Review- Part One: A Long way from Cincinnati

Hiring Process- Nurturing Talent:

P & G has developed its way of nurturing young individuals to outperform in the complex
markets. It has shown a great amount of courage to the only hire from scratch level. It can
easily be said that it is an effective way to run an organization as P&G itself has been the
success story over many years. It is indeed very unique and effective as it has developed many
individuals worldwide over the years.

A sense of ownership brings individuals to the level of motivation to outperform and think out
of the box. Quality over quantity of talent pool is an effective strategy when mixed with the
right corporate culture and human resource management. “Up or out” culture brings out the
best of an individual’s strength.

Commitment and Resilience for Multinational Organizations:

When you launch an international brand in a complex market of a developing country, your
expectations may not be up to the target in the initial few months/years. It gets difficult to hold
onto company values and laws while achieving the organizational goals. To run an ethical
business and communicating & implementing principles and values to employees gets rough
but commitment and resilience can make things settle.

You have to go by the rules to go longer. Organization culture builds stronger when they prefer
principles over monetary concerns.

Importance of Futuristic Approach:

First mover advantage can do wonders for organizations in their revenues; the risk is what has
to be taken. The futuristic approach of an organization can give a unique view which
competitors tend to ignore, and that gives long-term growth and success after the struggling
era. Very few organizations think of recognizing and growing a particular market segment, it
requires vision beyond facts and figures. When organizations think out-of-the-box, they achieve
out-of-the-box.

This book provides pure learning to bring and develop an international business, to succeed as
an entrepreneur, to use market research to its effectiveness and to change the course of
actions with effectiveness.

Distribution Management in Complex Markets:

Apart from recruiting and nurturing the right talent, Logistics are very crucial in reaching the
complex rural mom-and-pop stores and selling them the new product. The marketing and sales
team must be street smart to ensure the visibility and availability of products. The sales force
can provide on-ground insights of regions and communities.
Perks of Having Multinational in One Country:

International brands are helpful for a country as it raises the standards of living, lifestyle,
products and several other stakeholders like competitors, users, suppliers and service
providers.

Marketing is the soul to entrepreneurship and the standard of this art is further upped by
international chains that are backed up by heavy investments and human resources. But that
does not assure the brand’s success, struggles along the way tend to come more than normal.

Barriers & Success Factors:

When you operate manufacturing plants in any area, it is very crucial to know the attitude of
locals. Complex markets with people’s (e.g) influence can bring barriers and difficulties in
operations.

Business without hurdles, failures, and barriers is not possible mostly. The thing matters are just
that you must get along the process and do the things right.

The key aspects to look into for a successful launch may include, but not limited to:

 Market research
 Risk-taking
 Investment
 Competition
 Hiring and training
 Distribution infrastructure
 Educating consumers
 Effective sales revenue
 Ethics and values
 Culture, sub-culture
 Economic conditions

Talking about post-communist Ukraine, a more complex, uneven and uncertain market to
launch any brand. The country that just got its independence and the whole system is under re-
engineering, it can be very difficult to forecast anything almost.

Importance of Media in Brand Building:

Public opinion can be impacted negatively and positively, a brand must react if it faces barrages
of negative media news & criticism that is costing brand equity. P&G did the same and allowed
Qaiser to step-in to change public opinion in favor of the brand. Media and regulations can
impact the SBUs of a conglomerate to change drastically.
External Threats to Cope:

There could be so many complications like the cost of doing business, legalized corruption,
imports, stifling regulations, red tape, local expectations, brand image building, negative media
impact for not-so-true violations that can impact revenues and heavy brand building costs.

Dealing directly with the key government stakeholders can be challenging more than anyone
could expect. Running business operations smoothly having conflicts with the government is
next to impossible.

Back to Cincinnati after 8 years in emerging markets:

The roles and challenges in an organizational life keep on changing with the expectation to be
successful on any ground. One might have to work in not-so-familiar departments and still have
to work out well. Performance of an individual may be dependent on others and one must
manage them both; thus can be very challenging.

9/11: Impacts on Businesses and Economies:

The impact of such events can bring a depressive environment all over the country, no one
really knows how to react and so does businesses. Everyone gets affected and needs mental
therapy to recover from such incidents. The center of focus is total that particular event,
nothing else.

Internal Opportunities in Multinationals:

One can just keep up the hopes and wait for the right moment/role in the organization to
flourish again. Working in diverse markets is always a plus point and that brought the Author to
one more bright opportunity within the same company.

When you are a part of a multinational, you become privileged to get a lot more in terms of
exposure. You travel and explore places, meet new people, observe new cultures and norms,
learn new languages, value other’s differences and a lot more to offer.

Shopper Marketing:

The most engaging and diverse department with exposure to global marketing firms is to form
joint marketing strategies. In multinationals, that department brings a lot to offer in the retail
sector. The author got benefited from the same department to be closer to the customers and
got a chance to know the customer on-ground.
Review- Part Two: All That Mattered
All this time, the author was not even thinking to switch from P&G, as the culture and
ownership have shaped him in the best interests of the company. The time has now come to
take the operations of the Pakistan region to the next level. An opportunity has met the author
that was best for his professional wellbeing. He was the main person to launch P&G in Pakistan
so he was very well informed about the conditions in Pakistan. This time, the market was a lot
better and the economy was way much stable as compared to the previous project.

