Analyzing Obeikan Publishing's Global Strategy for Market Expansion

This essay provides an analysis of Obeikan Publishing Limited's global strategy, highlighting its foundation in 1993 and its growth to become the largest publisher in Saudi Arabia. The company's global strategy is evident through its engagement in printing and selling books beyond its borders, particularly in the Middle East and Africa. The analysis covers the company's workforce, facilities, and location, noting the centralized control and decision-making in Saudi Arabia. Obeikan's global strategy is characterized by a standardized product with translations to overcome language barriers, enabling cost savings and efficient coordination. The essay concludes by evaluating the effectiveness of Obeikan's global positioning, suggesting further expansion into untapped global markets while maintaining its presence in existing ones, positioning Obeikan Publishing as a successful example for other companies seeking global expansion. Desklib provides access to similar documents and AI-powered study tools for students.

Running head: GLOBAL STRATEGY OF OBEIKAN 1
Global Strategy of Obeikan
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GLOBAL STRATEGY OF OBEIKAN 2
Global Strategy of Obeikan
Obeikan publishing Limited was founded in 1993 hence has been in operation for over
two decades. It has grown to become the biggest publisher in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The
company greatly supports education and has collaborated with different institutions in Saudi
Arabia to effectively publish different genres of books. Obeikan publishing currently issues more
than 2000 cultural and methodological titles. Many local writers and government institutions are
now interested in publishing with Obeikan due to the impressive name it has created for itself
(Obeikan,2018). The company continues growing on the global front as it strives to make a
positive difference in the global education sector.
Global Strategy
The strategy of a company can be international, multi-domestic or global. There is
evidence of global strategy form the website of Obeikan Publishing Limited. This is because the
company engages in printing books that are sold beyond its borders (Obeikan,2018. A global
strategy involves a company going beyond the domestic market into foreign ones. In this, case,
the company has gone beyond borders and supplies its books to the Middle East and Africa
(Peng, 2016). The company’s website is evidence of the global strategy since the company has
diversified its publishing business so that it suits the global markets. The company publishes its
books based on different levels of education and tailored to different countries. Further to this,
the company has strictly divided its business into sections like a bookstore, publishing, and
education, hence showing a company that is focused on expanding globally. The company
further has Obeikan Cambridge and Laureate and has tailored these programs to have online
classes so that they can be accessed by global students.
Workforce, Facility and Location
The workforce of the company is mostly from Saudi Arabia but there also other
nationalities presented hence showing a global strategy. The company employs local distributors
in other countries. When it comes to facility and location, Obeikan publishing has its
headquarters and publishing facilities in Saudi Arabia. From here books are transported to
distributors in different countries hence showing a global strategy. Everything is under one
location so that the company is to ensure quality that meets international standards.

GLOBAL STRATEGY OF OBEIKAN 3
Type of Global Strategy
The type of strategy that has been developed by Obeikan Publishing is global. A global
strategy is one that has the same product for each market. Obeikan publishes the same book for
different markets and only does the translation for markets where there is a language barrier. The
company has so far translated its books into over 10 languages. It caters to the needs of different
global markets by looking at factors such as language barrier, hence doing the translation to meet
the needs of these markets.
The global strategy is characterized by centralized control. Books are published and
distributed from a central point. There is a central structure that manages the publishing
company. All the different divisions in the company are managed under a central structure and
located in the same country They are also translated at the same point depending on the demand
from the different markets that are supplied by the company (Johnson,2016). The decision
making of the company is done centrally in Saudi Arabia. Other countries just have distributors
who oversee distributing the books to different retailers once they are received.
The global strategy at Obeikan Publishing has been effective since the differences
between countries are small. When it comes to the publishing of books, the only thing that can
cause differentiation is language. When Obeikan is translating its books, the curriculum or topics
are not in any way changed. Since the product is already suitable, only translation is done and the
distribution carried out (Rugman & Verbeke, 2017). The market that Obeikan is currently
serving is the Middle East and Africa. The Middle East market is quite similar due to culture and
language. The company is also slowly expanding into other global markets.
The use of global strategy is vital for Obeikan since it enables the company saves on
costs due to central production point for books. The company takes advantage of the economies
of scale to get cheaper prices on raw materials while it is engaging in bulk production. The
global strategy has also enabled Obeikan to coordinate its services in an efficient manner hence
leading to processes that are streamlined (Motohashi,2015). This has enabled the company to be
able to meet the book demand in Saudi Arabia and in the markets beyond its borders. The global
strategy has enabled Obeikan to have faster product development. Since decisions are made from
a central point, it is fast hence this has led to the development of different book genres that cater
to different types of consumers in the market served by Obeikan.

GLOBAL STRATEGY OF OBEIKAN 4
Global Positioning
The global strategy for the company suits the current operations that it has and has
enabled it to vastly grow especially in the Asian market and diversify into other markets. The
current positioning of the company has been successful and it has enabled the company to
become the leading publisher. Since the strategy is effective, Obeikan should continue using it as
it seeks to continue in business growth (Grant, 2016). The CEO can, however, better position
himself globally since concentration has been in two major markets, in the Middle-Ease and
Africa. The company has the potential to grow further since it has already shown its capability of
successfully operating in the current two markets (Quirke,2017). There is a huge untapped global
market in other continents and Obeikan should therefore try and get into these markets. The
African and Middle-East market also still has room for growth hence the company should not
relax on these markets. The company’s long-term global strategy should, therefore, include
expansion into at least one global market.
Obeikan Publishing is an example of a company that has successfully employed a global
strategy. Other companies that plan on expanding in future can learn from this company since it
has over the years been able to cover the Middle-East and African markets (Fojcik, 2017). It is
obvious that the company does not rush into anything but takes its time and thoroughly studies a
market before getting into it. This can explain the fact that the company has maintained two
major markets for a long time. They will therefore also take their time while they try to get into
other markets. The global strategy is effective especially for large companies like Obeikan.

GLOBAL STRATEGY OF OBEIKAN 5
References
Fojcik, T. M. (2015). Verbeke, A., International Business Strategy: Rethinking the Foundations
of Global Corporate Success, Cambridge University Press, 2013.
Grant, R. M. (2016). Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. MA, John Wiley
& Sons.
Johnson, G. (2016). Exploring strategy: text and cases. NY, Pearson Education.
Motohashi, K. (2015). Introduction: Needs for New Global Strategies. In Global Business
Strategy (pp. 1-17). Springer, Tokyo.
Obeikan. (2018). Obeikan Publishing. Retrieved from http://www.obeikan.com.sa/subs-
publishing
Peng, M. W. (2016). Global business. LA, Cengage Learning.
Quirke, B. (2017). Making the connections: using internal communication to turn strategy into
action. Routledge.
Rugman, A., & Verbeke, A. (2017). Global corporate strategy and trade policy. NY, Routledge.