Public, Private Partnerships (PPP) – A Case Study Of Success – State Trading General Corporation
I was heading back to the STG Corporation to interview the Chairman – Dr. AM Jameel PhD (UCLA USA), and that was a place of fond memories from 1979 – 1984, where I spent quality time as a Management Trainee and later, an Assistant Manager of the Scientific & Technical Division of STGC. I left to join Glaxo plc in Product Management in 1984.
My visit to STGC in May 2017 was necessitated as I had heard about an unbelievable metamorphosis that had taken place during the past year since a new Chairman had been appointed.
When I last worked there from 1979, I was one of the two 1st. Batch of Management Trainees (the other being Raja Kulasekara, who ended up AGM (Marketing)) were under the stewardship of Chairman Rohan Hapugalle who was a double Law graduate from Oxford and Canterbury and I had learned recently, that Dr. Jameel had a Special in Marketing Management Degree from the South Eastern University, Oluvil, and a Master’s & Doctorate from the UCLA (California, USA).
I was going into this meeting wondering how two men from such disparate backgrounds could positively impact on what essentially was flogging a dead horse, back into a sedate canter again.
Nevertheless, I had trepidations as my last official interaction with STGC was during 2004, while I was working as the Country Manager for Electrex, one of the largest Power Tool companies in the Sub Continent and STGC was one of the two local distributors, at that time. During 2004, STGC was finding it difficult to organize an US$ 10,000/= irrevocable LC on 90 day sight terms (Meaning that my Overseas Company was offering 3 months credit for the STGC to settle their import bills, but the local Banks were wary, about the STGC’s financial health / ability to repay and delaying to open the Letter of Credit) and pay salaries and EPF / ETF dues in time.
This time around, my first impressions were that the size of the buildings I was used to, had shrunk by almost 50% of its original size (probably ditched to the private sector to meet its financial commitments between then and now), but noted that the Ground Floor Showroom was packed with goods and customers, and there seemed to be an air of vibrancy, urgency and customer – centricity.
I was a “Body Language” person looking for non-verbal cues, and my first impression of Dr. Jameel was electric – his eyes were on fire, his handshake was strong and effusive – not in a “bone cruncher” way, his body postures and general demeanor was “in control”, in a subtly aggressive manner. Soft spoken, collaborative, giving the observer the impression that he was focused and with an eye for intricate detail and short term results; coupled with a mind for the longer term strategic issues that he envisioned was what emerged; as the discussions matured.
Beside his table was fixed at eye level, a composite TV showing news and programed for live streaming video of 8 HD Infra-Red Cameras doing their work focused on strategic areas of concern. The table was thoroughly organized with everything in place and showed no sign of “table top” barricades of a closed person. Behind him, on his left, stood a Coat Stand, which had a number of ties and two differently colored pressed suits, ready to go, at a moment’s notice.
Organized, was my conclusion.
It was not only his office that was well maintained, but the rest of the working spaces were plush, well-appointed and air conditioned. Now I thought this was unusual, given my experiences from 2004.
I knew from my experience that getting results from a Semi – government organization was not easy. There were strong Unions – SLFP, UNP, JVP and of every hue and color of political affiliations from between them. Labor was militant and more focused on what the organization “should give them”, not what “they should do”.
But I was analyzing the performance of STGC over the past year, and it looked impressive:
|
|
|
|
|
|
I looked at him when I had digested the numbers, they were impressive, and even in a more sedate private sector setting, any CEO would be delighted to present such figures at a Share Holder AGM to his / her shareholders, but this result raises the notches a few meters higher, as this performance is done, in a hostile setting of a “Corporation mentality” with Unions breathing down your neck, and anything but a work / performance ethos being in place.
Dr. Jameel was a “Body Language” person himself and could see my puzzled expression. He replied without my asking – “Sufi, we used all of our academic / professional studies and expertise in Management – Ansoff, Strategic vision, Balanced Score Card, elements of the Marketing Mix, Motivational Theories, market research, prudent financial management, inventory and debtor control, communication strategies, every single trick in the book with my deep understanding of emotional intelligence in the corporate setting. It was a “bottoms – up” as well as a “top – down” blend, a bit of stick, and a bit of carrot approach, and honestly, a lot of people here supported our success”.
