Turnaround

What does ‘turnaround’ mean to you? In a business sense you’re talking of turning a company back into profitability. Personally it would mean hitting some good fortune after a series of bad luck.  Bonnie Tyler demands an emotional turnaround in “Total Eclipse of the Heart”.

Turnaround can also mean just that, to turn on your heels and go back as you came. Only, let us this time have a renewed mind and some vigour in our step. A good question would be: “Why would you want to?” The French like to say “Pourquoi pas.”  

Bike in FMS colours - thanks to street wire artists

So get on your bike and let’s go.  On a personal level once you know why you’ve lost there are two ways to go forward. Enjoy the memories, learn from it, and move on; or try yet again to recapture those magical moments. Being passionate about your business career, the process remains the same. Yet here you have no choice: you must turn it around. The same accounts for a company.

Reflection on the current status quo should ideally be part of a continuous quest for renewal.  To affect this successfully you first need to have a vision of what it can be, then have the guts to cut whatever doesn’t work, adding new product categories and operating platforms. How? Get the big picture first and don’t bother about the details of how you’re going to get there. Start with a broad all-encompassing view and then zoom in. View your company as a client would, from the outside.

·         What are their first impressions? How do they find you?  – Digitally, physically, staff, voice.

·         Do you ask questions that will solve their queries? Are you flexible, customer-driven?

·         Do you consistently over-deliver on value? Does the company display moral courage?

·         What product categories are you competing against? What business are you in (not what you’re selling)?

·         Do you invest in your employees and then trust them to do their job? Do they display a quest for achievement, integrity, a propensity to learn?

New Beginnings Wines - a decade of success as illustrated in Platter's SA Wine Guide

Going through this process you need to be diligent in implementing the changes and ruthless in making cuts. See your company as a corporate brand; creating a unique company culture, with each platform having an over-arching theme. Consult your top management, utilizing their expertise to gain special insights. But don’t omit getting the enthusiasm of all staff, asking for practical inputs. Then, unlike the politicians, you need to do a progress report every 30 days, not only after a 100...

FMS does this very exercise twice annually, spending two months mid-year and another two at year-end to actively reinvent the company, keeping it on an accelerated growth path. So far we are looking pretty good thank you, ahead of all expectations. What about you?  Can you parade all the staff onto a podium, turn up Tina Turner and sing: You’re simply the Best!?

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Photo credits:-

FMS bike – Anton Blignault

New Beginnings & Platter’s – Arthur de Magalhaes

References:-

Arthur de Magalhaes, FMS

Bonnie Tyler “Total Eclipse of the Heart” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcOxhH8N3Bo

Dave Kahle – Kahle Way® Sales Systems

Jane Zhang “Dream It Possible” c/o Huawei https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtWJfcLEEv0

Juliette Salmon, FMS

Street wire artists, Cape Town: Rasta & Victor

The Holy Bible: NKJV - Haggai 2:4; Isaiah 41:10; Jeremia 8: 4; Isaiah 43:19

Tina Turner “The Best” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC5E8ie2pdM

Winesave® “Recapture the Moment” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h_oag2I0bo

© Anton Blignault, Cape Town

Champagne BARON-FUENTÉ… & stopper

Now everyone loves Champagne! Not so? Or at least the luxury image and lifestyle associated with Champagne. Let’s toast to that… Chin! À votre santé!

Thanks to a very good friend of mine, Thierry BOUGIT, export director of a famous cellar in Alsace, I end my first busy day at ProWein 2012 in Düsseldorf toasting our reunion copiously. Seven years earlier we shared Crémant d’Alsace at their cave in Barr. Well, to be honest, as these get-togethers go, many toasts were called for. And every time when Thierry sees a friend passing by, he invites them

Pour avoir un verre de vin avec nous.

And being on the French Pavilion, Thierry knows a lot of people… So we end up chatting merrily until the lights fade and the guys gently direct us through quiet halls, opening a shutter door to let us out.

Here it’s dark and raining. I’ve got my full-length raincoat on and my red luggage case on wheels in my hand. You see, I’ve arrived very early this morning from Frankfurt with Lufthansa and went straight to the expo. Thierry, always the organizer and superb host, arranged a lift with a friend to his hotel. Thereafter we’ll all go for dinner at their favourite restaurant in the old town. Only then he’s going to take me to my hotel on the outskirts of the city to book in... He finally drops me off minutes before midnight after a raucous night on the town with a group of lively Frenchies.

Needless to say two days later with the show over, Thierry loads me with gifts of French wines and my favourite, Champagne BARON-FUENTÉ Grande Réserve Brut. This is going to be my special gift to my host in Warsaw. Now not having been to Europe since 2005 I’m unfamiliar with the new rules and put my treasured bottle in my hand luggage when checking in automatically at Düsseldorf airport. At customs I take off and take out whatever I think is necessary, happy that I’m early for the flight.

