Imagine being an automotive consultant hired to not only build the U.S. auto industry from scratch, but to create the city of Detroit from its inception, too. That's the opportunity presented to consultants in the Middle East. Local governments and quasi-private businesses are poised to spend billions of dollars to build new cities around mainstream and cutting-edge industries. And they're hiring Western consultants to make it work.
"The Middle East is a huge market for strategy consulting," says Karen Nickel Anhalt, a senior analyst with Kennedy Consulting Research & Advisory and lead author of a recently released report forecasting the consulting opportunities in the Middle East and Africa. "Firms are being hired to devise national strategies on everything from infrastructure to healthcare. They're also assisting their massive sovereign wealth funds with transactions and investment strategy. The breadth of opportunities for consultants is amazing."
And unlike some parts of the world where there's a cultural bias against asking outsiders for help, "Clients in these countries are quite open to working with consulting firms, especially in the Gulf region," Anhalt says.
Saudi Arabia, for example, is in the midst of creating five new cities, each with a specific industry focus, such as logistics or high tech. Firms such as IBM and PwC are working on developing them individually and building networks between and among the cities.
"Clients in the Gulf region want the best of the best to help them leapfrog to the cutting edge. They don't just want to be great economic centers—they want to be better than New York or Tokyo. They want the best advisors and don't care where they come from or what it costs," says Tomek Jankowski, also a Kennedy Consulting Research & Advisory Analyst and co-author of the report.
Clients are willing to overlook culture and accept English as the language of the consulting industry, and are fully accepting of the consulting profession's fly-in mentality; however, Arabic fluency is becoming a differentiator. Anhalt adds that the most respected strategy practice in the region belongs to Booz & Company, which set up shop in 1993. Indeed, Joe Saddi, a Lebanese national and Booz's long-time Middle East leader, is chairman of the global firm.
Demographic Shifts Spur Activity
Creating new industry jobs is critical for the future of these countries because of a huge demographic challenge. The percentage of young people entering the work force in the coming decade is staggering and they need industries to work in, Anhalt adds.
In addition to creating jobs for this new generation of workers, these countries are also eager to diversify their economies. Many of these countries' vast fortunes have been built on—and only on—oil production. The consulting opportunity is figuring out the next steps, Jankowski says.
This isn't just an opportunity for strategy and financial consultants. "They need operations experts. There's also a real sweet spot for HR consultancies offering leadership and organizational design services," Anhalt says.
—Jess Scheer
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