The Saudi Fast Growth 100 mission is to be the catalyst to showcase and promote a culture of entrepreneurship throughout the Kingdom. Elixir came at #16 on this prestigious list growing revenue an impressive 76% vs the previous year.
The Partners at Elixir all had highly successful careers at Procter & Gamble, a Multi-National company well known for offering consumer brands across the world. We were effective in building the sales and profits of brands such as; Tide, Pampers, Pringles, Ariel, Pantene, Crest, Bonux, and others in the GCC and Yemen. Hani Khoja also spent 3 years at the European headquarters leading the expansion of a brand across Western and Eastern Europe as well as Argentina and Chile. Despite their successful MultiNational careers, they all felt an obligation to help the GCC economies. They started getting requests from local businesses to help them build local brands.
Therefore they decided to form Elixir over 4 years ago with the vision to; help local companies, governments, organizations, and individuals succeed globally via strategic, creative solutions. Their specific goal was to become to the most trusted consultancy company in the GCC within 10 years. They wanted to utilize their experiences to help locals succeed on a global basis, to create local jobs, and create global success stories.
They immediately realized the main differences between Multi-national companies and locals. Firstly, most of the products and services offered were not based on buyer needs. Instead, they were designed by technical experts with the consumer rarely involved in the decision making. Multinationals on the other hand put the customer at the heart of the product design. Convincing local companies to change the corporate culture to find out what the consumer wants and translating needs into product design was very difficult. Many local companies simply refused to invest in necessary consumer research. They didn’t see the benefit of seeing what the consumer wanted from their product. They refused to shift from a technical-driven to consumer driven product design. Others accepted to conduct consumer research but didn’t translate consumer knowledge into product design. They simply preferred to continue business as usual.
Another major problem they realized with local companies was that many local companies invest significantly in consumer research and external consultants. They receive bulky summary reports and recommendations. However, they don’t have the capabilities to translate theory into reality. In fact, many have grown skeptical of theory-centered consultants and experts that talk a lot but don’t execute.
Yet another problem Elixir faced was a reluctance by company leaders to open up to outsiders. They simply didn’t trust them enough to reveal information critical to developing long term business building strategies. Many would not reveal sales data. This severely impeded Elixir’s ability to drive true change because the starting point was not entirely clear.
All types of clients have been served by Elixir over the past 4 years. Elixir helped start up a premium hospital, a new sea port, an on-line brokerage, a premium Asset and Wealth Management company, and CSR programs for various corporations. Elixir helped highly step-change the growth of successful companies by creating new brands targeting new target markets in the fields of; cement ready mix, ready-made thobes, real estate development, pizza, Gold manufacturing & health clinics. Elixir also helped major Social Foundations and Think Tanks restructure themselves, better understand social needs and execute new projects helping the community. In each of these projects, Elixir applied a relatively standard approach with the consumer as the core decision maker.
Saudi companies have changed over the past 4 years. They have begun to respect the consumer and invest much more in understanding their core target market. They have begun to understand the power of brands in not only acquiring new customers but also retaining them and transforming them into brand advocates. They have also started to develop processes and systems and rely less on a central decision maker who bases all decisions on gut feel. Saudi consumers have also changed. They are more selective and picky in finding the right brand offering that best suits their needs. They are more demanding of their brands. They are also much harder to reach with so many available media tools.
One of the biggest shifts we see coming soon is the Digital revolution. The new generation of Saudis spend significantly less time in front of traditional TV and much more with facebook, twitter, MySpace, and other digital media. They demand interactivity with the brand rather than lecturing one way communication. They are more likely to try new products as long as it understands their needs. Net, the Saudi consumer has become harder to convert. This has put an even more important role of better understanding them via research.
Elixir’s journey has been challenging. They beginning was all about optimizing the services offered by translating all the experience and knowledge into commercial services that best served their clients. The beginning also required the buildup of a solid reputation in the market. It also required the attraction of top talent to best serve clients. The economic crisis caused many clients to put projects on hold but they quickly realized that it was an opportunity to drive necessary change in their respective organizations. Therefore they relied on Elixir to drive such change.
Today, Elixir serves clients all across Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and Egypt. Plans are to continue expansion to achieve the goal of being the most trusted consultancy company in the GCC.
