Book Review- When Tribesmen Came Calling

S.Qaiser Shareef concluded his journey at Procter & Gamble in 2011 nearly after 30 years. He
was initially hired at Procter & Gamble’s Cincinnati, Ohio Headquarters in September 1981.
After nearly 10 years of service S. Qaiser Shareef got the opportunity to lead the development of
P & G’s business in Pakistan in 1990. In his book, he explains how P & G started its business
from scratch in Pakistan and what were the difficulties that the business faced during the time of
his stay in the country.

S. Qaiser landed in Pakisan in November 1990 with his wife and two children to set0up P & G’s
subsidiary in Pakistan. He was selected by P & G because of his Pakistani origin and great
understanding of local culture and people. However, he explains that it was a hard decision to
make given his career in Cincinnati and taken on a role in a development country like Pakistan
with self-interested bureaucracy and that frequently passes through political and economic
turbulence.

Mr. Qaiser mentions that it took them 10 months just to register the company and train a hand-
full of employees. He was immediately faced with corrupt bureaucracy as one could get in any
developing country. He was faced with his first challenge of deciding whether to work as the
bureaucracy demands or work according to the ethical principles that were to every P & G’s
employee in their WBCM(Worldwide Business conduct manual). He decided to stick with the
principles of WBCM and face delays in getting things done rather to give bribe and other illegal
payments to get things done at much faster pace. Ethics was something that has great emphasis
in P & G’s business conduct and they were also bound by Foreign Corrupt practices act to
conduct all American businesses ethically in other countries. Each and every employee was
given training of WBCM and was clearly notified that delays in setting up the business wont cost
much but an unethical practice would have disastrous consequences for the company as well as
for its employees. He also mentioned that sticking with WBCM in a developing country with
rampant corruption proved to be of great help.

PVP manual laid down company’s Vision and mission also company’s values and principles.
Strong adherence to PVP was required from all employees and violations would cost people their
jobs. These principles benefitted P & G as the words spread in the market of their working
principles. No one expected favors of any sort from P & G. A particular important example of
strict adherence to these principles was when P & G had a clash with Customs Department over
the value of imports. P & G decided face delays and fight its case from proper channel rather
than to give bribe and get their things done. The case went on for long and P & G was able to
proof their claim. The benefit that P & G received from strong adherence to these principles was
that Customs department never argued with P & G in case of import valuation.

Building a distribution channel for P & G products in Pakistan was a big challenge. To achieve
this goal, P & G partnered with United Distribution Limited (UDL) as joint venture. P & G was
responsible for Marketing, Finance, Human resource and IT experts while UDL would be
responsible for sales and distribution. A census on Pakistan’s retail sector revealed that there are
more than 500,000 stores out of which 100,000 were located in 50 big cities of Pakistan. Getting
P & G product into these shops was critical to P & G’s success. To develop capabilities of sales
representatives, experienced managers were invited from Phillipines. One of the interested event
that the author narrates linking it to sales and distribution is that of Jalalabad where S.Qaiser and
his boss was visiting local market and upon seeing the foreigner the shopkeeper invited them for
tea in his house. To their astonishment, the found that the shopkeeper lives in Afghanistan and
travel without Visa between Pakistan and Afghanistan everyday with a Kalashnikov machine
gun.

After P & G purchased a soap manufacturing plant in Hub Balochistan, S.Qaiser went through a
strange incident. One day a car came at their factory with armed gunmen who told hat they
wanted to meet the management. S. Qaiser invited them into the office and inquired about their
purpose of visit. These tribesmen first congratulated P & G on starting their operations in
Pakistan and informed them about their people who were about to graduate from a university.
These Tribesmen asked for gifts for these students. However, Mr. Qaiser refused them politely
by telling them that he cannot do anything as these sorts of decisions are taken by Head Office.
He handed them some sample P & G products. These Tribesmen left sadly and never returned
again.

