It is practically impossible to account for the region’s past decade of accelerated change without putting things in proper historical perspective.
We are leading in the era of the transition from the merchant family to the corporate society. It is fair to label the region as a first generation corporate society.
This transition in the phase of the business market life cycle is not a new concept. We can look to history to see how other regions made this transition from a rural, or in our case desert culture to a corporate society.
The United States experienced the creation of its corporate society in the early 20th century during the era of its original industrial families — the Rockefellers, Fords, Guggenheims, Vanderbilts, Flaglers and others. Exploring that period for insights on leading in the Middle East is far more valuable than looking at General Electric’s current business model or that of other modern publicly traded entities.
In the early 1900s, 90 per cent of the US workforce was self-employed or farmers, and today 90 per cent is made of employees working in a “corporatised” organisation. So while the corporate society reality is new to the Middle East, its rise from the original family business and government-sector model in other regions can provide clues towards what businesses should be doing.
Today the world seems to be split between existing corporate societies in which the private sector has been a dominant part of life for multiple generations and first-generation corporate societies in other parts of the world.
The primary difference between the two is that the former emerged during the era of industrialisation while the latter are emerging now and bypassing the Industrial Revolution model.
While the Middle East boasts a few mature family businesses, some of which go back generations, most in the current workforce are among the first members from their family to work in a corporate environment. They have historically worked in the public sector or small neighbourhood-style businesses. Only recently have they started to populate the corporate sector.
The consequence has been that only now are social and family support and development systems being built for a corporate environment. On the other hand, western societies have been involved in the corporate culture since the early 1900s, when they experienced the same migration of work that the Middle East is experiencing now.
Here, the route to the corporate society is coming via service and knowledge economies, unlike in the West, which made its transition from an agrarian society into the private sector through industry.
The Middle East is leaping to corporatising and creating the appearance of similarity with the West, yet decades of corporate practices have not been built into the rhythms and psyche of society. For example, in industrialised nations, business structures stem from a mechanistic mentality, while in the Middle East business structures stem from family orientation.
This is precisely why corporate leaders working in the Middle East should familiarise themselves at least with the region's recent history of rapid growth. The important thing is that leaders open their eyes to the specific demands and expectations of employees, most of whom are from a first-generation corporate society.
Leaders need to take serious account of the mix of employees — those who are “corporate citizens” in the generational and those who are only first-generation corporate citizens. This is vital information for anyone who wants to lead an organisation here, as it allows you to adapt your leadership approach to whoever you are leading.
Tommy Weir is a leadership adviser, author of 10 Tips for Leading in the Middle East and other leadership writings and the founder of the Emerging Markets Leadership Center
