Saudi Arabia: Let's Make a Deal! - Part 2

From ExecutivePlanet.com

Bargaining, negotiating, and contacts

Bargaining and Negotiating

Until the discovery of oil, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia produced nothing. There was no industry, only trading. Over the centuries, this merchant culture produced the shrewdest bargainers in the world. Even in Saudi daily life, it is customary to bargain for virtually everything except newspapers and postage stamps.

Such things as airfares and hotel rates are fair game and a discount of less than 20% can be deemed an insult [hence the reason the national carrier eschews an air miles scheme]. To the Saudi it is fun. Only when the visitor is imbued with the same sense of fun will he stand a fair chance. Shari'ah provides one last sting.

An agreement is final when and only when the participants part. So long as they are together, it can be unilaterally abrogated even, in theory, if duly signed and witnessed.

Contacts

The Kingdom of Saudi is one enormous old boys' club. On a given level, everybody seems to know everybody else. Unlike in western Monarchies, there is no peerage but there is a commercial aristocracy comparable to the American industrial dynasties.

Contrary to their American counterparts, however, Saudi merchant princes are not at all self-centred and, therefore, are relatively easily accessible.

There are perhaps half a dozen such families in each region of the Kingdom who intermarry so that an introduction to one can be an introduction to all. Nonetheless, caution is advised because there are also the nouveau riche, whom these families shun as upstarts.

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