The Client
Knowledge Economic City Madinah a USD 10 Billion City Scale development and one of six proposed Economic Cities designed to diversify and drive economic growth in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Extract from Knolwedge Economic City Prospectus 2010
(Page 54 of Prospectus or Page 77 of Prospectus)

An agreement dated November 12th, 2008G, for the provision by Tindakan Strategi Sdn. Bhd. (“TS”) of consultancy services to KEC (the “Agreement”) relating mainly to the operations of the investment coordination center, business development initiatives designed to draw investors and creation of a global awareness as well as increasing the value perception of real estate parcels within KEC. TS’ services are targeted to achieve several milestones including to close sales deals relating to residential and commercial units (sale and purchase as well as leasing) amounting to not less than one hundred million Saudi Riyals (SAR 100,000,000), and to finalize deal structures leading to signing sale or lease agreements relating to the education, health, hospitality and entertainment components of the Project. Pursuant to the Agreement, the consultancy services described above should be provided in a timeframe of twelve (12) months beginning from November 12th, 2008G. TS’ compensation package under the Agreement is based on a revenue sharing model by which KEC is to pay TS an amount calculated pursuant to an agreed formula. The term of the Agreement is renewable based on an annual performance review to be conducted after ten months from the date of the Agreement. The work under the Agreement is currently progressing.”

The Situation
The Client was at the finalization stage of project planning and needed to validate critical information for master budgeting and zoning parameters. More importantly, the Client did not yet have a comprehensive business development plan or standard operating procedures in handling potential investors.

What Was Needed
The Client required a comprehensive Business Development Function. This included Turn-Key development of all Business Development strategies, operational functions, support infrastructure, staff training and eventual handover on a modified BOT (Build -> Operate -> Transfer) schedule over a 2 year period.

Our Solution
We worked from the ground-up with project teams working on site and remotely to:

First, rapidly obtain and analyse data and provide recommendations required for project planning;

Second, develop Business Development strategies and the Client’s Strategic Marketing Plan;

Third, Consolidate and adapt global best practices for Business Development Initiatives as an operational model in a comprehensive Investor Coordination Centre;

Fourth, deploy, manage and engage potential investors on behalf of the client in key areas; namely education, health and infrastructure over the engagement period;

Finally, on completion of systems, structures, process and training of personnel, we handed over the function to the Client.

The Result
The Client saved valuable time and resources (realized cost savings were estimated at 50% comparative to attempting to develop it internally or utilizing more expensive ‘branded’ consultants’) by outsourcing the initial part of the business development initiative while seeing measurable results in the number of potential investors handled as well as the improvement of “client-authorities” relationship.

We achieved all our contract milestones on schedule and under budget, eventually transferring a fully functional Business Development division to the Client at the end of the second year.

Our Solution
We engaged into a comprehensive industry review, vetting all industries before recommending a select group of industries that fit the client’s requirements.

Our next step was to define the strategies in approaching and drawing the attention of potential investors to the site with the ultimate aim of securing their investment in the project.

On completion of that exercise, we systematically put into place all necessary systems, structures, process and people for the business development, branding, sales and marketing aspects of the project and how these would interface with the engineering projects division, authorities and investors as a fully functional Investor Coordination Centre. At this stage, the scope of our contract was expanded to include the preparation of marketing collaterals (electronic, web and literature).

Finally, we engaged key players in the targeted industries in the creation of the project’s ‘catalyst component’, the “Centre of Convergence” which was a multi-function facility that allowed both commercial and industrial functions of differing industries to share economies of scale and benefit from technological advancements in a shared services/facilities model.

The Result
The Client had a fully functional business development unit and Investor Coordination Centre ahead of schedule. Eventually, the Investor Coordination Centre was modelled as the basis for the development of Iskandar Development Zone’s Super Authority own Investor Coordination Centre.

At the strategic level, the Client met all the goals set out by the board of directors. At the operational level, the Client had a fully functional organizational structure for the project.

We achieved the milestones laid out for us on schedule and on budget.