<div>Andre Ramdas was delighted with his new appointment. </div><div> </div><div>US- based foods company Kloop had just confirmed his appointment as their India head of business. </div><div> </div><div>Andre who had 18 years in senior sales management in three different MNCs in the foods business, including three years in the UK was seen as a good fit for Kloop, which was finalising its entry into India. Andre had been looking for change only because Teffer, where he was heading the growing foods business, was considering hiving off its ready-to-eat business owing to a recessionary trend in the company. Andre did not want to be caught on the wrong foot, besides which he was tired of not being able to grow the business at Teffer as month after month budgets were slashed.</div><div> </div><div>Last month, Kloop showed interest in buying Teffer’s foods business as a part of its entry into India. Andre had been making all the presentations for the strategy meetings and one thing led to another. Kloop dropped the Teffer plan, but picked up Andre to strategise its entry into India and run their breakfast cereals business for them.</div><div> </div><div>Andre was delighted. Kloop’s director sales then discussed their plan for India — that initially they would not buy office but rent, would not invest in an owned distribution system but appoint a distributor.... </div><div> </div><div>Now as he came down the lift in New Delhi’s Leela Hotel, he felt complete and great— he would be running a business and taking charge, This was what he had been aching for, to give expression to his business skills.</div><div> </div><div>Kloop had drawn up its entry strategy along with Madhur Bawa, Kloop’s Asia Pacific director, and Raghuveer Singh of Bright & Thakur, a consulting firm they had engaged to partner their processes in the first few years. Kloop Chairman Ben Haney had been firm about not investing in own distribution. The next best option was to hire a distributor. Which is what they did. Shyamchand Belani was a hardy distributor for a number of FMCG products , belonging to a family that had been in distribution since the 1940s.</div><div> </div><div>Andre Ramdas had all the classic sales experience that MNCs provide. He was used to developing his own sales and market plans. A distributor-led sales approach intrigued him. This was slightly different from the American and European companies he had worked with. </div><div> </div><div>Of course, he had worked with distributors earlier too but they were directed by the company and depended on the company. </div><div> </div><div>Distribution, he assessed was the first biggest stumbling block for any manufacturer and for a start-up or new venture, it could pose a bottleneck. Could Kloop afford this? Distributors like Belani were also bureaucratic and dogmatic, with multiple layers of authority responsibility so that the race to the market would be riddled with many, many stops. Andre already felt trapped. In fact, he had seen exactly this play out at Teffer when it launched its milk drink. None of the company’s distributors wanted to handle a small brand or let it piggy back ride their soaps and toothpastes... and nor was Teffer allowing Andre to develop his own network for such a small product centre and yet they had been assessing him for failure to deliver. </div><div> </div><div>Now at Kloop India, the entire thing was like a deja vous with the difference that Kloop’s product categories were more vibrant — breakfast cereals and between-meal niblets.</div><div> </div><div>What made it worse was that Belani’s fragmented distribution would cause a bumpy ride and would not deliver a robust delivery plan for a product like cereal. “In short,” he said to Madhur Bawa (Asia Pacific chief), “you will not be maximising your market reach. Your advertising will make enthusiastic claims of health and taste, but you will not go beyond cities.”</div><div> </div><div>Bawa had no anxiety. He trusted Belani to do his job.</div><div> </div><div>Meanwhile, Andre found it tough to work with Belani. There was a lot about Belani that was alien and difficult. Add to that, Belani did not speak English, his essential edifice was Hindi and this challenged Andre’s mental environment. As he reasoned with Annie George, his ex-secretary, “I have nothing against Hindi, but in the work context, it tends to develops a certain casual nature. Or maybe I associate it with Bollywood...”