How Philip Morris Jordan is guaranteeing long-term, sustainable success by thinking big and giving back.
Over the past decade, local and international investors have contemplated fluctuating factors, while attempting to figure out how to best capitalize on Jordan’s unique strategic and socioeconomic landscape. The Kingdom has long been recognized for its investment potential, but understanding how to leverage on that potential has been a rather grueling process of trial and error. The latter showcased a few volatile aspects, such as over-promising, relying on unsustainable growth and demand, failing to invest in human capital, among others. Therefore, getting it right requires a working recipe, one that takes into account how a successful business model can be built, and on which foundations.
One company that seems to have found just the right equation is Philip Morris Investments B.V. Jordan, the local affiliate of the renowned Philip Morris International. As one of the largest American investments in the Kingdom, Philip Morris Jordan (PMJ) has implemented an investment strategy that extends far beyond an influx of financial resources.
The key to PMJ’s ongoing success is, in fact, the company’s comprehensive, conscientious approach to investing – one that involves a commitment to sustainable, long-term development that taps into Jordan’s various resources and power points.
Building on Financial Investments
When Philip Morris Jordan was established, the company aimed at building on its initial $42 million investment. PMJ embraces a “forever improve” mentality focused on continuous growth, expansion, and development – a progressive approach which has allowed the company to both recognize and realize the potential of its operations in Jordan.
Since 2011, PMJ has already invested over $10 million in operational upgrades, and the company intends to further invest into its local operations in the short to medium term. This is partly because of PMJ’s wide-reaching ambitions: in addition to recognizing Jordan’s strategic positioning as a regional manufacturing hub coupled with a stable economic and business-oriented environment, the company has set its sights on making Jordan a key producer and exporter for major markets across Africa and beyond.
Integrating into and elevating the Community
Furthermore, a business that aims to consolidate its presence in the long-term needs to successfully integrate into its surroundings. As a result, Philip Morris Jordan’s decision to invest in the Kingdom involved considerations that extended well beyond the country’s favorable business climate: the company recognized the invaluable need to integrate Jordan’s diverse and skilled workforce into its overall strategic vision. Part of the ongoing success of PMJ’s operations is largely attributed to its reliance on a robust local workforce, which includes more than 230 Jordanians employed at its manufacturing facility, the majority of whom hail from the surrounding Na’our community. Along with its direct employees, PMJ has created numerous indirect job opportunities as well; its distributor, ARTC, employs roughly 60 Jordanians.
While these job opportunities are actively uplifting the socioeconomic wellbeing of the surrounding community, PMJ’s corporate social responsibility activities are largely focused on elevating the knowledge, skills, and capacities of local youth, ensuring that Jordan’s workforce is equipped to meet the demands of the job market in a way that will ultimately lead to further investments in the Kingdom.
Ensuring Sustainability and National Impact
Wise investors understand that focusing solely on profits, revenues, and year-over-year growth is short-sighted; without an emphasis on sustainability and a macro-level perspective around development, no investment will survive the long haul. PMJ has long recognized this, and not only does the company work to guarantee the socioeconomic sustainability of its operations, but it is eager to support the growth of the national economy. Each year, PMJ contributes more than $300 million in taxes to Jordan’s economy, and the company works alongside public-and-private-sector stakeholders to find solutions to national challenges – including working to help the government fight the illicit trade epidemic, an issue that deprives the Jordanian treasury of roughly 10 percent of its annual tobacco tax revenues.
With the promising outlook of Jordan’s current investment landscape, it is likely that the Kingdom will welcome a new slew of wide-reaching investments in the coming years. These new investors entering the market should take a page out of PMJ’s playbook; guaranteeing the long-term success of a company’s investments greatly relies on ensuring the communities around that company are equally invested in its success and long-term sustainability plans.
