My sister-in-law sent me the video you are about to see now (so if she is reading these words … thank you for the inspiration ). Although the video has nothing to do with business or marketing or anything related to this field (actually, it is a clip from Animal Planet Channel), I was thinking about one of the most important concepts in business while watching the video; I was thinking about team work!
Now watch the clip and continue reading the post (you have to go to YouTube to watch it) …
We are overwhelmed with the concept of team work in our lives. Even before entering the job market, team work concepts and ideas were with us since college days. And despite the extensive trainings and workshops we have been through in regard to team building and interactions, I am afraid we are not really applying them in our working environments.
I know very few Saudi companies that are adopting the idea of cross functional teams and really successful at it. But in general, and in most situations, we do not really have teams, we mostly have unites. Unites that compete internally (between the allegedly team members) and externally (with other unites).
The team spirit and the unified goal and purpose are mostly absent from our team building formula.
Now the video teaches us that a successful team is the one that:
Have a common goal that everybody believes in.
A leader who inspires and provides the vision.
Members who are eager to get to the goal.
Communication between all and contribution from all to reach the goal.
If someone asks me what is the business project that you would like to see in Saudi Arabia before you die! Although I have some projects in mind, I would say that I would like to see and use a metro or underground system in our cities! (If, by any chance, there is someone reading this post from London, Paris, or even Cairo, please stop laughing )
Today, it has been announced that the constructions of ‘Riyadh metro’ has just begun. A 36 stations light transit railway project is on the way as reported by Arab News. Although some specific details about the project have been provided in this press release (e.g. distances between stations, stations number on each route, passenger capacity, etc …), there is no mentioning whatsoever about the project time plan (no comment!!)
Anyway, if this project is really coming (God only knows when??) I would not really brag about it a lot because it is coming too, and I mean tooooooo, late. Our main cities (Jeddah and Riyadh in particular) are suffocating for many years now under huge car traffic and lack of organized public transportation in its simplest forms (bus system, or even controlled taxi cars.) I always wonder how is it possible for our cities to reach this miserable level of public transportation given that they have been constructed, as modren cities, in the last 40 years or so. Just put in your mind that the first underground system has been built in London in 1863 (yes, you read right, it is 1863!!)
Moreover, I always find it intriguing to the mind to imagine what will happen if we finally got ourselves a metro? How Saudis will react to this entirely new concept in their lives (again, London, Paris, and Cairo people; stop laughing once and for all!!) Will Saudis abandon their cars in exchange for public transportation system? I know a lot of Saudis who do not use underground systems when visiting big cities in Europe or America and they still prefer to rent a car or use expensive taxies instead.
I believe this issue would be a very interesting marketing case to study. We, Saudis, tend to developed a certain mix of specialties about the way we look at our society and the way we evaluate new products and services entering our country. We have a mental association between public transportation and low class workers. We do not pay much respect to time in our daily lives, so how are we going to deal with a system entirely based on timing and accuracy. The car in Saudi Arabia is not only a mean of transportation, it is more of a mirror to our social ranking (this is a global view to cars but it is certainly more emphasized in Saudi.) In addition to that, the social barriers will start to come into play; shall we have separate trains for women? May be separate stations? If not, how are we going to sit in these trains? You are not suggesting my daughter will be standing next to a strange teenager in there now, are you? What about our VIPs, can we have VIP metro trains as well? Will the trains be operating during the pray time?
Now all these are normal and expected barriers; normal in the sense that the cultural background of a market is always the most difficult barrier to address in marketing. The solution will lay in the strategy used by the government to promote such public transportation project and how it will brand it. Anyway, this could be a future post when we really have such a system.
If you are living in Saudi, you must have heard people talking about their BB’s, or you must have already faced the question ‘do you have a BB?’
BB is definitely the talk of the country at the moment … so welcome to the Blackberry hype!
The blackberry has always been perceived as a business kind of a device. Something beyond receiving calls, sending SMS’s, and checking emails. It is a BUSINESS smart phone with all the images coming to mind with that (usually executives in expensive suits riding in the backseats of Mercedes or BMWs checking their calendars for the next meeting!!). This situation is certainly shifting and youngsters are taking over the stage with more fun and dynamics backgrounds.