</div><div> </div><div>Annie had agreed. Reality for Andre, was facing Shyamchand and often finding him growling at his people and calling them names. That was, of course, small; but Belani had the attitude of the old world when it came to business. “There is a certain modernity of thought that one expects to see in him but he seems to belong to the old world kirana mentality of blaming staff for poor performance,” Andre told the global sales head. “He is not marking up well for a brand like Kloop which has a great need for market suaveness and aggression.”</div><div> </div><div>By and by, Andre was not even calling to talk to Belani. In short, Belani was not inspiring. To be fair, Andre himself wished there was something professional in Belani, which could mask the language disaster. If Belani sold better and faster Andre would have coped with his colloquial Hindi to please him. For his part, Belani was happy. His work carried on and he had 14 other agencies to fret over. </div><div> </div><div>Soon, Andre was not getting daily reports or weekly updates regularly. He had now begun to call Belani’s assistant, one Jignesh who gave him the inside stories often. But Andre was unable to moot change, for then Jignesh asked him to talk to Belani — the dead end street. </div><div> </div><div>At the end of two months of the market launch, the products had not moved much. Every target had failed. Belani had an all India team of territory managers, ASMs, field support and so on. Many of these had worked at slightly lower levels in the MNCs and had gained great finesse in sales and distribution. Belani hired them at the same remuneration with a decent designation thrown in. His menu of MNC FMCG brands was the best experience these boys and girls could get. </div><div> </div><div>Belani knew, as did Kloop, that if he lost three brands, he would lose his people. For Kloop this was a big risk but a risk they could hedge on because they had Bawa from Singapore keeping a close watch on Belani’s business. If Bawa thought he was soon handing that charge to Andre, he had another think coming. For the distance between Andre and Belani was growing. And he said to Bawa and Haney, “This guy is a lala-type (leaving it to Bawa to interpet for Haney in the US); he is high risk... !”</div><div> </div><div>But when Andre had said this several times, Haney grew anxious and asked him to hire four regional sales managers (RSMs), so that he could oversee the four regions better. Besides, this was the best insurance Kloop could buy against Belani’s nebulous team. The new four RSMs were good back up.</div><div> </div><div>End of the fourth month, growth was far from inspiring. Andre was having a bad time with Belani. “He is simply lax on targets,” he said. Belani for his part blamed efforts behind building new markets and the competition. He even said that breakfast habits were changing because people were not really in favour of milk. Bawa in Singapore turned upon Andre, “But we hired you. What are you doing? You are accountable for managing the risk!”</div><div> </div><div>Six months passed and the market barely opened up to Kloop’s cereal — a range of 9 different variants. Kloop USA was now getting restive and turned the heat on Bawa in Singapore. He, in turn, called B&T’s Raghuveer Singh who said Kloop needed to look at five years and not just the first year. “Let us do a plan for three, then five years and examine.”</div><div><img src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=d193528a-b410-402e-b773-8c918f1a4492&groupId=222861&t=1432888159671" width="300" height="375" vspace="1" hspace="1" align="right" alt="" /></div><div>Haney in the US, meanwhile, was wringing his hands. His stance did not change: if India did not achieve targets this year, they would close down India, hence a three- or five-year plan was just academic. But Singapore was disheartened. For them, India business was key to their happiness. The numbers came from India!</div><div>Belani and Andre were often at each other’s throats. If Haney and Bawa demanded performance, Andre threw it back at them saying they have hired a lame duck (in Belani), and “he was hired before I came on board!” </div><div> </div><div>Funnily Bawa in Singapore did not even know that the distributor and business head were not meeting each other! It happened thus that when Bawa called Belani, he complained, “Your CEO does not even know the way to my office!” And then, all hell broke loose. Andre claimed Belani was never there when he called, and thus they served their anger back and forth.