Past winners cite visibility as having had huge impact on their companies.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 18 January, 2010 - The Saudi Fast Growth 100, the second annual list of the 100 fastest-growing businesses located in the Kingdom, will be announced on January 25th. The Saudi Fast Growth 100 brings to light fast growing Saudi companies that represent the future of the Kingdom. Through their energy and innovation, these companies are building a more competitive and dynamic Saudi economy.  They are the Kingdom's "leading indicator" of competitiveness.

The 2010 winners will be announced at a gala celebration as part of SAGIA's Global Competitiveness Forum held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Approximately 500 national and international business, academic, government and civic leaders will be in attendance. The winners will also participate in the exclusive Saudi Fast Growth Leadership Summit, a dynamic business meeting for current and past winners that includes discussions with Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter the world's foremost authority on strategy, as well as sessions with past winners and international experts.

The Saudi Fast Growth 100 is a national program to measure the country's fastest growing companies in the SMEs, and small to mid cap size range created by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority's (SAGIA) National Competitiveness Center with joint founding partners Al-Watan newspaper and AllWorld Network. Joining the initiative as Strategic Partners are the National Commercial Bank (the largest bank in the Middle East), Sukoon International, Siraj Capital and Phenomenal PR.

"SAGIA has committed to making the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia one of the most competitive nations in the world.  To achieve this ambitious goal, the Kingdom must nurture emerging growth companies since they are the oxygen of the economy," stated Governor Amr Al-Dabbagh, the Governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority.  "The Saudi Fast Growth 100 offers examples of success, and represent the most potent signal that Saudi Arabia is one of the best places to grow a new business."

When asked what was the greatest impact of making the Saudi Fast Growth 100, the number one reason the 2009 winners cited was recognition and visibility - recognition as a credible company and recognition for the vital role they play in the Kingdom's economy.   Other impacts mentioned included; access to new markets and clients, joint contract opportunities, increased employee morale and peer-to-peer networking.

Last year's number 1 company, Secutronic's co-founders, Mr. Jawad Anwar Ali and Mr. Ehab El-Sammanoudi stated, "that being a Saudi Fast Growth 100 winner has inspired our team.  Our staff sees that their had work has paid off, our customers are more confident that they are putting their security needs in the right hands and our shareholders are proud to be #1."

Last year's Saudi Fast Growth 100 showcased for the first time the vibrant entrepreneurial base that is flourishing in Saudi Arabia. Some of the stunning findings included:

  • 28,000 jobs were created by the winning companies, of which 15,000 were created in last five years

  • The winning companies grew an average of 40% a year

  • Over 70 % of the CEOs have founded other companies of which an impressive 90 % are still in business

  • In the next two years, most of the CEOs have plans to start another business and nearly a quarter plan to do an Initial Public Offering

  • The CEOs are an average of 30-33 years old when they form their companies 15 industries were represented, and High Tech & Telecommunications was #1

The 2009 winners are profiles at www.saudifastgrowth100.com.  The 2010 list is expected to be even stronger.  The winners were chosen from more than 300 nominations from throughout the country.

Al-Watan has created a special supplement, Growth Magazine, which will be distributed as part of the newspaper to spotlight the important role these emerging companies are playing in the future of the Saudi economy. Participation in the Saudi Fast Growth 100 costs nothing for the companies, and is a fantastic opportunity for growing companies to be recognized.

For more information on Saudi Fast Growth 100, contact Deirdre Coyle at dcoylejr@allworldlive.com or 617. 504.4547.

Winners are ranked according to their revenue performance between 2004 and 2008.  The company with the largest percentage increase in revenue secures the #1 spot on the list.  The #2 company has the second best results, and so forth. 

The selection criteria are based on international standards of competitiveness originally developed by Inc. Magazine to create the Inc. 500.  The criteria are as follows:

(a) Applicants must be privately held, for-profit, independent businesses.  (In this case, independent means that a company is not a subsidiary or a division of a larger company with other revenue-generating operations.

Must not be a publicly traded company, non-profit, holding company, franchise, bank or utility company.  Private companies established by government or where government is a majority stakeholder are also not eligible.

(c) Applicant companies must be based in Saudi Arabia. 

(d) Have 8 or more full-time employees in 2008.

(e) Have generated revenue of at least 400,000 SAR in 2004.

(f)   Have generated revenue of at least 4 million SAR in 2008.

(g) Applicants must provide audited financial statements to verify their revenue (turn over) numbers.  

