The Successful Manager...

Saudi History Speaks

Amro Felimban

• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781528917223
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Processo decisionale
• Index: Business

I have done my best to intercept and analyse all the backgrounds and influences that affected the character and qualities of the Saudi manager, his history, culture and roots throughout the different stages until we reached the genuine Saudi school that developed and affected the Saudi manager. This situation was accompanied by the establishment of companies in its different forms and sizes. We have also shed light on the common characters of the Saudi managers and how to deal with them, besides the employees and their interaction with the path of the Saudi manager, in addition to the owners and decision-makers in the family businesses and its great impact. We discussed the topic of the role-model manager and the leader. All these topics, in my modest opinion, express the situation of any manager working in Saudi Arabia whether he is a Saudi or a foreigner.

Chapter One

The Roots

The administrative schools in Saudi Arabia have ancient, rich and diversified roots. They have greatly affected the formation of our administrative personality (whether directly or indirectly) leaving behind some negative impacts which must be taken into consideration; though there are also many positive and unique ones which we should be proud of and give it a larger space in analysis and development. We have a strong base and genuine management schools, so why we insist on importing the experiences of others?

The following will preview some Saudi management models.

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Al-Auqailat for Logistic Services

The experience of ‘Al-Auqailat’ in transport, guarding and trade between Najd and Iraq on one hand and linking them with Syria and Egypt on another hand, is a very old logistical experience that dates back to more than 200 years. The notion of ‘Al-Auqailat’ business is based on the profession and the group, rather than on the tribe or the city. It is (in itself) a developed institutional organisation at that time. The Auqaili – namely the person belonging to Al-Auqailat family – can be from any tribe or family but they become closely related to each other in the journey of the convoy and the unified syndicated work.

Al-Auqailat were famous for their adaptation and development according to the economic and political events taking place in the Arab region and they dealt with all major events since the establishment of the first Saudi state up to the modern Saudi state, in a professional way that always sets priorities for the benefit of the work, as mentioned in the book titled Najdis Beyond the Boundaries Al-Auqailat. The Auqailat convoys served as a post office in the areas they roam, and it is also a company for land transport, a company for selling livestock, mainly camels and horses, as well as a company for agricultural reclamation in Al-Zubayr in Iraq and a company for pre-paid security guarding, long before this concept was known for the modern world, and finally it serves the greater business (namely trade in general) including diversified goods according to the desires and demands existed between the exporter and the importer.

Al-Auqailat drew up an unwritten work charter that inspires a very high standard union thought which they practice in their daily lives, namely seriousness in work, loyalty to the trusts or responsibilities they bear and adherence to religious rituals. All these traits made them a good example of the Muslim worker and trader. The strangest thing is Al-Auqailat’s rapid adaptation to the events. When the digging of the Suez Canal began, they participated in the process of digging and supplying meats to workers as well as their experience in building the new cities and reclaiming lands in Zubayr; a matter that unveils a very progressive thought. Nowadays, we have a difficulty in persuading the young people to work in Jubail and Yanbu. Al-Auqailat also dealt with political differences at that time as if they were Najd’s Ministry of Commerce which deals with everyone in a way that achieves the interests of traders. A good example of this can be traced in their negotiations with the Ottomans in Iraq, the Egyptians and the tribes of the entire Arabian Peninsula. The lesson learnt of Al-Auqailat’s experience and their children, who are entering the labour market today, is that they are an essential and genuine part of this country, and their experience in comprehensive management is an original and innovative Saudi one, as it provides integrated solutions that take into account the difficulty of the economic and climatic conditions during their field work. Nevertheless, they established something from nothing through hard work, despite the lack of resources and the hard work they practiced. Their work cycle starts by going to the pastures of the tribes, buying camels and horses at reasonable prices, feeding and keeping them up in certain places until selling them at the markets of the Levant and Egypt. Their goods were sold to the British army in India and they even became suppliers of military means of transport. They started their business depending on a very small capital, often gained from collecting local butter and selling it in Makah, as it was narrated in the novel entitled Al-Ghosn, where the trader started selling the butter in Makah to use his revenues to buy Japanese fabrics and return to Al Qassim to market them there. Their secret (simply) is to seek and move to trade and work at the farthest geographical borders they can reach. Their trips sometimes take six months and sometimes necessitate the residency of some of them to establish re-export centres in Zubayr, Basra, Damascus, Lebanon’s mounts, Sharqiah (governorate) in Egypt and Sudan.