Brand Conscious Market:

People in Pakistan became status-conscious, and this mentality has boosted higher sales per
capita far above expectations; and when compared to similar poor-markets. Middle and lower-
income households were the major revenue source as the country has comparably shifted to
branded consumer goods.

Major shareholder (Bio Amla - 40%) in the shampoo market before a decade was left with only
5%, what were the reasons?

 Local mindset
 Focus only on sales
 Insufficient marketing
 Quality standard
 Short-term vision

Positive Mindset in Long-run Business:

Politics, social conditions, geopolitics, and other external factors are very crucial to consider for
businesses. Market trends and conditions can make drastic fluctuations overnight due to
external factors, especially with political and economic ones.

Businessmen are likely to see the positive sides of the market mostly. Even if the situation is not
favoring, marketers strategize to campaign the situation in favor of business. Marketers always
approach to markets with optimism; no other options!

Collateral damage:

Pakistan has faced a lot of difficulties due to US wars against Soviets, and the after-effects as
“mujahidin” were left unbounded with a flurry of weapons in the country. Wars are never the
solution to any issue, leaders with pens are. Not only economies, but societies as a whole also
get affected by such events. Multinational companies face revenue losses and fluctuations in
such conditions.

CSR Activities and Brand Image:

When it comes to CSR activities, most effective are those which directly impact the customers
that the company serves. The author raised a good point on how to get noticed for the efforts
done by the company in the welfare of society. Pakistan is a market full of selfless individuals;
they do less complaint and manage to serve their problems on their own. Pakistan's
government is hugely supported and relieved by NGOs operating in the country. People of
Pakistan are workers of humanity at large, all full of a passion to serve.

International Business Success Factors:

The lines must be well understood and drawn between economy, business, and society at large
so that businesses could run smooth with respecting local culture and societal sensibilities. The
author described security issues as the main issue of US business in Pakistan; one cannot ignore
what is happening around in the country. Pakistan markets were greatly influenced by the
mobs of political parties attacking the markets and stores.

Market size vs. Distribution in Rural Areas:

The market size is not easy to determine as it grows, regular visits are required to know what
lies in the market. With continuous marketing efforts, companies tend to achieve far more than
expectations.

Importance of Socially Diverse Employees:

 An international organization must reflect the diversity, P&G initially represented only the top-
strata but by the time it focused to enroll people from all the classes and provinces. Gender
diversity, on the other hand, could bring great strength to the employee base by incorporating
all.

Purpose, Values, Principles:

PVPs prove to be crucial for an organization’s reputation and image, especially when the
company is non-national. It is difficult, yet important to protect the reputation of the company
in the geopolitical territory.

Cost of Doing Business In Pakistan:

Other than what are conventional, complex markets like Pakistan can have a much higher cost
of doing business, one happened to be the incident of employee’s death when terrorists
attacked their van. Corruption, geopolitical environment, culture, religion, economy, demand,
and supply are some other key elements to consider.

When to React in Business?

When you get involved in complex business decisions and face not-so-normal situations, you
got to keep yourself composed and stick with the principles. Hard times come and go, the
business must run as they should.
International Businesses Influence on Economy:

Businesses influence positively to society and the people. Moreover, the committees are set to
enforce major aspects like better regulations in the economy, improving law & order situation
and expanding the tax net too even out the burdens across various sectors.

Salespeople Know it All:

The most informed people in the organization or you can say in the country are the salespeople
who wander around cities, villages, streets and meet all sorts of people. Most solutions to the
company’s product problems are recognized and given by the sales team.

Highs and Lows in Business:

The momentum of sales tends to shift a lot when the company operates in a complex
environment, highs and lows are a part of business; no matter what. The author has described
the importance of doing things right every time and each of the time things fell into normality.

Early Retirement:

The author’s early retirement from the organization was an end to 30 years of work for the
prestigious company. It was now important to transfer the role to the newly appointed country
manager. New Head should know the priorities of business in the region and must know &
meet sales personnel, government officials, NGOs, and other partners.
Review- Part Three: There is no End
Fond of Nature:

The author has enjoyed the privilege of traveling the world all over his career of 30 years, after
retirement, he planned for travel and enjoy the serenity of the places with his wife. The author
has almost enjoyed every corner of the world and was charmed by knowing the roots of many
cultures and civilizations.

Plans after Retirement:

Calculation of the assets-to-life is crucial once you retire, The author finds himself waking up in
the middle of the night, sweating and worried about the assets left. The skills learned can never
leave you stranded in a situation like this, the author managed to be a consultant and a
university professor in a prestigious university and teach with his ultimate experience of the
global markets.

Proud Moment:

After serving and initiating the international project, the company was now doing the best it
could in terms of business. The author was called to attend the ceremony in recognition of the
success of his efforts.

Principles to Follow:

When you operate a multinational with heavy investments, there is still to take many factors to
run successfully. Some of the considerations include, but not limited to:

 Understanding and acting sensitive to cultural and societal norms.

 Sticking to the basic PVPs of the company and operate legally and ethically.
 Hiring, retaining, training and developing the right talent.
 Success feeds further success.           

What’s next for Pakistan:

Despite the security conditions, fluctuating political & economic conditions, corruption, and
other factors; Pakistan is still an attractive market not only for multinational companies but also
for many countries like China who invested millions of dollars in CPEC. If the top executives of
the country become sensible, Pakistan could emerge as one of the brightest markets. For this
purpose, the author suggested for open borders, low tariffs and liberal approach to the
countries; that seems near to impossible in the foreseeable future.