Doing business and making friends

So you’ve been in the Gulf for a couple of years and you therefore know all about ‘The Arabs’, do you?

You chat away about Arabs with all the other Westerners at your club. You all agree that Arabs rarely give straight answers to straight questions. “They’re just difficult”; “They don’t like to take decisions”; “They delay for years and years and then expect you to jump to it immediately without any warning” “They’ve no idea of the trouble they cause by all their messing about”.
Your problem is that you don’t understand ‘The Arabs’ at all and it shows.
You’ve met a few Arabs from one or two Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries.
You’ve not been exposed to the diversity of Arabs across, and within, their 22 countries. You know a little about the differences between the GCC States.
You’ve heard that the GCC is increasingly a powerful union of many common interests and processes, somewhat like that evolving place ‘Europe’ but not so complicated.
You’ve assumed that the Arab process of reaching a decision will be much the same as your own, and indeed that can be true. For example, when you sell to an Arab distributor or consumer quick decisions can be taken. But in business anywhere, including the GCC, you must satisfy the universal business topics of Need, Price, Availability, Suitability, Support etc. For example, if your price is too high and/or there is no market for what you are offering, you won’t sell – whatever you do, anywhere.
But if you’ve something attractive to sell in terms of price, need etc then you’ll be as successful in the Gulf as anywhere.
What you and many Westerners in the Gulf confuse, certainly for complex deals, is the Arab decision-taking process.
This, for you, can be frustratingly drawn out, and which will annoy you as you struggle, in your innocent way, to understand what you arrogantly regard as a simple matter – one which ought to be handled at quite a junior level, in your opinion. “We spoke to the relevant Department Head; why couldn’t he conclude the deal with us?”
 Now your ignorance of Arabs shows badly.
Did you think he was the Head of the Department? Did you just look, for example, at a company organisational diagramme in the Annual Report and make your approach to the person you thought was your main customer? Did you not understand that it’s far, far more complicated than that?
The person you’ve identified is certainly the declared Head (and you were right to make your pitch to him) but you’ve not understood that he answers to, or must consult with, several others – none of whom are clearly identified or known to you.
He is but one part of the maze of religion, influence and relationship that forms both the local and wider national and GCC network of all major business activity. You need help to find out how and where the real power is, and you may need to make secondary pitches to those people too.
In at least the GCC countries, the following is the descending order with whom most Gulf Arabs will seek to involve in major business: (1) the Ruling Family, (2) the Immediate Family (father, mother, brother), (3) the Wider Family (uncle, nephew, cousin, i.e. the tribal ‘surname’), (4) Muslims generally, (5) ‘Friends’ and lastly (6) ‘Useful strangers’. You are the latter, certainly until you become a known Friend or at least a Trusted Person.
Most Arabs will constantly consult and take soundings from their blood relations and from others important in local society on many topics. Gossip and story-telling are Gulf traits born of a tribal desert and sea-faring heritage.
Most Arabs are suspicious of openly available information; most will seek private or ‘secret’ confirmation of any situation.
Important Arabs will expect to learn first hand personally about major business activity from those directly involved. In most cases Ruling Family approval and perhaps involvement – financial and otherwise – may be essential.
The sequence of consultation is normally important: “Rashid, do you agree with the proposal?” (“Have you spoken to Abdullah about this?”) “Yes.” (“Is he content?”) “Yes”. (“As Abdullah is content so am I.”)
In this case Abdullah’s approval was an essential preliminary first step in the consultation process. But Abdullah has been abroad and it has been difficult for your Arab colleague to meet him. So there was delay. That’s all you observed: delay. You are not party to the process of consultation. Without Abdullah’s prior agreement and knowledge of the proposal Rashid would have been uncomfortable and would have been reluctant to give his approval. More delay. But, armed now with both Abdullah’s and Rashid’s approval, your Arab colleague can approach others, all of whom are entirely unknown to you both personally and in terms of their relevance to the project.
