In early 1987, I took golf as a very important part of my life. I had been a tennis player since the age of 27, and I used to consider tennis as an inseparable part of my life, I used to wake up at five in the morning and be ready to play by six, at the time when one could barely see the ball fly, however, that was the time that allowed me to play two sets and still be at work at eight o’clock. However, my spine played a trick on me and started to hurt badly. On one occasion, the pain in my back was so bad that I had to remain flat on the floor for several days, unable to move. My doctor came home and gave me a series of shots that calmed my pain enough to be able to get back on my feet.He also prescribed a series of exercises to strengthen my back. Afterwards, I was given a clear and definite warning “you either change sports or change your doctor”, he told me. It felt as if the sky was falling on me, it was like asking me to leave my family, I felt miserable.I could just not conceive my life without playing tennis.
I had to take my doctor's advice seriously though, and I hadn’t been doing any sport for awhile and remained in house like a lion in its cage during the weekends until a good friend of mine came to my rescue. It was Paco Picon, a Puerto Rican young man working for the local affiliate of Owen Illinois to whom I had taught playing tennis. He was a good golfer, he came one Sunday morning to my place to visit and asked me to come with him to the Country Club and try golf. I declined his invitation at the beginning, as I told him “because I think golf is only for old people”. Nevertheless, Paco was persuasive enough and took me to the Country club and patiently gave me my first lessons in what had since become not only my favourite sport, but my passion. I will tell you more about golf in the coming chapters.
The years went by at an unbelievable speed. My kids were growing right in front of my eyes, by now Mariuxi was 14, Rafael Jr. Was 12 and Angie was 8, they were all very good students and had become a part of the international community whose children attended the Inter American Academy (“IAA”) of which I was the treasurer and a key member of its Board of Directors. A new and beautiful campus was acquired for the school and the school moved to Puerto Azul, just a couple of blocks from where we lived. This was a great thing for our family because we didn’t have to drive to the city to take our children to school, instead, the school had come to our neighbourhood. Fanny had taken a job as a teacher of Spanish as a second Language at IAA, a job she loved, she was excellent at, and fit perfectly in her curriculum as a school teacher. This not only kept her busy but helped her to be near our children all the time. It was an ideal situation for our family.
Molidor continued to perform as one of the best overseas operations of SEABOARD, whereas, the sister company, MOCHASA (also 50-50 owned by SEABOARD AND CONTI), the local feed, shrimp and swine operations, under CONTI management was poorly performing and continuously requesting (and obtaining) financing from Molidor. Regardless of the various changes of their highly paid General Managers, these companies continued to far under perform Molidor. Over the years, however, it became evident to the parent companies that the duplication of managements in the Ecuadorian operations was not necessary, and decided to consult the Molidor management if we could take over the management of the other segments of their businesses in Ecuador.
Stuart called me to his office that Monday morning of 1992, with his face all pale, increasingly turning to yellow and then to green, and told me in a very concerned tone; ”Rafael, I’m worried, no, I’m scared, listen to what the people in Kansas want us to do”. What is it, I asked him as I also began to feel a bit nervous, he paused for about two minutes to reread the letter he had just received from KC and he continued; “these people must be crazy, they want us to take over the management of their other local operations!, can you believe that?, that is absurd!, who do they think we are, supermen or something?”, I don’t think WE could do that, not in a million years!”, and then he added, I’m going to tell them that their proposition is absurd, that WE have our hands full with Molidor and that it is absurd to even think of adding more work to the load WE already have” I listened to him with amazement and must have smiled sarcastically when I said, in a very calmed voice “Joel, I believe they are absolutely right when they want to consolidate managements, I have always thought they are duplicating management costs without a real need to”.
The fact of the matter is that by then, almost eight years after I took over the Molidor management, in spite of being well paid, I was beginning to feel a bit bored by not having any more challenges in the day to day business, so much so that I had thought of calling my friend Bill Messett, the headhunter, to ask him to find a new job for me, a job that would keep me permanently challenged, but I didn’t. True, once in awhile there was something new to think about while managing Molidor, but I had come to a point where my job had become such an easy thing for me that I was desperately in need of something new, so, as I listened to Stuart, I saw a great opportunity for me and told him that I did not see any absurdity in the KC’s proposition. The guy was extremely surprised that I saw it that way and said; “Rafael, I don´t agree with you, WE have our hands full with Molidor, I don’t believe WE could do the management work of another two expatriates, enough is enough”, and added, I’m going to answer their letter telling WE do not agree”.
WE, WE, WE, I thought that was enough of WE, and I said to Stuart; “Joel, excuse me but I believe you are wrong”, and added, “I believe it will not be a great deal, I kind of know our local subsidiaries from within by continuously talking to their people, and I think I could manage this new situation just as much I have managed Molidor for all these past years, besides, I think I know all their people in the administration, accounting, finances and operations departments and it will all be a matter of having their full cooperation, something I firmly believe I could get with no sweat”. The man changed the colour of his face from green to yellow, then to pale and finally to normal, just as if he was in the process of leaving from a hunted house, and said “Rafael, are you sure of what you are saying”?”, and I said “Joel, I am absolutely sure of what ‘am saying, and what’s more, I can say to you that things will bring very little, if any, changes for you, as I will take care of everything, you’ll see!. Obviously, the man had been terrified thinking that his easy life would be changed, that he would have to change his daily “doing nothing”, to a daily “doing some work”, and that was something that was far beyond what was acceptable to him. You can’t teach new tricks to all dogs. .
Stuart nervously and reluctantly accepted my suggestion to take the “challenge” and he answered KC with a “yes, WE can do it”, which KC applauded and thanked him for “his courageous decision and great spirit of cooperation”. In a matter of weeks, the management change for Mochasa was in place, the “expatriate managers of Mochasa that were set to leave were gone, making it official for our group a reduction of Management salaries and benefits in the range of $650,000 a year. Stuart became the "on paper" General Manager of the group of companies owned by seaboard and CONTI in Ecuador, and I became their “Financial Director” and "de facto" General Manager of this operation too.
In my next posting, MOCHASA’S MANAGEMENT FALLS IN MY LAP
No comments:
Post a Comment