Memoirs.....Musings of a sales guy at heart.....

Episode 13

ZM...TN...Chennai days again....and what a roller coaster it was....

Two years of great learning and life in AP and everlasting memories. Lived in the same house and same car....didnt change. Jeyanthi left for Trichur in the month of April for her delivery and I left mid of April for Chennai. The Hyderabad office was renovated and the team was well trained. Our office owner Pankaj was a happy man. And more over no Dipy's on our shoulders. HL became a liquor company...

KPT was the RM for South. I come back to Chennai and report to him. Was given the cabin adjacent to him in Rosy Tower. We also acquired the massage parlour area and annexed it thus creating more space. That area became our ASEs space. 

1989 DMK came back to power and alcohol industry was put on some kind of pressure by cutting down the basic prices and the government setting up a spirit corporation apart from TASMAC. I straight away landed in some kind of confusion and chaos. I was told that the margins have thinned but we still have to sell and go after numbers but there will be very less tactical support. 

But I had a great team. Raghavan, Dwarak and Ravi were still there. Purushotham from Karnataka...Kalyan at Madurai and Noor at Coimbatore. Haran at Chennai. I recruited Krishnakumar and Vivek in to the team. Real stalwarts...The task was to manage TASMAC well and also manage Balaji as their margins also dwindled. Navratan Dugar was heading Balaji and it was a big task to manage him as Balaji's loyalty was with McD. HL and Carew Phipsons were given the proverbial 'step motherly' treatment....this is not a complaint but fact. CDL another arm of UB group with CG brandy also to be supplied by Balaji...

The retail trade was still with private and mostly the same players. And some of them were stalwarts too. Real biggies. 

We had a great guy as MD of Tasmac. Mrityunjay Sarangi IAS. Native of Odisha, TN Cadre, an officer and a gentleman. Rare species.  U remember my earlier post where our Raghavan met him accidentally in the train to represent our case!!! Same person. We used to take our fights, the never ending ones between McD and HL, to him. Once he quipped "you guys are like Pandav and Kauravas and you want me to do the role of Krishna? You guys sort it out between yourselves and dont bring it to me". He said it with a smile but that was true. In HL we were made to fight for our rights always as we never had our own unit and were mostly dependent on McD units to source our requirements. HL had one in Rajasthan but with limited capacity. Phipsons had Kalyan Ganguly as their RM and they managed well as VJM had a soft corner for Phipsons too. Jayaram was the ASM for TN- another great character. 

So what was the task? Deliver the numbers...do not ask for schemes...manage with whatever you were given...but top-line delivery is a must. I was once told by KPT we just get Rs5 as royalty from Balaji (dont know how true it was!)..but HO wanted the numbers as TN had the potential. There was no concept of bottom line....just the top line deliverance....

And we delivered. I was the incharge of the entire state. As soon as I moved in, I took a house on rental at Alwarpet-it was the first floor of an independent house but Chennai was suffering from acute water shortage and this house was no exemption...the day I moved in to the house, I got the happiest news of my life-Jeyanthi delivered our dear Rithvic on the 10th of June 89....my brother got the call from Trichur  and he came with a pack of sweets to my place. Took the train that night to Trichur to see the baby....it was always the Cochin express(now Alleppey exp) -the most convenient train to Trichur those days....how many trips! My friends niece Aarthy is the one who suggested the name for my son and since it sounded different and good, I gleefully grabbed it.