“We used all our”, “Supported our success” – Hmm, so he was a people person, not an “I” person I realized.
Dr Jameel continued, “Human nature is to attempt and be successful in whatever that human endeavor attempts. It is a fallacy to imagine that irrespective of whether you are in top management or in the lower rungs that you would deliberately try to fail your organization and hurt yourself in the process”.
He elaborated that “The bulk of companies that failed in the world, was not due to the workers misdeeds, but due to top management’s failure, to properly manage, they did not keep abreast of evolving trends in the market place, recognize and understand the implications of parallel developments taking place in other unrelated industries that finally impinged on their success like the IT / Film and Digital Video / Camera industries being under siege by mobile telephone manufacturing companies (like Apple & Samsung), they took overly irresponsible risks that were not needed, or they simply were working in their own interests disregarding the financial wellbeing of the organization or the industry as a whole”.
“Just look at the worldwide financial crisis started in the US and the housing bubble burst during the past decade and its cascading effect on the banks and financial industry throughout the world. Clients of housing loans who were given facilities to buy / build homes and who were obviously primafacie unable to repay their loans, but simply offered credit to meet ambitious sales targets”.
“The problems became worse, when these bad debts, were repackaged with some good ones, and passed to other banks in the Far East and other parts of the world that lead to some leading Bank’s going bust. What was even more insulting was when governments had to bail out these Bank & their Tier I executives, and they rewarded themselves with bonuses, the years after they were bailed out, but without the government bail outs, being settled. Here the classic examples of greed were shown by senior management. This is where the 1% for the 99% movement was born and where the faith in the democratic processes was challenged in going for the Brexit, and the election of an imbalanced leader of the US like Trump and a dangerous trend of irresponsible political balance in the world, now prevailing”.
I was picking his brains, about what measures he took to galvanize his team for their outstanding contributions in driving success.
His response encapsulated the following 13 key initiatives from a (modified) Balanced Score Card perspective:
And whew, 13 key elements being addressed – he seems to have covered all angles – In a very short time span.
Another aspect which I was curious to cover was whether his Minister Rishard Badiudeen exerts any pressure when it comes to recruitments and appointments, promotions and other forms of pressure, and the answer was a straight “NO”. Rishard is a professional Engineer by qualification and training and he has always been aware about the pitfalls of this type of pressure and leaves me largely alone, when it comes to staffing, promotions, etc.
I was amazed at Dr. Jameel’s thinking and asked him to tell me more about himself and how he came to be where he was.
Dr. Jameel related to me, that he was born in Sainthamaruthu in Kalmunai Amparai District of the Eastern Province, studied at Zahira College, Kalmunai, was from a Middle Class family of government employed parents and was never interested in politics at a younger age. But when he was selected to follow a Business Management Degree course in the Eastern University of Sri Lanka which was located in Chenkaladi, Batticaloa (and the Regional HQ of the Eastern Tigers – LTTE), he was faced with a huge problem. Muslims and Sinhala youth who were selected into Campus in Batticaloa from areas like Maha Oya, Moneragala, Amparai, Kalmunai, Nintavur, Akkaraipattu, Kattankudy,Sammanthurai, etc., were at huge risk in life and limb as the LTTE were strong under the Eastern Tiger leadership who were in a program of ethnic cleansing in the East.
The LTTE was chasing all other communities and had massacred to death 600 unarmed Policemen who were confined to barracks and asked by government to lay down their arms, had killed 135 unarmed Muslims who were in prayer in a Mosque in Katthankudy, and a further 105 Muslims who were praying inside a Mosque in Eravur. Both these Mosque shootings were from the back, and the civilians had no foreknowledge that they were about to be brutally gunned down.The LTTE murdered not only Sinhalese and Muslims in the East but they also murdered moderate Tamils who did not agree with their skewed thinking.
It was utterly foolish for Jameel and a further 32 youth from the neighboring areas that were selected to the Eastern University of Sri Lanka to pursue further studies in this Campus.
It was the birth phase of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress under late Minister Ashraff and Jameel joined up as a Founder Youth Member agitating for theSouth Eastern University of Sri Lanka. The Muslims and the Sinhalese from the East were cannon fodder for successive governments, as they were the buffer zone communities who protected the LTTE from spreading further inwards. Successive governments have forgotten this and today we are witnessing a MR and Yahapalanaya government backed backlash by radical groups like the BBS who are the “new champions” of a united Sri Lanka, who were in a deep slumber, when the real terrorism was thriving.
