Many styles of management have been developed over the years ever since the phrase “bureaucracy” was invented in 19th century Germany.
The French, Americans and lately the Japanese have all made significant contributions to this art (or science as some would have it). The Saudis have in a very short while come up with their own highly distinctive style of management.
I believe that when people know more about it there will be a great stir among management professionals around the world.
For example if an airplane crashes in some other country then the chief of the airline or the director of the airport in which the accident happens will tender their resignation to show their responsibility.
Here, however, the whole thing will be attributed to an act of God and since no one can stop fate it is therefore no one’s fault.
Floods sweep away entire villages and is any body to blame?
Thousands are killed or injured in traffic accidents every year and is anyone responsible?
Billions are stolen from the general public through fraudulent real estate or stock market schemes and is anyone held accountable?
The answer is of course, hell no!
We have achieved what is considered by the experts in this field as the Holy Grail of management.
The manager who has all the authority with absolutely none of the responsibilities that normally goes with it.
Believe me, managers around the world would give their eyetooth to learn how we do it.
They will soon be traveling to this country in droves to sit at the feet of our management experts to learn how to avoid all responsibility for their actions while retaining all the power and authority.
But, there is yet another management technique developed by our experts and it is called “the Gotcha! Technique”.
An example of this is the recent citizenship law.
Thousands of people turned up at the civil affairs offices all over the Kingdom to apply for citizenship.
The bureaucrats there greeted them with broad smiles and cheerful cries of “Gotcha!” the reason being that the new law makes it practically impossible for anybody to get the citizenship.
Last week I was in Riyadh visiting a government department there.
I had learned (purely by accident) that I needed to get a license for one of my company’s activities from that department.
The head of the department happens to be a friend of mine so I told him: “Why don’t you inform people such as me that we need to get a permit from you?” He answered with a placid smile: “We have it posted on our website”. Keep in mind that the rate of Internet use in the Kingdom is about 15 percent.
I wanted to leap up and kiss my friend because he had just performed the Saudi management technique known as “cover your a...!”
My friend knew, as did I, that at that moment and with that simple statement his rear-end was like Superman’s.... bulletproof.
He had neatly sidestepped any and all responsibility for the public’s ignorance of the licensing requirement. This also allowed room for the application of the “Gotcha!” technique at a later stage.
As you can see we are witnessing the birth of a new style of management that I am sure will soon spread all around the world.
