Anthony Shaw: North Highland is uniquely positioned to support the Kingdom in delivering Vision 2030, and our strategy focuses on recruiting and developing outstanding Saudi talents

1. What sets North Highland apart in the Saudi market?

North Highland is uniquely positioned to support the Kingdom in delivering Vision 2030. We operate in the strategy execution space and help governments and businesses make their strategy a reality. Now that the Kingdom is largely through the visioning and strategy definition phase, our focus on implementation and value realisation will help maximise return on investment. In short, we are specialists in Vision to Value.

I would call out a number of North Highland characteristics which help set us apart: 

• We are pragmatic and get things done. We ‘roll our sleeves up’ and deliver. We pride ourselves on our client centricity; our market leading customer feedback score (Net Promoter Score) of 47 is evidence of this. To be blunt, we help you get things done.

• Everything we do is focused on people, enabled by data and technology. We deliver transformation with people at the heart of everything we do. We drive and deliver change  while improving ways of working . We utilise digital assets, like our Gartner Magic Quadrant-rated NH360 platform, to bring true differentiation.

• We build solutions for our clients’ requirements. We come with robust tools, assets and methodologies and we put the client first. We do not believe in a generic approach. 

• We deliver lasting impact. We focus on building the skills of each client’s workforce from Day 1

2. Talk to us about your talent strategy.

The key point to flag here is that our business is locally led. This is a critical priority for us: our talent strategy is laser-focused on recruiting and developing outstanding Saudi talent and we will not deviate from this. We are building a business of >100 local consultants in Riyadh. 

We then supplement our Saudi team with the ‘best of the west’. We’re taking top talent from the UK and U.S. and bringing them to Riyadh to work alongside our Saudi core. North Highland was founded in 1992 and we have 2000 consultants globally, across 17 offices in North America, LATAM and EMEA. We are very well established globally and, whilst we have the scale to meet all of our clients’ needs, we are ‘small enough to care’. By that I mean that we are able to be extremely agile and client-centric. 

3. Moving on to your consulting services, you mentioned that you specialise in Vision to Value. How does this translate into your core services?

We think of our core services in four key areas:

• Workforce & organisation optimisation.  We focus on our clients’ people and organisational strategies, recognising that their people are their greatest assets. Our services in this space cover areas such as process optimisation, ways of working, change management and adoption and complex programme and technology implementation

• Data & Systems Modernisation. We develop technology and data architectures, we support system and service migrations, we instill data capabilities into our clients’ teams and we deploy tools which boost business performance

• Capability Development. Really, capability development is built into everything we do. As I mentioned earlier, we build the capability of our clients’ people from day one. We help to reskill, upskill, and cross-skill talent to pursue our clients’ Vision 2030 priorities.

• Transformation Management. We bring a flexible ‘teams as a service’ approach to delivering work. This approach enables our clients to scale their delivery capability up and down, very quickly as and when they need it. Our market leading digital tools are critical to this

4. AI is front of mind for everyone and it’s a key enabler of everything North Highland does. How is North Highland leveraging AI to benefit businesses in Saudi Arabia?

As always, we strongly advocate for a people-first approach – meaning, we believe that the magic with AI happens when you connect it with people and processes to deliver lasting impact. Our services include AI advisory and governance, operationalising AI through operating model design and AI-centric workforce development and AI capability development. 

As an example, we partnered with a leading transportation client to deliver AI-enabled transformation. Our client had suffered from fragmented data systems and slow decision-making, and it was causing multiple business issues. Working together, we were able to deliver some great results, including a reduction in operational expenses (20%+), improvement in team productivity (up to 60%) and a reduction in error rates (30-40%).

We're globally recognised by industry analysts such as Forrester for our digital expertise and AI innovation capabilities. In Saudi, we focus on implementing our AI solutions to enhance workforce capabilities and support Vision 2030.

5. As you continue to build your brand in Saudi Arabia, you recently held an event at the British Embassy in Riyadh. Can you please share more about this?

Yes, North Highland held an event for approximately 60 Saudi business leaders alongside His Excellency Neil Crompton, the British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. As part of the evening, our Group CEO Alex Bombeck hosted a panel event focused on Change and Transformation. This included some truly brilliant panelists: Dr. Fadi Al-Buhairan, CEO Special Integrated Logistics Zone (SILZ), Katie Bickerstaffe, Senior Independent Director and former Co-CEO for Marks & Spencer (M&S) as well as Andrea Longhi, Chief Transformation Officer at King Saud University.

The event was organised through the GREAT Futures programme, of which North Highland are proud sponsors. This is a UK government-led trade initiative which showcases British businesses in Saudi Arabia and highlights how we can support with Vision 2030. It was a brilliant evening of networking, insights sharing and fun! We also have several other events scheduled for local business leaders throughout 2025 and beyond. 

6. Finally, what would be one piece of advice you would offer other businesses growing in Saudi Arabia?

Saudi Arabia is obviously in the midst of a remarkable transformation, with Vision 2030 at the heart of this. As we all contribute and support the transformation, it’s extremely important that we build for the future but acknowledge Saudi’s history and rich cultural heritage at all times.