JEDDAH, 25 May 2004 — Business leaders yesterday called for new ways to improve the strength of family enterprises and make them more effective and competitive. “If we don’t do that, we will lose out,” one of the speakers said on the opening day of a two-day Saudi Family Business Forum at Jeddah Hilton.
Two of the Kingdom’s top business leaders delivered keynote addresses assessing the future prospects and opportunities for family businesses, as well as guidelines for overcoming the challenges for their success.
“There is the need in a family business to separate business and family,” said Abdulaziz Qassim Kanoo, deputy chairman and deputy chief executive of Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo.
Family businesses generally do well provided that competent managers handle the business professionally, but the family side must be kept well under control, he said.
“We must prepare our companies to take advantage of global opportunities that offer unprecedented avenues for expansion in a way not possible before. In the global economy, where competition is king, there is no way to hide,” Kanoo said.
Mohammed Abudawood, general manager of Abudawood for Industry Co., said family enterprises should ensure that young family members running the business are competent, and they have the requisite skills, knowledge, attitudes and awareness of the type of business they are doing. “Only then can they master their businesses,” he said.
Family enterprises should make sure that they have a strong base and the right capitalization so that they can compete with international companies once the Kingdom joins the WTO. He called for an industrial strategy that would assist the national industry to face challenges coming from manufacturing and techno savvy countries like China and India.
