Question

How do you feel doing business in the Middle East would differ from doing business elsewhere? What special factors (e.g. religious differences, cultural variables, Arab-Israeli relations) bear on your answer?

Answer 1

Here is how I felt doing business in the Middle East and I found that it differs from doing business elsewhere:

- Holidays differences: In the Western region, we work from Monday to Friday and enjoy our weekends holidays with our family on Saturday and Sunday. But this is not happening in the Middle East. I found that people are also going to the office on Sunday as well. That means Sunday is also a working day in the Middle East. Many of the holidays we get in the Middle East are considered as paid holidays. The paid holiday is Ramadan which can last for one month. Some other paid holidays are Hajj, Eid al-Adha, Eid al-Fitr.

- Religious differences: I found that employee can choose when they want to pray and must provide a suitable time for their team members to pray. The Arabian people don't wear a formal dress like we do when we go to the office. They often were their traditional dresses.

- Cultural variables: If we want to do business in the Middle East, then we have to understand the family of the person through which we are going to make our business deal. The family is the most important priority in the business. In order to make a business deal, we have to aim high there. Middle East organization are often bureaucratic but not like the Western Bureaucracy. They give more emphasis on the quality and the timing. While in the business meeting, they often share ideas and opinions verbally instead of showing them through Presentations.

- Contract Languages: I found that while having a contract between two people if one person is making a contract in English then the other person will require a side-by-side translation in Arabic. This way they prevent conflict between the English and their language's version of the agreement.