During this troubled period of 1995, Minister Ashraff made arrangements for young Jameel to complete his education in the BCom Special – Marketing Management at the University of Colombo, a prestigious, recognized,with high overall worldwide rankings among Campuses in the whole of the South East Asia, but Jameel was not happy. Accepting Colombo University would have been an easy choice, but not the morally right one.
He was an Activist, he was not a pacifist, without being an egoist, people he felt, looked up at him for leadership in this critical phase of his life, he just could not back down.
This was a huge risk he took, in his life, but to have made a purely selfish decision, would have made him feel treacherous.
Thirty two other Campus selectees were offered other / parallel Degrees to be followed in the University of Colombo and Jameel was able to convince them to think long – term. Jameel was thinking of a broader perspective of the future of all brothers and sisters of all communities who aspired for higher education from the Sinhala, Muslim and moderate Tamil youth of the South Eastern Region. He was the Leader of the Muslim Students Federation (MSF) and agitated against this move on their pending transfer to Colombo University and kept up the pressure against the Premadasa led UNP government to invest in the SE University in Oluvil. He was the Youth Leader from the MSF who organized pickets and Political Meetings from Mullaitivu, Pullmuddai, Muttur, Kinniya, Trincomallee, Odamavadi, Eravur in the Northern East, right up to the South Eastern seaboard towns of Pottuvil, Thirrukkovil and Arugam Bay, whilst the interior areas of Amparai, Moneragala and Maha Oya.
The pressure brought on the government yielded a positive result, and the South Eastern University was born in Oluvil on the 23rd. October 1995. Jameel was grateful to the then Minister of Higher Education – Richard Pathirana, then Deputy Minister – Prof. Vishva Warnapala, the then UGC Chairman – Prof. Tillekeratne and the Founder Vice Chancellor of the SE University – Prof. Abdul Cader, who gave him all the backing to realize the dream of the South Eastern Province’s peoples need for Higher Education.
If these erudite Sinhala political leaders and educationalist were racists, like these “newer champions” who talk about the unitary integrity of Sri Lanka while never really paying a price for territorial integrity; they could have easily shot down the plans for establishment of the South Eastern University without much ado.
But they were greater leaders, than that. They were Leaders who cared for the Country, first.
Jameel wistfully recalled that on the contrary, it was the Muslim Leadership including some Professors from South Eastern political parties other than the SLMC, who called the SE University, as “Ashraff’s School” to denigrate the good work, he was doing. After the Campus was inaugurated he was the Student Leader in the Campus and able to assist the Ministry of Higher Education, the UGC and the VC of the SE University as the Curriculum Development Coordinator.
I had experienced different forms of Leadership in the Country and my Management life, Charismatic Leadership, Situational Leadership, Democratic Leadership, Authoritarian and Lassaize Faire Leadership and was trying to place Dr Jameel on the mental grid in my mind. He came out to me as a blend of two split personas in Management, a Democratic Leader in peaceful settings, and a strong and convincing fighter for a “Fire Fighting” issue / pressing an urgent Social Cause when the circumstances presented – in being a Situational Leader. Could it be that his “firefighting” skills as a Situational Leader, brought the best out in him, during the initial phase at STGC, and once the raging fires were doused and stability and sanity prevailed in his work space, that he turned around and let the inherent skills of those within STGC, work things out for themselves in a more democratic management style, albeit a little nudging in the correct course? I had a strong sense, that my reckoning was not misplaced; but I leave it to others with better judgment.
But what moral compass, would direct a man such as Dr. Jameel, to drift away from an Academic direction which is a relaxed and rewarding way to go, and seek to address social issues in the South Eastern Region? I felt that this one is about the raging management debate, “Are Leaders born, or are they made”? Dr. Jameel is simply born, as one, he cannot just keep quiet, when things are obviously going wrong, and Muslim leadership is turning a blind eye to the suffering and inconveniences of its populace.
