Page 278 - Aamir Rehman - Dubai & Co Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States-McGraw-Hill (2007)

260 Dubai & Co.

account the limited windows in which all offices are working, and
key interaction points must be planned accordingly. Shipments
and deliveries that require offices to be open need to be scheduled
carefully. On the other hand, the weekend and time differences can
sometimes be put to a firm’s advantage for example, a Gulf office
could request information or feedback from a US office on
Wednesday afternoon in Riyadh (Wednesday morning US time),
give the US office three full days to manage the request, and have
the information e-mailed back on Friday afternoon US time. The
e-mail would arrive early Saturday morning Riyadh time, just
hours before the start of the Saudi workweek. In this scenario, since
the US office prepares feedback during the Saudi weekend, the
process works with no downtime.

MANAGING COMPLIANCE: GOVERNMENT
RELATIONS IS ITS OWN DEPARTMENT

All Gulf countries are WTO members and as such are in the process
of economic liberalization, but these economies remain highly reg-
ulated, and the volume of bureaucracy is substantial. Much of the
paperwork relates to employment and human resources issues, as
expatriates make up a bulk of the private-sector workforce. Visas
for employees and their families, national health insurance forms,
and various other documents take a large amount of time to process
and require both patience and expertise. Human resources profes-
sionals who understand these procedures are in great demand, and
those who come from outside face a challenging learning curve.
A number of government-approval forms are also required
in order to conduct general business activity. Public relations events
may require authorization. Construction projects will, of course,
require a set of approvals and permits. Visitors coming for a busi-
ness meeting may require approval from the local chamber of com-
merce. The procedures for obtaining these approvals can be more
complex than they seem, and they can be at least partially subject to
the discretion of the government agent on duty at the time when
you submit your paperwork. Managing the bureaucracy is a craft—
some would say an art—of its own, and GCC organizations, includ-
ing multinational firms operating there, have created the position
of Public Relations Officer (PRO) to handle these issues full-time.