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Last week, there was an article in the New York Times by an Italian writer who was asked to explain Americans to a group of factory workers in the south of Italy. His task was specific; there are Americans coming to help the factory after commencing a joint venture with one of the American companies, and since he lived part of his life in the US, he was expected to provide some insight on how Italian workers should deal with the Americans.
The writer abbreviated his approach in the “3 Cs” to understand how to work with Americans, you should know that “they are obsessed by 3 Cs: Control, Competition, and Choreography,” and he went on explaining what did he mean by those words in the article.
Now, I thought of doing the same here, if you are coming to work in Saudi Arabia, what should you know about Saudis in the workplace. Mind you, it is a very popular question. For this country looks, to a lot of people around the world, like a mysterious box full of wonder and magic, the wonder of history and traditions, and the magic of money and oil. Like any other place in the world, its image is a blend of facts, lies, and stereotypes.
Trying to summarize its business environment could be interpreted as another attempt into stereotyping; there are many ways and schools of thought when it comes to doing business in the Kingdom, but there are still the average ways that color most of its business environment. And this average is what I will be addressing and summarizing in the 3 Ss: Seniority, System, and Singularity.
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