By SONIA KOLESNIKOV-JESSOP
Taha Bouqdib is co-founder and president of TWG Tea, a retailer based in Singapore with outlets in Asia and the Middle East and product distribution in the United States and Britain.
Q. Do you remember the first time you became a manager?
A. As a young lieutenant in the royal police force in Morocco — it was not a business experience, but you have the discipline and the respect of a system of hierarchy.
I was there for three and a half years in Rabat because my father hoped I would eventually work for the king. It wasn’t for me, but I learned an incredible discipline: how the top must gain the respect of the bottom lines, how everybody in the hierarchy system has a role to play. I learned how to give instructions without being intimidated by the background of the person in front of me. Of course, the military style is not something you can completely transfer into the private sector, but you take the experience and blend it with business practices and adapt it to the country where you are.
After Morocco, I went to France to start working for a tea company. The French have a completely different attitude to hierarchy. As a manager you can’t expect to have the respect of your subordinates just because your job title says so, you need to prove yourself first.
Q. How would you describe your leadership style?
A. I like to lead by example and prepare so that I always know what I’m talking about more in a meeting; if I meet with sales, then I need to be properly prepared so I ask the right questions. I think it’s important to show you understand all the different sectors of your company — not just roughly but in detail, too.
Q. Sounds like a very hands-on style. Do you delegate?
A. Yes, of course it’s important to delegate, but you need to show, before they start executing, that you have a vision and you know where you are heading. At TWG Tea, we have one spirit of design and service; as we keep on opening new boutiques, I don’t want to start diluting the brand by not being very strict and delegating too much, letting each country start to adapt and modify to what they think they need.
Q. So how do you manage to keep the same corporate values and branding across different cultures?
A. Japan was our first store outside of Singapore. I met the Japanese designer for the boutique here in Singapore and spent a lot of time explaining our brand and our philosophy. He was making suggestions about how to change things, based on what the Japanese like, but I shared with him that if the company was getting successful, it was because the customers enjoyed the brand as it was.
Q. Do you think it’s more important to stick to one playbook than to adapt culturally?
A. I am open-minded enough to understand the country’s culture, but I cannot have a TWG Tea Japan or a TWG Tea Thailand. TWG Tea comes from Singapore and it must keep its spirit. Of course, for each country you adapt the design to the location, but the spirit needs to be the same, which is why I always want to be very involved in all the details.
Q. How do you make sure a diverse work force embraces your vision?
A. We’ve opened in many different countries quickly, and each country has its own style of doing business and thinking. The most important thing is to spend time with people to listen to them properly. You can’t go in and tell them, “This is what you have to do.” But you also need to explain in real detail why you are doing things a certain way. That explanation in detail is very important if you want them to buy into your ideas.
Q. What differences have you noticed?
A. Take Japan and the Middle East. For the luxury industry in Japan, it is very important to have a head manager who is Japanese, who really has the same culture than your customers. But in the Middle East, it’s completely the opposite: you need a foreigner, preferably from Europe, because it’s very difficult, if not impossible to find a local store manager. Still, that manager will need to be able to understand the Arabic culture and the respect attached to royalty.
Q. How do you go about choosing managers?
A. I’m looking for people that have real passion about their work. When you have passion, you have an interest to understand more, not only your job but what’s around your job, and the people around you will fill in; when they do that is when you can really lead.
Q. How do you think your leadership style has changed?
A. I don’t think I’ve changed a lot in terms of style, but I have in terms of general thinking. When I was working in France, I was primarily thinking about how to export French culture around the world. Here in Singapore, I’m thinking much more globally. It’s no longer about exporting one culture but making sure your culture is generally embraced. In Asia you are exporting your brand, not your culture.
