11th May 2010:

Global perspectives (2)

I have previously commented (see my blog of 2 April 2010) on the need to be respectful of different cultures and different ways of doing business and was particularly looking forward to my first ever visit to Saudi Arabia last week.  I went to Riyadh for our Middle East Regional Conference but also to welcome our new Saudi member firm and to meet some of their clients and the Saudi Press.

It was a fascinating experience but there were two things that are particularly worthy of note as they were totally unexpected.

The first was that the opening speaker for the conference was a woman – in a country where women are rarely involved in business and where there are strict rules on women appearing in public.  We were addressed by the Strategy Officer of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) – a body that was established by King Abdullah to promote Saudi Arabia as a good place to do business.  SAGIA’s mission is ‘To position Saudi Arabia among the top ten most competitive nations by 2010 through the creation of a pro-business environment, a knowledge-based society, and by developing world-class Economic Cities’.  It is a fascinating programme focussed on three sectors – energy, transportation and knowledge-based industries.  In 2005, Saudi Arabia was rated the 67^th most competitive country by the World Bank; this has improved to 13^th in 2009 – the aim being to get to 10^th by the end of this year.  It was a fascinating presentation about an ambitious project presented intelligently and with clarity – and by a woman in a very male dominated society.

My second surprise was the weather.  Riyadh is in the middle of the desert and I expected it to be hot and dry.  I was therefore completely shocked by an unexpected rainstorm that, as you can see from the pictures below, left Riyadh flooded.  We had just arrived at a client of BDO Saudi Arabia when the rain started – and struggled to get from the car to the client’s office.  On the way back to the hotel where we holding the conference, many roads were closed as cars had been abandoned due to the level of water.  I was fortunate to be in a 4x4 so we were higher than many cars.  We also drove on the central reservation and on the pavement in order to avoid the worst of the water.  A 20 minute journey took some 2 hours.  This was not what I expected in Riyadh.

It was, however, a fascinating experience.  The Saudis were immensely friendly and I was made to feel very welcome.  I was also pleased to get great feedback from clients on our new Saudi firm.  I am looking forward to my next visit.

 International BDO  0 Comments May 11th, 2010