During the past ten years, major think tanks and global management consulting firms came to different government agencies and ministries in Saudi Arabia to provide them with recommendations and plans in return for huge wages – in the millions of Riyals. This makes me wonder whether these governmental bodies and ministries are managed by those government employees or by those foreign think tanks who employ very few Saudi citizens.
Sometimes it would seem as if the country has nothing to offer but large amounts of money for think tanks and management consulting corporations in order to provide it with ideas and plans that most of the time cannot be implemented. All these consultants present complex graphs, dazzling numbers and more than wonderful verbiage that makes the client feel that the consultants are the source of knowledge and wisdom.
Meanwhile, the creation of a new rank of Saudi coordinators takes place within the government’s bodies and ministries who know but little other than the management consultants from think tank companies. Therefore, why don’t we just hand the “keys of the country” to those consultants?
A lot of companies and countries were fascinated by consultants. In the United States for instance, AT&T managed to spend $500 million on consultants during the past five years alone. It is said that the British Government between 1997 to 2006 spent £20 billion on Management Consultants, which subsequently pushed the House of Commons to question the return on such investments.
A favorite saying of think tanks and management consultants is that the quality of their performance and results depends mainly on the quality of the questions they receive from their clients. And this is partially true because Saudi and the Gulf clients have searched for “Great Projects” that made them one of a kind. When the gulf region was booming in the mid-2000s, consultants from those think tank companies managed to promote to Gulf countries the idea of manufacturing, considering it to be the road to the future through aluminum smelting plants. No one cared except for those concerned in thinking about whether gas was available for all Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia. But we should blame ourselves because many decision and policy makers were mesmerized by great ideas in the areas of development and economic diversification presented by management consultants.
In his bold book that was published in the year 2005, under the title “Fraud”, David Reg, who was a consultant in a think tank company, said, “We were proud of the way that we followed in our work, it was like robbing from a bank – but legal. We could have taken anyone off the street directly and educated him on a few simple tricks within two hours, then send him easily to our clients for more than seven thousand pounds a week. “The tricks consisted,” says Reg “of lies, lies and more lies.”
Saudi Arabia relies on think tanks as much as it depends on oil. This approach must be stopped. There should be more encouragement on local abilities. But the problem lies in the fact that all projects must be done during a short period of time. And so, think tanks are run to carry out the projects (through recommendations and consulting) because building local abilities takes time. If the projects were executed over several years, this will provide sufficient time to develop talent and local ideas. When the Saudis are arriving at sound decisions on their own developed by local abilities, not global think tanks, then this will create a culture of thoroughness, accountability and in-depth analysis in the Kingdom.
***
Dr. John Sfakianakis is the Chief Investment Strategist of MASIC, the Riyadh-based investment and asset management company.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in Arabic on the Saudi news website Alyaum. SUSTG.org is pleased to feature this analysis and commentary by Dr. Sfakianakis as translated from his weekly columns.
