Giving back to the community

Khalid Kanoo - Lifetime Achievement Series written by Dr Faisal Kanoo

In this series, we have explored how Khalid Kanoo championed the regional and international expansion of Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo Group, optimizing the Group’s structure to support the company’s growth, creating a culture that incorporates both family and business values and ultimately is working to ensure the future sustainability of the Kanoo Family. In this article, we will explore how the Chairman ensured the Group always gives back to its community and delivers against its ultimate goal of shared success.

One of the core values of the Kanoo family is to be ethical. Khalid Kanoo ensures this permeates through all the Group’s business practices and works very hard to ensure that the family always gave back to its community and to its future generations.

Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo Group has led and participated in countless regional philanthropical activities. They have constructed several Mosques, Community Centers, and medical centres in Bahrain and across the GCC.

In 2001, during his visit to Boston, Khalid Kanoo met with senior directors and officials at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston and felt that a similar centre was needed in Bahrain.?He was instrumental in establishing the Joslin Diabetes Center in Bahrain, which is still operating today under the name of Gulf Diabetes Specialist Center.

In 2012 a special division called Kanoo Foundation was established to take care of the requirement of Charities, Mosques and Community centres. The foundation is governed by the Family Council. In 2020, Khalid Kanoo recommended the establishment of a Family Advisory Board to provide guidance and advice to the Family Council and Holding Company Board and review the philanthropy program to ensure it meets the needs of the community today and invests in projects that support future generations of all the areas within which it operates.

The Kanoo Centenary Celebration took place in 1990 and various programs were organized throughout the year to commemorate this occasion.

The Group recently celebrated its 130-year anniversary and has commissioned various projects in recognition of this major milestone.

The Kanoo Family name is built on a powerful reputation and an enduring brand. Khalid has spent much of his life documenting the family history and traditions to ensure this legacy is preserved and shared with future generations.

In 1973 he created the first Kanoo Family Tree which was subsequently updated by him in 1990, 2000, again in 2014 and most recently in 2021. This is an active project documenting the growing Kanoo Family.

As a personal passion, Khalid Kanoo has been collecting historical books, pictures, letters, documents, and other materials relevant to Kanoo Family which he maintained as a private archive.?Later in 1997, he was entrusted by the Holding Board to establish a dedicated Kanoo Family Archive and he has been updating and upgrading the archive to date. This has culminated in the creation of the Kanoo Museum. This personal project of the Chairman aims to build a museum wherein all the materials and information collected over the years, will be displayed for the benefit of the public. The Kanoo Family Museum is a live project going on to date with the space hoping to be useful for the community, a place where people can gather and learn and enjoy. ?

Khalid Kanoo envisioned writing a book on the history of Kanoo and started this project in 1992.?After six years of dedicated work, “The House of Kanoo - A Century Of An Arabian Family Business” was published in 1998 and officially launched the book on 15th January 1998 at Dorchester Hotel, London.

As mentioned in a previous article, Khalid published a book on “The First 100 Days” of his time as the Group Chairman in July 2021.?This book aims to equip future generations with the lessons learned from the work undertaken by the Group to restructure the company to fit the demanding changes in the market.

In 2022, Khalid is in the process of publishing an Arabic book “Family Businesses – My Vision & Experience”, to share the lessons he has learned over the years whilst running a family business.

This is the final chapter in this series. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Khalid for the valuable lessons he has taught me personally as well as our wider family.

Our family is united in our deep respect for one another and the traditions that have brought us this far. As we move forward, I am confident that we will continue the Chairman’s legacy into the future.