To superbrand status – and beyond!

The Kanoo Group is one of the largest independent, family owned, group of companies in the Gulf region. Like the Korean chaebol, or the Japanese keiretsu, Kanoo is one Middle Eastern family-owned company whose business ventures and regional profile has earned it ‘superbrand’ status. But can it transcend wider international markets, as its Far Eastern counterparts have?

The Kanoo Group began in Bahrain over one hundred years ago. It was formed by Haji Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo, and has grown from its early trading and shipping activities to become one of the most diversified and highly-regarded business houses in the Gulf region. Today that esteem has reached the international level, symbolised by the group’s selection for the first annual Superbrands awards program conducted in the UAE. The guiding principal for selection is that a Superbrand should offer consumers significant advantages over its competitors that consumers want, recognize and are willing to pay a premium for. It’s a great reward for years of consistent hard work behind a brand.

But how important is this recognition to the company? “Superbrand status is obviously great for us, but it’s not a fashionable tag or a PR exercise,” says Mishal Hamed Kanoo, Deputy Chairman of The Kanoo Group. “We have enough internal capital to perpetuate our own growth. We don’t brand our joint ventures, but the strength of the brand allows us to work with the best partners in each industry. It’s persuasive in this sense.” The Kanoo brand is of great importance to the company, as it reiterates the company ethos. If all of the inherent elements are too complex, then this creates confusion about the company behind the brand. Maintaining the brand is completely consistent with this process, according to Mishal Kanoo.

While maintaining the brand might not involve the company branding its joint ventures (it has worked with Norwich Union Insurance, Mearsk, BASF, Johnson Arabia, Akzo Noble, Freightworks and others in this way), The Kanoo Group has business activities across a number of industries: shipping, travel, holidays, machinery, oil and gas, power and industrial projects to exhibition services, courier services, logistics, specialty chemicals and business centres. This spread is certainly enough to ensure the brand and logo are well represented in the public sphere. While diversifying to this degree can sometimes dilute the company’s image due to the increased red tape, The Kanoo Group’s 11 businesses each have an individual board with enough authority to make executive decisions internally, which facilitates generic growth.

Autonomising of its diverse parts is a shrewd move that is serving The Kanoo Group well. Their method of focusing on three main areas might seem narrow to the outsider looking in, but they follow the direction of their industries, “so we’re very comfortable with tailoring our strengths within this internal model, so to speak. We start small scale and allow our businesses to grow, but always remain within our areas of expertise,” says Kanoo. And that is how they maintain success.

The legacy
The company has a distinguished history that Mishal Kanoo is keen to celebrate and safeguard. “Our 117-year history makes us older than many GCC countries!” he says. “We want to be synonymous with quality, within our major markets. Although we are known as a business-to-business service provider, and are respected within these markets, to the average person, we want the brand to represent a solid identity – like a government – one that facilitates and is present, but not necessarily ‘in-your-face’ on a daily basis.” It is important to Kanoo for the company to be a trusted brand that people rely upon, and that makes everyday commerce happen.

This happens through a shrewd understanding of how business works. When asked about whether The Kanoo Group practises ‘Muslim branding’ (the distinction drawn between brands from Muslim countries and those that address the need of practising Muslims), Kanoo chuckles. “It’s pure and simple marketing! For us there’s no correlation between our products and religion. I appreciate that some companies promote Shariah services and good luck to them, but it’s hard not to be cynical when all of the major players in these services areas – food and finance predominately – are international companies!”

It is this international focus that has helped the company grow to its current strength. But does the company’s influence merit comparison with the Far Eastern conglomerates of the chaebol of Korea and keiretsu of Japan? “Mitsubishi are such a company, and one that has so many market: bridges, electronics, banking. But everyone immediately thinks of cars. This is not a direction Kanoo wants to take.” While you might also think the family aspect of The Kanoo Group would liken it to the chaebol, their canny move allowing their businesses to have autonomy means recruiting outsiders; “good people to manage our organization. Although we have a strong family bond within our company, this way we don’t have to deal with family politics, and actually it is not as incestuous as the chaebol!” For these companies, Mishal Kanoo predicts, there are great challenges ahead.

In contrast to the chaebol, The Kanoo Group’s strength is composed of a different manifestation of diversity: they expand into their three core areas and act as a silent partner in their joint ventures. They are focused on internal generic growth, rather than “covering many bases” as Mishal Kanoo puts it. Their success, he adds, is due to the simplicity of design of their business model, the ‘KISS’ principle: “Keep It Simple Stupid! We retain our lines of business and don’t stray from them. Kanoo is successful because we continue to focus on what we’re good at.”

A huge part of what they’re good at is marketing. Recently their campaigns are focused on communicating The Kanoo Group's business diversity, and positioning it as the key to many opportunities in the Gulf region. The new corporate web site, launched in 2001 has achieved growth of over 300 percent in the number of hits. Outside of business too, The Kanoo Group has seen value in investing, but this time supporting worthy causes. The Group is a major sponsor of Rashid Pediatric Therapy Center, a corporate member in Emirates Environmental Group and an investor partner in Dubai Quality Group.

The role of corporate and social responsibility in the Middle East is a subject that is close to Mishal Kanoo’s heart. “CSR is an area Middle Eastern companies are often criticised for: not devising an appropriate program,” he explains. The same couldn’t be said of The Kanoo Group: it sponsor and initiate community programs that foster economic sustainability through the creation of jobs, supporting further education and innovation, increasing quality awareness, increasing social and environmental awareness and making philanthropic investments in economically disadvantaged communities. This enthusiasm for supporting the community is down to the company’s history, says Mishal Kanoo. “For us, the line between CSR and family responsibility is blurred. The two are entwined and manifest through the same principles. Kanoo is a family owned company, so our shareholders have a shared responsibility. We’re a forward-thinking company and our family attitude is not a PR stunt: it’s a social edict.” With this attitude, it’s no wonder the Group is going from strength to strength.