BOOK REVIEW OF ‘WHEN

TRIBESMEN CAME
CALLING’
By S. Qaiser Shareef

Name: Kasim Rauf

ERP: 18473
Submitted to: Sir Jami Moiz
Course: Marketing Management
When Tribesmen came calling: Building an enduring American business in Pakistan.
Author: S. Qaiser Shareef
Genre: Business memoir
Published in 2017 by Blue Ear Books,
7511 Greenwood Ave N, Box 400,
Seattle, WA 98103 USA.

About the author:

S. Qaiser Shareef is an accomplished senior executive with extensive General Management,
Marketing, and Brand Management experience at a Fortune 25 company (P&G) in the consumer
goods industry. He has an exemplary record in leading business roles in US and international
markets. He has many accomplishments including creating and articulating a vision and
energizing employees at all levels to achieve goals and being able to build top notch teams,
establish relationships and communicate effectively across all levels.

Currently adjunct faculty at George Washington University, School of International Business, in

Washington DC and consultant in business strategy and organizational effectiveness. He is also
working with several non-profit organizations including US Pakistan Foundation, i-Care Fund
America and HOPE USA.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sqshareef
Introduction:
This book is a biography of the author which starts with the notion that the author comes from a
very educated background wherein acquiring education holds tremendous amount of
significance. The author received college education in Middle East Technical University,
Ankara, Turkey where he was exposed to the secular modernity of culture. The author then went
to University of Cincinnati for postgraduate studies where he pursued his MBA. He started his
career from teaching in a college where he qualified for the green card. A while later, the author
was introduced to Procter and Gamble (P&G) by his supervisor at University of Cincinnati. He
joined P&G’s market research department in 1981 holding a position in their headquarters in
Cincinnati, Ohio.
The author wanted to leave United States after working several years but after 10 years, he found
himself still working for P&G. It is then explained how P&G’s unique way of hiring which is
that they hire people at the same level no matter the experience which means everyone has to
start from the bottom. The only way up is through the organization and no one has had exception
this rule. With this rule, everyone had to work hard to get to the top and the top management
focused on training and development of young college graduates who were hired at entry level
positions. It meant hiring from college campuses and managers were assessed on their
performance of training their subordinates. Performance in developing skills in young managers
was just as important or more than performance of managers in their respective departments.
This system has proven to have more advantages and less disadvantages due to which it has
continued for so long in P&G.
Along with the policy of training and recruitment from within, P&G also had the policy of being
ethical in their dealings. The author thought that this was just on paper until he spent several
years working at the firm to realize the rigor in implementing their policies in the company. The
author applied to move from marketing research department to marketing department after two
years at P&G. The transfer was unusual for the company but it was approved and the author had
to start again from an entry level position which shows the strictness in implementation of the
policies.
P&G was expanding to new territories in their process of globalization wherein they decided to
export their products to countries such as Ukraine and Pakistan. The author wanted to move back
to Pakistan since beginning of his career and taking over the expansion to Pakistan was a step
towards that. The senior management was reluctant to send the author however they decided to
hand over Pakistan operations to the author. In 1990, the author landed in the business hub of
Pakistan, Karachi where it took him ten months to register the new business. The policies of the
infant company in Pakistan were the same as they were in headquarters of Cincinnati. Employees
were provided with Worldwide Business Conduct Manual (WBCM). It was hard to live by the
values of P&G in a developing country like Pakistan where corruption is common practice.
The author then states an incident in which their products were stuck at customs office and the
duty was imposed on a greater value than the amount declared by the company. The case was
taken to court and took 2 years to resolve and the company was found to be innocent and the
amount stated by the company was correct. Even then, to get refund of the additional paid duty,
it was found that the company had to pay the bribe. The author chose to let the additional amount
go if it was only obtainable after paying bribe as there was no compromise on the values of the
company.
P&G has adopted a very long term approach while entering the market of Pakistan where the
presence of fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs) was very minimal when they entered. The
company took an educationist approach while approaching the market which will have ripple
effect that will benefit the company in the future. Pakistan was a large market to be captured
where there were 500,000 stores at the time of which 20 percent were located in the largest 20
cities of Pakistan. 10 months after entering, P&G started feeling confident that there was
potential in this market when they acquired state of the art soap manufacturing plant. The plant
was in Balochistan 35 miles from Karachi where the plant was built. The tribal people of the area
wanted the company to give them donations which was declined by the author setting the
precedent for P&G.
Another problem arose when safeguard already a trademark of a company producing soap and
P&G could not acquire it. It was owned by three brothers who kept it with the intention of selling
it to P&G and their plan succeeded. P&G had to negotiate the price which was settled but there
was a problem that the three brothers did not want to sign the contract. However, they transferred
the trademark on the promise of payment of the author which helped author move forward and
order goods related to safeguard brand. The author then moved on from this assignment of
setting up shop in Pakistan and went back to Cincinnati where he was offered assignment in
Ukraine in early 1996. The author moved to Ukraine and stayed there for two years developing
the P&G business. At that time, the conditions of Ukraine were pitiful as the economic
conditions were worsening every day. The author spent two years working in Ukraine where he
realized there was a difference in culture and he should be working in environments which he
has previous knowledge of. After two years, in May 1998, the author left Ukraine and moved
back to US.
The author then moved back to Michigan and his family was happy to move back to US. They
had a hard time settling in the county as it was a well settled place where people were not used to
moving and making new friends. The author was given the role in marketing department to work
with Kmart where his job description was loosely defined. Gradually, the author manage to settle
in well and the place felt like it was home. Few years went by and on the morning of 11th
September, 2001, the author was attending a meeting in Orlando. The attack of 9/11 happened
where two planes crashed into the twin towers causing devastating loses in America. There was
fuss about the matter for a few months and then things slowly calmed down. There was an
opening in the organization for shopper marketing with global experience to which criteria the
author fit perfectly. It was a position based in Cincinnati and the author moved without his
family for few years. In 2005, the incident of earthquake in Pakistan is mentioned which caused
massive destruction in Pakistan. P&G employees worldwide donated 100,000$ to the cause of
helping the people of Pakistan in distress.

