Introduction
The Olayan Financing Company was founded in 1969 by Sulaiman S. Olayan, a respected prominent businessman not only in Saudi Arabia but in all Arab countries. He co-founded the company with his three daughters under the leadership of Lubna Olayan (Olayan Financing Company, n.d). The vision of the company is to invest in both private and public enterprises including real estate, which is still its main mission. The company has created several investing organisations to target the London and New York investment markets.
The Company’s recent performance
The Olayan Financing Company has adopted business partnerships adopting an expansion corporate strategy. In terms of management, it is led by Lubna Olayan, whose case application is discussed below. The company is now handling over 200 suppliers and manuals that has made its portfolio one of the most productive in the investment market.
Defining Leadership
A leader is a person who influences people through the practice of leadership. In fact, leadership is the art of organising people where a leader makes people act and behave in a way he or she deems right to achieve certain common goals. Additionally, it influences the ideology pattern of people to conform to the leader. Therefore, leadership is referred to as an art because the leader will always find the reason to enlist the support of the people they lead.
This leadership skills can certainly be viewed in the character of Lubna Olayan through her focus of setting goals and working on a common task. She inspires the team at the Olayan financing to achieve positive results. Lubna Olayan is not only one of the most respected business women in the Middle East but also experienced leaders. She is currently the Chief Executive Officer at the Olayan Financing Company (Ramadan, 2002).
Lubna Olayan has learnt to practice her leadership skills and her corporate life proves her a leader. This means that she is not just a born leader but has become a business leader through practice. Considering the fact that such leaders like Lubna Olayan learn from the environment, people could understand that they can grow and emerge as leaders themselves, and that could look like an inborn virtue to the observant public. As a leader, Lubna Olayan focused on the interaction with the people at the company to advance her leadership personalities. From her record of accomplishment, Lubna Olayan is destined to be a global leader and continues her interaction with people to actualise the leadership qualities in them.
Olayan Financing Company’s organizational culture
The organisational culture of the Olayan Financing Company is based on strong leadership and performance philosophies of its founder. The culture is also perfected by the pioneering leadership of Lubna Olayan. This made the Olayan Financing Company one of the blue chip companies in Saudi Arabia.
The organisation culture of the company covers pursuing the values of hard work and persistence. This culture is championed by Lubna Olayan and the entire management of the Olayan Group. The latter believe that they should work to accomplish the set goals as other organisational issues will follow after the achievement. According to Ramadan (2002), Lubna Olayan once stated that she never focused on what she had ever achieved as a person. That way, she inspires the organisation to achieve more and concentrate on what they can do as a group and not as individuals (Ramadan, 2002). The company also maintains a philosophy of giving the best job to the most suited and competent people to grow their potential (Ramadan, 2002). This presents the company that has a culture of working through determination to achieve the set results by all means.
Lubna Olayan as a role model in Saudi Arabia
Lubna Olayan is a role model not only in Saudi Arabia but also in the world and is seen as the future of mentorship in women leadership. This is evident from the fact that she was named by the Time Magazine as a representative of the world’s 100 most influential people in the year 2005 (Al Saud, 2005). She was also mentioned by the Forbes Magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential women in 2005 and 2006 (Olayan Financing Company, n.d). Lubna Olayan can be considered a role model in Saudi Arabia due to her extensive learning and advancing of knowledge through education. She has global perspective leadership having pursued her university education in the US and crowning it with an MBA from the Indiana University (Al Saud, 2005).
Lubna Olayan has the passion to work with women and help them achieve high leadership positions. This made her become a pioneer leader, as she is the first female board member of a Saudi Arabian company. It can be considered a big breakthrough to her leadership since the company was a big organisation, the Saudi Hollandi Bank. She also went on to be a role model by becoming a board member of the marketing giant WPP. Finally, Olayan is a role model in Saudi Arabia due to the public praise of her excellence in performance. For instance, the Prince Alwaleed Bin Tala Al-Saud depicted her as a hero and declared her as a role model for women leaders (Ramadan, 2002).
Conclusion
Lubna Olayan is a true leader with great achievements and an excellent performance record. Despite her high achievements and praise, Olayan does not talk about it. Instead, she tends to downplay her leadership impact on the attitude of Arabs on the women’s roles. However, it is evident that she is a star in leadership and in business wherever she goes especially when she makes a speech. As an inspirational leader, she reminds the world that the Saudi women and all women at large are capable of running big business enterprises as well as international organisations. This makes her an outstanding role model not only to women but also to all people who aspire to practice leadership.
References
Al Saud, P.A.B.T. (2005). LubnaOlayan; The unveiling of a Saudi Hero. Time Magazine. Web.
Olayan Financing Company (n.d). Olayan Financing Company. Web.
Ramadan, G. (2002). LubnaOlayan-an executive icon balances life. Arab News. Web.