{"id":14067,"date":"2020-06-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.alj3.clients.lemonhq.io\/perspectives\/if-a-wind-blows-ride-it\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T07:32:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T07:32:32","slug":"if-a-wind-blows-ride-it","status":"publish","type":"perspectives","link":"https:\/\/cms.alj3.clients.lemonhq.io\/en\/perspectives\/if-a-wind-blows-ride-it\/","title":{"rendered":"If a wind blows; ride it"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mohammed“The Arabian proverb \u2013 \u2018If a wind blows, ride it!\u2019 <\/em><\/strong>\u2013 was a favorite of my father, the founder of Abdul Latif Jameel.\u00a0 It sums up his pioneering and entrepreneurial spirit that lives on in our company today.” <\/em>says Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel<\/a>, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, of Abdul Latif Jameel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Looking back, perhaps this proverb could not have been more apt?\u00a0 Riding the winds, notably what are known as the trade-winds<\/em> (the permanent east-to-west prevailing winds that flow in the Earth’s equatorial region) is a technique used for centuries by captains of the great sailing ships to cross the World’s oceans and they enabled exploration and the expansion of global commerce, establishing trade routes across Atlantic and Pacific oceans.<\/p>\n

Today, the Abdul Latif Jameel business has diversified business operations in some 30 countries on six continents, employing over 11,000 people from more than 40 nationalities and has established corporate offices in London, Jersey (Channel Islands), Amsterdam, Monaco, Istanbul, Jeddah, Riyadh, Chengdu, and Tokyo.<\/p>\n

But seventy-five years ago, the World \u2013 and this business \u2013 was very different.<\/p>\n

In the beginning . . .<\/h2>\n
\"Sheikh

Abdul Latif Jameel (1912 \u2013 1993)<\/p><\/div>\n

Let\u2019s take a journey back in time . . . to 1945.<\/p>\n

If most people were asked to think of a significant event that happened in 1945, the most common answer would probably be the end of World War II.<\/p>\n

Except, perhaps, for a family business in the Middle East, as 1945 is also the year that the late Sheikh Abdul Latif Jameel established his new business in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

It all began in what was a small trading concern based from single gas station on a dusty road in the Red Sea coastal port of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, surrounded by the harsh sands of the Arabian desert.<\/p>\n

But as six long years of global conflict came to an end, Abdul Latif Jameel sensed a new wind blowing across the world.<\/p>\n

Just before the war, on March 3, 1938, an American-owned oil well in Dammam, North-East Saudi Arabia, had drilled into what would soon be identified as the largest source of petroleum in the world.\u00a0 (that business was to become the energy giant of today: Saudi-Aramco.<\/p>\n

With the post-WWI League of Nations now transforming into the recently formed United Nations<\/a> and massive reconstruction of the economies and infrastructures of Europe and Pacific countries arising out of the ashes of war \u2013 a new age was quickly dawning.<\/p>\n

\"View

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, June 1945:\u00a0 View of locals walking through a street in the city of Jeddah. \u00a0High multi-storey buildings line the street. \u00a0At ground level shops with large sun canopies face onto the street.\u00a0 (Photocredit: Wilfred Thesiger (\u00a9 Pitt River Museum)).<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Abdul Latif Jameel saw that better personal transportation could connect and empower both businesses \u2013 and individuals \u2013 and so advance the economic development of society, and the lives of those around him. \u00a0The motor vehicle \u2013 itself only just over fifty years old since Karl Benz\u2019 invention in 1888, was to be at the heart of this new world, and his fledgling business venture, enabling people and goods to get around more quickly and easily than ever before, increasing trade and commerce in goods, services and ideas.This would be an age of global cooperation and optimism, of mass transport and communication. \u00a0A world powered by rapidly developing technologies and bursting with opportunities.<\/p>\n

That first Abdul Latif Jameel petrol station was a success. \u00a0More followed. \u00a0And as car ownership and mass transport in Saudi Arabia blossomed, so too did his trade.<\/p>\n

It would prove to be an era of opening new doors and new horizons with new ambitions turning the key to building better lives.<\/p>\n

An eye for opportunity<\/h2>\n

Over the next decade, Abdul Latif Jameel grew into a successful business. \u00a0It could justifiably have taken the less risky approach of sticking with what it knew best. \u00a0But Abdul Latif Jameel was not a businessman that liked to rest on his laurels. \u00a0He realized that the greatest opportunity was not in fueling cars, but in selling them.<\/p>\n

In 1945, Saudi Arabia and Japan had established diplomatic relations, and 1955, 10 years later, Abdul Latif Jameel approached an up-and-coming Japanese automotive manufacturer called Toyota Motor Corporation, as they too looked for expansion opportunities into the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\"Sakichi

L: Sakichi Toyoda, Inventor and business entrepreneur [1867-1930], R: Founder of Toyota Motor Corp., Kiichiro Toyoda [1894-1952]<\/span><\/p><\/div>It was only in the later 1940s and early 1950s, however, that Toyota began to make a name for itself and expand internationally.Toyota Motor Corporation had been founded in Japan in 1937, by Kiichiro Toyoda, although the businesses roots go back several decades before that, with his father Sakichi Toyoda, a great inventor who built the Toyoda Automatic Loom which could weave cloth automatically.<\/p>\n