Jim McDowell added that as far as he was concerned, any job in the business can be held by a Saudi.
BAE Systems is a Saudi company and becoming more so, McDowell stressed, pointing out that there are more than 4,500 people working in the Kingdom, and 120,000 in the UK.
“Sixty percent of our work force is Saudi, and this will continue to grow,” said McDowell, adding BAE is the largest global company in terms of employing Saudis and serving the people of Saudi Arabia.
“I have been in the Kingdom for only 3 months, yet I am seeking to employ Saudis in senior positions. At the same time, it's good to have an international business world where you have different people from different cultures and backgrounds which brings richness to the business.”
McDowell added that having worked in the US, Africa, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Australia, he found the most vibrant companies he had worked for were those with a good mix of ages, experience, nationalities and gender too.
Employing women does not come without challenges, admitted McDowell. “At the moment there are 15 female employees in BAE Systems. We will take it slowly and see how that goes before we expand,” he said, indicating that this will give BAE a chance to observe the mistakes it has made and fix them before trying to at least double the number of women working for the company.
McDowell was impressed by the Saudi female employees’ performance and attitude.
Seeing women in other sectors in the Kingdom encouraged McDowell to find ways to employ more Saudi women at BAE.
“Engineering courses might not be very good at producing female engineers. Even in UK or Australia only 11 percent of engineer graduates are females,” said McDowell.
There are so many other jobs women can occupy like finance, law, supply team management and others yet, McDowell said, “There is no reason why Saudi females could not do project management which is the peak of our management tree with multi-billion projects.”
One of BAE Systems’ principles is to support the national agenda. McDowell indicated that this means three things, one of which is the defense of the nation. “It is in everybody’s national interest to defend his borders and people.”
Saudization and job creation are the other issues through, not just replacing one expatriate with a Saudi, but also transfer of technology.
Although McDowell admits that although he is not fully aware of the Saudi educational system, he believes people should not focus on tertiary education.
“People, especially in the West, had become obsessed with everyone having university degrees. In fact many of the valuable jobs that we create and try to fill are in vocational training,” said McDowell, adding skilled tradesmen and ICT professionals are in demand.
“Although vocational jobs, training and education need to be seen as noble, and that they add value to the community, the university system itself needs to produce people for the labor market” said McDowell. He added although it seems difficult in the Kingdom, the same problem is what faces Australia, UK and America.
McDowell stressed BAE Systems does not take any part, not even through consultancy, in current national issues that are security related.
“We simply respond to requirements. It is the job of the government of the Kingdom to decide its national security posture,” said McDowell, adding it is in a region that is geo-politically very important for many reasons.
BAE Systems provides equipment and training particularly to the air force and also to the navy, he said, adding he hoped to increase its presence in intelligence agencies.
McDowell believes that the image of BAE is associated most with military fields, although cyber attacks poses one of the biggest threats to national security.
“No one thinks of security when thinking of banks and insurance companies, for example, but if our identity is stolen…or the water purification plant’s software is attacked, it is a huge threat to national security,” said McDowell pointing out BAE is specialized in this area, which sometimes people ignore.
In his opinion, it is unfortunate BAE is still almost 100 percent associated with Aerospace. “BAE’s business is no longer British, it’s no longer an aerospace company. Although we do aerospace, naval ships and nuclear submarines, we also do cyber security and security and land systems. Fifty percent of its sales are generated in the US, and 40,000 of its employees are in the US. The brand does not help very much in changing this concept,” said McDowell, adding that the company will still continue to offer goods and services from other parts of their businesses.
BAE has invested in four economic offset companies outside of the main BAE Systems in the Kingdom, said McDowell, including the Saudi Development Training Company. “Hopefully at some point we will take one of them public, in order to increase the breadth of our exposure,” said McDowell.
Although BAE Systems is eager to contribute to the Saudi community as part of its Saudization goals, establishing factories in the Kingdom is not something the company will consider in the near future.
“We are prepared to do it but it will be a very expensive exercise. A better way to transfer the technology is in the sustainment and the upgrade,” said McDowell, adding Jubail is one example where the company is upgrading new systems. Training people and providing employment can be achieved through transferring technology, without the large upfront expense of development, said McDowell.
He pointed out that they are very close to making a decision on developing a pilotless airplane with one of the universities and another major partner in the Kingdom.
BAE Systems have invested in young Saudis where more than 400 academics have gone to the UK to conduct research.
In addition, there is the graduate program scheme, where fresh graduates do a two-year program either in the Kingdom or the UK. An internal scholarship agreement was signed with King Saud University, where brilliant students are sponsored in their last two years, then taken to BAE sites in the UK, the home of innovation, but without obliging them to work for BAE.
“It is BAE’s way of supporting education and investing in the country,” concluded McDowell.
