‘Opportunities To Be Seized Once Politics In Madagascar Stabilise’

What does your role as Vivo Energy vice president for South East entail?

I am responsible for overseeing the businesses in the Indian Ocean Islands. Currently, my portfolio includes Madagascar and Mauritius. I am also the managing director of Vivo Energy Mauritius Limited.

Tell us about your early experiences of working for Vivo Energy.

There is no doubt that working for the Shell Group was a great experience. However, the tight controls on capital expenditure, operating costs and personnel recruitment in 2010 and early 2011, while necessary, hampered our capability to compete and grow. I believe the transition to Vivo Energy has restored that capability.

The re-branding exercise is giving a fresh look to our retail sites. We are signing new customers again. Global customers have successfully been passed on to the local accounts. We are spending more time with the customers rather than doing internal business with ourselves.

These early wins have been instrumental in restoring pride amongst our employees, and confidence and trust among our customers, suppliers and the authorities. The much-sought-after growth agenda is back!

On a personal note, working as part of Vivo Energy’s leadership team has been a fascinating experience. Few things are as exciting as building, or in this case;

recreating, a company. This means maximising on our strengths; addressing the areas that are holding us back; empowering teams and establishing local accountability; and in general, putting measures in place that support our vision of becoming the most respected energy company in Africa.

Are you pleased with the way the transition took place in the countries under your jurisdiction?

Absolutely. A year back, there were numerous concerns raised by all of our various stakeholders; a general air of uncertainty prevailed. To address this, we
communicated proactively and openly throughout the transition process. Representatives of the future shareholders (referred to then as the ‘buyers’ we’ve come a long way!) visited the African businesses, reassuring people about the new direction being taken, and facilitating fruitful and exciting discussions.

It was revealing to witness the rising positive attitude among staff as the transition progressed. Apprehension was giving way to hope, and ultimately to excitement an excitement to work for a company that would be maintaining the Shell Brand and high standards of safety, whilst embracing a renewed appetite for growth and investment in Africa.

How have these growth promises materialised?

The message that Vivo Energy is here to stay and grow has quickly been translated into the injection of new resources both in terms of money and people.

The prospect of going for growth is thrilling. The investment promise is real. As an illustration, I recently proposed a one-million-dollar project that received the go-ahead within 24 hours of reaching the chief operating officer (COO) and the chief executive officer (CEO) desks. Of course, fast approval is not quite enough; we still need clinical and equally fast execution if we want to be unanimously respected.

Coming back to the South East, what do you see as some the main challenges and strengths specific to your region?

We are strong in many areas: the Shell Brand, our reputation, our products, our renewed appetite for growth. However, we have competitors who share that same appetite.

The challenge then is to make the difference through our people, and to develop local competency levels to ensure we deliver on our customers’ expectations.

Unfortunately, the local business environment is not helping. In Madagascar, recently introduced price control measures are squeezing our margins, and the ongoing engagement with government will be crucial to ease the unsustainable status quo.

That said, there are also great opportunities, and we have to be in a position to seize the growth opportunities that will arrive once the political situation stabilises and foreign investment picks up again.

The country is blessed with a wealth of minerals, and mining companies are queuing up to kick off their investment projects when better days arrive. Whilst the situation is less critical in Mauritius, the Euro crisis continues to hamper growth in certain sectors of the economy, such as tourism and textiles. On the plus side, our business in Mauritius has a fairly wide-ranging portfolio, which gives us the resilience to cope with the periodic shortfalls in specific sectors.

What do you see as some of the other urgent tasks and priorities ahead?

Clearly, growth on the scale envisioned by this company cannot happen overnight. To help realise it, therefore, our sales force need to embrace the new culture and develop that winning mindset. But while growth is important, it cannot be at the expense of fundamentals such as our safety performance and operational excellence.

Other priority areas include translating high-level strategy and commitments into concrete action on the ground, developing a Reward and Recognition Programme aligned with our goals, reconcile our thinking with what the customer needs, learning to prioritise and focus our efforts and learning to ‘walk alone’; or at least to seek other sources of support now that there is no Shell Group to lean back on.