There may be several important personalities who must be consulted, in the right order and when they are in the right circumstances and mood to give approval. And there may be Islamic dimensions that have to be addressed, the nature of which will be wholly outside your understanding.
The skill of your Arab colleague is, therefore, not only to select those who should be consulted but also to decide the sequence of consultation.
This, for big projects, is a hugely complex task, each project requiring its own individual consultation strategy, all of which depends on a detailed knowledge of family and other relationships, none of which are stable or fully predictable. Relationships ebb and flow. Certain people, essential to the project, are suddenly no longer in favour with the Ruling Family.
The achievement of major project approval is therefore never easy. 
Your responsibility is to ensure and have confidence that your Arab colleague knows how to handle all this complexity. Grant him time, sympathy and your patience to carry out his work.
 Long ago, before you signed the contract, you should have checked that your Arab colleague/agent/sponsor has not only ‘wasta’ but has also excellent local standing to cope. (If you don’t understand ‘wasta’, ask someone to explain it to you urgently.)
For the Arab, consultation is skillful ‘work’. Indeed it is. For many Arabs, this is the essence of business and management; this is what matters most. In the GCC at least most nationals only focus on ‘the deal.’
The subsequent execution of a project is not of detailed concern since you and your company were hired specifically to cope with the project. You are regarded as the expert expatriate servant poised to proceed once the green light is given.  Did you not give, some time ago, several presentations on how the work would be done – and did you not say how good you were at doing such work? Were you not awarded the contract on that basis? Why would you be anything except delighted when told today, after months or years of delay, to go ahead tomorrow?
For many Arabs the planning and sequence, for example, of building a hotel complex are of no interest and of no concern. There is no real appreciation by your Arab colleagues that, because of delay, equipment that, with a little warning, could have been shipped to site but must now be brought in by air at much greater cost. Such matters will be brushed aside; these are for you to cope – and at no extra cost.
Try, therefore, to think as your Arab colleagues think. Try to understand that ‘consultation’ is hugely important to Arabs generally. Arab society is largely centralised and ‘directed’ from the centre. Most Arabs respect and look for strong leadership. Open, public discussion on controversial matters is not the norm, unless the ‘line to take’ is well known and in regular open use, such as condemnation of the Western world to recognise a Palestinian state.
In Arab society it is always wise to take soundings from those in power, or from people close to such power before proceeding with almost any major activity.
The ‘centre’, i.e. the Ruling Family, can therefore become overloaded, as citizens seek assistance or approval (or at least ‘no objection’) to activity which, in Western society, would be dealt with locally at quite junior levels with little consultation elsewhere.
The Finance Director of a Western company will take, and be expected to take, decisions over financial procedures without checking that the chairman of the board is content. However, Arab instinct and habit is usually the opposite: for the Arab it’s best to check that the boss is happy over almost everything in case you make a mistake for which you could later be blamed.
Decentralised decision-taking and an obvious hierarchy are not normal in the Arab world. You may innocently believe that you understand ‘who’s who’ in the Gulf but Westerners are usually as children in terms of really understanding how a major Arab project gains approval.
What to do? First, be PATIENT and have the personality and company funding to be able to do so. Secondly, stay close to your Arab colleagues – become a genuine friend and make time to sit quietly with them because you may learn something.
Your Arab colleagues may not recognise some simple but vital fact which you learn informally and on which you can act in a timely fashion in the preparatory and ‘delayed’ phases of your project.
Avoid, therefore, a ‘them and us’ attitude: draw close and learn that delay to a project’s approval is usually caused by unavoidable consultation, some of which you may be able to help forward yourself, if invited. You may, if you phrase and time your remarks carefully, be able to explain the two or three essential decisions that you as project leader need if the project is to start efficiently.
Much can still be done before full approval is given if you maintain good, personal contact.
And be ready to ‘Start tomorrow’ – the favourite expression of Shaikh Rashid, the Founder of Dubai.

Special report
By Jeremy williams
www.handshaikh.com