The official looks at my hand luggage and the scanner with the Champagne image, showing it to his colleagues and laughs merrily.

You’re going home after the expo?

he says in accented English. Fellow passengers stop to watch the show.

Yes, uhm... no, I’m visiting a client. That’s for him.

Ah, sorry monsieur, you can’t take fluids inside the cabin. Champagne! I can’t take this from you. You must go check it in.

Thank you very much.

I murmur in gratitude, hurrying back to the Lufthansa check-in counters.

The lady listens sympathetically to my story and responds with:

To check in a second bag will cost fifty Euros monsieur. Or else you can take it out and leave it here.

Thank you, but I can’t open the bag. The keys are in my case which is already checked in.

I’m starting to sweat now. She continues:

How much did you pay?

It was a gift, I have no idea.

Well it should be around ten to twenty Euros, maybe more. You really want to pay fifty Euros?

she asks politely. Seeing I’ve reached the end of negotiations I fumble in my pockets for my carefully conserved Euro notes. Her face filling with compassion she says softly:

No it’s fine monsieur, we’ll take the bag.

I freeze, staring at her in disbelief.

Really?!

She just smiles sweetly, printing out the ticket, attaching it to the bag. Ecstatic, I thank her profusely, and almost run back to the friendly officials at customs.

Come December 2013 an English gentleman from London is in the office to collect his winesave® can. Seeing the BARON-FUENTÉ Champagne stopper on the desk, he points to it.

I like that; can it seal normal wine bottles as well?

I’m sure it does.

testing it on an empty bottle. So why don’t you get yours too? Look on http://www.linkedin.com/company/fms-food-&-beverages-sa/baron-fuent-champagne-stopper-22642663/product?trk=biz_product

Hmm… perfect! Get me six please.

And definitely tell us if you want the real thing...

Well, you’ll have to make do with the Champagne and the painting. That’s by Luis DE LA FUENTÉ circa 1950.

No more wasting your precious wine!

Now you can literally recapture the moment because you’re able to save those unique characteristics of your favourite wine perfectly – for up to three months!

FMS imports and distributes winesave® exclusively in Southern Africa directly to cellar doors, hotels, restaurants, wine specialist shops, but private individuals may also order a single can. winesave® is an easy-application 100% argon gas can for keeping opened wine perfectly. Each large can contains at least 100 x 1-second applications. Exclusive agencies in African countries are also available.

Winesave protects opened wine by laying a 100% pure, inert and odourless gas called argon (which is 2½ times heavier than air) across the wine's surface in the bottle, thereby protecting its complex characteristics of colour and taste - winesave® simply work. The science which validates this claim is simple: argon is both inert and heavier than air, sealing wine off from oxygen. What is unique about winesave® is the packaging – it’s so simple to use, almost like a deodorant. winesave® LINKS:- www.youtube.com/recapture_the_ moment_winesave www.youtube.com/how_to_use_winesave www.linkedin.com/winesave www.fms-wine-marketing.co.za/news www.facebook.com/winesaveZA www.decanter.com/winesave

What the experts say of winesave®:- All the top critics in the wine industry support winesave, i.a. Robert Parker Jnr., Jancis Robinson, and Philippe GUIGAL. Moreover, it is used and approved in more than 40 countries such as Australia, the USA, the UK, France, and Germany. All our current clients are happy with winesave® and re-order it regularly.

… there is a new and extremely simple product available that seems to be more effective than its predecessors for keeping wine fresh in an opened bottle. I have found it pretty good at preserving even delicate old red burgundy over a week.

Jancis Robinson OBE, Master of Wine, wine correspondent of the Financial Times.

At last an effective wine saver that really works! It just happens to be called "winesave ". I have been carrying out some tests with grand crus etc and because it is Argon and sits atop the wine I have had no problems with wines stored up to 10 days.

Greg Melick, Vigneron and International Wine Judge

I tried it on the most fragile wine in my portfolio – one that is always undrinkable the day after opening. I had a third of a bottle left over at 5pm, winesaved it then looked at it three or four days later and it was perfect. I want all my sales reps using it.

David Burkitt, Vintage & Vine

We have been using winesave® for a few months now and think it is great.

Mark Best, Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide's 2010 Chef of the Year Three-hatted Marque Restaurant

winesave® has absolutely revolutionized the way we serve wine in this restaurant. And it has totally eliminated waste for us. Wonderful.

Michelle Lynch, Lento, South Yarra, Australia.

Thank you for introducing us here at Village Roadshow to your wonderful product. With over 20 wines by the glass in our 9 locations wastage was one of our biggest issues… no longer since the introduction of winesave®. It has changed our world for the better!

Fab Nicolao, Director, Food & Beverage, Village Roadshow Cinemas, Australia

Distribution is by Globeflight couriers with delivery within two to five days. Please contact us at info@fms-wine-marketing.co.za to get yours and to ask for more information.