US Expert James Shields: Developing Power Brands, Social Networking Key for Emerging Markets in Eastern Europe

Interview |Author: Ivan Dikov | July 11, 2011, Monday // 19:03|  views

Interview with US expert James Crawford Shields, CEO, Managing Partner, J. Crawford Associates, Inc. a company specializing in business transformations and custom-tailored target marketing.

In 1990 - 2006, James Shields worked at BP/Amoco. In 2001 – 2005, he was General Director, at BP Russia & TNK-BP; BP Retail portfolio (Moscow). In 1997 – 2001, he worked as Manager, Market Strategy Team (Chicago, International & USA Marketing Headquarters) BP America & Amoco Marketing USA. In 1995 – 1997, he was the General Director, Amoco Bulgaria (Sofia, Bulgaria), Amoco International. In 1990 – 1995, Shields worked at Amoco Marketing USA; East & Gulf Coast Markets (USA). Before joining Amoco, in 1985 – 1990, he was a Senior VP, Strategy USA (Philadelphia) DART, Inc. (Research & Technology), and in 1981 – 1985, the Director, Marketing & Planning USA (Chicago), Navistar International Trucks.

James Shields is in Bulgaria to lecture at M3 College on modern-day business transformations.

 

How would you describe your field in a nutshell? What are the types of services your company provides?

Looking over my career, including my work at BP and Amoco, I don't refer to myself as a top executive. I refer to myself as somebody that the company feels comfortable going to and saying, "We've got a business here that we really need to turn around, give it a better direction and better leadership", and I would be "in-the-trenches" guy to do the things that need to be done to be the best you can be.

I am going to step aside from here and say that I spent 3.5 years in Russia. In 2005, I came back to the US, and essentially retired from BP/Amoco. But for only 30 days because then I started this enterprise – J. Crawford Associates. I did not start it dreaming of building a big empire, it was to be very focused and hands-on. It was driven by people who called me and asked for a very custom-designed effort to do for people what I did for BP and Amoco – in the petrol industry exclusively – retail and marketing sector.

It's a turnaround – getting people to be the best they can be. This is really the kind of thing I am doing. I really like overseas activities. Even though I spent most of my career in the US, I spent most of the last 15 years overseas. Especially Eastern Europe and Bulgaria.

From your point of view as an economist and a marketing specialist – what do you think are the most important results and lessons to be drawn from the global economic crisis? Are these lessons different for businesses in the USA, the EU, Russia, the developing countries?

I think each country has its own particular situation but as you get into the emerging Eastern Europe for me the main thing in business is putting a team together. It's developing a power brand. This means looking at the customers' expectations, needs, wants, and developing your offer around that.

It is a big change for these countries. To teach a team, to understand the level we need to cultivate that belief on their part that they can do this – because they can. To put trust in them.

When I came to Bulgaria in 1994-5, people told me, "You can't trust these people, the Bulgarians." But I said I was willing to take that risk. I did place trust in them. Then they really fed on the success and got even better. They are good students.

Within about a year we developed a really solid team, and we took a brand that really wasn't known, Amoco - in Bulgaria. Consumer research showed said 3% of the people in this country actually knew what the word Amoco meant within a year's time.

My mission was to teach, coach, mentor, lead, and develop a team in such a way that I can hand you the responsibility and then leave because this is Bulgaria and it is a Bulgarian team.

I was in Russia in a different time, different situation – 2002-2005. Again – teaching, coaching, leading, placing trust in people in a very positive way, holding people accountable. Exceeding the customers' expectations. Creating a network and consistency.

It is not about doing it this time. It is about doing it each and every day, retail 24/7 business. Constantly working with the people to be the best we can be. It doesn't make any difference what my job is. If I can be the best on at a low level, that will be a very important thing in the life of the business, because I can move to the next level.

How have your approaches to transforming companies through marketing techniques changed as a result of the crisis? Have the new global economic trends led to a paradigm shift in your field – or, alternatively, should they?

Intensity has become even more important. We have to get even closer to the customer because things are more difficult for the customers – and that's who we are serving, that is why we are in business.

