IT IS ABOUT PEOPLE, PEOPLE AND PEOPLE: Melkamu Abebe’s first year at the helm of Coca Cola in Uganda and braving the Covid-19 tide It’s been a year since Melkamu Abebe took over the General Manager position at Coca-Cola Beverages Africa in Uganda. With the entire country and the rest of the world coming under Covid-19, Melkamu literally had to jump in at the deep end. Looking back, he now says it was a worthwhile experience with lots of learning and unlearning. But above it all, he managed to beat the targets- a feat he attributes to putting people - employees, customers, distributors and communities, first.

It is now one year since you assumed leadership of the Ugandan unit of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa – what has the year been like?

My time in Uganda so far has been great! I am enjoying the friendly climate, welcoming people and the beauty across the country. I have visited many parts of the country and agree with the phrase, ‘The Pearl of Africa’.

The last year presented challenges for all of us around the world, which became an opportunity for us to prove ourselves.

We kicked off 2020 with a pledge to unleash our full potential and in the first two months, we had a spectacular performance. Then COVID-19 struck and some people thought everything was going to collapse.

Of course, there were disruptions to business, especially with the lockdown, but we focused on what we had committed to do – Unleash our Full Potential. That commitment changed everything for us.

Everybody in the business stepped up their efforts and did all the right things in the course of work to ensure that we end the year with the results we started out to achieve.

In fact, during the last month of the year, during December, even under the COVID-19 pandemic conditions the team went for an ambitious target and sold twelve million (12 million) cases or cartons within just one month. That number has never been achieved before in Uganda and proved how much potential we have as a Company and as a country. Our future is bright – if we do the right things every day and harness the potential of our people!”

And as I told my colleagues in the business as we closed the year and started 2021 – Success is a Decision. So long as we decide to do something, we will succeed at it.

When one is a middle manager, there are views and perceptions they develop about leadership at the top, when they get there, they find things to be different. Having started from the bottom as a Graduate in Training, what have you learned and unlearned?

During my time in leadership, I have come to appreciate the value of being people-centric and authentic about it. Having started my career and grown through the organisation, I have come to appreciate that Coca-Cola Beverages Africa is genuine about People – and that value is reflected in our performance and results.

You should always put People at the centre of any business if you want to succeed.

We focus on our People across the organisation to keep them motivated and engaged on the values and goals of the business. When people understand the direction the organisation needs to take, we all work together with the same purpose.

That is why the role of the leadership should focus on the People – and in my time here I have worked with amazing leaders who follow this tenet.

I work for the same objective. I want to ensure that the people I work with feel and act like owners of the business. They should genuinely feel appreciated and recognised for their efforts. Our business partners should feel respected, valued and supported. And our wider community should feel safe because we exist – they should trust us to always do the right things in business so that they can live better lives.

Away from Coca-Cola and looking at the industry in general, what is your takeaway from the year 2020? What were the challenges, opportunities and how does this feed into 2021?

When people are empowered with the right resources, their productivity will not be affected. We witnessed this during the lockdown and ever since then.

Quite a lot has changed for most workplaces but in manufacturing, some jobs cannot be moved to the home, for instance. As an industry, we have all adapted in one way or another.

For us, the changes have involved investing in safety. Besides the national contributions we made to the COVID-19 effort, we spent US$1million on keeping our people safe from COVID-19. We thank God that we did not lose anyone to the disease inside our four walls – but we have to continue keeping everybody safe.

But we also managed to pivot with speed and agility and re-set the business. We have made other changes that could have taken much longer if it were not for the constraints COVID-19 created and now we are operating with the assurance that life will never be the way it was before. New channels have opened up for us faster than before – digital sales channels, for instance, and changed marketing models that do not rely on the events that we hosted and supported in the past.

For 2021 all this is very important because after proving that we could deliver our targets in the most difficult of circumstances we found the clarity to challenge ourselves even more.

This year we are aiming at taking the business to a whole different level – a Step Change, as we say.

And we are not just attempting. As I said before – Success is a Decision.

From a Coca-Cola and industry perspective, what would you like the government to change about the operating environment that can ease the pain and re-stimulate businesses in 2021 and beyond?

In general, we appreciate the focus that the Government has placed on health, safety and security.

Still, though, the government could do a lot more to support the private sector during this difficult time, so that the economy keeps running. The focus should especially be placed on the productive sectors – manufacturing being key – as well as the hospitality and tourism sectors.

This is the time, for instance, for tax policy to be re-shaped and implemented in a manner that does not cripple business or push people out of employment. We have seen other economies choosing to defer some taxes such as Pay As You Earn but on condition that the businesses pass that on to the employees. A small change like that would affect government revenues in a way but the government could adjust its cost base to accommodate that change in the short term, allowing people to use that liquidity within the economy to spur more growth of business.

Uganda has a liberal, private-sector-led economy. If the public sector emphasizes that position and focuses on growing the private sector then we will see a lot more growth of business.

Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, for instance, serves about 100,000 outlets of all sizes countrywide – during the lockdown a number of them could not operate because of the restrictions. When the country opened up again we found that many of them had suffered expired stock.

The company decided to replace that stock – spending over US$350,000 to jumpstart small businesses. We did not go to the government to get this money – we did it because it is the right thing to do. Now, the government has many such opportunities especially in the run-up to the 2021/22 Financial Year budget.

It is interventions such as these that will keep people in business and the economy running.

In your view and from the larger Coca-Cola playbook, what tips do you have for business survival in 2021, in general, not just soft drinks, and the years beyond?

Focus on people in everything.

A business is nothing if it does not have motivated, engaged people. Today we have many sectors adopting the ‘work-from-home model. If the people you have trusted to work from home are not engaged and plugged into their responsibilities then you will begin to see it in the results that the business gets. People who are engaged will produce good results.

The same goes for the customers – engage them. Be obsessed with them. Do everything with a clear focus on ensuring the customer is happily served and they will always stick with you during the most difficult times.

If there is one thing that Coca-Cola has stood out for in 2020 it is generosity – People-focused Campaign, after People-focused Campaign. Certainly, large businesses like yourselves are looked up to in such times of adversity, although such hardships hit large businesses even harder. What advice do you have for businesses about being socially responsible, but in a sustainable way?

As a business, sustainability is engraved in every decision we make. As I mentioned earlier, our people-focused approach dictates that everyone is involved in what we do. Most often we partner with organisations at the community level to implement our initiatives.

Companies should engage in sustainability projects that revolve around the business. For example, as a company, we are engaged in PET waste recycling, water replenishment and supporting women and youth in entrepreneurship to empower them to make their lives, the country and the continent a better place for all.

If all businesses design their corporate social responsibility agenda along the business objectives then the impact will be more positive and sustainable down the years.