Strategy & Leadership

Change and growth at the Nuqul Group

Monica Woodley

Editorial director, EMEA

Monica is editorial director for The Economist Intelligence Unit's thought leadership division in EMEA. As such, she manages a team of editors across the region who produce bespoke research programmes for a range of clients. In her five years with the Economist Group, she personally has managed research programmes for companies such as Barclays, BlackRock, State Street, BNY Mellon, Goldman Sachs, Mastercard, EY, Deloitte and PwC, on topics ranging from the impact of financial regulation, to the development of innovation ecosystems, to how consumer demand is driving retail innovation.

Monica regularly chairs and presents at Economist conferences, such as Bellwether Europe, the Insurance Summit and the Future of Banking, as well as third-party events such as the Globes Israel Business Conference, the UN Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights and the Geneva Association General Assembly. Prior to joining The Economist Group, Monica was a financial journalist specialising in wealth and asset management at the Financial Times, Euromoney and Incisive Media. She has a master’s degree in politics from Georgetown University and holds the Certificate of Financial Planning.

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The Nuqul Group was established in 1952 by Elia Nuqul as a small food importer and distributor. Today, it is one of the Middle East’s leading manufacturers of fast-moving consumer goods and construction materials. Headquartered in Amman, Jordan, the Nuqul Group is a conglomerate of 30 regional and global companies operating in nine countries with over 5,000 employees. The business is wholly family-owned by Mr Elia Nuqul, and his sons Ghassan and Marwan.

When Ghassan Nuqul joined the business in 1985, he set himself a mission: to put in place a more structured approach to running the business.“My father is a great entrepreneur—a risk-taker, determined and charismatic, and had achieved so much, but I knew that in order to take the company to the next stage we would need to professionalise the management of the business,” he explains.

Since that time, the Nuqul Group has been on a journey that has left virtually no area of the business unchanged. The company has worked on a major decentralisation initiative, helped to establish clear operating procedures and a management structure across the business, and appointed a board with independent directors—a rarity in the region. The process was driven by the Nuqul family, but senior managers have played a key part in the process. The goal was to achieve the highest principles of corporate governance and, eventually, an initial public offering.

Over time, the Nuqul family’s relationship with the business has changed. They now see their priority to be good owners of the business, rather than just good managers. “We realised that if we wanted to continue to grow, we would need to hire the very best people in the business, to be the employer of choice in the region, and to do that we had to make sure that the senior positions of management were available to anyone whether they were a family member or not,” says Mr Nuqul.

The board of the company now includes familymembers, senior managers and two independent directors. They work on the principle of what they call “NIFO” (Noses In, Fingers Out), a term they use to reflect their view that the board is involved in the business on an as-needed-basis.

“We have launched many new business investments, the group has had its fourth year of double digit growth and we have hired many excellent new employees. I think it’s fair to say that the whole group has been re-energised.”

The Nuqul Group has grown rapidly in the past five years. Mr Nuqul believes that this growth would not have been possible without the ongoing professionalisation of the business and opening up management to non-family members. “The effect has been extraordinary,” he says. “We have launched many new business investments, the group has had its fourth year of double digit growth and we have hired many excellent new employees. I think it’s fair to say that the whole group has been re-energised.”

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