Saudi Arabia Program: Change Management, Vision 2030 and AI with NWC and SUEZ

Ferran Tort (Change Management Expert, Psychologist and TEDSpeaker) spent the months from July to October 2025 travelling regularly to Jeddah and Taif to work with National Water Company and SUEZ on Change Management and High Potentials programs that also introduced AI into the leadership conversation.

Across several waves of training, he worked with managers and future leaders who are right in the middle of Saudi Arabia’s transformation, helping them develop the skills and mindset they need to lead change in a country that is moving very fast under Saudi Vision 2030.

Why Change Management matters in corporate trainings

In these programs, Change Management was not treated as an extra topic. It was the backbone of the whole experience.

• Every strategy, new process or AI tool fails if people do not understand it or do not feel part of it.

• Teams are facing constant shifts in priorities, structures and technologies, and that creates uncertainty and fatigue.

• Leaders need concrete tools to manage resistance, communicate clearly and build trust when everything around them is moving.

This is why the trainings for NWC and SUEZ focused on Change Management as a skill that can be trained. Participants worked on how they react to change, how they communicate with their teams and how they can create spaces where people feel safe to learn, ask and adapt.

Saudi Arabia, Vision 2030 and the need for Change Management

Saudi Arabia is in the middle of one of the most ambitious national transformations in the world. Vision 2030 is a strategic plan to diversify the economy beyond oil, modernise society and build a thriving private sector and knowledge based economy.

Official documents and analysis of Vision 2030 place a strong focus on:

• Economic diversification and new sectors

• Human capital and leadership development

• Large scale infrastructure and digital projects

• New ways of working between public and private sectors

National Water Company and SUEZ are part of this context. The projects they manage, the technologies they implement and the expectations placed on their leaders are directly connected to Vision 2030. In that environment, Change Management is not a nice to have. It is a survival skill.

The trainings in Jeddah and Taif helped participants connect their daily work with that larger national vision. When leaders understand the why behind the change, it is much easier for them to align their teams and keep motivation high even in complex transitions.

Inside the NWC and SUEZ programs in Jeddah and Taif

From July to October 2025, Ferran delivered two main tracks:

• A Change Management program for leaders and managers

• A High Potentials program for emerging talent

Both programs introduced key ideas about growth mindset and also integrated AI as a driver of change. Participants explored how AI tools are transforming industries, what skills will be needed in the next years and how a strong Change Management culture can reduce fear and increase curiosity around new technologies.

The format was designed with multiple touch points over several months instead of a single one off training. That structure allowed people to:

• Apply the tools in real projects between sessions

• Come back with questions, resistance and real cases

• Deepen the learning step by step

This is especially important in environments where the pace of change is exponential. If reality changes every few months and training happens only once every few years, the gap between what leaders know and what they face grows very quickly. Regular touch points keep that gap under control.

Feedback from participants in Saudi Arabia

One of the managers from National Water Company, Osamah Khan, summarised his experience with a sentence in Arabic that Ferran later shared in a LinkedIn post:

“لقد كانت دورة مثرية بكل ما تحمله الكلمة من معنى.”

The English translation that Osamah himself provided was that it had been “an enriching program in every sense of the word”, with impact both at a professional and a personal level.

Other feedback that arrived during and after the programs highlighted several patterns in how participants experienced Ferran’s work:

• That he explains complex topics in a clear, simple and practical way.

• That he knows how to respond in each moment, adapting to the group and their questions.

• That he brings a very high level of knowledge and skills in Change Management, psychology and leadership.

• That the sessions are inspiring and leave people with a genuine desire to keep learning.

Many of these messages arrived through private notes and LinkedIn comments that will appear in the video and screenshots embedded in this post. For Ferran, this feedback confirms something essential in his approach to Psychology and Trainings for Companies: when people feel seen, challenged and supported, they do not just attend a course, they go through a real change experience.

AI, exponential change and why Change Management is now a core skill

During the NWC and SUEZ trainings, AI was not presented as a distant future. It was treated as one of the forces that is already accelerating change today. New tools appear every month, processes are redesigned constantly and expectations on productivity and innovation keep growing.

In this context:

• No sector is isolated from change. Water, energy, logistics, retail, education and public services are all being transformed.

• The speed of transformation is increasing. Waiting to adapt is not an option.

• The only stable element is the need to learn, unlearn and relearn continuously.

If a leader receives one training in Change Management and then spends years without updating their skills, the distance between their mental model of change and the reality they live in becomes enormous. The world moves in an exponential curve while their learning stays flat.

That is why continuous Change Management training with frequent touch points is so important. It keeps leaders close to reality, gives them new tools as challenges evolve and reinforces the growth mindset needed to stay calm and effective in the middle of uncertainty.

From training to long term capability and a clear next step

The work with NWC and SUEZ in Jeddah and Taif shows how Change Management, growth mindset and AI can be integrated in a way that is deeply aligned with Saudi Vision 2030 and with the real pressures that leaders are facing in the region. Participants did not just receive information. They practiced, reflected, applied and came back for more.

For organisations that want to develop future ready leaders in this new context, Change Management can no longer be seen only as something to use when there is a merger or a departmental restructuring. It is a core leadership skill that touches every project, every innovation and every technological implementation.

If you are responsible for HR, Learning and Development or leadership programs and you want to bring this kind of high impact Change Management training to your teams, you can explore what Ferran offers on his site https://www.ferrantort.com and connect with him to design a program adapted to your context and your pace of change.