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

Episode 29...

Forgot to mention in my last episode, a great getaway meeting when it became certain that I would be moving out....We planned a trip to Kumarakom backwaters in Kerala and it was, self, Nalin, Sudeep, John, Sridhar and Ravi....Krithi to join next day....we played a prank with Krithi (this is something we used to do often....once with Deepak and then with Amar and it was executed so well that in both the instances these guys almost got a heart attack!) and asked him to come prepared with a presentation to be made to Ravi on DF business and his thoughts/ideas on how to double it....Krithi burnt lots of midnight oil and next day he arrived. We all assembled and asked him to start the presentation....he started off very seriously and in all earnest and in just 5 minutes, Nalin got up and told him, 'Krithi, enough of this nonsense....we are not here to discuss business....let's have a beer!' Krithi didnt know how to react and we all burst in to laughter....it took some time for Krithi to realise it was a prank....and a great sport he is, he enjoyed the fun too.....Ravi R left next day and we all had great fun sans the presence of Ravi.....that was my last official togetherness with the guys in India....

I narrated the above episode to drive home how important it is to have a wonderful bonding with your colleagues and how important it is to have better understanding between the members of the leadership team. If you ask a military man, he would say drinks and women bring them together.....The leadership team in a company is the driving force and are responsible for strategic thinking and execution. The 2002-5 was a fabulous period for me in India and for all of us....

Now over to Dubai....

My son was not happy to shift to DxB as he just moved to +1 and wanted to get coached for IIT entrance and he felt shifting to DxB would not help him to achieve this objective as the coaching centres in DxB were, at that time, no match to anything in India. Also he started liking Podar in Bombay....

We went to DxB....all 3 of us and looked at many options in terms of acco but finally froze on my predecessors villa in Umm Suqeim....excellent location and in close proximity to the beach and  Jumeirah Beach resort....

Next was to get my sons admission...+1...lot tougher...I approached the Indian school through a contact and met the principal....he said he would give the admission after going thru my sons credentials but they were ahead by 3 months and he insisted those missed portions the student has to manage with his classmates....My son was okay with that...

I have to also get my sons and wife's visa...since mine was a clear (Dubai Airport Free Zone Authority viz DAFZA) one, I applied for the visa and paid all the fees (quite a lot in DxB)...went to the immigration and when my turn came, the person at the counter, looked at the visa application of my son and told me that I have to get from the school a letter confirming my sons admission...this was a shocker...I tried to reason that I would be stupid to apply for my sons visa if I wasn't sure of his school admission and he didnt like that at all..He was a bit rough and told me that he cant do anything and I have to come back with the confirmation letter from the school. So I rushed to the school...fortunately for me Keerthi, the PR guy at our DxB office was with me and hence moving around DxB was not an issue as he knew the topography well....met the principal and he turned down my request saying that he has given the word and once the visa is approved we can pay the fees.....he said convening the board meeting for this insignificant and routine thing wont go well with the board members....I pleaded but he was unrelenting....I spoke to some of my contacts and they also said if the immigration guy wants that, I better get that....and the Principal was unrelenting and kind of shut the door on me....Since i didnt know what to do, I thought I would go the Immigration and plead once again...rushed back to the immigration and went to the same counter with all the papers....but the guy who was there in the morning, was replaced by another..Krithi told me that we should come back the next day as if this guy rejects, then nothing could be done...I thought for a moment, prayed and decided to proceed....I gave him all the papers and told him the school refused to give a letter confirming admission but assured admission after the visa is stamped....he looked at me, puzzled and asked me who told me to get the letter from school? I said it was his colleague who was sitting in the same chair a couple of hours ago...he muttered something in Arabic, shook his head and told me in English "not required' and stamped the visa and gave me.....for both my wife and son.....I didnt know how to react...at one point, I thought it would be a long battle for my sons visa but within hours it changed....what do you call that? divine intervention....same immigration office but different persons and different stand...

All sorted in DxB and we returned to Bombay, packed our stuff and left for DxB....after spending more than a decade in Bombay in IDV/Guinness UDV/Diageo....with a heavy heart to leave the city which really helped me to grow professionally and personally....the trade and the team....Thanks to the Almighty for the lovely team he provided me which made my life easier. Some of my customers came home to bid farewell....and some amazing friends too...

We were put up in a nice hotel in DxB for 15 days...It was mid of Ramadan and my first experience during this fasting period......it was September 2015....everything was slow in the day time.....immigration, business, government offices....but evenings would be fun n frolic across DxB.....DxB was full of fabulous restaurants and world cuisine....I would leave my wife and son and would go to office and come back around 3 as every office closes by then....

Jeff did a good job inducting me and introducing me to almost all the customers across Gulf...and a brief on the business we do with them...it was very formal....I tried to grasp whatever I could....there were some shockers too....the first one being the new rule imposed by the Bahrain administration banning sale and serving of alcohol during Ramadan...till that time, Bahrain was seen one of the progressive countries in Gulf when it comes to alcohol as it was the only country where stand alone restaurants were allowed to have bar and sell. This news was broken to us by our distributor as soon as we met them (with a sarcastic look of 'this guy has brought bad luck to our business!'...but the shocker came from Bahrain....

