Today in Global Small Business: Can Saudi Arabia Buy the World?

©iStock/gorodenkoff

What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• In the months before Mohammed bin Salman celebrated his 30th birthday nearly a decade ago, the yet-to-be anointed Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia was gifted a vital key to unlocking the kingdom's future: full purview of its Public Investment Fund.  Is he on a mission to buy the world?
• International SEO best practices in 2024.
• Quote of the week:  "We are a G20 country. One of the biggest world economies. We're in the middle of three continents. Changing Saudi Arabia for the better means helping the region and changing the world. So this is what we are trying to do here. And we hope we get support from everyone." – Mohammad bin Salman
• International students hone their language entrepreneurial skills.
• U.S. SBA administrator announces agreement with India to promote American small businesses globally.
• Check out the Pharr Global Business Hub, which officially opened its doors in a grand event attended by prominent local, state, and federal figures in TX.

How Saudi Arabia Is Becoming a Hot Spot For Global Technology Manufacturing

©iStock/SweetBunFactory

Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 transformation has already brought change and growth to the nation's economy and society, with technology, tourism, and sports gaining global attention. 

Now Saudi Arabia has set its intentions on advanced manufacturing, and one company, Alat (Arabic for "machine"), is taking the lead to make the country a new global center for advanced and sustainable industry.

Learn how Saudi Arabia is becoming a hot spot for global technology manufacturing with sustainable practices in mind.  Here's how.

Today in Global Small Business: Creating Opportunities For Smaller Competitors to Enter the Market

©iStock/RomoloTavani

What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Big companies often grow complacent and fail to innovate, creating opportunities for smaller competitors to enter the market.
• Has globalization taken over?
• Globalization is not over – but you can read this anyway.
• Quote of the week:  "I think a winner has to be a master of preparation, they have to be a master of connection, extremely competitive and have really high standards for themselves and the people around them." – Maya Moore
• The Nokia Risk.
• Inside Saudi Arabia's coffee shop boom.

You Tell 'em Tom

©iStock/LuckyBusiness

If I [Laurel J. Delaney] could write a better opinion piece on the Middle East, golf and M.B.S., I would.  But no need to.  Tom Friedman did.  Thanks!

Saudi Arabia Should Take a Mulligan on Golf. Here’s What It Can Do Instead.

How Do We Ensure That Middle Eastern Family Businesses Survive?

©iStock/FS-Stock

According to Hassan Jameel, Deputy President and Vice-Chairman, Abdul Latif Jameel (ALJ), family businesses play an outsized role, accounting for over three-quarters of the private sector economy’s workforce. Many of the largest businesses in the region remain family run, having grown over the course of several generations from small enterprises into conglomerates spanning sectors and geographies.  Even his own firm, ALJ, established by his grandfather, started off as a small vehicle distributor in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Today, 70 years later, the company has grown to become a significant global distributor and has diversified into multiple sectors including energy, real estate and finance, operating in more than 30 countries around the world.

For many the idea of a family business immediately conjures up an image of a small shop, in which a son is stacking the shelves while his father ponders the proud day he hands over the keys. It is easy to forget that some of the business world’s biggest names, such as Ford, Walmart or Tata, are or once were family enterprises, built on big ideas seized by bold entrepreneurs that have now been passed down through generations.

Learn how some of the biggest family businesses in the region grew from humble beginnings and discover what was behind their success.