So the paradigm is that we need to revisit the things we really need to do, the things that have changed for the customer. We are going through a transformation right now and that transformation would be social networking. Whatever your business is, the world is really going through this tremendous change, and anybody who's got a business, needs to be good at that because it is going to create a lot of opportunities. Big things are going to happen. To say that these things are just for kids – that's not true.

Yes, these difficult times are here. It's different but from a business perspective we have to get back to being the best we can be, and even revisit that. To make sure that the network is consistent and to start listening to ourselves, to revisit what we have learned and what we know.

We need to go get a check-up. We need to have somebody come in and do a thorough assessment. Today's winner can be tomorrow's loser. Never get complacent. Never be satisfied. My costs are the customer's costs. I don't want to be in the commodity business. I want to be in the business of satisfying your needs and understanding what they are.

The global economic situation that we are in demands even more so from a marketing perspective that we really have a power brand – and this means commitment to the customer, a consistent network, a 24/7 business, recognizing a team because they are doing the job.

When I came to Bulgaria and we started our team I said one of the keys to a business is the people you pick. The team needs to have common threads. Our value system needs to be the same in the team. I talk a lot about what is the most important thing in business. It is not technology and really expensive equipment. What's important are the people. 

Bulgarians would look at me, and say, "Nobody told us that before, they always said this big machine in the factory is the most important thing, we can get more people." That's time-out wrong. If America was ever great, it's not because of machines but because of the people - innovation, unlocking the minds, placing interest in people.

Much of your experience is at top executive positions in the global oil industry. As the energy market is not exactly the typical free market, what is specific and most important to the marketing of a large oil company? Have you seen notable changes in this respect – for example, not just because of the overall economic crisis in 2008-2009 but especially after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?

There are two parts of the oil industry – upstream and downstream. Upstream is exploration and production, and downstream is sales and marketing. I am downstream so I won't try to be an expert on upstream.

The future says that the energy we are going to get is going to come from oil, solar, water, biofuels, whatever these other things are. It's not going to be the traditional things. And in fact the big multinationals are investing many billions of dollars in these energy sources. They know that fossils fuels are see a transformation. It's happening.

As this happens, my view is that downstream is changing, and you will see some companies separating. Company XYZ forms an upstream business, and they form another company FGH – it's their downstream business. They are separated. As they see the future coming, XYZ, the upstream, is going to go into other areas, and the business-to-business or business-to-customer relations will be different from that of the downstream. I think this is a real change, and it is not driven by the global crisis or the Gulf disaster. It is because of what's really happening – we have to move from fossil fuels to these other sources.

As far as the Gulf disaster is concerned, I live on the Gulf of Mexico – a very unfortunate happening. There has been oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico for many decades, and, honestly, statistically – very few incidents. A year later tourism in the resorts in Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi is very big. It is bigger than it was 2 years ago. People are going on about their lives – but should we be learning the lessons? Absolutely. I think BP were responsible.

But I think they stepped up and did what they had to do. They did some mistakes early on, we know about those. The environment is a very sensitive thing, and we all need to be stewards of the environment. I think crystal clear lesson here – if you are going to do these things, you better be very careful about the environment.

How is a Russian oil company different from a Western oil company?

A fair question. Do you know who controls that? It's the customer, the consumer.

It's not the Kremlin, as Western media would often report?

Well, the people driving their cars are buying the fuel. We developed the team. We were voted the best company in Russia – BP – in 2003. In 2004-5 we doubled the business. Not because we had thousands of stations in Moscow. We had a very good network, the right locations.

If you have another company – I don't care what it is and who it is connected to – people driving their cars will go where they are treated the way they want to be treated. That causes the market to look up to us. Even the guy in charge of our competitors would say - go to BP and see what they do and how they are treating the customer.

We had no special connection. We were doing our business. And I had practice. When I was in Bulgaria people would ask, "What do you think about Shell or Petrol?", and I said I focus on the customer. Shell is not going to buy anything from us. I don't think they are going to. My eyes are with the customer. The same in Russia. I never talked about Lukoil or Yukos or the other ones because my focus is on the customer. The other ones either have to change, or they are out of business. Or somebody has to be able to supply them with money.

