The only departments that matter are the ones that help get the product to customers. All these made up departments in Dhahran are purely in existence because the Kingdom wants low unemployment numbers. Aramco is massive because it is operating the regions largest social assistance program. Nothing these people do matters. It’s purely a game of fake power to make people who have “wasta” feel good. None of these junior level managers and directors would survive in a company outside of Dhahran.
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This is spot on. Everyone who works in Dhahran is simply employed at the behest of the government wanting to keep people employed. If any of these guys think they are bringing value they are not. Spend a day working in a transparent company doing actual work versus babysitting people and they would be destroyed. But don’t worry they took a one week paid and sponsored course at the Royal Collage or Harvard so they are Ivey league now.
IMO - All true. Has been that way ever since I laid eyes on it back in 2002. Can't say before then.
Look at PDVSA in the early 2000s and how that was destroyed by politicians and their piggybanks, for where Aramco is heading. It won’t be pretty.
Getting the product to customers is mostly done by contractors. Along with almost all the other real work. Aramco can't tie it shoes without hiring outside help. This arrangement, along with the accompanying corruption, makes everything Aramco does incredibly expensive. They spend $2 billion on consultants to avoid paying $1 billion for Expats, but of course certain people get a piece of that $2 billion. Meanwhile, the company spends another $1 billion paying local labor to sit in the chairs where the Expats used to be and play candy crush all day. Of course, consultants always find more work for themselves, so pretty soon it will be $3 billion along with $1.5 billion for the locals because they all need promotions and new departments. But at least Aramco won't be paying those Expats the $1 billion. I'll leave it to the reader to imagine how this all ends.