Thorsten Ploss - Manager Iran, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants

The current situation of the Iranian oil industry is marked to a certain extent by dependency on imports of technologies and/or products from the technology owners. This leads to insufficient usage of local resources and workforces – and additionally makes high spending of hard currency necessary. To improve the situation – and thus loosing its dependency on external suppliers – it must enhance its knowledge base dramatically. Own development of this knowledge is possible but very time (and resource) consuming. By setting up Iranian joint ventures with international leading companies the appropriate know-how is transferred not only faster but also sustainable But how to select the right sectors in oil industry for joint ventures? And how to define the right targets for identifying joint ventures partners? To do so three steps are necessary: First step: Identification of most attractive sectors by assessing sectors by their value to Iran and the feasibility of joint ventures Second step: Rating of potential joint venture partners in the most attractive sectors by feasibility and their attractiveness Third step: International access to the board level of the identified target partners, planning of negotiation process, ensuring a successful joint venture setup.