It is worth mentioning that the different tribes have delegates accompanying Al-Auqailat’s convoys and when they pass through the ways of any tribe, their commercial representative and geographical guide plays the role of the commercial attaché today, even though they passed these roads hundreds of times and they know well the entire Arabian peninsula, the Levant, Iraq and Egypt. Although, Al-Auqailat knows these roads even better than their own people, they are keen on professionalism in their work to minimise the risk factor in their business.

I hope to see today this institutional work in anybody representing any profession that emerges and becomes an extension of the thought of Al-Auqailat who sprang from the people of this country and have long genuine experience gained amidst severe conditions and the least resources without resorting to the foreign ones.

I ask every businessman, entrepreneur or any manager in Saudi Arabia to benefit from the experience of Al-Auqailat in the field of organisation, diversity, quest, migration and provision of integrated and professional solutions based on concentration in work (rather than the region or the tribe) as well as integrating in the cities they migrated to while preserving their own identity and beautiful Islamic ethics. They have also the ability to deal with all the spectrums of the society, whether they are Bedouins, Urbanites, and Christians, foreigners, Ottomans or others.

It is also worth noting the rapid shift of Al-Auqailat to different posts, the distribution of tasks over the whole team in their journeys and finally the attention they pay to the environment of the work; a matter that was translated in their interest in literature and culture that help them spend their long time during their journeys and their hard work. They have their own poetry called the ‘Hybrid’ and this poetry chronicles their events and entertains them in their night talks. (The Source: Najdis Beyond Borders).

Saudi Agents, Hajj Guides, Mutawfon and suppliers

Since more than 100 years, pilgrimage (Hajj) has brought to existence more than five departments which are still working up till now. These five departments are the pilgrims’ guides known in Arabic as ‘Mutawfon’, the agents, the advisers, Al Zamazmah Foundation or the people responsible for the water of Zamzam Well and the Automobile Association. The agent receives the pilgrims in Jeddah and dispatches them to the Pilgrims’ guides, ‘Al-Mutawfon’ in Makah and the advisers in Medina Munawarah coordinates and prepare for the visit to be paid by the pilgrims to Medina Munawarah and the Prophet’s sacred mosque but the task was not so easy.

How Did the Supply Chain Start?

When Islam reached the farthest place in Asia and Europe after Africa and India, the Hajj industry has begun to crystallise and its supply chain has been determined as sea transportation began by transporting pilgrims from India, Indonesia and Malaysia, a matter that required and necessitated Mutawfeen or pilgrims’ guides with special talents and skills such as mastering the languages of the foreign pilgrims, besides travelling to their countries to complete the process of marketing and selling. This trip takes 3-6 months due to the slow land and sea transport at that time; never to mention the difficulties of travelling in the geographically large Islamic countries and moving in their scattered cities where gatherings of Islamic populations. After that, the pilgrims’ guides come back to begin organising the suppliers and contractors of housing, tents, catering, transportation, sacrifices (of sheep, cows and camels) besides coordinating with agents in Jeddah and Medina. Hence, the agents of pilgrimage were performing an institutional work long before the establishment of Ministry of Hajj and they also carry out the processes of marketing and selling before the establishment of modern travel and tourism companies. The business of ‘Mutawfeen’ is still concerned with the supply chain of transport, housing and catering though the supposed natural development is to expand travel activity and tourism to the Islamic countries, but the pilgrims’ guide (Mutawf) was only interested in running business inside Saudi Arabia through providing distinctive customer service for pilgrims. The pilgrims’ guides were hosting pilgrims even at their own homes and we found all the family members of Al-Mutawf at the service of the pilgrims until the season of pilgrimage comes to an end in friendly and cordial relations that sometimes results in intermarriage. The pilgrims, on their part, also exploit the pilgrimage as a commercial season during which the largest diversified goods and products of all Islamic countries are paraded to be sold in Makah, Jeddah and Medina, in response to the supplication of Prophet Abraham to the Holy Mosque. All this took place before the existence of modern international exhibitions. Hence, the pilgrimage season has been turned into a seasonal commercial market among the Islamic countries, a matter that countries these days encourage to activate inter-trade. This conception has vanished as trade, which once was a part of the pilgrimage journey to cover its costs and some pilgrims were already well-established traders in their own countries and some trading families have settled in the Kingdom and became Saudi citizens. The market was free and subject to supply and demand. Makah, which served as a centre for Islamic trade, goods and products; goods were re-exported to the different regions of the Kingdom and neighbouring countries.