For the brand, this was a well planned shift. Research in Motion Limited (RIM), the Canadian manufacturer of Blackberry, chose to include the youth segment in its targeting strategies. That was the reason behind the rolling out of different Blackberry models with more slim designs, enhanced music and video capabilities, and friendlier application to Internet browsing and social networking. This well crafted mixture of market penetration and product development has proven to be successful, and I am not only talking about the Saudi market but even back there in US (according to this report, Blackberry topped sales in the smart phone market in the 1st Q of 2009 beating even the iconic iPhone)
Now Back to Saudi, the BB is everywhere. In coffee shops, malls, and even in offices you would notice young gentlemen and ladies totally absorbed in their BB’s tiny screens typing messages and browsing the net.
The addictive habits of being always online or hooked up on messenger all the time or checking emails in the bathroom (!) are all becoming a reality for a lot of Saudis. Moreover, as Apple products’ believers have always been considered to form some kind of a cult, the users of BB are also developing their own cult named crackberries (You may want to read this Arab News article).
Such stories give a lot of indications about the nature of the Saudi consumer market. It seems that developing a fashion in here is not that hard (which might be interpreted as a good thing by many marketers). Nevertheless, these fashions tend to be very short cycled. That implies an unstable market where brands cannot build relations with customers; in other words, brands cannot nurture a long term loyal customers (although some customers develop addictive behavior using a BB or iPhone as just mentioned above, switching from one to another does not seem to be a problem for a lot of users; this could emphasis that the addiction is more on the idea of being connected rather than on the brand or the device itself)
Furthermore, It is very obvious that we have a considerable disposable income (these smart phones are not cheap!). And from the BB popularity among high school and college students, it seems that families are willing to satisfy their boy/daughter starvation to be fashionable (I can think of many marketing campaigns based on this point alone!!).
It has been three days now since I start noticing some kind of ads on street billboards with few words on them and bunch of logos stating ‘Yes to life … No to cancer.’ Now, I do not know if it is only me … or these few words are bit offensive!
It turned out that these ads are part of the Saudi ministry of health (MoH) cancer awareness campaign. And it seems that a similar campaign with a similar tagline had taken place last year as well. This is something we should all be thankful for and MoH should be credited for their efforts in providing the public with basic information about how to prevent cancer by cutting out bad habits like smoking or considering preliminary medical care to minimize breast cancer. But with this tagline … pleeeeeeease!!!
Cancer is not something that can be easily prevented by covering your mouth while sneezing or running out of a room when someone lights a cigarette. So what about those who already have cancer and happen to see these ads; why should we tell them that they have a disease that is against life. In other words, why should we shout at them that cancer means death (we know that this is not true in all cases)!! I can hardly imagine how emotionally and psychologically affecting such a message is for those who have cancer or those who lost someone because of it?
The bottom line is that this tagline gives you the impression that you should be blamed if you got cancer. And if you got it, you are an outcast (No to cancer!!). This sense of guilt and responsibility is not the right message that should be communicated in an awareness campaign, or any campaign for that matter. People tend to show resistance to any blames and that usually lead them to take a defensive position and miss the whole point of such ads.
I am not sure where a lot of managers got the perception that they will be better managers if, and only if, they write tiny-short-incomprehensible-few words emails.
In the business world, there is what is known as email etiquette. It might not be agreed upon and shared among different companies, especially working in different cultures, but general guidelines still exist (you may want to visit this page for general guidelines).
From my humble experience; I would like to comment on the following points:
- Email is still a way of communication:which means you have to use it for this purpose. Sit down, think a bit, and write in a way that everybody would understand whatever you are saying. Do not try to be smart by sending one line, one sentence that nobody understands. Do not jump on your team emails by saying something like “do X as I and Mr. Y agreed on that matter”. What is X and what is the matter you two have been discussing? And above all, we have been sitting with Mr. Y’s team and nobody mentioned any ‘matters’ over there? And please, do not say “I am a manager, I am busy, I have to make short emails.” If you are really a manager, then you should know that a huge part of your role is to communicate, so please do it! I am not suggesting you should write a fiction novel, just make sure you put the recipients into context and make sure they understand the ‘matters’ you are referring to.
- Do not send high-school-party-invitation emails:Be a professional. When you are addressing your team, your colleagues, or your vendors, use proper language. Start with ‘Dear X’ and not with ‘whaaaattttssss up.’ I am with friendly working environments, but we should not throw right manners out of the window, especially when other teams and companies are involved. Moreover, be polite even to your subordinates. Do not send email such as “what the F!^* just happened, we will have a meeting to discuss this Sh*%”.