When the SLMC’s Founder and late Minister Hon. Ashraff’s chopper crashed and he passed away, Ashraff was in an unparalleled popularity zenith among Muslim, Sinhala and moderate Tamil leadership. The SLMC had no succession plan in place as Hon. Ashraff was young and it was so sudden, there was a huge vacuum in the second tier within the SLMC. When Minister Hon. Rauf Hakim was appointed leader, he could not fill in the vacuum and has progressively been compromised in his working ability and ability to take meaningful decisions that meet the aspirations of Muslims in general and Muslims of the East, in particular..
The irrational decision to appoint the Nasir Ahamed as Eastern Province Chief Minister was taken despite Dr Jameel contesting and winning his seat in the Kalmunai MC in 2006; then going on to win a seat in 2008 in the Eastern Provincial Council elections and was re – elected as a Member of the EPC of 2012 for the second term. He was elected as the SLMC Group Leader in the EPC in 2012 and Nasir Ahamed was nowhere, even close to Dr. Jameel. Minister Rauf Hakim was just powerless and the attempt to destabilize the SLMC and make it a pawn in the MR Administration, was the reason that lead Dr. Jameel to leave the Deputy Leader’s position of the SLMC party and join the All Ceylon Makkhal Congress (ACMC – Makkhal means People) as their Deputy Leader, while the Leader of the ACMC is Engineer Rishard Badiudeen, who was a displaced refugee chased out from Jaffna by the LTTE in their pogrom against Muslims of the North and East.Minister Rishard who while being a displaced refugee in Puttlam, under extremely trying circumstances, qualified from the University of Moratuwa, as an Engineer, suffered first hand, as his family, were like other thrown out Muslims from the Northern Sri Lanka, asked to leave behind all the property, houses, vehicles, personal effects and jewelry with the LTTE within 24 hours (or be shot), and take with them only Rs. 500/= per person (US$ 3.00) to start a new life in any place other than the LTTE controlled areas.
This is what the Muslims endured with, during the LTTE, and what they were rewarded with, in standing shoulder to shoulder with successive governments on matters of unitary integrity is a mighty lesson in ingratitude.
All the claims being made against Minister Rishard and the ACMC are simply the work of disgruntled politicians who have lost their power and are seeking to raise the racial banner to advance their political agenda. The matter about Wilpattu wild life sanctuary has been resolved through the Courts of Law and by Declarations of the Surveyor General’s Department and Professors of the Environment / Ecology, but yet the government lets the issue still simmer, causing discomfort and pain to Muslims overall.
President Sirisena seems to have forgotten on how he got, to where he is now was the thinking among most Eastern and other Muslims throughout Sri Lanka. Dr Jameel mentioned that during the MR Administration’s, Aluthgama BBS riots he had taken action to launch a Motion in the EPC against the then government ineptitude and apparent collusion with the BBS, while Hon. Rauf Hakim was a part of the government, but did not effectively defend the Muslims or meaningfully raise the issue in Parliament. Dr Jameel had taken Minister Rauf Hakeem to the Leadership of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Jeddah, who had warned MR and the Rajapakse Trio, not to pursue the harassment of Muslims, which seemed to have worked in the short term but they were smarting, beneath the surface and tacitly approved of BBS misbehavior, even after their political loss on 08th. Jan 2015. But every election since the creation of ACMC, the SLMChas been losing ground, and Dr Jameel predicted that the ACMC would soon overtake the SLMC in their traditional homeland.
Dr. Jameel said that as long as there are injustices, he would prefer to be in the forefront in politics against such moves, that work against the common, shared values and interests of the country’s citizens – be they of whatever race or religious denomination, and that he told me, was a greater cause than getting a lucrative appointment in a University, somewhere in the developed world, from where he continues to get such offers.
As I was leaving the office of Dr. Jameel, I was hoping that he would serve the STGC much longer, and on the political aspects of our discussions remembered a story related to me by an uncle who served with the Brits during the WWII in the North African Countries of Egypt and Libya. The Brits had said to him in fairly serious humor that if captured by the Germans, nationals of Britain, ANZAC’s, and South Africans, were placed in 15 feet deep pits as Prisons (due to the lack of field prisons), and us Ceylonese would be placed in pits of only 6 feet deep. The reason I was told that if a Ceylonese tried to escape by climbing up the shallow pit, the others would pull him back – Major political parties in Sri Lanka today are probably guided by this same tenet as told by the Brits in pre-independent 1943.