The work of Mutawf has a special nature as it is the only job that calculates mistakes in sins by the Lord of Mankind because the blighted person (pilgrim) curses him in various languages. He is a person who exerts an exceptional effort during his seasonal work. If the pilgrimage industry witnessed a collapse, especially when the pilgrims’ do not come for economic or political reasons or (God forbid) for natural reasons (catastrophes), the fortune of the Mutawf becomes at risk.

The Supply, Travel and Tourism School is an original Saudi one, which was established even before the creation of the Kingdom. This school and the consequent trade and logistic services it provided, enriched the Saudi manager with an accumulated experience that can be taught for others. Nevertheless, the problem lied in the departments of (Mutawfeen) pilgrims’ guides and other departments of the pilgrimage industry, which did not evolve with time and their shares decreased day after day in front of the rapid development of the industry of services and tourism. For example:

1. Travel and tourism agencies have already played the role of the Mutawf in selling and marketing for the trip.
2. Al-Mutawfeen and airlines could have jointly established economic companies for transportation 50 years ago.
3. Mutawfeen could have set up money transfer and exchange companies between Islamic countries and Saudi Arabia.
4. Mutawfeen should have organised the largest exhibition of Islamic products in Hajj.
5. The areas and facilities well equipped with services by the state could have been better utilised during the non-Hajj season in meetings or celebrations that suit the glory and location of Makah.

Al Hadhrmah: Foreign Investors

The Kingdom has started attracting and investing in manpower since its emergence as an attractive environment. Among the most famous people who were attracted by this new experience were the Hadhramaut merchants and workers, belonging to the region of Hadhramaut (South of the Arabian Peninsula) where they founded major business families in the Kingdom (specifically in the Western Region) as the first model of foreign Investment in Saudi Arabia.

After that, most of them (if not all) became naturalised Saudi citizens, mimicking the US model of (Green Card) – an old principle of Saudi Management and Business School.

Al_-Hadhrmah was well-known for their honesty, sincerity as well as their dedication to hard work.

Their first migration wave began before the establishment of the Kingdom during the era of the Ottoman state and several well-known business houses (families) in Makah and Jeddah were established and became of the elites of the Western Region. Then, the second migration wave began with the establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as a result of the deteriorated political situations in Yemen. Al-_-Hadhrmah, particularly the young workers were polarised to work at homes as servants due to their young ages. When the worker grows up, he goes to the shop of his master (the house owner) to learn his profession. The workers were keen on saving money and doing any hard work (undesirable by Saudis) and a lot of them accumulated the savings of other fellow men (Hadhrmah) to start their own business (a closed corporation) which grew and flourished with the Kingdom’s boom in the 1970. Starting from wholesale and retail trade to contracting, agencies, services, real estate, money exchange and banks, Hadhrmah have all potentials of success because most people (Saudis) were busy in the boom and in working at the government sector, as well as benefiting from the freedom of trade and recruitment systems in Saudi Arabia. Al Hadhrmah became symbols of trade and icons for saving in Saudi Arabia. Such a model started in Saudi Arabia at the same time it took place in the United States of America. To sum up, Al-Hadhrmah’s experience has enriched the community of business and trade in Saudi Arabia. Among the most beautiful characteristics of Al-Hadhramah’s Administrative School, which can be a special case for family companies, we can mention the following:

1. Investment in the education of children.
2. Encouraging young people to work at a very early age.
3. Financing family members to start small projects.
4. The syndicate-like financial gathering among Al-Hadhrmah families and their intermarriage, as well.
5. Empl...