</div><div> </div><div>Raghuveer Singh watched all this with great disconcertment. “Do I like Andre or not, is not even an issue,” he told an anxious Bawa. “Finally they are all bodies who get paid to work. Belani gets commission, Andre gets a fat remuneration and both have very clear job descriptions and delivery parameters. They had both jolly well work!” He realised the problem of slow growth lay in the widening chasm between Andre and Belani. “Capability is not at all in question. Neither Andre’s nor Belani’s. Both are seasoned players but both have missed the road to each other. Belani is a hardened market man. He does not need English or an MBA to play the market successfully. He is seeking support and endorsement of his moves. Same for Andre. He is excellent a sales manager. Somewhere he does not understand that his plan and Belani’s plans are near identical. Andre needs encouragement. Don’t shove him into the dog house.”</div><div> </div><div>One day, Raghuveer walked into Andre’s office and said, “Andre, let us address current issues. There is no one magic solution. It has to come from discussing. The way forward is fixing responsibility, accountability and if Belani has to take a rap on his knuckles, then rap his knuckles we shall.” </div><div> </div><div>Bawa was happy rapping anyone’s knuckles. Meanwhile Raghuveer sat and drummed up 30 ideas that Kloop India could work on to accelerate growth, excite the market, play with consumer joy. He sent this document to Andre. But Andre who had likely turned hopeless, wrote back to Bawa and Haney to say none of these were tenable or workable. A furious Bawa shot back a reply, “This is your responsibility, show some action! Take ownership and set the agenda for the meeting. If these 30 are bloomers, then come up with your ten?!”</div><div> </div><div>Raghuveer did not like the tone that was taking over. He understood everyone’s compunctions but he also desired equanimity. Without that business could not happen. “We can bicker all we want,” he told Bawa. “But finally work can come only from a centre of peace.” But his shock new no bounds when a frustrated Andre did a Reply All: “This is a meeting designed to prove me wrong and ineffective. I did not hire Belani, and he is a huge part of the problem. You solve him and I will solve your market. Maybe Raghuveer holds the key?”</div><div> </div><div>Bawa thought he was being tongue-in-cheek; Raghuveer felt maybe Andre was actually asking for help. Haney shook his head and chanted his mantra: he was shutting down India. This did not augur well for anyone: not for Singapore, not for India. Andre did a sequel to his last mail to everyone and said in particular to Bawa, “My responsibility depends a lot on Belani fulfilling his. Those who are responsible for appointing him need to crack the whip on him to deliver his end of the bargain.”</div><div><br />Raghuveer sat making furious notes, late one evening when his partner asked him, “Any joy with Kloop? What’s the story?”</div><div> </div><div>Raghuveer: If I narrate a story, there will be a villain and a hero and a victim. They all look bad, sad and mad. We need to wait for the story to play out. In any new organisation, even the best guys will throttle each other if we do not have a mentor/coach. It is a moment of great churn. No villains in my story....but everyone put their heads together to see what could be done to improve the sales performance as everyone was concerned about Haney’s ultimatum. Shutting down India would mean many things, chiefly everyone at Kloop India would lose their jobs; Belani’s ROI would be smashed and he would have to sack 20 people to stay afloat. That was not a very nice situation to look forward to.</div><div> </div><div>Would cooperation work? Would bitter anger work? Where lay the solution when egos were like daggers drawn? </div><div> </div><div>Raghuveer met Belani. He was doing the bare minimum; in short he just sold, but did not push the product. “You people have to ideate all that, what can I do?” was his response. But he could have acted on a tip that Arpita, one of Raghuveer’s consultants had worked on. Two large hotel chains, clients of Bright and Thakur agreed to use Kloop Breakfast cereal for six months. But Belani was unable to act on it nor was Andre able to close the deal. He had found several ‘difficulties’ with the arrangement and had left the transaction hanging in mid air. Andre was busy chasing the market and retail, no doubt, but in the hotel chain sale prospect, there was opportunity for strengthening the brand presence. So felt Bawa and Arpita, but the Dubai office felt Andre was tacitly sabotaging any success so that he could prove that Belani was a stunningly bad idea. </div><div> </div><div>Andre had also launched his ad campaign much before the products arrived from the US. Belani had fought that saying the consumer will demand the product once the ad appears hence it would be better to wait. But Andre had his marketing reasons, which also sounded reasonable. So, the classic marketing-sales tussle had begun. Raghuveer felt they needed to work together and not as separate beings, for Kloop needed both their skills and cooperation.