11 minute read
Pernod Ricard Western Africa
UNLEASHING THE POWER OF PEOPLE
Sola Oke, Managing Director at Pernod Ricard Western Africa, discusses the importance of people and its talent management strategy
Talent is everything – there’s no organisation without its people.”
To Sola Oke, Managing Director of Pernod Ricard Western Africa, there is nothing more important to his company. Pernod Ricard is regarded as one of the top African employers in 2020 with around 95 percent of its staff from the region.
“Talent retention is critical and one of our key pillars is unleashing the potential of people,” stresses Oke. “We truly value our people and for that, we need to understand that initiatives that are about the welfare of our people are fundamental to us. We also make sure that we grow our talent, developing people in roles and moving them cross-functionally while ensuring they are given opportunities when possible. It’s not just about bringing expert knowledge into the country but also about giving local talent opportunities. I am certainly a product of that, and Pernod Ricard is one of those organisations that does it successfully.”
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Pernod Ricard is the second leading producer of wines and spirits worldwide. Created in 1975 by the merger of Ricard and Pernod, the group has developed through organic growth and acquisitions. Pernod
PERNOD RICARD: TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
“We have a few training and development schemes. In terms of training our people, we have very clear development plans for our employees. We have a mentorship programme across Sub-Saharan Africa where we take talent within our organisation and mentor them internally over the course of a year. We also have another programme that is more global and provides our talent an opportunity to develop and grow internationally within the group with people that they aspire to be like.”
- Sola Oke, Managing Director, Pernod Ricard Western Africa Ricard, which owns 16 of the ‘Top 100 Spirits’ brands, holds one of the most prestigious and comprehensive brand portfolios in the industry, including Absolut Vodka, Ballantine’s, the Glenlivet Scotch whiskies and Jameson Irish whiskey, to name but a few. Pernod Ricard’s brands are distributed across over 160 markets and by its own salesforce in 73 markets.
The company’s Nigerian affiliate was established in 2010 to cater to the Nigerian market. The firm is in charge of importing products and the local marketing development for all brands in the Pernod Ricard portfolio. Oke has served in his current role since August 2020. Having started out in the IT industry, Oke actually found his way into the beverage industry by ‘chance.’ “I then moved into marketing because the team needed a project manager and I fell in love with it,” explains Oke. “I joined the innovation team and entered Pernod Ricard as a Marketing Director before moving into a Managing Director role before coming here.”
Reflecting back, Oke believes that Pernod Ricard has always offered opportunities, something he himself has benefited from. “Pernod Ricard is an organisation where there’s cross functional opportunity. I moved to South Africa as a Managing Director focused on five countries surrounding South Africa: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi and Mozambique and it’s been an incredible journey,”
he stresses. “I enjoy travelling so it was ideal for me to travel across the five countries before COVID-19. For me, it’s about meeting new people, understanding cultures and exploring consumers in multiple markets and how you differentiate and localise whatever strategy you have to get our products into the hands of our consumers.”
Pernod Ricard is a consumer-led company and strives to be customercentric in everything that it does. Oke’s Nigerian team operates as a small unit that is young, agile and reflects the brands that it serves through immersing itself in those brands. Oke believes this capability is what sets it apart from others in the space.
“For example, Jameson is changing the narrative in Nigeria where we focused on specific communities to immerse the brand. We built equity for the brand through those communities and now getting a lot of the rest of Nigeria to buy into it,” explains Oke. “We’ve created this really cool brand where everyone wants to be seen drinking the brand.” Indeed, according to the latest International Wine and Spirits Record (IWSR), Jameson has grown 216 percent in a single year to become Nigeria’s leading whiskey brand.
SETTING THE STANDARD
Furthermore, retaining its position as the number one luxury spirits company globally is important to Pernod Ricard. “Quality to us is vital,” stresses Oke. “We have the biggest portfolio of spirits brands in the world and there’s no category of spirits that we don’t have a product in so we’re able to tap into that global resource and look for opportunities within our market. If we see an opportunity in any category, or we see the potential in something then we don’t need to start from the beginning – we can adopt, adapt and make it local.”
The importance of establishing key, strategic relationships with partners is integral to long-term growth within the organisation. Oke recognises the value in forging mutually beneficial and sustainable relationships with suppliers and stresses how vital it is to develop these partnerships over time.
PARTNERS IN CONVIVIALITY
The partnership between X3M Ideas and Pernod Ricard started in July 2014. The Steve Babaeko-led team had the vision to be the best local agency providing global solutions to drive innovative marketing ideas and strategies that support and build its clients’ businesses, while Pernod Ricard had the ambition to achieve leadership and become the number one Spirits and Wine company. Both parties’ goals were aligned and so an authentic connection materialised.
