ALKHOBAR, 18 November — Microsoft MENA yesterday announced organizational changes intended to further align the company’s business with its customers’ needs and to better support the growth of the IT industry in the region. The move creates two operational entities, Microsoft Gulf and Microsoft East Mediterranean.
"We have been committed to serving the Middle East for the past 11 years," said Emre Berkin, Vice President of Europe Middle East Africa. "Our story in the region has been one of a great success, and that is because we keep the customer and market needs in the center of our attention. Yesterday’s announcement is yet another step aimed at further aligning our operations with the economic structure and demographics of the region and is a step in our ongoing efforts to better serve our customers and partners."
Under the new structure, Microsoft Gulf, headquartered in Dubai Internet City, will cover the company’s business in the GCC states as well as Yemen and Pakistan, and will be headed by Mohammed Kateeb.
Before moving to Riyadh last year as the general manager of Microsoft Saudi Arabia, Kateeb was the general manager of the US-Gulf Coast district based in Houston, Texas. He is a nine-year veteran of Microsoft and brings a wealth of experience to the region. Kateeb is very passionate about contributing to the IT industry in the Gulf and excited about how Microsoft’s vision can help local economies benefit from the digital revolution.
The reorganization also includes the appointment of Bilal Sununu as country manager for Microsoft Saudi, reporting directly to Kateeb, along with Abdullatif Al-Mulla, country manager for UAE and Oman; and Ali Dalloul, country manager for Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain. Sununu joined Microsoft Saudi in July 1995. Over the past six years he has risen through the ranks holding positions in several different business units within Microsoft’s Kingdomwide operations. His last assignment before this promotion was as the Enterprise Group Manager.
In a statement made immediately after his appointment Sununu said: "The Saudi market is the most strategic one for Microsoft in the region. Microsoft is highly committed to this market and will be expanding the local presence by adding more resources to the Saudi operation. Microsoft Saudi Arabia will continue to focus on Saudization, education, empowering customers with great technology, customer satisfaction, and developing local partners capable of delivering state-of-art solutions."
The other new arm of Microsoft’s Middle Eastern operations will be Microsoft East Mediterranean, headquartered in Cairo. Microsoft East Mediterranean will be led by Ali Faramawy and will focus on the company’s operations in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Cyprus and Malta. Faramawy has been with Microsoft Egypt as the general manager for four years and has been instrumental in leading the company’s growth in Egypt. He worked hand in hand with the Egyptian government on many programs aimed at building the IT industry.
As part of yesterday’s announcement, Karim Ramadan was appointed country manager for Microsoft Egypt reporting to Faramawy along with Charbel Fakhoury, country manager for both Lebanon and Jordan.
After spending over eight years with Microsoft, Bahram Mohazzebi, the previous general manager of Microsoft Gulf and Eastern Mediterranean has decided to leave Microsoft to pursue other career interests.
In an exclusive interview by telephone from Dubai Internet City, Kateeb spoke with Arab News. He stated that he was not leaving Saudi Arabia behind, rather he was taking the initiatives he had started in the Kingdom and expanding them to encompass the entire Gulf region with the goal of giving it a stronger presence on Microsoft’s corporate map. He explained that as the Kingdom has the largest market and largest Microsoft presence in the region he will still be spending a significant amount of time monthly with both Microsoft’s staff and clients in Saudi Arabia.
"I want to emphasize that essential portions of the reorganization were initiated by the staff of Microsoft Saudi Arabia. We believe that due to the synergy between Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries and the key role that Saudi Arabia plays in the leadership of the region, this new set up will actually serve this region better," explained Kateeb. "In the end the region will have a stronger voice and will have a stronger case on issues like Arabization. As a group we can understand the market more clearly than when we were fragmented as before. We believe that this reorganization will be better for our customers and our partners and they will see its benefits very, very soon. I am very positive about the new structure and I think it’s a great thing especially for Saudi Arabia but also for the whole region."
In a new move for Microsoft, the company plans to seriously look at starting to provide market support to Yemen. This would make sense as other businesses in the Gulf are also currently focussing on possible expansions into Yemen for the first time and in doing so would be using IT extensively in their operations.
"Right now we still understand very, very little about Yemen," said Kateeb. "It would be premature to discuss basing staff in the country. We will spend the next few months learning about the market there and how we can best serve it."
Pakistan has been taking a beating both politically and economically in recent months. Microsoft hopes to bring new attention to bear on the country’s requirements. It has supported its current operations there even during these challenging times and its aim is to be ready to move forward once the crisis has passed.
"Incredible as it may sound at this moment, we have plans to increase Microsoft’s staff in Pakistan," said Kateeb. "Pakistan is a geography that we feel represents a huge opportunity and needs more of our attention. The political situation there is a little bit unsettled but we think that after everything is said and done it is going to be a huge opportunity for Microsoft. We already have an office, which by the way is operating and functioning even in these difficult conditions. We are planning to expand our presence and we think the Pakistani market will flourish in the next 12 months."
After our conversation touched on the emerging markets in his region, Kateeb felt it was vital to redirect the interview to the place he feels is his home. It is important to remember that Kateeb left the high intensity lifestyle of Houston behind in order to offer his family the chance to live closer to their roots in the Middle East.
"Some will say that with this new appointment I am leaving Saudi Arabia, but they are wrong," said Kateeb. "Saudi Arabia will get the best deal under this reorganization. Our operations there keep all their staff and they will also get access, because they are the largest country in this new set up, to all the resources from around the Gulf and probably the highest share of regional investment from Microsoft. Now our operations in the Kingdom have my committed attention at an even higher and stronger level than before."
Kateeb pointed out that his plan for the entire region is based on the initiatives that have already been launched successfully in Saudi Arabia.
"In the Kingdom what we started to do in the last 14 months is to develop our relationship with the government and build the right relationship with our customers," he said. "We will be implementing such initiatives in the rest of the Gulf countries. I am very pleased that in Saudi Arabia my role will not be one of making a new start but rather my job will be to make sure that what we have going there doesn’t get interrupted. We need to continue to do a great job and build on the foundation we have in place."
I wondered why if Kateeb is so committed to the Kingdom, that he didn’t just headquarter the new operations in Riyadh? "Microsoft has their Gulf headquarters in Dubai Internet City because of the ease of access of the facilities, ease of travel and ease of our personnel getting into and out of the country. We cannot ignore those factors from a business point of view," he replied. "But Microsoft’s investment in the UAE is not more than our investment in Saudi Arabia. If I look at Microsoft’s investment in the region, I believe that Saudi Arabia is still No. 1 in terms of our allocation of resources. We have many more employees in Saudi Arabia taking care of the country that we have in the UAE devoted to the same national purpose. We plan to grow our operations in the Kingdom further and to try as much as possible to grow the staff internally. I believe that Microsoft Saudi is reaching maturity in being able to support the needs of its own market. It is probably the most mature of our Gulf operations. I feel it is very important that we develop local talent to take care of the markets in each country. At Microsoft we believe that the best people who can understand the market, serve the market, and serve Microsoft in that market are the natives and increasing nationalization of our operations in the Gulf is an issue we will be focussing on."
What will the next year hold for Microsoft? While Windows XP was much touted and promoted globally in 2001, it is a different Microsoft product that has been more eagerly awaited by the Kingdom’s youth market. According to Kateeb Microsoft’s Xbox video game console should be available in Saudi Arabia and across the region in the second half of 2002.