. An idea starts as a thought, and one should give their thought enough time and focus and continue to deeply explore it, until it really becomes an implementable idea. This might take days, weeks, or months, and it is important to be patient, and do the necessary research, first and foremost.”
An idea starts as a thought, and one should give their thought enough time and focus and continue to deeply explore it, until it really becomes an implementable idea.”