</div><div> </div><div>Come December, and sales were abysmal. Bawa in Singapore refused to talk to Andre and Andre refused to talk to Belani and Belani refused to waste his time talking at all. He said, “I am a seasoned distributor, I will work alone, what sells, sells; what does not is because your CEO was not cooperating.”</div><div>Haney was now on the warpath. Nothing was improving. He prepared to pull the Indian shutters down.</div><div> </div><div>Belani refused to be bullied into performance by Andre, “It is your brand you should be concerned. You cannot sit in your office and dictate to me how to run my business!” he said.</div><div> </div><div>Andre, beginning to feel the heat as March approached, met Belani’s sales team and pushed them. They identified with Andre as they too were from MNCs, so some small bonhomie prevailed but somewhere they resented the fact that their boss was not in with them on this. When Reghuveer met Andre for an overview, he cribbed , “Belani does not have time for me!”</div><div> </div><div>Even so, Raghuveer was keen to make it work, probably also because Kloop was his client and he had a sense of commitment. “Why don’t you go over the various ideas I had sent you?” he said to Andre. “It will create positive motivation among your team of RSMs and that of Belani’s.”</div><div> </div><div>But Andre was by now frustrated, fed up and also beginning to lose hope. He had enough to do, he barely slept, and now he did not want untested ideas. Andre was losing his composure slowly as his four RSMs began to fret too. “Maybe we are expecting results too soon?” he suggested. “ It is not even a year! All MNC brands have taken more than eight years to break-eve”.</div><div> </div><div>Eight years? Haney’s global team even wanted Andre to make up for the six months he had lost. Andre realised that blaming Belani would land him in deeper mess. </div><div>That was also when Raghuveer had the onerous task of meeting Belani and Andre together for a very bad lunch session where he spoke in no uncertain terms how the two had failed, even as both of them yelled over his head at each other. Raghuveer read out from a message from Haney and Bawa: “If targets are not delivered by mid May, India operations will be closed on 1 June.”</div><div> </div><div>In a last ditch bid, the next day, Raghuveer called both men to a new location right next to Belani’s office. It was a small business centre. He showed them both into a room that was fitted with phones printers, fax machines and whatnot. “This is your new office,” he said to both of them as they looked at him, stunned. “Now, work together... sitting here. You need anything from your offices? Ask your fellows to fetch it to you!”</div><div> </div><div>If Andre tried to protest, Raghuveer shrugged his shoulders very helplessly. “I wish I was not the one making you guys do this, this is a farmaan from Haney in the US,” he lied helplessly. But Belani laughed and said, “Theek hai, bhai, if this is the Boss’ order, we will sit here and work!’</div><div> </div><div>By evening that day, Andre’s Hindi was suitably diluted to be engaging enough so that Belani enjoyed. Raghuveer was disbelieving. How did the situation change so dramatically?</div><div> </div><div>Andre was discussing SWOTs, understanding Belani’s difficulties, offering solutions and before long even thumping him on the back with a cheer.</div><div>...it began to work.</div><div> </div><div>At the end of it, there were nine executives from large MNCs who stood to lose their jobs and the pressure got them to work to make it work!</div><div> </div><div>That month they achieved the monthly target and in three months the third quarter targets were exceeded! Clearly the initial push itself had been missing, and once they came under pressure, they crossed even the targets. </div><div> </div><div>Bawa was dumbfounded. No one was able to say anything. The only one who spoke was Andre, to Raghuveer, “Let us discuss your ideas soon and see what we can implement?” </div><div> </div><div>(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 15-06-2015)</div>