Buenos Aires V... Doing the Impossible.

What does it take to put an impossible project on the boards? It takes a concerted effort by a group of people who came to believe and who committed themselves to get it done in the face of adversity and swimming against the current, as it were. These were, perhaps, my most committed months (and years) of my professional career. Truly, I consider this project a personal triumph, but it was a triumph for all who gave the utmost of themselves to see it through. It is a longer than usual entry, but worth the read.

-“PORAMORDEDIOS!!!!”-“TENEMOSCUANTOTIEMPOPARAHACER ESTO??!!

- “FortheLoveofGod!!! Howmuchtimeyousaidwehavetodothis??”

This gentle question was posed by our own Maddy, during one of our Monday morning meetings, after we had just reviewed the revised timetable given us by our friendly banking associates(read: owners). This was now late September/early October and there were only 45 days left before the summer / Christmas / year end break. Originally, we were to have until the beginning of the year to present the marketing sales plan and completed structure for the insurance company. This would have given us precious time while the folks were away with their families; under the new guidelines (read: request/demands) we were to have a structure in place by November 15^th.

Were there a base structure to develop, this would not be such a crazy demand… yet, there was nothing in place; no sales personnel, no management, no training structure (we had just barely received approval for the product) and no… well, just no anything. We were born of an uneasy coalition of smaller private banks, set to do battle against companies backed by such as Banco del Lavoro (major Italian bank), Citibank Argentina, Banco Nacion (national Bank), AIG Argentina, etc… you get the drift… (David and Goliath, anyone?).  None of our member banks were willing to share personnel or client base… after all, the other guys were the competition. Not to be trusted. So, each bank would have a sales team, under a trained sales supervisor and all supervisors would be trained and supervised in turn by, you guessed it… yours truly.

Argentina is a physically big country; you can easily spend 8 hours in your car and still be not that far (relatively speaking) from Buenos Aires. Luckily, all the member banks except for one were within a radius of 250 miles from BsAs. The lone “far away bank” was located in Salta (a beautiful colonial city, well north, almost to the Bolivian border); here I had to travel by plane. Luckily for me, the appointed representative from that bank was a good marketer and was easy to train; also, he liked to come to Bs As. since this gave him a chance to get away from home and hearth… and boss. He did well up there.

Each bank supervisor was trained and, in turn, each had to choose or hire from one to a maximum of three sales people, depending on the size of the bank and the number of branches where the product would be initially offered. The starting number was limited to three, for easier training and initial management.

While the bank supervisors were doing this, we had a chance to work on the marketing plan, sales plan and the sales support team and material. We were lucky, a good marketing mind from one of the better agencies in town was a friend of Maddy, and she came to help us as a (paid) free lancer. She was a breath of fresh air; within 5 days she was back with the working “motherboard” and it was a beauty!!  Exactly what we wanted and done in a very easy to follow format; this was important, because in each presentation this would be read to the client, creating a flow to the final question: Would you like to be able to have a better retirement?  After sharing the message the right way, it would be difficult to say “no”. Maddy took over the internal training of the support personnel, while I went to the different bank locations on a regular basis, to make sure the training was being done according to set parameters. Our Admin VP, a great asset to us, managed to create all the internal controls, as related to sales and marketing and the corresponding administration programs.

Finally, Henry, Mr. Financial VP (another tremendous asset) and I had to sit and discuss the finer details of selling life insurance. Remember, due to the incredible rate of inflation existing at that time, national banks worked on a 24 / 48 / 72 hours investment turnaround. Here we had a product that would require continued investments and look to an initial return towards the end of the second year (maybe) and thereafter. Commissions, credits, bank participation according to sales… also, there was this matter of “legal reserve”, which meant that, the more we sold, the more funds that would have to be put aside to meet potential claims. This, in turn, brought about the reinsurance contracts; larger companies which would help us carry the risk/claim load. They did not do this for free. I’m not going to go technical on you… Suffice it to say that if a small company, not correctly structured, sells too much insurance… it could actually go bankrupt. All this had to be communicated to the corresponding banking minds, and Henry (Fin VP) was the man to help me do it.

The Big Day finally arrived...! On Friday, November 14^th, 1986, we had a very successful full house press conference in our offices, where all board members and management personnel were introduced to reps of the major finance dailies who were present “by invitation”; radio and TV interviews were also done. The wine flowed and a good poundage of cheese and chorizos were consumed by all. Yes, the rank and file was there; this had been a group effort where all had gone “above and beyond”; no one (including the messenger) was to be kept away from this moment. Although I may have spearheaded the overall project, they made it all work. We were now, officially, a functional company and believe me… most definitely still a work in progress.

At home, it was also a work in progress but, unfortunately, it had become a working process towards an eventual dissolution of the union. We did not know this yet for sure, but I think we both were internally anticipating this would be the final result. No one person is fully responsible for either the success or the failure of a relationship; either of these results is the compendium of the work and interest of both sides. Our mutual interest was rapidly dwindling and the arguments (specially those involving small, silly things… a true harbinger of a decaying relation) were rapidly escalating. Easily seen from the vantage of the years, but difficult to grasp at the time.

Well… This is more than enough for now. This post is more about the triumph of a small band of very different people brought together by a dream in which they all came to believe. These few paragraphs actually condense a fiery 3 months of non-stop work, sweat and tears and a magnificent accomplishment by that small band of committed believers.

Just comes to show what seemingly impossible goals can actually be reached when there is enough faith and trust, and a true desire to accomplish what others said could not be done.

Be Well… Be Back!!