The first task was to launch the Chivas whisky brand in Nigeria. X3M ideas came out swinging with the “Taste Of Luxury” campaign in 2015, introducing Chivas as the world’s premier luxury whisky for successful men with refined taste. In the same year, the agency was also heavily involved in “The Venture”, a Chivas project created to reward social entrepreneurs, not just for being successful in business but also for having an impact on their society. The tone was set and the X3M-Pernod Ricard tag-team was going for more wins.
After taking the whisky scene by storm, the trust between Pernod Ricard and X3M had grown stronger so it was time to stop settling and take the relationship to another level. Martell entered the X3M fold in 2015, signing MI Abaga as an ambassador. In 2016, with the help of X3M, the Martell brand made a disruptive opening statement. Riding on “The Plan Was Never To Settle”, Burna Boy was announced as a brand ambassador and Martell got the full attention of competitors.
X3M Ideas began its Jameson journey in 2016 by providing support for trade activations, and then in 2017, the agency helped launch the “Triple Distilled, Twice As Smooth” campaign, breaking the Jameson brand out in all its authenticity as a new culture influencer. Next, Absolut Extrakt was introduced as a spice for nightlife and got hot among party-goers.
It became clear that Pernod Ricard and X3M Ideas together were a super team, and that was when the agency got entrusted with the keys to the kingdom - All the Pernod Ricard brands.
In September 2017, X3M Ideas expanded its reach to Southern Africa and it only seemed right for Pernod Ricard to stick with a trusted partner even in a different region. A parallel journey of success began in deja-vu fashion, with Chivas leading the way. The agency helped communicate the brand’s belief that just like their whisky, our unique blend is what makes us who we are, and that with collaboration, greatness is achievable. Then came the Beefeater Pink Gin, a game-changer with a unique identity created by X3M.
Today, the solid bond between X3M ideas and Pernod Ricard continues to stretch across Africa, and through years of winning together, the super team still creates memorable brands and unforgettable experiences for consumers.
www.x3mideas-ng.com
Sola Oke, Managing Director at Pernod Ricard Western Africa
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“We produce our mainstream spirits such as Imperial Blue locally and have developed the team in terms of understanding the production process, our quality requirements and have brought in experts to train the local team,” explains Oke. “We have a dedicated production manager on the site who guides the process and continues to train the team in terms of ensuring the product is at the standard that we want. Training, education and exposing them to the experts are important and we continuously have sessions with them to spread understanding of our brands. It’s not a supplier type of relationship, we value long-term partnerships and develop these relationships over time.”
For Oke, there are several key characteristics that any potential partner must display in order to partner with Pernod Ricard. “Trust and integrity in the market that we operate in is important,” stresses Oke. “They need to have the drive for quality in their business and possess the passion for the business. The values need to be aligned with ours and in those suppliers, we look for that commitment. We also need them to have that ability to innovate and that level of agility, particularly in the industry we work in.”
GOING GREEN
longer just a ‘nice to have’ but something that is paramount. Pernod Ricard is currently undergoing a drive to eliminate plastic and promote responsible drinking throughout Nigeria.
“We achieved our goal of removing single-use plastics by the end of June 2021,” says Oke. “For example, we’ve begun to use recyclable materials in the production of the plastic cups that we use for events. As part of that, we’ve developed our relationships
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with local suppliers to help us accomplish that. Some of our suppliers didn’t have the machinery but armed with our commitment, they’ve sourced the machinery and started the local production in Nigeria whereas they didn’t have the capability before. The other thing that we’re doing with suppliers is our secondary packaging, - we’re beginning to locally produce them through these local partnerships.”
When it comes to promoting responsible drinking, Pernod Ricard takes its position seriously. Indeed, Oke explains that his company tries to promote the positive messaging across all its advertising campaigns. “We’re training a lot of bartenders on our brands and products to make sure the responsible drinking message is carried by the people that serve the drinks,” Oke tells us. “We also encourage hydration in a lot of our messaging and reminders that we convey to our consumers.” The new disruptive campaign from Pernod Ricard on responsible hosting focuses on “Drinking more Water”.
Looking ahead, Pernod Ricard harbour ambitions of being the leading wines and spirits company in Nigeria and Western Africa. However, Oke goes further and insists that his firm wants to do more for the local community. “We want to be an organisation that is deeply rooted in our communities and gives back” he tells us. “Beyond just being a company in Nigeria, we want to be known as an international firm, but also locally recognised for being a strong part of the communities that we operate in and impacting them positively – that’s important to us.”
Tel: +23481 837 02437 info.WesternAfrica@pernod-ricard.com www.pernod-ricard.com