Some stories worth sharing...one of them is how we used to recruit sales guys...once we interviewed Basha, a muslim and I found him ideal fit. But KPT insisted that I meet up with his parents and take their consent too as traditional muslims look at it as haram. I followed his instructions and recruited Basha. Tomy always insisted that we should know the family of the guys whom we recruit, which I second. Being in liquor industry you have so much of attractions/distractions...the booze is always at your hands reach...during the trade visits most of the dealers would insist to give them company for a drink and it is never ending. I mentioned in my earlier post that we work late evenings visiting outlets and invariably food is always with some retailers/colleagues. If you are an FMCG guy, market visits get over by maximum 5pm and after that you are on your own. Medical reps sometime work in the evening as per Drs availability. But for alcohol industry evening and night trade visits are mandatory to understand consumer behaviour and also to strike a chord with the trade. And when you work upcountry markets sometimes it goes even beyond midnight as despite mandatory closure times, retailers keep their shops open beyond that...Madurai used to be one such place where some shops were 24x7....and didnt I enjoy my trade visits!!!

In my earlier stint as FSO, Coimbatore was not part of me. But as ZM-TN I visited CBE officially first time. Noor and Vivek were our guys there. And these guys had such a great hold in the market. My mode of travel was mostly by train and reach early morning except when I travel to Tirunelveli. Check in, shower and guys would be there for breakfast...review of numbers and trade visits. In the evening after the trade visits drinks and dinner. In Coimbatore it was always Annapoorna Hotel...what a place...receptionist Kalai was such a gem. Mostly drinks and dinner in the room only. I could not claim alcohol on company account so it was always out of pocket. But my guys were smart and they would get it with some great discounts. Snacks from Annapurna-the best in CBE-were always free for us.

Madurai it was Aarthi hotel. Trichy Rajali...

And as ZM I was allowed to travel by Taxis. AC ambassador cars...thankfully, and AC 1st class in train.

With the limited resources available the need of the hour was improvisation as to push numbers one has to have some kind of bait for the trade...McD managed well as, probably, they had more money. We used to manage with our give aways-which we were using it so generously earlier-and once in 6 months some decent schemes. But we were very creative with our schemes. Our lucky draws were always looked upon by the trade. We also specialised in display contests. One such contest in Madurai region is still enshrined in my heart. Contest boiled down to 5 guys finally. The winner would be decided on certain scores and one of them was their off-take of our brands. Dealers used to keep their spies at Tasmac depots to track the off-take of the contestants to score over them. Tomy came to Madurai to judge the display contest and when he visited Meenakshi Wines of KP Kandasami (one of our staunch supporters), a beautiful board was kept outside his shop with the following inscriptions...'Welcome To My shop Tomy!" (got it?)....and few steps away Aruna Wines(Arunachalam)...another contender for the fist prize- and Jaya wines(Swamy Ayya)....finally we have to give two first prizes and one special prize but we got the market in our control. Our dear Kalyan played a big part in making this a huge success.

My team members were known for their 'I am achiever' club. Stalwarts!! ALP, Manohar, Vivek, Noor, Thulsi and Mohandas. Apart from Narasimhan, KSR, KGR, Raghavan and Haran. 

After I moved in KSR got promoted as ASM.

Bala was at Tirunelveli for sometime and he was another character. Some times our parties have turned so nasty and one such was, when Tomy invited all of us, after our review meeting, to his home for a drink. Our guys always indulge. After few drinks we were to dine at Amaravati on TTK Road and they all left either by their two wheelers or by Auto...self and Tomy went in his car and as we approached Amaravathi, there was a huge crowd outside. I requested Tomy to go in and got down to figure out what was happening outside. ooops...it was our Bala on the road completely zoned out....I pulled couple of our guys and lifted Bala and pushed him in my car and straight drove up to our office in Rosy tower. We opened our office, carried him inside and he was stinking with vomit all over, stripped him completely and covered him with all the news paper around and left him there to cool off, went back to Amaravathi and joined the gang as if nothing happened. Tomy gave me a wink and I realised that someone had already informed him. That night LT Murthy of our office picked up a quarrel with another colleague....and our dear Narasimhan broke the bathroom sync....what a party finally it turned out to be. Fortunately Kalyan was not drunk.... Next day morning Bala got a mouthful from all of us and he had to be shown the door. This episode brought lot more discipline with the team as I enforced lots of restrictions on the team in public drinking.

