Vijay Mahajan teaches marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, consults with the world’s leading corporations and has received several lifetime achievement awards for visionary leadership. The Arab World Unbound, authored by him, is a substantial study of the dynamics of the Arab world, setting out the significant developments taking place in the region and the impact they would have on the strategies of a global entrepreneur. In order to obtain a first-hand understanding of his complex subject, between 2008 and 2010 Mahajan visited nearly all 22 countries of the Arab League and met several hundred people across the region.
The Arab world has a total population of 357 million, a GDP of about $2 trillion (the ninth largest in the world) and a per capita income of $5,563. Of course, the six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) do dominate the Arab economy in that, with just 10 per cent of the population between them, they have an economy of $1.1 trillion — Saudi Arabia alone makes up 21 per cent of the Arab economy. However, Mr Mahajan goes beyond the GCC to look at the situation in other countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Algeria, Sudan and Mauritania.
Mr Mahajan rejects the stereotype of the Arab as intensely religious, deeply fanatical and extremely violent. In fact, his journey across the Arab world shows him a region that, while subject to important political and cultural changes, has boundless energy, which is “sparking entrepreneurial fervour, innovative charitable work, job creation, broader personal freedoms, and richer consumer demands”.
Mr Mahajan comprehensively analyses the influences across the region of: Islam, the youth, the middle class, women, technology, the media and the Arab diaspora. He points out that the average Arab, while deeply committed to traditional beliefs, also pursues progress, modernity and inclusion in a 21st-century global marketplace. The Arabs do derive their cultural traditions from religion, but they also place the highest importance on modern education so that their children are exposed to the latest developments in science, technology, social sciences and the humanities.
About 53 per cent of the Arab population is aged 25 years or below, numbering nearly 200 million. This throws up opportunities for consumer product marketing as well as for providers of education at different levels, both domestic and foreign. At the same time, young Arab men and women are also creating space for themselves as entrepreneurs, particularly in the services sector. The facts that about 60 per cent of the Arab people belong to the middle class and are being increasingly urbanised also have a major impact on consumption patterns and cultural mores.
Mr Mahajan has devoted considerable space to the situation of Arab women, who constitute about 49 per cent of the total population, though their percentage share is less in GCC countries owing to the presence of a large number of male expatriate workers. Mr Mahajan discovers at first hand that, contrary to their image as ignorant and oppressed, women across the region are not only well-educated, they are also pursuing careers and setting up enterprises with considerable determination. In fact, their success rate in tertiary education far exceeds that of men — there are over 55 per cent women graduates in Algeria, Qatar, UAE, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. He sees across the region “epic transformations” taking place, and asserts that, contrary to stereotype, “the veil does not block an Arab woman’s brainpower”.
The Arab world is also in the vanguard of the high-tech experience, with Internet penetration of over 40 per cent in several countries, well above that of 36 per cent in China and below 10 per cent in India. The region’s average for cell phone subscriptions exceeds that of the US, China and India. Regional satellite television broadcasting now has global standing, both in news and entertainment, with Arab audiences showing a deep interest in Bollywood.
As a market, the region demands high-quality products and services and is very brand-conscious. At the same time, the innovative spirit of the region has also ensured that it is the source of some of the world’s major brands such as Emirates, Aramex, Emaar, Air Arabia, Etisalat and IrisGuard. Mr Mahajan concludes that the region displays a Yalla (“Let’s go”!) energy, which is expressed in a strong sense of enterprise, and is increasingly integrating the region with the global marketplace.
The energy and excitement that Mr Mahajan has witnessed across the Arab world are reflected on every page of this monumental work. At the end of his voyage across the region, he rejects almost all the biased stereotypes, senses the urge for change, and concludes that the region and its people are poised to play a significant role in the global market as consumers and producers. Though Mr Mahajan’s principal interest is in retail marketing, the book is replete with facts, observations and insights that would not just greatly benefit a corporate marketing effort, but would also enrich the knowledge base of diplomats, journalists or academics grappling with the complex nuances of the Arab nations involved in many of the world’s contemporary crises.
The reviewer is former Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE
THE ARAB WORLD UNBOUND
Tapping into the Power of 350 million consumers
Vijay Mahajan
Jossey-Bass; 408 pages; $39.95
