What made me come up with the idea of this post is the affect of staffing Kuwaitis in top management of a non Kuwaitis company, (Vivs, STC). When they entered the Kuwaiti market they made sure that the company was run by a Kuwaiti and not by a Saudi, yes its a simple and known fact in business that to run an effective company in country that the company does not originate from the management should be staffed by locals. HSBC promotes it in their ads, and still we see Kuwaiti companies run by expats. Nothing against expats but to under stand the inner working of the Kuwaiti culture you have to live it. ViVa made a smart move (in my own sense) lately when you require opening a new phone line at Viva, you are requested to sign the Ci-net agreement that allows the company to see you credit history. Before i explain further, the Ci-net is an independent company created by the Kuwaiti banks to keep track of individuals credit history in Kuwait; that includes loans, credit cards and other services from financing companies. User banks use the information to set the internal credit policies to provide financing to customers and such information shows how often customer pay their bills and if the have late payments and any legal actions against them. So Viva uses such a service (which he is not a bank) to have a window into the customers credit history and can build a preconceived decision to provide a service for a customer or not, Smart! Because not doing so creates another problem of collections and legal fees that the company does not want to incur. So if you were not a Kuwaiti and do not know anything about our banking system, how can you come up with such an idea or policy to be implemented within the company. Another thing is that now Viva become a third mobile provider in Kuwait and wants to make sure that it does not start taking in the worst paying customers from Zain and Wataniya already kicked out because of their bad credit history.

Just another point, Ci-net is nothing amazing just a system that is linked between the Kuwaiti banks and financial institutions, and due to its old ad hoc systems, it has many loop holes and problems. It is not anything close to credit scoring systems in Europe or the states but its a start. I personally hope that they themselves can add value to the Kuwaiti financial system, by providing more online services and being more transparent.

I apologize for not writing for a while but i have been between jobs and could not find the time (ya3ne depressed:P) anyways i have noticed something and its either smart or stupid from the companys part that is doing so and i thought i may share it and see what you folks think about it. Some products when trying to enter a new market or trying to create his own market use a method where they make you think you need the product, yes what i’m saying sounds naive or nothing new but think about what i’m saying closely. As an example why do we need to use mouth wash when we already brush our teeth, is it the extra care? a certain brand of mouth wash in the states used a scare tactic, by introducing disease name like gingivitis. “If you do not wash your mouth before you sleep with such n such brand you would get gingivitis” we have always lived without mouth wash and most would not get gingivitis and would be happy just washing your teeth but what happens in our brains and subconscious minds is that we start thinking what am i losing here nothing, buy the mouth wash and hope to prevent gingivitis. I’m recently getting the same feeling and approach from Abraj Bottled water, i heard that other kinds of Kuwaiti brands cause kidney stones (from friends), and that Abraj doesnt. Now many people only carry this kind of brand because of such rumors. First if this is true that this rumor has been started by the company then this is a smart way to sell their product. Secondly if yes, why is Abraj not creating kidney stones like the others and the rumors should be tested by taking the water to a lab and confirm the rumor. This may be not be a rumor and it has been said somewhere which i didn’t get directly but its out their and for sure its increasing Abraj uniqueness between consumers. A smart and scary way to sell, hooray! or unethical is a question to be answered by the consumer himself.