Leadership Profile of Al-Waleed bin Talal

This article provides a detailed account of the life and career of Al-Waleed bin Talal, a Saudi business magnate known for his successful business ventures and philanthropic activities. It covers his background, upbringing, educational attainment, professional/work record, notable business achievements, known leadership and managerial approaches, self-development, and occupational traits. The article also includes a self-reflection section where the author examines Al-Waleed's leadership style and identifies areas for improvement.

Assignment 2: Task 1-Leadership Profile- Bill Gates
Place and date of Birth
Alwaleed bin Talal whose native name is الوليد بن طالل بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود, was
born on the 7th March of 1955. The Saudi business magnet was born in Jordan.
Nationality/Background and Upbringing
Al-Waleed bin Talal is one among the richest personalities of the Middle East with his
origin in Saudi Arabia. He has proved through his social activities that he has to him more
than only good fortune as well as a luxurious lifestyle. As very early age, he had acquired
fame through the establishment of his own real estate organization named Kingdom
Holdings. Then at a young age, he so explored the domain of finance and established his
associations with some multibillion finance corporations like ‘Citi-Corp’ and so on (A’li and
Da'as 2017). His experience also led him to show the courage in investing for companies like
Apple Inc. and hospitality firms like AOL and others.
Al Waleed had been the son to the Monarch Prince Talal and Mona Al Solh. His
father had active participation in the political affairs of the Saudi Arabia. However, in the
latter period, he was differed from his political position as the Finance Minister and also
pushed to exile. After Waleed’s father and mother parted ways through divorce in 1969, he
shifted to reside with his mother in Lebanon. At that time he was quite disturbed, mentally
and as an outcome, he turned quite undisciplined and developed the tendency of frequently
escaping out of his residence. At the night he were found resting in the cars parked in the
lanes. However he completed his primary learning from one military institution situated in
Riyadh, which according to him taught him high discipline. Later he acquired education in
Menlo College of USA.
Educational Attainment

Al-Waleed bin Talal completed his primary education from a military education
center in Riyadh. Studying there he learned lot of discipline that was missing in his attribute.
Later he went to the Manlo College for completing his higher education at USA.
Professional/Work Record
After the completion of his education, he immediately started to venture for own
business startup. He made a significant contribution to the oil business of the country because
of which the economy of Saudi Arabia received a significant boost. He made the acquisition
of an underperforming financial institution named the United Saudi Commercial Bank. Latter
he went on to merge the bank with other important banks like SAMBA and the Saudi Cairo
Bank. He also went on to buy large shares of Citicorp in 1991. In fact he also had a 5%
stake in the USA based media agency, named News Corporation. Other important career
marks include the buying out of the Savoy Hotel hospitality group against $250 million.
Notable Business achievements
A sound understanding of the economy of his country, Saudi Arabia prompted him to
launch his business ventures at a time when the oil boom of the country was at a great height.
The bank which he had acquired went on to become one of the most eminent financial
organizations of the whole of the Middle East. His wealth manipulation is also evident in the
way he showed courage to purchase shares of the “Citi-Corp” at the time when there was a
huge financial crisis going on in the country. In fact he also went on to bail out the company
with a value of $550 million. His company Kingdom Holdings made a public declaration in
the year 2011announcing their collaboration with the construction company “Bin Laden”
group for the construction of the “Tower of One Mile”.
There are other phenomenal achievements of Al-Waleed bin Talal. His stake in
Twitter attracted attentions around the globe and latter it was known through the local media

that his stake with the company had been approximately $8 billion. He also accepted the
Order of Izzudin award from the president of Maldives, Mohammed Nasheed. Next, she also
received the State of Palestine award in 2009 itself. For innovation in business, he received
the Dwight D Eisenhower Award for Innovation’, in the year 2010. The year 2012 had been
glorious for him. In the same year, he received the ‘Bahrain Medal of the First Order’ as well
as the ‘Mahaujjval Rashtradip Mandapvi’ and ‘Colina De Boe Medal’, honours (Almudallal,
Muktar and Bakri 2016).
Known leadership, managerial approaches, self-development and occupational traits
For emerging as a successful business leader, he had set out various expansion plans
as well as objectives at specific times of his career. He also believes that a well-defined
mission statement is also essential for the success in short term business success. He had the
guts to take the most important and strategic decisions also that facilitated the process.
At more than one occasions, his decisions have been criticized by his own business
community and the core management group of Kingdom Holdings. However, the company
had mostly benefitted out of his decisions. Yet, as a leader he believes that success in
business cannot be only a one man show and he has expressed this view in one of the
interviews also. At KHC also, this is the primary business policy that have been followed
over the years and this is actually the success mantra of the company under the leadership of
Al-Waleed (
Omri, Becuwe and Randerson 2017).
The corporate governance policies that he implemented as a part of the managerial
member of his business committee were all preceding the scandals as well as problems taking
place in the United States and prior to the time when the US based companies were forced to
undergo reforms. In one of the recent interviews, he substantiated this fact through an

example. His relation with his organization, The Kingdom Holdings, was established
since the time they had their IPO (Elgelal and Noermijati 2015). As an organizational leader,
he accepts that a good leader would never accept shortcuts or any other steps that would be
misdeeming his name. He believes that it is essential because after the name of a person is
tainted for the position of a leader, it is quite hard to recoup. He believes that he is tough to
the point it is required for the betterment of the firm. For evidence, he would give a second
chance to a manager, but not a third chance. Besides that, his organization under his good
guidance, has exhibited a high level of ethics.
He also has high faith in business networking as he has observed that in the US as
well as in the Middle East, business, finance as well as economics are closely intertwined
with politics. Hence, Lavis et al. (2015) states that it is evident that in the business of global
economics, politics as well as economics go hand in hand especially in the business domain
of the Middle East. This is how he helps himself to keep away from the conflicts of interest.
Self-Reflection
There are several aspects of the leadership of Al-Waleed which are worth examining.
Unlike other Saudi Princes who could not capitulate over the liquidity control they exercised
and thus made some cumbersome business efforts that resulted in to further losses. This is the
area, where I need improvement I have authoritarian power in many aspect but I lack the
convincing power to allocate resources for making better utilization of my authority. Al-
Waleed had not only showed the courage to make the most essential decisions at the right
time but also undertake calculate business risks like acquisition of heavily underperforming
banking corporation or investment in the Citicorp when the institution was passing through a
deplorable state of affairs in terms of financial market acquisition. In order to boost the
market shares he also contributed $550 million to give a boost to the company. I also lack this

important skill. The lack of leadership confidence makes me hesitant to make important
decisions at the right time. Through his leadership styles and analyzing what he has achieved
as a leader, I have observed that he has exhibited a democratic leadership style. However, he
had maintain a level of stringency over the operations of then managerial committee of his
organization which also prompted sharp decisions that were essential for the progress of the
company. I need to learn what essential attitude is required for the designation that I am
holding.
I personally emphasize that for the emergence as a successful business leader and
adhering to the democratic leadership style, he used his own decisions and feats to set a
standard for the managerial as well as executive team of the Kingdom Holdings Company. I
have observed that he left the scope of implementation as well as demonstration of the own
business ideas amidst any business project parallely deriving ideas from the other leaders in
order to make the most profitable decision for the organization. Observing the career surge of
this leader, I have learned that I need to improve in definite areas where I want to excel and
grab opportunities to grow in person as also with the stipulated business growth of the
company.

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