We visited Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Dubai Duty Free, Abu Dhabi Duty free and our local distributor African n Eastern.....Jeff didnt bother to take me to Northern Emirates...no introductions to any of our Northern Emirates customers....our office was in Airport Free Zone...a decent office....Apart from me, we had the head of finance and three   (Venky, Pramod and Pradeep) assisting him. Syama as office receptionist/secretary, Felicity Sparrow as another secretary and marketing was looked after by, Peggy, a Lebanese..

This girl was the secretary to the ex GM-Gilbert another Lebanese, and dont know what kind of potential he saw in her, he transferred her from Beirut to Dubai to look after the marketing for the entire Gulf ( am not against bringing people from different areas and trying them but this one was unexplainable as the Beirut office also felt the same)....I found this person wanting in many areas but most of the time, she was on WFH mode (even in 2005) and it made things difficult. Keerthi was the PR guy in the office and 'go to' man for many things. 

The finance guy was a Brit and he was the head of finance for the entire gulf and north Africa region. 

There were few major issues which I inherited. Just a few months  before I took charge, Jeff changed the distribution from MMI to AnE...Let me explain this to you guys....MMI and AnE were the only distributors licensed to sell in Dubai Emirates....(Dubai is one of the states in United Arab Emirates...others being Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Umm Al Quain, Ajman, Ras Al Khaima and Fujairah ). And MMI and AnE were given licenses to operate retail stores too in Dxb local....But the major share of business in Dubai domestic used to come from on trade only as the retails were to pay some local taxes apart from the 50% import duty + can sell only to foreigners with permits + their huge margins. These two companies held the market between them very tight and never allowed outsiders to set up shop. But the beauty is, both of them were managed by the government. MMI was wholly owned by Emirates airlines whereas AnE was partly owned by the person who was the chairman of Emirates + Fosters + another partner....

And changing distribution from one to another was never heard of in DxB, earlier. Before the change of distribution AnE used to distribute PRG (Chivas Regal) and after the change, PRG went to MMI. Both MMI and AnE were the kind of CnF for Dubai Duty Free as due to space constraints DDF preferred this model and Diageo + PRG controlled more than 50% of the DDF business. And both MMI and AnE did this service with a thin margin but the volumes were much higher than the domestic business they were doing.

This change of distribution has affected Diageo with their inflight business with Emirates airlines...Emirates Airlines is one of the large buyers of alcohol as they serve generously in-flight and also in their in-flight duty free business. We lost pouring status of JW Black and Red and many other brands except Bailey's. The boss of MMI was the CEO of Emirates Airlines too...

And another stupid mistake Diageo did was to make AnE to distribute to the Northern Emirates customers discontinuing direct supplies to them. This made the NE customers very unhappy as they lost their special status. Obviously AnE would not sell at the same price but would keep some margins. All the other manufacturers including Diageo's major competitor PRG were happily supplying to the customers in NE sans Diageo.

Also apart from Duty Free and Domestic there is another very important, highly volatile and price sensitive channel called RTM (Route to Market). This term RTM is quite common but in Gulf, especially in UAE, this has a different meaning. Jebal Ali, Sharjah, Ajman and Fujairah ports are the ones used for trading to many African countries as these ports are very professionally run and completely digitalised. Since UAEs import duties are the lowest in many categories (alcohol 50% compared to India's 164%) many customers from Africa, Eastern Europe, Middle East throng UAE to get best deals and lift stocks from here. Alcohol is also majorly traded thru these ports to different parts of the world including Europe. Also since major brands in alcohol and beer are price sensitive, the UAE customers especially the ones based at Northern Emirates always look for the best global prices. Whatever the manufacturers do in terms of stopping these parallel trading, no one has every succeeded as it is only illegal from the manufacturers point and not from governments side.

So coming to the issues which I was handed over...

1) AnE, based on certain forecasting model devised by them, had ordered some huge quantities and opened with almost 5 months stocks.

2) Diageo increased the prices just before my arrival and the market got flooded with stocks as everyone encashed on the price advantage.

3) AnE's stocks which included the RTM (they were given exclusivity for UAE) were stuck as RTM channel started buying from other global players where the rates were still cheaper.

4) The NE customers were quite unhappy with Diageo's decision and hence started supporting Chivas Regal big time.

5) Aer Rienta another operator (primarily DF) was based at Bahrain and they were also, god knows why, given the RTM channel to supply. My predecessor who was looking after these RTM business based at Cyprus (see how Diageo was managing their business) has dumped some of these customers and one of them was Aer Rienta....And sadly their RTM was based on one customer and that customer stopped buying and hence they were stuck with huge stocks. Inundated with so much of problems...

And guys, I had numbers to deliver and no one was interested in stories. First couple of review meetings with Simon as head (these nuances never could get in to his head, sadly) this RTM issue and the overstocking at AnE and Aer Rienta was brushed aside...

So, I have to fight my own battle...clear the stocks first and then start getting the numbers. 

So clean up operations and aggressive push was required, which I think is my forte....

This and more in the following episodes....