The results of the Democratic Party’s Presidential contest clearly indicate that the above slogan of Barack Obama’s campaign for the presidency of the USA resonates with a significant proportion of US citizens.
There has been a lot of change at the DTC since SoC, and while some of it has been very successful much of it has left sightholders confused and despondent. The appointment of Mahiar Borhanjoo is another change as he will be the first sales director (or to use his correct title Executive Director, Sales and Client Services) to have been appointed from outside the industry. However this could be a change for the better. He certainly made a good impression at his first Sight by ensuring he met all the ‘partners’ and asking them to communicate to him their concerns and issues.
The fact that he is American (of Iranian extraction) and an outsider may in fact be a distinct advantage as he hopefully will see the issues for what they really are, without the resignation and fatigue baggage that insiders have succumbed to. Americans are generally great believers in positive engagement and wanting to make a difference, and Mahiar appears to be someone who epitomises those qualities.
Another real advantage will be to have an American familiar with the real complexity and paradoxes of the US retail scene (the shopping malls, the regional variations and segmentation) and spare us from some of the naive or cliché ridden marketing theorisation prevalent in the assessment process promoted often by people who have never set foot in a US shopping mall.
I believe that Mahiar has a genuine desire to reconnect with the DTC’s partners and re-energise relationships that have been mired in confusion and excessive and unnecessarily complicated bureaucratic procedures. If he is to be as successful as we would like him to be he needs clear and unequivocal support from Gareth and Varda to make the changes we all want to believe in and hopefully the lawyers will support creative endeavour, rather than stifle it.
Thursday, 5 June 2008
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1 comments:
Mark I certainly agree with you that Mahiar can be a great force in bringing about some significant and highly essential change...but at the same time it would be interesting to see if he really is bestowed with any real powers...At moment it seems like the DTC's CPQ system is highly flawed...In the past, several DTC executives have expressed that they understand the flaws with the current system but are sort of bound to abide by it until a new system comes in...Now even the new SOC has flaws...and I am sure many of you would agree with me...so unless Mahiar is provided with some key decision making rights that would enable him to go against the CPQ outputs, its seems like the saga would continue forever (just like a diamond is forever).
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