Navrathna

Pre-script : for some time I have been asked what’s happening with the blog, as it has been dormant. Time starved, sundotdot was a victim. But like they say, life is not about this or that but this & that. So it resumes some time 10-15 years ago…from here on the digital photos make the journey more colourful...

Often we are asked when was the golden period in your life. I have a simple answer. If there was just one then life is over – there are and must be multiple golden periods. Periods that stand out in terms of their experiences, shape us and make us enjoy life. The time in Egypt was a golden period and this was made special by 3 sets of people – family, people at work and business partners. In this round I am covering Navrathna – the nine gems who with their teams made it special at work.

Badr

with Badr @ Algiers

Means the full moon and so he was, calm & collected. He was a rock of Gibraltor. To begin with letting somebody else like me do, what he was doing before the company got taken over, must have been so tough. But he didn’t show it or let it affect. We had to reduce a third of workforce – by no
way easy. He was careful- the good should not go, we can always find a role.. It was tough to be fair and letting people go. He helped chaperone the team through the flurry of changes the firm went through. In addition, he had great equity with the professionals in the business and could put across why we were doing what! He was the Big brother to all at work and went on to become the first Egyptian CEO of SCIB before retiring.  Always smiling and keen to help, the two things he did not like were getting up early and snubbing the cigarette…

Jo

Yousef Makary alias Joseph Makary alias Jo to all. He was the factory manager but the factory

Jo (in jacket) installing a new TSD

Jo designed dispenser for stainer

managed him i.e., his life revolved around it. Though not an engineer he was a natural one. Had a great sense of putting things together and making things work. Jo would tell me in Egypt the ‘Generaal’ way works best – tell what is to be done and it will be done. But he quickly saw there are other ways, the football way – where goals are set and scored. Anything was possible and in a plant designed to make 10000T he could prepare it to eventually produce 60000T. He had a child-like enthusiasm to do anything new. Historically he and the sales head used to be Tom & Jerry each not trusting the other of what was sampled and finally made and supplied. But Jo transformed it all to good manufacturing and could contribute outside running the factory, to a lot to the market . Designing and setting up an assembly line for stainer dispensers or props for market launch. Jo is now retired and age has caught up with him. His eyes still gleam and his love for Sangam and singing Mere man ki ganga aur tere

manki jamuna, is humming good..

Lamia

Madame Lamia as she was fondly called was the first to receive us as a family – right at the airport and taking care we settled well. She was assisting Dr.Khalil and continued it with me. But given her experience, maturity and connect with the team, she could do much more. She took to HR like a fish to water. A great organiser and her ability to network easily within the team made her take up team

Lamia (third from right) @ picnic in Alex

initiatives wonderfully. Whether it was organising team picnics or putting HR processes in place, it was starting from scratch to set it up and she pulled it off. As team demands came from time to time, she had a great balance of what is fair and would insist where things have to be pushed. She had a larger view of the middle east and always had interesting perspectives on what the country was facing when there were upheavals in the region. Lamia developed herself as a HR professional and works at a FMCG MNC in Cairo.

Moty

Late Moty (center) @ Long service award

Late Mohamed Moty or Moty as all called him, was an enigma. Rules did not exist for him at work or otherwise. Looking after the industrial business which was small but he almost individually handled it. He had varied interests from fast cars, watches and could talk his way into an opportunity. Handling a licensed business, not much the focus of growth and action in the company – Moty would do things to demand attention and make every business worthwhile. Unfortunately, he succumbed in a car crash a few years back…

Saad

Saad (top left) with his team @ a launch

Saad Ehsan means perfect happiness and he lives it. A quintessential salesperson Saad faced with his team the most radical changes that the organisation went through. Everything changed from the

structure, to policies, to way of working and all of this while still not knowing what will work. But a well groomed scout that he was, Saad would meticulously plan and strategise how to put it to the team. Once converged on what to do, he believed in it himself so much that he could induce it to the team. There was a time when we were to find name for a product that meant celebration, happiness etc. and it turned out to be the Arabic word ‘Saada’. Saad was worried people should not feel it is him who is fixing this. But the larger sense prevailed and we went ahead with that, it struck the right note in the market and understand it has become a big brand. A great showman, with a lovely sense of humour he held the crowd. He could fight and make it up with reasoning. Given a choice he would love to go to Jamaica, but he continues to be at SCIB, the only one left of the 9. When I left Cairo I had said I will come back to Egypt to see them all, for sure for his daughter’s wedding (she was still in school then). He remembered it and called me for it a decade later and when I and Vidya turned up apart from grandly hosting us, the showman he is, he and his daughter put a cameo Bollywood dance – that’s Saad…

Sandeep

Sandeep (extreme left) @ launch demo of decor finishes

He was the last to join as he replaced Sunil to head R&D. Being a brilliant chemist, everything is possible for Sandeep. Ideas set him running. Almost a new product every month replacing the old or imported or completely path breaking he managed it all. The process of developing it, producing it

and taking it to the market was so seamless and after a few early successes the sales team and wanted more! He made it the centre for excellence for decorative textures in the group. He had varied interests one of them being electronic gadgets. He is back in India continuing to innovate in coatings…

Sathish

Where you found Sathish most - @ work

It took me some hard convincing to get a supply chain resource deputed and Sathish joined the team. He was a production expert but had to look at all in supply chain other than manufacturing, which Jo managed. Always ready to take new areas and challenges, he looked at everything in and out of the factory with such detail and precision, he was the darling of the sales team – because he ensured
whatever they wanted got made and delivered. Never to say no and ever ready to help, he could manage countless experiments and make it happen. He was blessed with twins when in Cairo and we always used to have this little game guessing who is Nitin and Jitin in the twin. Sathish is also back in India expanding his supply chain experience.

Swapnil

Swapnil (2nd from left) with his team

People at work ask whether everyone in India had their name starting with ‘S’ as all 4 of us were. Swapnil was the always smiling guy, whether there was money or no money. From operating at the edge of IT, he got dropped to a system where everything was manual, transactions in cash and everything took place in Arabic, forex had to be arranged (in grey) and to top it all the final financials
in ERP crashed twice in 2 years losing precious work. With the help of trusted lieutenants, he built the finance and IT back bone literally brick by brick, cleaning up legacy financial issues. I had asked him excel and macros gets used a lot but Access I understand can help get a different dimension to data. The silent performer that he is, he was at it and soon had learnt Access and got to use the basic data to give great analytics and info from data, just amazing. He is now down under, settled in Sydney with Barnali and their daughter Radhika.

Yasmine

small part of what Yasmine and 
her team created

She was a marketing power house. Daughter of Dr.Khalil, she made anyone quickly realise that is not why she was there, but because of her love for marketing work. She and her team had the loveliest

Yasmine (left edge of door) @ Inaugurating Zamalek showroom

office in diplomatic area – Zamalek and were the envy of the team. But a team of just 4 of them managed everything from identity, packaging, artworks, retail, Showrooms, colour charts, managing launches, events and display contests, taking the company to be a ‘Superbrand’ in just 3 years. Almost all work done in house with her design team. At one time she brought in school kids to stick and make shade charts in their free time, which they happily did. Yasmine manages a fitness spa and consults in marketing in Cairo…

Each of one of the 9 were gems as persons and added colour to the golden period on the banks of Nile

with the Navrathna circa 2006 @ SCIB oasis