Definitely NOT Mother Teresa

Having functioned as an employee from the time I started earning my keep in 1974, it was in Dubai in 1994 that I decided to bite the bullet, cross over to the other side and start my own business.  During the intervening years from the time of my relocation from Assam to Dubai, my work had entailed pounding pavements in many countries peddling all sorts of products and commodities.  Needless to say that regardless of the products I had been flogging for those four years, with TEA being my forté and the only product I really knew, when I decided to venture out on my own, the new business could naturally be nothing other than a dedicated tea-centric enterprise.

Not having the advantage of deep pockets and while I was brimming with ideas, the project would have been a non-starter but for the fact that my dear friend Hamid Navid, a young go-getting Iranian, decided to take the gamble and partner with me by funding the start-up.  A bold decision of his for which I was, am and will forever be most grateful.

The legal framework for the new venture having been completed and a new office having been taken on lease in Jebel Ali, it was only when I actually shoved my foot into the door that I realised that what I had ventured into was an already very crowded dog-eat-dog market, being left to literally pick up the crumbs.  The deeper I dived into what was this very well entrenched and tightly controlled ‘club’ of Tea traders, the clearer it became that for a newbie like me, breaking into that jealously guarded space was going to be well neigh impossible.  When I look back on it now with hindsight, while I had rolled up my sleeves and spared no efforts to try and ramp up business, circumstances being what they were I also went through a period of self doubt all the while kicking myself for having stuck my head out.  Which is the way it would have continued had it not been for help from a totally unexpected quarter.

Madan Chopra, a friend of mine, an executive with PepsiCo in Dubai, following a promotion was despatched to Almaty as the Regional Head for the fast developing CIS markets.  Within a couple of months of him being there, PepsiCo concluded arrangements for the bottling rights for Pepsi with the Resmi Group, a company lorded over by a gentleman who, this being an open secret, was allegedly a very powerful local mafia don.  A fact which ensured that in next to no time within Kazakhstan, a highly competitive beverage market, Pepsi had established itself as the undisputed market leader.  Which is when I got a call from Madan wanting to know whether I may be interested in doing business in a country which, post the break-up of the Soviet Union, was statistically known to consume humongous volumes of Tea.

Would I??  Before Madan could have said Jack Robinson I was on a flight to Almaty.  The next morning I was introduced (which I had been clearly told was all that my friend could and would do) to the boss – Kairat Mazbhaev.  Over the next couple of days, using all my persuasive talents and leaving no stone unturned, I was able to sell Kairat the idea that his company could leverage the excellent distribution network which his company had established for Pepsi, by including a range of packaged teas in their limited basket of products.

To cut a long story short, having shaken hands over the business modalities of providing them with a turnkey solution, working flat out, hopping from one country to the other, within a very tight timeframe I had managed to sew together the various components of what was a rather complex business model.  Besides a whole lot of minor ones, the major facets of the turnkey project entailed:
– The designing and installation of a tea blending plant linked to a semi automatic packaging line
– Concept and execution of the artwork for the packaging material for the ‘Tealand’ brand, which
– Following approval of the designs, was printed and shipped to Almaty from Dubai
Tying down arrangements for regular shipments of teas from Calcutta, Colombo and Indonesia.
– Training the personnel who Kairat had deputed for the project

With all the pieces falling into place, from a standing start, in very short time the volumes of tea being imported by the company ballooned.  Over the next three years with business booming and the sales of Tealand on a sharp upward trajectory I was gung-ho and chuffed with what we had managed to achieve.  To keep the business flowing I would find myself in Almaty every five or six weeks with each one of my regular visits to Almaty being treated as one big party with me being wined, dined and feted by Kairat and his team.

Till such time as I was a two bit fringe player peddling small parcels of teas, within the tea trade no one cast so much as a second glance towards me.  That all changed and how when the volumes of teas being shipped out of Calcutta to Almaty started to become somewhat more than only a blip on the radar.  Which is when I started getting regular feedback from Taimur, Kairat’s man in charge of Tealand whom I had trained and had him accompany me to all the tea origins to learn the ropes, that they had been visited by a Mr x-y-z from Calcutta offering teas at far lower prices.  Classical dog-eat-dog tactics.  They never had any similar visits from Sri Lanka or Indonesia, ONLY from Calcutta!  With each new visitor offering nothing different, barring cutthroat prices, I started noticing the change in the tone of Taimur’s voice.

And then literally from out of the blue, I was hit by a massive bolt of lightning!  A terse one line fax from Tealand that they had unilaterally taken a decision ‘no more business with Excel International’.  This at a time when I had multiple containers on the water from all three origins heading to Almaty consigned to Tealand.  I was obviously on the very next flight to Almaty.

This particular time – no party!  Having requested a meeting with Kairat I was ushered into his office and for the first time since we had met, it was just him and me and no one else.  I first worked on the business angle, sharing facts and figures to explain that my dealings with Tealand where strictly in accordance with our formal agreement.  When that approach appeared to be falling on deaf ears, I shifted to the personal approach stressing on the relationship we had developed and the fact that when I had initially approached them, his company did not even know how to spell ‘tea’.  With nothing else working and realizing that I had nothing to lose, I went the whole hog literally pleading with Kairat that were he to pull the plug on me in this sudden manner, I would be as good as dead and would even possibly have to pull my son out of university.  I may as well have been talking to a wall.  Ashen faced and certain that I was going to have a heart attack right there and then I had Kairat turn to stare at me with steely eyes and utter words which are as though etched on my brain:

“Indi, look at me.  Do you think I’m Mother Teresa”?

I simply shut my laptop, shook hands with Kairat and staggered out of his office and was on the next flight back to Dubai.  It was a nightmare I would not wish on my worst enemy!  Having to break the news to the eleven staff that Excel International had grown to, that next day onwards they had no job!  It was heartbreaking. 

Now sitting in my office looking out of the window at the hills and casting my mind back on that horrible period with hindsight, reaffirms my unshakable belief that in the long term whatever happens, is ALWAYS for the best.
Bottom line – had I not gone through all that shit, would I be in the happy place I am in today?!