Page 28 - Aamir Rehman - Dubai & Co Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States-McGraw-Hill (2007)

14 Dubai & Co.

The right business design—the topic of Chapter 10—is a criti-
cal issue that underpins multinationals’ long-term success in the
GCC. Business organizations must be set up in a way that enables
them to become rooted in the market and must evolve from inter-
national structures like those of bygone eras, when the GCC mat-
tered little and most of the international community lent the GCC
but scant attention. Today, global businesses must ensure that their
GCC organizations are managed with the right balance of delega-
tion and control—allowing the local organization adequate flexibil-
ity while ensuring global consistency and oversight. While Dubai is
a natural choice for regional head offices, as its business and social
environments have been adapted to suit expatriate needs and pref-
erences, consumer businesses must extend a significant presence in
Saudi Arabia to truly capture the GCC market. Whereas the GCC
countries are often the appropriate region from which to manage
the broader Middle East (i.e., the GCC states plus the Levant and
North Africa), managing the GCC from a Middle East head office
elsewhere can be a fatal mistake leading to inadequate focus on the
region. For all GCC operations, it is critical that multinational firms
maintain their global quality, service, and human resources stan-
dards—watering down these operations will lead to an uncompet-
itive performance and put the global brand at risk.

The GCC at Global Headquarters

The GCC is too attractive an opportunity to be ignored by a firm’s
global headquarters. Most firms, however, have little to no
awareness of the GCC at the global strategy level.
Chapter 11 offers a range of suggestions for ensuring that the
GCC receives the attention it deserves at your company’s head-
quarters. Typically, the GCC area reports to the head office through
the broader Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, which
itself may be part of the European or Asian business unit or an
amalgamation of international businesses. When this happens, the
GCC receives little or no “airtime” due to the size of the current
business there relative to the size of the current business in Europe
or Japan.
Irrespective of reporting lines, savvy businesses should develop
a GCC-specific strategy that is presented and discussed at global