Amit's Book Update #4 Are You Sure About That?

Is that a candidate for an international business role in front of you?

Do you have doubts if this guy can deliver a critical mass after several others before who could not?

Do you need to show senior line managers that you can pick winners and break the serial trend of recruiting square pegs into round holes?

Maybe you are a talent partner or an HR partner desperate to show you can get this appointment right. That young pelvic thruster in front of you. Does he or she have what it takes to deliver the numbers and go on to deliver critical mass?#

Or maybe you have a grey-haired balding git in front of you of 'mature years'?

Or a lady of 'mature years' with crow's feet in the corner of her eyes and thinning hair due to low oestrogen levels.

Is he or she past it? What caused him or her to leave his/her employer without a job? Could their employer's loss be your gain? How do you find out? Why does he/she want this job in their late forties or early fifties? Maybe it took them 20+ years to master the breadth of roles required to succeed in international business. And that 30-something pelvic thruster is not prepared for this role just yet?

Maybe you overlook him or her on account of his or her age. And in doing so, you lose possibly the best candidate for the role.

How do you know? Who is a good-fit and who is not?

Read my forthcoming book with a chapter dedicated to how to pick winners and the profile of a person I think is particularly suited to these roles and why.

I describe the profile of the person best suited to the role and how to test those candidates against the profile that can succeed.

Many companies have moved from having their senior manager located inside the markets as well as outside the markets. But that still has not changed the poor set of results. Similarly, companies have swung back and forth from having local managers for delivering critical mass to ex-pats inside or outside the market to deliver the critical mass with equally disappointing results.

I explain why the location of the job holder or whether the appointment is a local or an ex-pat makes no difference. These candidates need to fulfil three core requirements, the rest is immaterial.

Conjuring up a fancy slogan as my company did with "In Africa for Africa" is just some corporate affairs hyperbole. You do not need to be "In Africa for Africa" to succeed. To succeed, three things are key. I describe and expand on these three in my book which I mention on the back cover of the title page.

Some folk recruit persons with 'distributor experience'. But this is meaningless. I explain using my example of when I was recruited as Territory Director Africa.

I had no prior 'distributor experience'.

In my book, I explain the amalgam of skills, experience and know-how required to succeed in international scaleup through distributors.

And distributor experience is NOT one of them.

I explain why such a focus in recruitment on people with 'distributor experience' is a waste of time. Anyone involved with recruiting international business managers (HR Partners, Talent Partners, Senior Line Managers) will find this chapter and its sections of immense value along with the process I used in recruitment.

OR

Maybe that guy in the photo is a distributor promising you the Earth and the wonders he can do for your products in the Republic of Ketanga?

How do you know if he is bluffing?

Does he know the market or does he just sound impressive and you feel stupid to ask what he means when he says "Your biggest opportunity is with NGOs"?

And that fancy deck of slides he has handed you. How much of it is relevant to your business and your products?

What has he left out that you don't know?

What has he included that looks hugely impressive, but is completely unrelated to your business opportunities?

Do you know what you don't know?

I do know what you don't know. And I have explained it all in my book.

Is he a distributor, an agent, a wholesaler or 'master distributor', or 'hub regional distributor' or a logistics service provider? Do you know the differences between these? Only one of those stands any chance of delivering a critical mass. Do you which one and why? Do you know why those others cannot deliver a critical mass and the bullsh1t they will tell you promising they can?

How do you spot the bluffers and the fake promises that distributors make that are never going to be delivered? He knows that those promises are never going to be realised. You don't. But you will soon find out after signing up with that distributor that you bought a pack of lies wrapped in bullsh1t and the failure is "always down to you" whilst claiming as a partner that "we did our bit".

You will need to read my book and then you can go in fully prepared with a solid understanding of the models that will work for you and those that won't.

Armed with my book and your understanding of its content, you will be able to lead and negotiate with a best-fit distributor on how you want the model to work; not how the distributor wants it to work.

Take the commanding lead, and negotiate HARD to get what you want.

Demand a lot but don't be greedy. Aim always to take at least 51% and leave him 49% in a win/win negotiation.

Present him with a chance to prove that he (or she) can do it. How? Read my book and how I did it with my demands and workarounds that put distributors highly accountable for results.

My Book's Progress:

Next week I will receive a full printed version of my book from the publisher to make one FINAL read to check for typos and punctuation errors. I am not expecting any, but it is highly recommended as until now I have only been proofreading and proof-editing the book on my PC and laptop and there is no substitute for reading the book one final time cover-to-cover. Given that it is nearly 400 pages, I will focus on getting through it within a week. Assuming no corrections are required, I will authorise the publisher to release the print file to bookshops and suppliers.

Yesterday, I submitted what the publisher calls the "metadata" for my book. This data describes my book to prospective purchasers. It includes a short sentence about what the book is about and a longer summary of the book.

A short description of my book that will be on the internet at launch:

"A practical guide to international scaleup models using distributors. The book explains many go-to-market models, why some models work and others don't and how to pick the talent that can succeed in distributor markets".

We are almost there. A little patience is required and readers will be able to pre-purchase the book. Full details in a newsletter and general article to follow.

All that prospective purchasers will need to order and buy the book is the title or the ISBN number. The ISBN number entered into a search on the internet will bring up the book worldwide in all the bookshops that will sell it.

I will reveal it all next week.....