Our monthly reviews were fun to be....lots of screaming and shouting but in the evening over a drink we laugh it off but sometimes it goes out of hands too....as happened at Amaravati.

I moved to a better flat on RA Puram and celebrated my sons first birthday there...It was a great get-together with colleagues, family members and friends...my nephew Vinu did a solo dance that evening...he danced for 'Annatha adurar' song and he stole the show. 

Haaa....one more thing I need to share here....I mentioned about our monthly review meetings. One such meeting we decided to do something different. Datta had a great contact with G Venkateswaran, producer and brother of director Maniratnam. He had a farm house in Mahabalipuram- 'the coconut grove'. It was right on the beach. Datta managed to get the place for us for a night and we travelled to the beach resort with a single objective of having a great time. It was full moon and the setting was awesome. The farm house had so many casuarina, palm and coconut trees. The care taker of the place cooked food for all of us. We were around 15. Suddenly out of nowhere I got a crazy idea and called all my guys and told them that we will all completely strip off and go and reamin naked through out the night. Believe me guys, I seriously suggested it...and every single member of the team agreed....Dwarak was a bit hesitant but he had to give in....so 15 of us walking, running, screaming, singing and drinking on the beach, under the moonlight fully naked. Thats the kind of team we were...the team I had in TN that time, was one of the best...the achievers club.....as am travelling down the line, I realise how fortunate I was to have such great guys as team mates....the beauty is that we are still in touch with each other barring a couple. And we lost our dearest Kalyan and Haran a couple of years ago.

In one of the review meetings with HO, when it boiled down to profitability, I suggested to them to develop a brand at the same price point of McD No 1 Whiskey. They agreed and started developing but took lots of convincing of VJM as he didnt want any trouble for McD No 1....We launched Bagpiper Gold in TN...and we put in our best efforts and made it a leading brand in TN in a very short time. The team did a fabulous job....initially we got the stocks from, Rajasthan and later shifted to Balaji...we didnt want to shift to Balaji due to very poor realisation but were forced to. Evan as ZM I was not shared the cost cards and hence always wondered how one could get more margins importing from other states than supplying from local...but once shifted to Balaji, the volumes started coming in....the game was always volumes, right?

2 years stint as ZM has made me stronger in terms of team and supply management. Also strengthened my working relationship with MSR group in Chennai HO. Dugar was tough but still managed him well. Lots to learn from him too. He always kept a piece of paper in his pocket and in a jiffy he would tell you MTD production and dispatches brand wise. Mind it, there was no cell phone those days....

Most of the days, after our office hours, self along with Raghavan, Haran, Ravi and Datta used to spend some time at the parking area of Rosy tower and chat a lot. My friend Raman and Manohar of Blue Star used to also join us. We would never return home before 8. 

Also some times we used to go to the Blue Diamond theater which used to run continuous shows....with a ready mix!!!

As I mentioned it was managing the logistics and redistribution....my office staff were of great support especially Datta as he handled the excise all by himself. During this stint, Dwarak and KGR got promoted as ASEs....

Naaz  Rovshen was the boss of HL and he was such a sweet guy...left it to Deepak Roy to manage. SSG fell off with VJM and left the group but came back as head of McD later. HL was growing in stature within the group, thanks to the combo of Naaz and Deepak. They changed the people and brought in fresh blood and started focusing on consumers more.  

But TN was becoming very mundane....DR during a review asked me whether am mobile...without realising what it was, I said immediately YES....and within a month he called me and told me that he is promoting me and transferring me to Bombay as RM West. Deepak Roy is the one who is responsible for whatever I am today. He noticed the spark in me and despite my short comings on Hindi, he somehow felt I had the potential and should be nurtured. So after spending two wonderful years in TN and with 2 yo Babloo, we decided to take the offer and move to Bombay....an alien territory....Guys, never ever hesitate when the opportunity comes knocking.... 

Bye bye Chennai and hallo Bombay......