Saudi Telecom Company joins BCG co-owned Brightline Initiative

Saudi Telecom Company, the largest telecom company in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), has joined the Brightline Initiative, a think tank coalition launched by among others The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) that aims at bridging the gap between strategy design and strategy delivery.

In February this year, The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) teamed up with Agile Alliance and Project Management Institute (PMI) to launch the Brightline Initiative. With the platform the founding members want to provide for CXOs insights and solutions to bridge the “recurring and expensive gaps” between strategy development and strategy implementation.

A report by the Economist Intelligence Unit for instance found that 61% of senior executives worldwide admit their organisations struggle to deliver the expected results of strategy planning, and only 56% of strategic initiatives were implemented successfully. According to research by BCG, only 24% of organisations deliver consistent total shareholder returns, with suboptimal performance in the majority of cases tied to poor strategy execution. 

“The Brightline Initiative brings together the thought leadership of three leaders in the field, and will integrate the best of the existing knowledge surrounding strategy implementation and link it to initiative management. It will, taking a holistic approach, deliver insights and solutions, empowering leaders to successfully transform their organisation’s vision into reality through strategic initiative management,” said Ricardo Vargas, Executive Director of Brightline.

By joining the Brightline Initiative, Saudi Telecom Company wants to learn how it can better “capture emerging opportunities in the MENA while remaining a leader in ICT and managing overall challenges over the coming years,” explained Khaled Biyari, CEO of the Riyadh headquartered company. The Saudi firm was established in 1998 and today generates revenues of $13.8 billion, realised mainly in Saudi Arabia, but also in Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE, Turkey, South Africa, Malaysia and India.

Biyari: “Saudi Telecom Company has a profound expertise and a renowned success in building and executing strategies. We are looking forward to joining a coalition that brings together leading organisations and academics worldwide to address the critical business issue of successful strategy delivery.”