It is hard to think of a worse time for a new water supply system to break down. Not only are we at the start of the holy month of Ramadan, when families need to know that their eating and drink arrangements are properly organized before iftar. This Ramadan also happens to fall within the hottest month of the season, when water becomes of ever importance.

On the face of it, the system just introduced by the National Water Company at the Faisaliah plant in Jeddah, could not have been more simple or effective. Customers went and bought the water from the plant and no longer had to hang around waiting to guide a driver to their home or business. When their water was loaded and the driver ready to set off with off with it, he would telephone them to get directions for the delivery address.

This however is not what has happened. In the busy run-up to Ramadan, customers have gone to the Faisaliah offices, paid for their water, headed off home but never received either the phone call or the water.

A number of reasons have been advanced for the almost immediate collapse of what seems to be a very sensible system. The main one, from the management, is that drivers were reluctant to call up people and be guided to the delivery spot by telephone. They preferred just following someone to wherever they had to go. It has also been suggested that no provision has been made by management to recompense drivers for making these calls from their own mobiles.

Whatever the real issue at stake here, all the signs are that this is yet another example of a good organizational idea that has gone wrong through poor implementation. Whether in government or the private sector, change is not something that can be imposed from on high and then be expected to work. Successful change actually has to be managed. There have to be plans, there have to be consultations and, perhaps most importantly, there have to be tests.

Without seeming to victimize the NWC management at Faisaliah, let us wonder nevertheless why it was decided to introduce the new system. What perceived problem did the change seek to address? Was it reckoned that it would improve efficiencies to allow a delivery driver’s schedule to be dictated by a roster of jobs, rather than having to go with someone who had been sitting at the plant for an hour or two, waiting to show where his delivery should go? Or was there an anxiety to improve customer service, not an area that is high on the agenda of some organizations in the Kingdom?

But then once the need for a change was identified, what sort of consultation or market research was done, to see if the new system would work, not simply with customers, but with employees who would be responsible for putting it into practice? How well were the changes communicated to them? And finally, how much testing, how many dry runs were conducted to see if the changes would work?

It would seem, from the fact that some drivers decided to stay away from work, rather than go along with it, that the new scheme was not well communicated.

Management gurus and consultants are as busy here in the Kingdom as everywhere else around the globe, advising companies on changes of all shapes and sizes. For this they generally charge fabulous sums. When you are talking about project management in areas as complex as the new city and national railway systems, the experience and “outside the box” view they can bring is invaluable. But in the end, like all management, what they will tell their clients all comes down to common sense.

It would of course have been overkill — on a grand scale — to have hired a consultant to figure out how best to change the truck distribution at a Jeddah water station. Yet the muddle and confusion, the poor timing of the change, the botched implementation and the overall lack of forethought and planning suggest that some outside advice could have helped.

When all is said and done, this is not actually a trifling issue. A business that cannot get the small things right, is very probably going to have even more difficulties with the big issues.

If however, the “customer-facing” side of an organization is smart and efficient, it will inspire confidence and draw in more business and more profit.