You are very well familiar with transition economies – notably Russia and Bulgaria. How is marketing there different from that in the Western markets? Is it just a matter of transferring American/Western approaches?

No. I was told in both countries – you can't trust the people. I always would say that I was going to take that risk because if you develop a business, I am not going to do it. The people we select – and hopefully we will select the best – are going to get the job done. We will do it together. I have to place trust in them.

I am telling you that I understand that you may make a mistake but here are the rules. Here is our code of ethics. These are our values. So getting the people to believe in themselves is very important. Mutual trust. In the US I think at this point in the life cycle of business people understand that. We place trust each other.

Did it work out in Bulgaria with your team?

Oh, absolutely. People know the story. Amoco was here for 3 years, and left - 1994-97. It wasn't because of what was happening in Bulgaria. It was because of what we were doing.

We had a schedule, part of a major strategy of Amoco developed down in the Chicago headquarters – China, Russia, Eastern Europe, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria. Eastern Europe was viewed – and correctly so – as a very big market going through a change. Russia and China would take much longer and were very big pieces.

Amoco made the corporate decision that we are not going to do that for the time being, and will come to Bulgaria. It was hard for people here to understand that. We were very upfront about it – we went around the country and met with journalists. We sold the business to Shell Bulgaria at the end. We gave very good severance packages to people. The team had done a great job. We worked with the energy minister, and gave grants to the communities we had been working at – Sofia, Plovdiv, Burgas, because we were guests in the country. We wanted to do it the right way, and I think we did.

You worked in Bulgaria precisely during its worst post-communist crisis years – 1995-1997. How has Bulgaria changed since 1995-1997? Looking back in time – is its current state what you had imagined backed them that it should/could look like in 15 years?

It's my favorite question. I told the people that Bulgaria was going to be back and was going to make it.

You remember 1997. It was really terrible. But I was a big believer. People said, "No!", and I said "Yes, it will."

It's because of the people. There is something about the people of this country. They are very proud of Bulgaria, they are proud to be Bulgarians. Bulgaria had been through a lot worse than it was in 1996-7.

I remember seeing pictures of Bulgaria from back in the 1920s and 1930s. The society that was here. It was like pictures of America. The way people were dressed and what they were doing. I got to know a lot of people in Bulgaria – really good and solid people. One reason Amoco came to Bulgaria was because the literacy rate was high. There is something – I don't know if solidarity is the right word – but people are proud. I remember when the king came back in 1996. He went around the country, and there were scores of people.

I am really impressed with what has been done. Bulgaria looks very different. Did I think that would happen? Yes. I had no clue – but I thought that way because of the people. It is not one of these countries that is just going to slip away. It is not a third world country. And there is a lot here that is undiscovered.

It is a popular opinion among foreign managers who know Bulgaria that the country is a notorious failure when it comes to promoting itself internationally. From a marketing point of view – how should a Bulgarian government go about promoting the country – in order to attract FDI, foreign tourists, perhaps even immigrants (given the demographic crisis)? How should Bulgaria go about marketing itself internationally?

I like that question. There has to be an initiative – something very serious where people agree across the country that this is a top priority. There are people from Bulgaria who have done well in the US and around the world. They do care about Bulgaria. Maybe somewhat – but they do.

This shouldn't be something that comes and goes with the change of the governments. It's got to be bigger than that. In the US certain cities have succeeded in doing well, others haven't. And it's because the civic leaders, the blue and the reds have gotten together. Let's clean up our act and get ourselves together. How do we tell the story? – you got the great resorts, sea, mountains, great history. Things have been done with it – but immortalize it. If you think of Williamsburg – the red-brick trail. These things have been immortalized, and made bigger than life.

What will be your main message in the lectures that you are going to give to Bulgarians?

One is transformation. There is this big change coming our way – social networking. Take the time to take the team and to start getting them adequate. It's in the beginning the social networking but it is going to be big. If we don't get involved in this change we will be left behind.

The other lecture is Thursday is about a winning power brand. This is what I did when I came here in 1996-7. The epilogue is that it is exactly what I did in Russia – where we doubled the business. Even the competitors, the industry said that we were the best brand.

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Tags: James Crawford Shields, BP, Amoco

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