Rethinking Multinational Strategy in the GCC

Over the past three decades, the Gulf has been transformed from a region where multinational companies largely brought scarce capital, technology and management expertise into one where governments, sovereign wealth funds and regional champions increasingly determine the terms of participation. Rethinking Multinational Strategy in the GCC — Thirty Years Later examines what actually happened to multinational strategy across Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. Drawing on 48 principal corporate case studies — 24 international multinationals and 24 GCC and regional companies — Dr. Gil Feiler analyzes which strategies succeeded, which failed, how localization changed corporate economics, and how the balance of bargaining power between foreign companies and Gulf governments evolved. The cases span energy and LNG, technology and AI, aviation, logistics, finance, infrastructure, industrial production, hospitality and consumer markets. Companies examined include global groups such as Oracle, Siemens, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Airbus, Boeing, Marriott, BlackRock and JPMorgan, as well as regional leaders including Aramco, ADNOC, Emirates, DP World, G42, stc, QNB, Emaar and Majid Al Futtaim. The book explores market entry, joint ventures, regional headquarters, national employment, local content, technology transfer, data residency, industrial policy, geopolitical risk and competition among American, European and Asian multinationals. In 1997, the Economist Intelligence Unit published Feiler’s Rethinking Business Strategy for the Middle East and North Africa. Nearly thirty years later, this completely new study asks the question that only history could answer: what actually worked? The central conclusion is clear: the Gulf is no longer simply a destination for multinational strategy. It is increasingly helping determine the terms on which global business strategy is executed.