P & G was set launch Safeguard soap brand in Pakistan in 1995. They were surprised to learn
that Safeguard was already registered in Pakistan by Dadabhoy Soap company. It was registered
in Pakistan predating P & G’s registration as a company in US. P & G’s active research on the
matter alerted the owner and eventually P & G brokered a deal for the transfer of ownership of
safeguard brand in favor of P & G.

In 2005, S.Qaiser took the position of country manager in Pakistan. This was the time when
Pakistan was at the frontlines of War on Terror and its economy was growing because of aid
inflow from western partners particularly from US. As the economy was investing so were the
sales of P & G. At many points, Pakistan’s growth surpassed that of other countries with similar
per capita income. Company sales already reached 100 million USD/ annum and new assignment
was to double the sales over the next three to five years.

Musharaff’s decision to overthrow the then Chief Justice of Pakistan proved the turning point of
his government. Protest erupted in Islamabad and other cities of the country and then we have
the sad incident at Karachi where Chief Justice was not allowed to visit Bar Council at Karachi.
Following the Iftikhar Chaudhry episode the country went to its darkest day in the form of
Benazirs murder that saw widespread looting and plundering of public property in Karachi where
many of P & G’s business is based. It was dark episode in the history of the country that was
facing the impacts of global recession.
Law and order displayed a dismal picture in many parts of the country. Target killing and street
crimes were a routine. The incident of theft of P & G’s employee outside their offices created
serious problems for the company. In addition to this, the firing incident that killed a P & G
employee forced the company to buy bullet proof vehicles for its employees. And then we have
brigadiers who want to increase their business of providing security by raising fears in the hearts
of foreign executives no less to be blamed for creating problems related to doing business in
Pakistan. All these self-interested people conduct cast a black picture of the country at global
level as the author mentions how his colleagues used to inquire him about the situation of
Pakistan. However, every coin has two faces.

He travelled in various parts of the country and witness people investing their time and money
for the better future of our young generation. He particularly mentions the work of The Citizen
Foundation (TCF) an NGO that runs hundreds of schools across the country to provide free
education to the needy children. He has also pointed towards the extraordinary efforts of Health
Oriented Preventive education (HOPE) for promoting education and maternity health in most
underprivileged areas of Pakistan. In addition to these, there are multiple organizations that are
catering the social need of the society in their respective areas and domains.

Swat a mountainous region and a tourist palce of Pakistan was now held by Taliban who wanted
to impose Sharia Law. The condition for women was particularly bad in these areas. Army
wasn’t able to launch any major offensive against these people because many Pakistanis had a
soft corner for these terrorists as they thought them of taking the revenge of American invasion
in Afghanistan. Things changed when a video spread through social media in which three or four
men were badly beating a woman with a hunter. The State finally came into action and launched
major operation across the country to get rid to these terrorists. The Army faced losses but was
able to clear all areas from the hold of terrorists.

Some of P & G’s regional employees were having difficulty in getting Visa of Pakistan. In this
regard, a meeting was scheduled with the interior ministry at 2:00 PM. The HR manager told Mr.
S. Qaiser to take the morning flight of 9:00 to Islamabad for the meeting, because getting late for
such a meeting can be costly. However, S. Qaiser resisted and instead booked the flight of 11:00
am. They arrived at the Karachi airport at 9:00 am and got the information that their flight is
delayed. After few hours their staff stared getting messages of their safety because the 9:00 am
flight that the HR manager was insisting on taking crashed in Margala Hills killing all people on
board. It was Boeing 202 of Air blue that crashed into Margala hills apparently due to bad
weather. Luckily, S. Qaiser and his staff was not on that flight. This incident taught him a great
lesson and after that he started planning his finances keeping in view the possibility of sudden
death.

In the end, the author identifies many of the problems that are hampering the development of a
prosperous Pakistan and also the opportunities that Pakistan has for its well-being. He also
touches upon the global political agendas of various world leaders. He mentions the political
developments in the US and its impact on the American-Muslin community and abhors the
election of Donald Trump as the President of the United States of America. The author mentions
how the Muslim community is countering the rising Islamophobia in the west particularly in US.