Tony Harris
Appearances
The Journal.
Neom, Pt 2: The Emperor’s New Clothes
Come on, nobody's going to live in a structure like that. When you're inside there, it's going to have the atmosphere of an airport terminal or a shopping mall.
The Journal.
Neom, Pt 2: The Emperor’s New Clothes
Right in front of us is this craziness. If someone would just say to him, It's not a good idea to build a middle school 300 meters up in the sky in a glass tunnel in the middle of the desert. That doesn't sound like a great idea, does it?
The Journal.
Neom, Pt 2: The Emperor’s New Clothes
The urges were always there, but if you wanted your job, I mean, they brooked absolutely no dissension. Zero. The slightest wavering, the slightest sign of resistance, you were out on your ear. And that was made very, very clear. How did they make it clear that you'd be sort of fired if there was any dissent?
The Journal.
Neom, Pt 2: The Emperor’s New Clothes
So as you know, Saudi Arabia is totally dry. And so in theory was the camp. But we found a way of doctoring the fruit juice.
The Journal.
Neom, Pt 2: The Emperor’s New Clothes
Yes, we brought in some stuff that would make it work. And by the way, they sold these, I mean, you can only laugh because they must have known what we were doing. They sold these big cardboard cartons of fruit juice in the camp store. And, you know, people would cart them away in wheelbarrows. What would you talk about over the moonshine with your friends? How nuts we all are. But we were there.
The Journal.
Neom, Pt 2: The Emperor’s New Clothes
And it's not often that you're able to walk into a car dealership and write a check with one month's salary for a brand new vehicle. That is very seductive. So it was the money that was keeping you going? It was certainly the money that was keeping us going towards the end, yes. Absolutely. Yes. Yes.
The Journal.
Neom, Pt 2: The Emperor’s New Clothes
I mean, I think the number of people who we met who were building a second house on Ibiza or somebody was paying for a nice 40-foot Hinkley or somebody was waiting until they'd paid off their kids' college tuition. I think you get the drift. You know, this was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, which comes along once in a blue moon. And for many people, it never comes along.
The Journal.
Neom, Pt 2: The Emperor’s New Clothes
Well, I think we wanted to stick it out. We said, we've come this far. Maybe it's going to get better. You know, maybe they will see the reason. Maybe this is not so bad. But eventually it became too stressful. And I think that's why we left, and I think that's why most people leave. They can't take the work environment.
The Journal.
Neom, Pt 2: The Emperor’s New Clothes
If I look back today, I certainly don't regret that experience. We learned a lot. We met some absolutely fabulous people. So I'm not sorry that we had that experience. I just am sorry that it was so badly led from the very top.
The Journal.
Neom, Pt 2: The Emperor’s New Clothes
He called all of us together. And at that point, I think there were about between 400 and 500 people at the camp at that time.
The Journal.
Neom, Pt 2: The Emperor’s New Clothes
I think that honeymoon period lasted for probably a month or so. And then we started asking questions.
The Journal.
Neom, Pt 2: The Emperor’s New Clothes
One of the things that emerged, which I found absolutely fascinating, was one of the most important metrics Neom uses to evaluate projects is the speed at which you spend money. Now, just let that sink in a little bit, the speed at which you spend money. It's not about how effective was the project, how many people did it reach, how many lives did it change.
The Journal.
Neom, Pt 2: The Emperor’s New Clothes
He called everyone together. and he literally started screaming and shouting. It was as though your four-year-old was having a tantrum on the floor. What was he saying when he was yelling? He was admonishing people for not working hard enough, essentially was his message. And what was going through my mind was, this can't actually be happening.
The Journal.
Neom, Pt 2: The Emperor’s New Clothes
No, we couldn't spend money quickly enough. We could not spend money quickly enough.
The Journal.
Neom, Pt 2: The Emperor’s New Clothes
Yes, instead of 10 times that. So I went with the flow, believe me. Did you spend half a million dollars? Yes. And look, it was a successful project, as it should have been.
The Journal.
Neom, Pt 2: The Emperor’s New Clothes
They didn't want us to make any decisions. What they did want us to do was to hire one of the aforementioned consulting companies to research the issue and make a recommendation. Why? Very, very curious. Now, I thought about that myself.
The Journal.
Neom, Pt 2: The Emperor’s New Clothes
If the project fails or there's a problem, I can always turn around and say, look, it's not me. We paid these guys and their associates. Don't blame me. Nobody ever wants to take responsibility. And one understands. Why not? Because the system of Management over there is ruthless, and so people are afraid to make decisions.
The Journal.
Neom, Pt 2: The Emperor’s New Clothes
And I thought to myself, okay, very soon what's going to happen? He's going to stop his performing and somebody's going to come in and there's going to be some interesting intervention and there's going to be some little lesson about how not to manage. But oh no, this was for real. This was for real. I was shocked. I mean...
The Journal.
Neom, Pt 2: The Emperor’s New Clothes
you know i have lived all over the world i've i've taught all over the world i've encountered people from different cultures i've never seen anything like this nadmi al-nasa has built a reputation over the decades of getting things done