The relaunch of a corporate brand is a compelling move for many companies today to meet emerging business trends in the local and global markets. It is upheld as a suitable option to reassess the vision and mission of companies, and set thereof new corporate strategies, considering, in the process, the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing forward-looking business organizations. Rawabi Holding, a highly diversified Saudi company with eight oilfield services companies and 11 contracting and industrial services groups in addition to several joint ventures and collaborations, relaunched last week its brand that is anchored more on empowering its 2,541 employees. “Our brand relaunch is to ensure that our continued business growth keeps up with the pace of the global markets and standards and surmount competitiveness; that our company's relaunched brand is aligned to and with good corporate governance and balanced with profit as well as our responsibilities to the environment and the community we have vowed to serve,” said Abdulaziz Ali Al-Turki, Chairman of Rawabi Holding, during an elaborate ceremony held last week and attended by members of the business community in the Eastern Province. Turki said the success of his company, that was founded in 1980, has been its unwavering faith in its people – its employees. He remarked during his speech that that faith in its people has now been converted into empowering them to achieve more for the advancement of the company and for their personal benefit. “I have never believed in a one man show; for us here in this company it has always been ‘we' rather than ‘I',” he said. “We have that trust that if you empower the right people, provide them with the support, resources and encouragement, they can and will achieve great things.” Al-Turki declared that Rawabi Holding is now a company powered by people. He added that he expects additional companies will be joining the Rawabi family. This is because local and international companies opting for joint ventures consider the profile of human resources an important factor for collaboration. He said that many foreign companies chose to join hands with Rawabi Holding “because they saw a special spark in our people”. He noted that his company has increased annual revenue by approximately 2,000 percent over the past decade because of the dedication of its employees. For the past three decades, the company has been providing a diversified range of products and services in the fields of oil, gas and petrochemicals, engineering and construction, power, telecom and IT, corrosion and industrial services, logistics and consumer products in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. As a customer-focused company, it has built strategic partnerships with companies from 25 countries and representing over 100 global leading companies. Social responsibility Next to the empowerment of its people, the brand relaunch has seriously studied the need to enhance the company's corporate social responsibility (CSR), and has adopted the policy that CSR is no longer an obligation but a requirement. Al Turki suggested that people all around the world, including governments, are insisting that businesses balance their profit with responsibilities to the environment and the community. He said Rawabi Holding will be strictly following this path. Rawabi Holding, already in the forefront of CSR program in Saudi Arabia, has a year-round environment awareness programs by mobilizing its employees, the citizens and the expatriate communities in Eastern Province in beachfront cleaning drive. The annual charity “Fun Run” – the proceeds of which go to support children with cancer – is an annual event participated by local and regional runners from all walks of life and ages. The company's medical outreach programs in the field of cancer and diabetes management and prevention, as well as organ donations continue to benefit many people. The recently-launched Aziz Scholarship Plan, through the Rawabi-Swiber Offshore Services PTE Ltd., has already conferred scholarship plans on deserving students in Asian countries. Focusing on Rawabi's new brand, Osman Ibrahim, Group President and CEO, said the impetus for the relaunch is the combination of the company's human capital with the resources of Saudi Arabia. He said this thrust is best illustrated in the new company logo that “reaches for the sky and points upwards to the new heights we desire to achieve as a company and points east and west to symbolize our vision to expand far and wide.” Because of the company's growth, the changing market dynamics, and the stakeholders' vision for the future, Rawabi's new brand, according to Al-Turki, should now conform against the breadth and scope of its business. “We looked to see if our brand was aligned to the corporate governance, restructuring and business systems we have been implementing over the past couple of years,” he said. Al Turki added that the rebranding has become a necessity because his company is no longer a firm that only deals with oil-field and industrial services. “Tomorrow we will become even more diversified in our business and our brand needs to reflect this reality,” he said. He stressed that this reality requires faith in people; a faith that is powered by people.
