Who Should Attend ?

Company managers and staff working and dealing with Saudi Arabia, directly in Saudi Arabia or remotely, and consequently with Saudi Arabians, but also with often very multicultural teams (Indians, Pakistanese, Iranians, Egyptians, etc.)

Benefits of Attendance

The aim of this seminar is to significantly improve the participants’ effectiveness in their professional relationships with the Saudi Arabians enabling them to be operational right from the start.

At the end of this training, participants will have acquired insights and techniques to:

• Be aware of their own cultural baggage
• Fully understand Saudi context and culture
• Analyse possible situations in which misunderstandings may arise and identify ways of communicating
• Reduce stress and misunderstandings
• Decipher and understand decision-making and negotiation processes

Training Approach

Programme Outline

Module 1 : Understanding cultural differences

1. Intercultural awareness : the key to success in international business

• Taking stock of one's own cultural baggage
• The basics of effective intercultural management
• Identifying and going beyond cultural stereotypes

2. Key aspects of Saudi culture

• The largest country in the Middle East
• A strict monarchy in a country of immense geopolitical importance
• The cradle of Islam
• A multicultural society

3. The impact of values and behaviour patterns on professional dealings and relationships

• The central role played by religion in daily life
• Strict separation between the roles of men and women
• Clothing as an outward sign of wealth and affluence
• Time management: working to a religious calendar
• The Saudi way of thinking: communication styles
• A fundamental respect for authority and hierarchies
• Attitudes to risk and uncertainty

4. The Saudi corporate world

• The keys to understanding the way Saudi businesses operate
• The importance attached to professions
• Influences and mutual assistance in Saudi companies.
• An oil-based economy and limited attempts at diversification

Module 2 : Succeeding in work with the Saudi Arabians

1. Effective communication with the Saudi Arabians

• Networking
• The importance attached to verbal communication: to say it is to do it
• The value of implicit communication
• The working language: the role of the interpreter

2. Adapting your working methods

• Building relationships based on trust and confidence
• Establishing and supporting your credibility
• Taking people’s personal ambitions seriously
• Motivating, delegating, providing feedback and praise
• Conflict resolution: using mediation to defuse problem situations

3. Successful meetings and negotiations with Saudi Arabians

• The preparation phase
• The art of negotiation, the Saudi style
• Identifying decision-makers and negotiation styles
• Learning to be patient: building for the long-term
• Reaching a consensus
• Understanding written contracts, their interpretation and implications
• Organising the post-negotiation phase

4. Final handy tips

• Caution, patience and humility
• Protocol and etiquette
• Social standards, gifts, business cards, dress code, etc
• Sensitive subjects: politics, the monarchy, religion
• Humour: a double-edged sword