- It can be used for things other than fighting:some managers or team leaders like to write those tough emails, it is like a hobby for them. Forget about the business problem, where did we go wrong, how to fix it, and how to learn from it. No, the most important thing is to send that masterfully crafted fighting email. They even have a name for it in Saudi, I’ve heard this nickname for tough emails from different colleagues in different companies; they call it the ‘whipping’ email. So you could hear something like “I just whipped X with an email few seconds ago, this guy never learns.” Now on the other hand, see all those whipping emails if something goes wrong, nobody usually bothered to send a small thank you email if things go right. I remember that I was once a leader of a team from my company and some vendors as well, and we have had succeeded in accomplishing one major task. I simply sent a motivational email thanking them all and encouraging them to keep that spirit in the remaining of the project. In only five minutes, I received a call from one of my superiors asking me “Saad, what do you exactly want sending such email?”
I am sure you have a bunch of similar email stories that you might want to share with us!
I was just reading this interesting blog post on HBR editors’ blog talking about innovative leaders. After an extensive research, Professors Dyer and Gregersen have come up with what they call ‘discovery skills’ that distinguish innovators. Now let’s go through these skills and then let me comment with something.
- Associating: it is the ability to relate, to find connection between apparently unrelated ideas and situations.
- Questioning: the innovative leaders do not feel comfortable adhering to the status quo; they like to ask questions to challenge it.
- Observing details: as we usually say, they have an eye for details. They can catch the pros and cons in processes or behaviors and use them to innovate, to create and to enhance.
- Experimenting: they do not fear the exploration process. They can deal with failures and turn them into successes.
- Networking: they can spot the smart people and know how to have them on team.
Now, my comment is that these traits or skills seem to be cognitive in general. And as someone who believe that all human beings have equal mental abilities, then I would argue that one of the reasons we are categorized as a third world (I am talking about Saudi and all the colleagues in the same category as well!) is that we do not nurture such traits in our educations or in our societies as a whole. On the contrary, we educate our children with matter-of-factly information. They are not allowed to suspect it, to ask about it, or to have their own contradicting arguments that they are ready to explore and experiment.
This is only a note to our educators out there; you have our future in your hands!
Visiting a hospital is an emotional experience. Let’s face it, nobody wants to be there. Just take a moment and think about what the word hospital will provoke in your mind; I am sure things like (pain, sickness, needles, and blood) should’ve come across your mind! From a marketing point of view, this is a disastrous situation.
So to overcome this internal image we all perceive about hospitals, many studies have been discussing the importance of servicescape design in changing such perception. Feel free to argue with me that hospitals are not only buildings and I will agree with you, they are not ONLY buildings, but a hospital building is a major part of the whole therapeutic experience.
A servicescape is a well known concept in the service businesses. Developed by Booms and Bitner back in the 80s, it refers to the physical environment where the service is taking place. They’ve argued that such environment should be designed in a way to facilitate the service encounter and improve the service delivery process. And by doing so, customers satisfaction with the provided service will increase.
Now let’s go local, I will be talking about my city; Jeddah. First and foremost, we have to admit that we have, up to some level, a pretty good healthcare. We have good doctors, state of the art medical equipments, and reasonable medical education in the country. But when we talk servicescape … mmm… sorry, not so much.
Most of the hospitals operating in Jeddah right now have been built decades ago, and from time to time, they are renovated by repainting the walls and rearranging the chairs! I can confidently argue that none of them have been designed with any psychological effects calculated. That’s why when visiting any hospital, you feel tensioned and under stress. Just look around you in the waiting room and check, a lot of people are nervous and frustrated; not only because of pain, but because they faced a hard time finding a parking spot outside, the receptionist was working as a robot, they could not find the clinic they are looking for and had to ask about directions several times. Or have you ever been admitted to a hospital or even visited a friend or a family member and tried to open the windows? How did you like the traffic noise? Or the empty land view with cats partying all night long?
I was talking about private hospitals above … public ones, do not get me started!! Now, have a look at the below video just to have a glimpse of how your mode might change in a ‘different’ designed environment (please note that I am not related to Hudas Designs in any way, I just liked their video!!)
It seems that Saudi companies are not yet sure about the importance of social media marketing and whether it should play a role in their marketing and branding strategies or not. Internationally, using social media tools (e.g. Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, Youtube channels, etc …) is becoming THE trend among other marketing tools and initiatives.
When the buzz about the potential use of social media in creating an added value to their brands, companies were just waiting to see how things will turn around. Justifying the costs of resources they will dedicate to build such a social media presence was the main concern occupying the minds of these companies’ managements. In other words, managers were thinking; what is the return on such investment?
