São Paulo – A Brazilian company is responsible for operation of one of the most recent projects in Saudi Arabia: the hospital at Princess Noura University, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Symnetics, established and run by Mathias Mangels, was hired by the government of Saudi Arabia to put the 600 beds in the women’s hospital in operation by 2014.
The Symnetics team, which operates abroad under name Tantum, is responsible for hiring and training the professionals to work at the hospital, to determine the operating strategies and to create the hierarchy at the new institution. The organisation was hired by the Saudi government in May 2012 as among its areas of operation is experience in hospital management.
Before crossing frontiers, Symnetics helped select professionals and adopt procedures to make Hospital Moinhos de Vento, in Porto Alegre, an international reference. "It was our learning in Brazil that caused us to grow abroad,” said Mangels.
The Saudi hospital will be within the Princess Noura University campus, which has over 50,000 female students. The two were established to receive solely female Saudis. The hospital has a budget of US$ 100 million a year for the implementation phase, and the value should reduce once in operation. In the case of the hospital, the children of Saudi women may be treated there. Occasionally, the husbands of the Saudis may be treated. The focus, however, is on women’s health.
In this project, the Brazilian company is also responsible for determining the hospital’s strategy, like, for example, its area of operation. "It will be a hospital focussed on women, so we have to think: in which areas of medicine do we want to be of excellence,” said Mangels, as an example of the strategy he needs to define for the hospital.
Currently, some areas of the emergency room are already operating and by the end of the year, 150 beds should already be occupied. To put the complex in operation, the company needs to face some characteristic challenges of the local reality. Although there are deadlines, says Mangels, "there is not such awareness of time” and in Saudi Arabia procedures are slower than in Brazil. Apart from that, the operation of women in the work market is restricted.
"Women are very well accepted in areas like education and human resources. But in the medical area, for example, there are some restrictions,” said Mangels. Despite these restrictions, the clinical board will be headed by a woman.
Further projects
Princess Noura University project is not the only one developed by the company in the region. Established 23 years ago in Brazil, Symnetics opened its first offices abroad in Latin America, in 1994. Twelve years ago, Symnetics opened offices in Germany, England, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. Expansion to the Middle East began in 2005, when Symnetics started working in partnership with an English company in Dubai.
"We made contact with the Emir of Dubai when they were developing several projects in the areas of safety and business,” said Mangels. In 2007 the company opened an office in Dubai, then in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Symnetics operation is not restricted to the hospital area, although it is one of the most important. The healthcare sector, which also includes the pharmaceutical industry and laboratories, is one of those Symnetics classifies as a "centre of competence" within its services. Other “centres of competence” are, for example, the chemical, petrochemical and mining sectors.
Symnetics has another consultancy in progress, at the Labour Ministry, and is participating in a tender for an e-government project, both in Saudi Arabia. It has also operated in other countries in the region, like Oman.
Mangels does not reveal company revenues. He said, however, that the Middle East has presented great growth in business. "In Saudi Arabia, for example, we grow 50% to 60% a year,” he said. In the meantime, the growth in Latin America is no more than 20%. He believes that business in the Arab countries may still grow much, especially in Saudi Arabia, due to the heated and expanding market.
*Translated by Mark Ament
