“Pick candidates that are socially flexible” Aouni Kawas
The explosion on August 4th in Beirut shook the world. How are you doing these days, what is the economic situation in Lebanon?
The Beirut explosion was the product of 30 years of negligence and corruption on the part of the Lebanese government.
In the last years before the explosion, Lebanon had been facing an extremely difficult social, economic and political situation. It all started when the Lebanese government agreed to enforce a fee on every WhatsApp user.
The protests were not a result of the proposed WhatsApp fee, but this decision was definitely the straw that broke the camel‘s back.
Upon the announcement of the government‘s proposal, citizens began taking to the streets to protest against the detrimental financial situation, horrible living conditions, corruption, etc.
On top of all of this, the Lebanese currency has been devalued due to a Ponzi-scheme-like financial engineering strategy by the central bank and private banks. A lot of businesses stopped their activities and no new businesses were created. This resulted in an unemployment rate of more than 30%.
Kawas Consulting lost more than 80% of its local business. Hence, we decided to launch our Paris-based operations. Currently, we rely mostly on our business with the Gulf region and Africa.
What specific issues should European companies consider when recruiting for management positions in the GCC countries?
The culture in this region of the world is totally different. A manager who fits in Europe doesn’t necessarily fit in the GCC area. Etiquette and manners differ enormously. For example, when going to a business meeting, it is common to talk about family, personal interests and personal life before or after talking about business, while in Europe, this is usually not the case.
Other examples of differing cultural norms and sayings: “In Sha Allah” is often used to gently say “no” – but sometimes to say “yes”, which can be confusing. People in the GCC like to talk and consider any gathering as a potential place to find new partners.
Companies should thus pick candidates that are socially flexible and well-read/ informed about the differences in culture.
How does the nationalization policy of the GCC (e.g. “saudification”) states influence your executive search assignments?
The nationalization policy in this area has a strong influence on our executive search mandates. It renders tasks difficult since our researchers struggle to find local talent that is suitable for the advertised positions. Knowing fully well that they are in high demand, the local candidates invited to fill these executive positions then proceed to make exorbitant demands with regards to their renumeration packages.
Actually, we had the opportunity of working with governmental entities, where we had to place foreign experts. These experts were shadowed, and had to report to a local that had no relevant experience, while their wages were more than double that of the expert. This led to quite a few frustrations on the part of the experts.
What developments do you expect on the HR markets of the Middle East in 2021?
During 2020, COVID-19 has been hard for everyone, and a lot of new projects and jobs were lost.
We believe that in 2021, the HR developments in the area will suffer due to the bad political situation between the GCC countries and Iran. If no solutions are found, the overall economy and not only HR will suffer. Unfortunately, governments are currently spending more on the military, instead of investing in social capital – the necessary tool for economic growth and prosperity.