By Ayanna Kirton, Freelance WriterON MAY 20, the Anbell Group named Sandra Bodden-Reid, former vice president of product management at Cable & Wireless Jamaica, its new general manager.
Mrs. Bodden-Reid brings impressive achievements to the job, including several years of managerial and marketing experience with the island's largest telecom provider, Cable & Wireless Jamaica (C&W), where in 2001 she developed several initiatives resulting in C&W's achievement of an 87 per cent growth in its mobile customer base, which led to a 62 per cent increase in revenues as well as a 100 per cent growth in digital handset penetration into the market that year. She also spearheaded the planning and co-ordination of C&W's 'Switch On' campaign for the launch of its new GSM network in 2003.
RESPONSIBILITIES
As Anbell's new general manager, Mrs. Bodden-Reid is responsible for the overall operational efficiency and profitability of all the entities within the Anbell Group. The group is made up of four entities: Anbell Agencies exclusive dealers for the Digicel mobile service and its associated phones and accessories; Anbell.Net an Internet service provider; Anbell Media specialising in electronic signage, including stunning video boards based on state-of-the-art LED (light emitting diode) display technology which is the first of its kind in Jamaica; and Anbell Foundation a non-profit, philanthropic organisation working to improve the lives of the less fortunate.
Anbell was one of the first local companies to distribute cellular phones for all three mobile service providers when the company began in 1990. However, this year the company announced that effective July 1, 2004, it would represent Digicel exclusively in an attempt to ensure consistency in its operational processes as well as customer service representatives' product knowledge.
During her interview with the Financial Gleaner, the general manger used the occasion to reiterate that her company's decision was not done to harm the competitive providers. "People love the sensationalism but we want the public to understand why we did this. It is not a matter of rejecting Cable & Wireless but more a decision in keeping with economies of scale. The fact that we carried all brands was the pride of the company. We modelled our business on the more traditional UK phone retailers where as a dealer you should be able to provide handsets and accessories of all service providers to meet the needs of all clients," said Mrs. Bodden-Reid.
"But what has happened in the local market is unprecedented," she continued. "The mere fact that Digicel has not just taken the leadership but maintained this strong leadership in terms of market share makes it difficult to carry all service providers when most customers ask for Digicel's products."
According to Mrs. Bodden-Reid, "The economic benefits from growing with all the service providers were not there. We found that we were not getting a return on the investment we made in trying to provide people with a choice because invariably the customer would (choose Digicel), so economically it did not make sense."
In addition to Digicel being the most favoured brand by the company's clients, Mrs. Bodden-Reid said simplification of product knowledge for sales representatives was also critical to the final decision.
"We were also having difficulties with our customer service representatives even retaining information about the different phones and company policies," she explained. "With front line staff, the turnover rate for customer service reps tends to be very high so we wanted to ensure that the people we had were very knowledgeable and we wanted to make their jobs a little easier. It was very difficult for many of them to keep track because you would be selling in many respects the same phone for different companies but different policies would apply."
Now operating as an exclusive Digicel dealer partner, Mrs. Bodden-Reid said Anbell is committed to making the relationship a success. benefit from them. In this regard he called on the private sector to identify non-tariff measures that are providing insurmountable difficulties and unnecessary hindrances to trade. "To negotiate successfully with our trading partners, the private sector must be able to identify barriers to trade. This has been a long-standing deficiency. There have been continuing complaints from the sector about non-tariff barriers to trade in the markets of trading partners, but, in many instances, the sector has not provided concrete evidence of these barriers," Minister Knight stressed.
IMPROVING COMPETITIVENESS
The Minister also encouraged the private sector to continue assessing its capacity needs and to continue to implement measures to improve competitiveness in order to capitalise on the trading opportunities, while stressing that transition periods and other special and differential treatment measures negotiated have to be used expeditiously and wisely. He also lauded the private sector for deepening the partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, noting that negotiators act on the instructions of business people who are the ones who trade and whose interests must be protected.
