Strategic Planning in Saudi SMEs: Case Studies in the Private Health Insurance Sector

SME's usually make a significant contribution to the host economy, but they tend to face many obstacles and challenges, especially related to finance and marketing. Recently, the Saudi government is giving a renewed attention to promoting SME's, as well as the insurance sector, which faces additional challenges of stiff competition, and the need to satisfy customers' high standards and expectations. This study sought to provide insight into how SME managers in the Saudi health insurance sector deal strategically with the issues they face. Five case studies were made, and the selected firms were analysed based on Mazzarol's strategic management framework, which involved identifying characteristics pertaining to entrepreneurship, innovation, strategic networking, growth vector, and the strategic triangle. All of the firms are exhibiting growth, the newer ones had relatively more dynamic entrepreneurship and innovation, and there is evidence of more long-term strategic planning in two of the latter. None of the selected firms appear to be struggling in the way that is commonly described for SME's generally, as they were found to be strategically prepared to cope with the challenges