Transforming Saudi Arabia’s Sports Sector into a Sustainable, Investment-Driven Ecosystem
Guest blog by Mezna AlMarzooqi, LEG ’25
When I joined the Leading Economic Growth program, I expected a course on frameworks, theories, and best practices. What I did not expect was a journey that challenged everything I thought I knew about how growth actually happens. I entered the course with a simple question—how can Saudi Arabia turn its rapidly growing sports sector into a sustainable engine for economic diversification? Ten weeks later, I left with a completely transformed way of thinking about problems, possibilities, and my own role in shaping change.
This blog reflects that journey. It shares the key ideas that changed my perspective, the progress I made diagnosing my growth challenge, the ways I am already applying PDIA and growth diagnostics in my work, and the questions that I now see as the next frontier. It is the story of how my growth challenge—and I—grew together.
I have taken several development and policy courses before, but Leading Economic Growth offered something different. Instead of telling me “what works,” it taught me how to discover what works here, now, for my specific problem. Several ideas reshaped my understanding of growth and state capability:
a) The Binding Constraint Mindset
The idea of the binding constraint fundamentally changed how I think. Instead of listing dozens of reforms, each seemingly important but overwhelming, I learned to focus on the single factor that most restricts private investment and productivity.
This was a liberating concept. It explained why countries, and sectors, spend billions on reforms that fail to generate growth: because most of those reforms target non-binding constraints. Finding the real constraint is not obvious; it requires evidence, iteration, and humility.
b) The Mirage of Best Practice
One of the most powerful concepts was the “mirage”: the illusion that growth will follow if we copy what worked somewhere else. Before the course, I thought benchmarking global sports hubs, London, Dubai, Los Angeles—was an essential starting point. PDIA taught me something different: context is king, and best practices rarely travel intact.
What matters is not the practice itself but the underlying function it delivers, and whether we can problem-solve our way toward that function.
c) PDIA: Start with Problems, Not Solutions
PDIA (Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation) became the core of my new mental model. The idea that:
- problems are rarely technical
- solutions are rarely linear
- learning comes from action, not analysis, and
- authority must be earned through functionality and legitimacy
was transformative. It made me rethink how ministries in Saudi Arabia—sports, education, tourism, investment—could collaborate in more dynamic, adaptive ways.
d) Inclusion as an Engine of Productivity
The Growth Lab’s work on inclusion showed that exclusion is not merely unfair; it is economically inefficient. A society grows when more people are connected to productive networks of skills, institutions, and technology.
This insight connected directly to my growth challenge: the sports economy’s real potential lies not in elite events, but in building networks that include youth, women, smaller cities, and communities currently disconnected from opportunity.
e) Green Growth as Structural Opportunity
Finally, the green-growth discussions expanded my thinking beyond the sports sector. I realized that Saudi Arabia’s sports strategy could serve as a platform for green innovation, renewable-powered infrastructure, and sustainable tourism, positioning the Kingdom competitively for a decarbonizing world.
My Progress: What I Learned About My Growth Challenge
When I began the course, I saw the Saudi sports economy as an exciting sector with enormous potential, but I couldn’t clearly articulate why it wasn’t yet delivering sustained growth. The assignments guided me step-by-step from symptoms to structure, from assumptions to evidence.
a) Reframing the Problem
Initially, I thought the core issue was “low private-sector investment.” Through the growth diagnostic framework, I discovered that this was merely a symptom. My fishbone diagram revealed deeper constraints:
- Human capital gaps in sports science, analytics, coaching, and management
- Institutional coordination failures between ministries and private actors
- Weak knowledge transfer from international partners
- Uneven inclusion across gender, regions, and income
- Underdeveloped sports-tech and sports-health ecosystems
By the time I completed the binding constraint analysis, I understood that the most binding constraint was the limited availability of specialized skills and capabilities—a factor that raises costs, reduces quality, and weakens investor confidence.
b) Crawling the Design Space
The course did not allow me to jump to “big reform programs.” Instead, I explored solutions across four spaces:
- Best practice: inclusive community sports hubs
- Existing practice: mapping current programs and closing participation/skills gaps
- Latent practice: launching a 100-Day Sports Inclusion Challenge
- Positive deviance: learning from clubs and cities already succeeding
This process showed me how much innovation already exists in our system—and how much of it is invisible until provoked.
c) Building a Theory of Change
By combining diagnostics with PDIA, I built a grounded theory of change:
If we connect more people to productive sports networks through skills, coordination, and inclusion then private investment, productivity, and diversification will follow.