New Chapter in Pakistan:

In July, 2006, the author saw an opening of country manager of Pakistan for which he was eager
to join. This time was different as the children had grown up and their schooling would be
disturbed by a move to Pakistan however, the author was granted the position and he moved to
Pakistan. The author presents insight into the market of Pakistan where most of the consumers
are poor. However, consumption of branded goods is seen as a status symbol which lead to
increasing sales in detergents, soaps and shampoos. The market had matured and P&G Pakistan
now had significant amount of sales and 200 employees. The sales totaled to a $100 million and
the author was given the target to double the sales in the coming years. Over the next few
months, the author stayed at a bread and breakfast in Karachi where he met several people and
pondered over the political situation in Pakistan regarding extremism. The incident of removal of
Chief Justice in 2006 is mentioned which caused chaos in the country.
P&G has always taken pride in being an ethical organization and wanted to improve the
perception about P&G in the minds of people. It was perceived to be one of the profit hungry
organization which do not care about the people. In order to do so, the author focused on CSR
and worked with selfless people of Pakistan that ran non-profit organizations. One such
organization was Health Oriented Preventive Education (HOPE) which built to educate children
in low income neighborhoods. Along with this, The Citizens Foundation (TCF) also has been
doing really good work in providing education with over 1000 schools around the country.
Another organization was Rural Education And Development (READ) which worked in
Northern Areas to provide education. READ was significantly damaged by the earthquake
however the schools resumed operations soon after the earthquake. P&G donated funds to READ
organization to build 4 schools which served more than 1000 students. P&G also worked on
other projects with READ in order to help out the people of Pakistan and improve their image in
the country.
The author then talks about the culture of Pakistan related to Sufism. Pakistan culture is music
has moved towards the historical and cultural heritage and there was development in Pakistan
after the last visit of the author. The law and order situation was worse where bomb blasts
became very common by 2007 during Musharraf’s regime. It did not still stop the author from
working towards building a successful American business in Pakistan. More political incidents
that were taking place in Pakistan such as crumbling military rule, NRO for Nawaz Sharif and
Benazir Bhutto are discussed. City fell into chaos after the incident and the author realized they
need to improve their communication system in Pakistan. Assassination of Benazir has been
mentioned with some memories of the author with the capital city of Pakistan. The author then
moves back to the war of 1971 which lead to separation of East Pakistan from West Pakistan and
how it felt at that time that the world was coming to an end. It was the school period of the
author when he made some lifelong friends.
The security situation in Karachi has also worsened as there were open firing against police. In
one such incident, P&G’s van was attacked by stray bullets aimed at police vehicles which took
life of an employee of P&G. It was at that moment the author ordered bullet proof vans for
employees travelling to unsafe areas. It was also becoming difficult for the author to keep his life
as a simple person and not hire any guards for protection as this would raise his profile. There
was also an increase in mugging of employees laptops as they left the office building for which
guards were hired. These were some of the external problems for P&G. Internally, there were
young people who were living in a place where corruption was common which meant the
company needed to constantly instill the values of integrity into the employees. P&G also
worked against sexual harassment and gender discrimination that was common in Pakistan so
much so that it was perceived that P&G favored women while hiring.
The author then wanted to spread out to the rural areas of Pakistan and situation in Nigeria was
similar to Pakistan and they were able to increase distribution. The author then decided to learn
from their experience and went on a five day trip to learn more about their distribution taking
along two people from Pakistan. This year was the worst performing year for P&G Pakistan and
at the meeting of senior managers worldwide, the author met many of his previous colleagues.
He then mentions the Mumbai attacks and the perception of Pakistanis about the act. The author
then moves on to the inauguration of a detergent plant in Pakistan which was built in industrial
zone of Karachi. The office of industrial authority was not releasing the required document for
the approval of the plant. It took ten months for the author to get the approval as the clerical staff
was requiring ‘gratuity’ of about 2500$. It was a small amount for the company, however based
on principles, the author declined the payment. In the coming years, Industrial authority
continued their support to the plant in the required matters and did not hinder their operations.
In 2008, the financial crisis started to take a toll on business in US and slowed down the market.
The new PPP government had many issues to tackle when it took over. Inflation rates were
getting higher, the treasury reserves were lowering and tax base was only 9% of the GDP. There
were many external problems that were being caused by the current situation in Pakistan.
Another problem that became a major hurdle for the government was the uprising of Taliban
from Swat. For a few months, the government ignored their presence but then it was brewing
into a huge problem which the government had to deal with. The operation in Swat began and
there were many people that were displaced from their homes estimated to be up to 2 million
people. 2009 became the worst year for business for the author where the sales declined by 20%
and the profits that were made in the previous years were getting wiped away. There were some
decisions made by the Geneva office to cut down education about health regarding the safeguard
program as it was not driving up sales.
After this year, the topic of Hajj came up to the author suggested by his wife. Both, the author
and his wife, applied for Hajj application and decided to try and see what happens. During the
process, it seemed that they will not be going as they had US citizenship and the procedure was
taking more time than available, however, both of them made it to Jeddah for Hajj. The author
then explains his journey of Hajj in detail with all the aspects covered in it. The author returned
in November 2009 and 2010 was his last year working for P&G. The author decided in February,
2010 to take early retirement but the organization offered him 2 years extension with promotion.
He politely declined with finalizing the end of 2010 as end of his career in P&G. He started to
wrap things up in Pakistan and move back to US which was under Obama regime. The author
then decided to take a trip to Syria in the spring of 2010 with his wife.
The author then narrates the story when he goes to Islamabad for business purposes. He does not
like these trips to Islamabad and usually keeps them short. This particular trip, the author had
meeting in Karachi with his flight at 7:00 am but he is reluctant to take this flight and books the
flight for 11:00am even if it meant he was going to be late for the meeting. The 11:00 am flight
gets delayed and the author is sitting in nearby McDonalds when he hears about the news that the
7:00 am flight had crashed in Margalla hills, Islamabad. Soon after this, by the end of 2010, there
were floods in Pakistan which caused destruction in rural areas of Pakistan. P&G once again
stepped in to help the people affected by the disaster.

