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Charles Brewer, Managing Director for sub-Saharan Africa at DHL Express
51 countries, 60 direct reports, 60,000 customers, 4,000 employees, 14 aircraft, 2 young children and 2 dogs! Charles Brewer is the MD who loves leading all of that
CAPE-TOWN, South-Africa, August 13, 2014/ -- DHL Express, who has been in sub-Saharan Africa for more than 36 years, is the ‘Most International Company in the World’ and has a significant operation in Africa, moving thousands of shipments every day.
At
the helm of this business is Managing Director Charles Brewer, who has
been with DHL for more than 30 years, has worked in all regions of the
world and found himself in Africa for the first time three years ago.
“Like
many who haven’t actually been to Africa, the perceptions I had were
found to be very different in reality,” Brewer says. “Simplistically,
Africa is the last frontier. It is the most beautiful, dynamic and
exciting region I have had the pleasure to live and work in, and despite
the very obvious challenges and occasional risk, I love being part of
this exciting journey.”
His
role, as MD, is to “motivate and excite my employees to deliver
unbelievable and unparalleled service levels and to help our customers
grow and be successful” and it is clear that customer centricity is at
the very core of Brewer’s DNA.
So what does it take to oversee this many people and territories?
“We
worry a great deal less about formal qualifications and focus far more
on emotional qualities, experiences and abilities” – not surprising when
you consider that he spends huge amounts of time on the front line and
considers himself the Chief Energy Officer.
Every
week you will find Charles in a different country in Africa – he could
be with a courier in Rwanda this week, selling with a sales executive in
Senegal the next, to sitting side-by-side with a Customer Service Agent
in Lagos the week after. “If you want to know what your customers or
employees really think about your product or your company, get to where
the action is as often as you possibly can.”
A
few years ago, just after Brewer arrived in Africa, he took the bold
decision to completely de-layer the management structure, with an aim to
bring everyone closer to the “sharp-end” and to significantly improve
communication and speed of decision making.
“Africa
is so dynamic and I just felt that we were too far removed and
operating far too slowly”. All 51 countries now report directly to
Brewer and the new structure has proven to be really successful.
“The
new structure is very different and demands a very open, rapid and
engaging leadership style but it is working really well, with quicker
decision making, simpler communication lines and a significantly
improved employee engagement level”. As an example, the couriers, who
are key to the DHL service delivery promise, are never more than four
levels away from Brewer and five from the Global CEO.
Think global, act local and TRUST!
One
of the key lessons learned over the past three years and specifically
as DHL went through the structural change, was the importance of trust.
“With so many countries, all with different opportunities and
challenges, you have to trust the teams on the ground”. What that means
is using the global processes and procedures, but allowing a high degree
of input on how best to execute locally.
To
illustrate his point, Brewer describes a recent example were DHL was
running a retail point of sale promotion to attract new customers to its
ever-growing retail points. The typical approach would be to offer
discounts and/or corporate give-aways to incentivise walk-in customers.
The country manager in Ethiopia however suggested a much better idea –
giving customers a chicken as part of the Easter celebration.
“When
the Country Manager first suggested ‘chickens’, I had to laugh and
genuinely thought she was joking, but she was serious and right – the
promotion was hugely successful”.
It is big, but doable
DHL’s
sub-Saharan regional headquarters is based in Cape Town, but Brewer
spends a considerable amount of time visiting the company’s operations
across the rest of the continent. “You have to be very visible”.
In
a region as large as Africa, this is however easier said than done.
Unlike Europe where one would struggle to fly a stretch of more than
four hours, travelling across Africa can be gruelling. Just visiting
each of the countries in West Africa can easily take two to three weeks.
“It
has its challenges in terms of flight schedules and being away from
one’s family, but it makes for an interesting experience and I’m still
having lots of fun. Playing a small role in the African growth story is
an incredible privilege and one that I am very proud of,” says Brewer.
As we leave his office I hear him call out to his assistant, “which lucky country am I going to next week?!”
Distributed by APO (African Press Organization) on behalf of Maritz Publishing CC.
Maritz Publishing CC
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