The winning companies are divided into two categories:

(1) Saudi Fast Growth 100: Companies five years old or older with a proven track record of growth. They are raked on the percentage increase of their annual revenue/turn over between 2004 and 2008.

(2) Saudi Fast Growth 100 Start-Ups: Companies less than five years old but with a profile that, other than longevity, would qualify them as candidates for the Saudi Fast Growth 100 list. They are ranked on the percentage increase of their annual revenue/turn over from 2007 to the end of 2008. 

The Saudi Fast Growth 100 Founding Partners.

-Ends-

About SAGIA
SAGIA, the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, was established in 2000 as part of the new foreign investment law in Saudi Arabia.  Its purpose is to attract investment to Saudi Arabia and more recently its mandate has evolved to encompass the enhancement of the Kingdom's overall competitiveness.
 SAGIA plans to attract sufficient investment to achieve rapid and sustainable economic growth in Saudi Arabia, capitalizing on the Kingdom's competitive strengths as the global capital of energy and as a major hub between East and West.
It aims to position Saudi Arabia among the top ten most competitive nations by 2010 through the creation of a pro-business environment, a knowledge-based society, and by developing new, world-class 'Economic Cities'. 

The NCC
The National Competitiveness Center (NCC) was established by SAGIA in 2006 to act as an independent body to monitor, assess and support the enhancement of competitiveness in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The NCC fully supports SAGIA's 10x10 campaign to make Saudi Arabia one of the top 10 most competitive countries in the world by 2010 and is heavily involved in helping SAGIA to reach this goal. The NCC fulfils its role by serving as a think tank, facilitator and communicator of change. The NCC fulfills this role in three ways: 
First, it serves as a think tank for change by conducting and developing competitive assessments and monitoring the implementation and results of change programs. The NCC's programs focus primarily on improving the ease of doing business within the Kingdom, through spurring modernization of the general business environment. Second, it works as a facilitator of change by creating forums for discussion in the public and private sectors. The NCC annually coordinates with SAGIA to help organize the Global Competitiveness Forum. Finally, it acts as a communicator for change, sharing success stories and generating momentum for the Kingdom's ongoing competitiveness efforts. The NCC seeks to educate the government, private sector and general public on the importance of national competitiveness, through such channels as its competitiveness driven initiatives, that seek to embed, encourage & recognize competitive behavior across private & public sectors. In addition, its Competitiveness Reviews, competitiveness bulletins, speaking engagements, and its website all serve to bring to the forefront the latest in competitiveness based thought.  

About AlWatan
In less than a decade, Al-Watan Saudi Daily grew to become one of the leading Saudi newspapers with readership that covers the entire Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As of the start of this week, Al-Watan is approaching the readers in the Kingdom with its new edition, which marks a milestone for the newspaper that was by itself considered a milestone in the history of press in Saudi. The need to modernize the newspaper was the reason for renovating the newspaper design and content as well as expanding its printing facilities across the Kingdom, making it the only Saudi daily that is printed every morning in four major cities. The 48-pages of the new edition will cover in depth Saudi affairs with a wide range of feature stories, news, analysis, and reports. Al-Watan will not only serve the entire Kingdom, but it will serve the region as well by reporting national stories that of interest to local and regional readers although it will still focus on its national base of readers. 

About AllWorld Network
AllWorld's mission is to find and accelerate all the scalable growth businesses in the emerging world by 2012.  A decade ago, the co-founders of AllWorld Network - Deirdre M Coyle and Anne S. Habiby -- joined forces with Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter and Inc. magazine to create the US Inner City 100 list, looking for competitive entrepreneurs where no one thought they existed - in America's economically distressed inner cities.  In that first year, only 120 companies entered the competition.  But by 2008, there were 8,000 companies vying to be on the Inner City 100 list.  Companies have to be privately held and each one competes for a spot based on its sales growth over the past five years.  The Inner City 100 became an American phenomenon and its own engine of growth.  In 2001 the UK's then-Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, asked the team to create a UK Inner City 100 with the Financial Times in 2001.  In 2007, Coyle and Habiby established AllWorld Network to take this model global.  They began in Saudi Arabia at the invitation of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority.  The inaugural Saudi Fast Growth 100 winners were announced at the 2009 Global Competitiveness Forum in Riyadh.  Building on the success of the Saudi 100, AllWorld launched the South Africa Fast Growth 100 in November 2009, and in 2010 will launch the Arabia 500 and the Africa 500.  

For more information call Phenomenal PR & Event:
920016066
shadi@prphenomenal.com

© Press Release 2010