How I Am Already Using What I Learned
This course was not theoretical for me. I immediately began applying PDIA and growth frameworks in my work at the Ministry of Sport.
a) Shifting from Planning to Problem Solving
Instead of starting with projects, I now start with problems. For example:
- Why are clubs not hiring more Saudi analysts?
- Why are coaching pathways weak?
- Why do women’s sports thrive in a few cities but struggle elsewhere?
These questions lead to evidence, not assumptions.
b) Using Minimum Viable Actions
I’ve embraced the idea of starting small:
- Piloting training programs instead of announcing national academies
- Testing revised licensing processes in one region before national rollout
- Running micro-experiments with private clubs to see what incentives work
This creates quick wins, learning loops, and momentum.
c) Convening Differently
I changed how I run meetings. Instead of agenda-driven presentations, I use PDIA-style conversations:
- “What is the real problem?”
- “What do we not know yet?”
- “What small action can we take in the next two weeks?”
This builds ownership, reduces fear of failure, and increases collaboration across actors.
d) Thinking in Networks
Most importantly, I now see growth through the lens of networks (skills networks, supplier networks, institutional networks). My work is no longer about isolated initiatives but about connecting the dots.
Open Questions
Although the course answered many questions, it opened up several deeper ones that I hope future courses will explore:
- How do we scale PDIA inside large bureaucracies? Small teams can learn and adapt fast, but scaling a learning mindset across ministries is challenging.
- How do we measure capability-building in ways that motivate not punish organizations? Traditional KPIs can discourage experimentation.
- How do we sustain legitimacy over multi-year, uncertain reforms? Political cycles and leadership turnover can disrupt long-term capability-building.
- How do we build green competitiveness in sectors beyond energy? I want to explore how sports, entertainment, and health can become green-export platforms for Saudi Arabia.
These questions will guide my next phase of learning.
Throughout the course, I created fishbone diagrams, iterative diagnostics, stakeholder maps, and crawled-design-space charts. Each artifact represents a step in building clarity, capability, and confidence. They showed me how ideas evolve when you interrogate them from multiple angles, and they reminded me that progress is not linear—it is iterative, like PDIA itself.
Perhaps the most meaningful part of this course was the personal transformation. I learned to hold problems, not fear them. Growth challenges are messy, political, and uncertain. Instead of seeking perfect answers, I learned to embrace uncertainty, test ideas, and learn forward. I realized the power of small steps. I used to think that only big, ambitious programs could solve big problems. PDIA taught me the opposite: small, consistent, learning-driven steps are how real change happens. I experienced the value of community. My peer-learning group became a support system, a place where we shared struggles, breakthroughs, and ideas. Our challenges were different, yet our patterns were the same. That insight alone was empowering.
I gained confidence in my ability to lead change. By the end of the course, I didn’t just understand growth; I felt capable of shaping it. I saw myself not only as a public servant but as a contributor to Saudi Arabia’s broader transformation.
Closing Thoughts: Growth Is a Journey, Not a Destination
This course taught me that growth is not achieved through plans, speeches, or large capital spending. Growth is achieved through capability, connection, and continuous learning. It is built by teams who ask hard questions, test ideas, adapt quickly, and persist.
For Saudi Arabia’s sports economy—and for myself—the journey is just beginning. I now have the tools, frameworks, and mindset to move forward with clarity and purpose. But more importantly, I have learned how to learn, which is the foundation of leading economic growth.
And in that sense, the greatest growth I experienced during this course was my own.
This is a blog series written by the alumni of the Leading Economic Growth Executive Education Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. 63 Participants successfully completed this 10-week online course in December 2025. These are their learning journey stories.