The global marketing scene has moved from this basic step to discuss the specifics of having a successful presence online. The question of ‘should we have social media accounts?’ has been changed to ‘how to relate and engage with our customers using social media accounts?’. So it is not about the presence anymore, it is about the engagement. According to a study by Wetpaint and Altimeter Group, there is a correlation between a company’s social media engagement and its profit (more on this point is here). That means these social media accounts can be used as a channel of communication with customers. To be successful, this channel has to be dealt with as a long term investment and a major activity for marketing and branding teams. The presence should be alive, active, and emotionally engaging to the customers. Small gestures like saying ‘thank you’ to a Twitter customer, or saying ‘we will make sure to fix that’ on a Facebook page could make a difference with customers and boost their loyalty to the company.
Now, I have been looking around Twitter to check out Saudi companies’ presence over there. And it seems that most of them are in the trap of ‘cold social media presence’. The giant, Saudi Aramco has 351 followers only, can you believe that? Check out now the telecom rivals STC and Mobily, pretty cold, isn’t? Now for the sake of a quick comparison, check out Qatar Airways Twitter account, you can even feel the difference, right!!
If you have any examples of effective social media presence to share with us, I would be grateful to hear.
The Saudi Ministry of Health (MoH) is facing a huge public relations challenge over its expected H1N1 vaccination campaign in the kingdom. And till this moment, they do not seem standing up to the challenge.
Rumors are breaking out on all levels; emails, SMS’s, Internet forums, blogs, newspapers and nonetheless, Al Jazeera space channel interview with Dr. Horowitz who added fuel to the fire by confirming some kind of conspiracy theory behind the production of the vaccine. Furthermore, Arab News just reported the result of a poll conducted among medical academics and practitioners to check if they will take the vaccine and if they will give it to their children. The result is somehow extreme, about 80% stated that they will not take the vaccine and will not give it to their children!
Now by drawing some ideas from the business world, this could be labeled as a huge PR and marketing challenge. The MoH failure to interact with the out breaking news and the frenzy word of mouth may cost it to face tougher challenges in the coming days. Just imaging the situation when the vaccine becomes available and nobody there to take it!
The only response that I would consider positive came from Dr. Al Rabeeah, the Saudi minister of health, when he announced that to ensure the suitability of the vaccine, 17 consultants will perform some tests on it before making it available to the public (and do not ask me why 17 in particular!).
The points that I would like to raise here are the following: Are our public sectors able to deal with such publicity matters? Are they employing any PR or marketing professionals? Or are they actually admitting the importance of such professions in branding themselves and marketing their plans? Are they executing any branding strategies at all?
The ‘Saudi sex bragger’ case is back to surface after sentencing a Saudi female journalist to 60 lashes for her participation in the infamous episode that allegedly shocked the Saudi community and has been produced by LBC TV (Lebanese Broadcasting Corp.).
What interests me in this post is the behavior of LBC management toward this case since its outbreak few months ago.
First of all, it should be highlighted that the channel strategy was built upon targeting the Saudi market in a very direct way by producing programs that are entirely designed to address Saudi local issues. News, cultural, commentary, and sports shows have been aired presenting and hosting Saudi figures to discuss Saudi matters. The reason is obvious, the huge Saudi advertisement market. Increase our Saudi audience, so Saudi advertisers would keep coming. This strategy proved to be successful and they kept a fair share of the Saudi advertisement market.
After the disruption broke out because of that episode, the Saudi authorities closed the channel offices in both Riyadh and Jeddah; they asked all the local media related agencies to stop working with LBC, and many companies decided to stop advertising on the channel.
From a business perspective, this is a disaster. I can understand that the case is debatable in so many ways; free speech rights, ethicality, the LBC own values, and its audience cultural backgrounds are all mixed up in a very complicated way. However, given all this, the management reaction which was ‘almost nothing’, is still unexplainable to me.
In such incidents, a management recovery plan should be geared up to ensure the minimum possible losses. I am not taking the side of any possible point of view to suggest a particular course of action, but I am supporting taking an action at the first place. Now, the lack of reaction is costing the corporation a lot of its brand value. People are explaining its ‘nothing reaction’ as an ignorance sign to the whole Saudi culture. Consequently, the confidence and credibility of the channel is spiraling downward, and this is something not a single TV channel would like to go through!
The lesson here is straight forward, when you have a disaster, act fast … act now!
(Just for calrification, after this post by one day, the Saudi female reporter mentioned above has been pardoned by King Abduallah)
). Although the video has nothing to do with business or marketing or anything related to this field (actually, it is a clip from Animal Planet Channel), I was thinking about one of the most important concepts in business while watching the video; I was thinking about team work!
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