Page 292 - Aamir Rehman - Dubai & Co Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States-McGraw-Hill (2007)

274 Dubai & Co.

Decisions concerning local staffing, though they might seem
relatively minor, can be crucial to the success of an in-market office,
and it is important for the local office to have significant control
over such decisions. While the global head office typically will
make the hiring decisions concerning the company’s most senior
staff, it is important to give the local office authority over middle-
and junior-level staffing. In addition to the risk that the “flown-in”
resource might not have the right market-specific skills, there is the
risk that he or she will seek a position in the Gulf with a short-term,
take-the-money-and-run attitude. Staff members without genuine
concern and interest in the market are a recipe for disaster. Further,
staff members who know the local market are best positioned to
assess and hire GCC citizens, whose presence on the team is essen-
tial from both a strategic and a regulatory perspective.
Toyota’s relationship with its local distributors is an example
2
of highly localized decision-making rights. Each distributor runs
its local business, in terms of operational matters, with almost com-
plete autonomy. The head office in Japan sets quality standards and
other guidelines, such as use of the global brand. The distributor, in
turn, is responsible for local promotions, marketing, and hiring.
While the global head office reviews distributors’ investment plans,
decisions about capital allocation lie fully with the distributor. As
long as the distributor operates within global guidelines, it is free to
manage the business without interference. This level of empower-
ment has led to much creativity at the local level, including the
highly successful and well-known “Tough as Ali” advertising cam-
paign promoting the Toyota Cressida featuring the boxer
Muhammad Ali. Saudi distributor Abdul Latif Jamil conceived of
and executed the campaign in the 1960s and 1970s and, through it
and other marketing and service campaigns, made Toyota
extremely popular in Saudi Arabia.

Adequate Resources
Presence and decision-making rights can go only so far, of course, if
the GCC organization is underresourced. Having too little material
(e.g., financial, IT, marketing, etc.) support can prevent a Gulf busi-
ness—even in a hot market—from getting off the ground. As dis-
cussed in Chapter 6, products—though not all—require some