Coming to an end:
By the end of the year, the author was working on the inauguration of $45 million detergent
manufacturing plant. In order to handle hazardous materials for the plant, permit was required
from regulatory body of Pakistan which was not replying to their requests of permit. For the
inauguration, there was a need of small amount of hazardous materials but without the permit,
the author did not want to sneak in the materials. The author contacted the US consulate in
Karachi and the permit was given in two to three days. As the end of December approached, the
author took vacation to Dubai for New Year’s Eve. There he received the news of killing of
Salman Taseer by his bodyguard for defending a Christian woman, Asia Bibi. There were mixed
views in Pakistani community about whether it was right or wrong.
The tenure of author was extended for another month as the company wanted smooth transfer of
responsibilities. Author’s recommendation for new country manager was required where he
assigned Faisal Sabzwari the role of country manager. He believed that he was leaving the
position in good hands. The author and new country manager took a road trip discussing about
the priorities of business, government officials and other partners. The author went to Lahore and
then Northern areas with Faisal to familiarize him with the operations of the country. The author
concludes that this was a good ending to his near 30 years career in P&G. The author then
moved back to US to take care of his parents and live with his children.
In the start of 2011, the author move to Colombo and from there he traveled to Detroit on
February 16 after visiting places on the way such as Amsterdam and Dubai. The author then
started financial planning in order to live his life comfortably in US. He decided to construct a
house for his family in Maryland which started in 2011 and completed in 2013. The author took
up advertising project based work after which he decided to teach marketing course in MBA
with professional experience of decades. The author then states the reason for their success in
emerging markets like Pakistan which could be summarized to just sticking with their principles
and values. The author was now settled in US and decided to visit Islamabad in 2014 where he
watch a film about ideological battles shaping Pakistan.