In the Kingdom, there is an army of general managers and chief executives who in one way or the other look like extraterrestrial being. When you meet them, they look humble and cultured. But while talking to them, you discover that they are still living in the past and are afraid of entering the future and to them change is a risky endeavor.
It is true that they are prepared to listen to what you have to say but they always have reasons to justify their resistance to change. They tell you that they weren’t chosen to their posts by mere change, but because they truly deserved that position. However, when you ask about achievements, outcomes and development of the Saudi skilled manpower, their argument is always ready: They lack resources.
When you introduce yourself as an expert in problem solving, they usually surprise you by saying that they are looking for foreign companies to implement the project, which you are talking about.
My impression is that the concept of privatization is misunderstood. The underlying idea of privatization is that these government organizations should become profit-oriented. It is imaginable that when you meet one of these chief executives, he brings with him more than 10 managers with different titles. They try to convince you that they are efficient and skilled. But when the meeting comes to an end, the chief executive begins to issue instructions and directives — a fact which proves that this large number of managers are still novices.
In reality, the semi-government sector has reached the point of saturation and stagnation due to the large numbers of employees who are working in various sectors and specializations, but they are far away from their job descriptions. I believe, the solution is not to get rid of them for good, but the ideal solution is to re-distribute and motivate them in order to increase spirit of competitiveness.
To add salt to injury, when you present an idea that needs only three professionals to implement, they tell you that this would force them to terminate services of 50 employees! This means unemployment in disguise and that these public organizations are unproductive agencies.
In a recent meeting with one of these top executives to discuss mechanisms of implementing the Comprehensive Easy Access Program for the handicapped, he told me that that he would not be the first to initiate this program and that we should look for somebody else. In short, these managers are living in their ivory towers and are unaware of the fast-changing world around them.
