The Problem of too Few – The Myanmar Paradox

I am an Indian national, living and working in Myanmar (Burma) since 2009. I came to Myanmar on the invitation of a gentleman who wanted to enter into the manufacturing business and was offered to take over 2 bottling units producing the largest selling Rum of Myanmar, ‘The Mandalay Rum’. He wanted me to audit these 2 bottling units (having no manufacturing experience himself). I came to Myanmar to audit, was to stay for a week, give the report and leave back home. It somehow happened that the audit took a while, 3 weeks to be precise, being comprehensive and extensive along with a presentation showing the strengths and weaknesses of the business, as a result of which the gentleman was offered to take over the units with immediate effect under specified terms and conditions. He was very pleased by my efforts and offered me the position of the CEO of this business and I accepted the challenge. After working 2 years with Mandalay Rum, I am now with the largest spirits company of the world as the Country Head for Myanmar. I have been in Myanmar since the last 6 years and find myself totally immersed in this country’s culture and habits.

That reminds me, to talk about the topic. Mandalay Rum is a CULT brand of Myanmar, in existence since 1886 and commands over 70% of the country’s Rum market share, but this is just the beginning of what I want to express.

When I was working with another bottling unit, back home in India, I had once read a book by a renowned psychologist, Barry Shwartz. The title of the book was ‘The Paradox of Choice – Why More is Less’. In the book, Schwartz argues that eliminating consumer choices can greatly reduce anxiety for shoppers. In Chapter 5 of the book, Shwartz writes and I quote;

‘Autonomy and Freedom of choice are critical to our well being, and choice is critical to freedom and autonomy. Nonetheless, though modern American have more choice than any group of people ever has before, and thus, presumably, more freedom and autonomy, we don't seem to be benefiting from it psychologically’.

Schwartz assembles his argument from a variety of fields of modern psychology that study how happiness is affected by success or failure of goal achievement. Schwartz compares the various choices that Americans  face in their daily lives by comparing the selection of choices at a supermarket to the variety of classes at an Ivy League college. There are now several books and magazines devoted to what is called the 'voluntary simplicity'  movement. Its core idea is that we have too many choices, too many decisions and hence, too little time to do what is really important.

I, however, am not writing in the American or European or ‘most of the world’ perspective,  but  in the Myanmar perspective, where a Converse Paradox exists, ‘The Problem of too few – where less is more’. I do not know how Mr. Shwartz would react to this, but if the title is converse, so will the effects be. The Burmese have less to choose from , so few decisions to make and a lot of time to do what is really important.

I am from the alcoholic beverages industry and I know that there is only ONE WHISKY, ONE RUM and ONE BEER in Myanmar. Of course there are others but they can just be termed as ‘ALSO THERE’. Its not only about Alcoholic beverages however, there is one cigarette brand, one toothpaste, one coffee, one drinking water and to add to that, they are not international brands, they are local, probably because of the fact that this has been a closed country since 5 decades. The other reason I can think of is that while Myanmar people have great talent in the trading business, they have not produced any manufacturing entrepreneurs, people who are more creative and who can create brand equity. The result of this is that these local brands have been ruling the country since eternity and have created for themselves, solid brand equity and millions of dollars for their principals, while the consumers have an acquired sense of belonging to these brands and are happy to keep following them and thus have a lot of time enjoying them.

How does this figure out for an MNC to launch its products in the midst of these local brands? The barriers are several. Though Myanmar is a last frontier for most companies, (other than maybe North Korea, Somalia, Iran, et al) this is a country with huge entry barriers. Transparency index, language barrier, lack of human resource, opaque laws, poor banking , lack of financial institutions, sanctions  and risk factors are just a few of many to overcome. Add to all this, I feel the problem of too few (very powerful and cash rich companies and their brands), is something that actually is the biggest challenge to overcome. That’s probably the reason why each MNC giant entering the country is buying out the competitions’ biggest brands, be it Colgate Palmolive, Coca Cola, Pepsico, and Heineken to name a few. I am sure this is just the beginning and most companies are waiting on the borders of Myanmar, awaiting the results of the November 2015 elections, to jump into the fray and compete for their share of the pie. Those in the queue also have eyed strategic acquisitions and/or local partnerships to forge.

The current Government has done its bit (enough to at least get the American sanctions suspended) in forming the new FDI laws, amendments to several other colonial laws and give a sense of a never before experienced, democracy to the nation. It however, has not been able to instill faith in most western companies of a stable investment climate.  The consumers have however not given the operating MNCs any comfort whatsoever since they are still happy with their MYANMAR BEER  rather than a CARLSBERG or HEINEKEN, still brushing their teeth morning with the LAZER toothpaste instead of graduating to the COLGATE , still content having the RICE and CHICKEN CURRY instead of slurping over a KFC Zinger Burger and still sipping a SUPER coffee and neglecting the NESCAFE.

I am sure that this beautiful, green and clean Golden land, Myanmar and its lovely people have a long way ahead and they are actually good at enjoying the journey and not just the destination. In the meanwhile MNCs await the hard bumpy journey to end and are eager for a sight of the destination which they hope will bring Myanmar to the real democracy …. more freedom of choice and autonomy in terms of what they consume.

Talking of Paradoxes actually, Myanmar is the only country where 12000 is mentioned and written as 10000, 2000; PaPa is a girl’s name and 95% of the vehicles are right hand drive even though they drive on the right side of the road. The biggest Paradox though is that even amid all the Paradoxes, anyone who comes here, falls in love with this country ... that includes me !