Are Gulf cases a different type of case?

No. They are market-entry, profitability, or technology cases with local facts. The structure is the same. The miss is ignoring regulation, ownership, or the difference between cities.

What should I know before the interview?

Vision 2030 and local-content rules, that Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam are different markets, and that many clients are family conglomerates or state-owned. You do not need to recite policy.

Do I size the whole of Saudi?

Only if the buyer is national. Consumer cases usually need a city or segment cut. A national average hides the market you would actually enter.

Where are the Gulf cases in the library?

Several firm libraries include them, including a Saudi bank data platform, a Saudi telco, a coffee-chain entry, a GCC insurer, a GCC hypermarket, and a Saudi procurement transformation.

Saudi and GCC Case Interviews

Saudi and GCC case interviews use the same structure as any consulting case, with local constraints: Vision 2030 local content, SAMA or sector regulation, a young urban consumer, and a client that is often a family group or a state champion.

What is actually different

The case mechanics are not different. You still structure, size, and recommend. The facts that change the answer are local:

Ownership. A family conglomerate and a listed multinational do not make decisions the same way. Name the sponsor.
Regulation. A bank case that ignores SAMA, or an industrial case that ignores local-content rules, is incomplete.
Geography. Saudi is not one consumer market. Riyadh, Jeddah, and the Eastern Province behave differently. The UAE and the wider GCC are not substitutes for Saudi unless the prompt says so.
Demographics. A young urban population changes demand. It does not, by itself, justify entry.

About a third of the cases in the library are set in Saudi Arabia or the wider GCC, because that is where a large share of technology consulting work in this market actually sits.

How to open

Restate the decision, the metric, and the geography. Then add the one local constraint you will test. On a bank platform, that might be regulatory hosting. On a market entry, it might be whether three cities can carry the store economics. On a state industrial group, it might be local content versus a global tool.

Do not open with a speech about Vision 2030. Use it when it changes cost, revenue, or what the client is allowed to do.

Cases to practice

Premium coffee chain entering Saudi Arabia — entry, city mix, and franchise versus own stores.
Saudi telco losing postpaid subscribers — churn math where the obvious network story is wrong.
Modern data and AI platform for a KSA bank — architecture under a regulator and a split executive team.
GCC insurer considering embedded insurance — a go / no-go with partner choice.
Loyalty programme at a GCC hypermarket — retention versus a points-cost argument.
Procurement transformation for a Saudi industrial group — savings, local content, and a system choice.

Read the market sizing guide before the coffee case, and the MECE guide before you split a family group into branches that overlap.