In three weeks’ time (Nov. 26), Arab News is scheduled to publish its annual list of the top 100 Saudi companies. The list is now in its 22nd year and has always — apart from one year — been an in-house production, listed and researched by Arab News or a sister company, and compiled by an independent financial house. It is published on the basis of information provided by the listed companies in their annual returns, or in the case of private businesses, by themselves. And this annual list has appeared in recent years in Arab News and its sister publication, Al-Eqtisadiah.
Today, the Top 100 is seen as a barometer of the Saudi economy, with business and banks in the Kingdom and abroad waiting to see how companies and sectors are faring. Individual companies are impatient to know how their rivals are doing. Even if they already know, they still await the list with keen anticipation; rising high on the list has become a badge of honor and an invaluable marketing ploy.
If companies today clamor to get on the list, phoning up well in advance for the forms to fill (and, in the case of some, again phoning reporters prior to publication to try to find out who is placed where), it was not always so. The list was begun by Arab News at a time when the Saudi business sector was starting to transform dramatically. Traditional family-run businesses were exploding in turnover and operation as a new generation of highly educated sons (and daughters) began to make their marks in business. It was also a time when Saudi companies were starting to invest seriously abroad. The list, published initially in English, was intended to give the world a photo shot of how Saudi business stood at year-end. Over the years, it has been co-published in Arab News’ sister publications, initially in Asharq Al-Awsat, and more recently in the group’s business daily, Al-Eqtisadiah.
In the early years, simply trying to obtain the figures was an uphill struggle. Deadlines passed without the information arriving from companies. Constant badgering of PR and finance departments was required. A climate of indolence, of putting off today what could be done tomorrow, was in part to blame, but the culture of privacy was also a major barrier.
Company figures appearing in print has not always been easy for some family-run businesses to accept. They viewed profits as a private matter. As a result, there were — and still are — companies that refused to cooperate at all and which had to be left off the list.
That culture has changed over the past five years or so, not only as more and more family businesses go for listing on the stock exchange, but also as the next generation of executives take over.
They understand the PR value of being seen to be successful, particularly if they too plan a public listing. Even so, there are still some businessmen who fail to understand the scale of change that has overtaken Saudi commerce in the past few years. There have been instances of companies listed on the Tadawul complaining about their annual figures appearing on the list without their permission, oblivious to the fact that those figures have already been made public in their annual returns.
There have been other difficulties. On a few occasions, information provided by companies proved inaccurate, sometimes so wildly inaccurate as to be obvious to compilers, but not always so. There has been the odd occasion too when despite constant requests for information, nothing comes and a company has to be left off the list — only to result in complaints from the chairman, unaware that his own employees have let him and the company down.
The culture of indolence, of letters ignored, of faxes left sitting in in-trays, of executives going off on vacation without organizing anyone else to take over their duties is still alive — and it is not just the compilers of the Top 100 who have to rise to the challenge this poses. There is also the problem of the odd businessman (fortunately rare) who labors under the delusion that the results can be fixed; recently one prominent Saudi company refused an interview unless it were placed higher on the list — which of course Arab News refused to do. Such difficulties, though, have declined as the value of the Top 100 to Saudi business has grown. It is a public sign of success to be on the Top 100 list — and the list is the intellectual property of Arab News/SRPC.