Passion. The word conjures up a myriad of images but the relevance of passion that ranks as most significant in our world in 2008, has to be that of ‘dedication’. The concepts of ‘specialization’, ‘a job for life’ and ‘devotion’ to a mission’ are mostly obsolete today, replaced by gross commercialism in every aspect of life, and the mediocrity associated with that. Yet as our world accelerates towards its soulless and profit driven future, the futility of that goal and the severity of its implementation make it obvious that passion is more relevant today than it ever was.
Passion is a differentiating ingredient that has led great men and women to excel through their dedication and commitment to a cause, whether a product or a philosophy or both. In the achievements of these individuals, it is clear that passion is more than an emotion which fuels individual drive and offers individual fulfillment. When directed towards a generally good objective, it has the potential to change change lives, for passion involves a complex of other factors which, through a simple but fierce commitment, can have much wider implications and benefit. As the passion of an individual nurtures and shares what is best in their area of dedication, that passion can be a powerful force for good.
My father, Merrill J. Fernando, proudly announces ‘I have devoted my life to tea’. The image above, taken two days ago on Somerset Estate in Talawakelle, shows him aged 78, enjoying what he has done since 1950 – tasting tea. His vision may seem unsophisticated – tea is after all, ‘just’ a herb. But can one describe as ‘just a herb’ one that has a heritage of 5,000 years, offers protection against cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and obesity and has at the same time brought countless families and people together in friendship? There are few men and women who are made in the same mold, amongst them Ernesto Illy, whose demise earlier this year was a tragedy for producers and for quality in the coffee industry. Others include men like Milton Hershey who, if their dream were alive today, could have resulted in a very different cocoa industry.
The strength and passion in my father’s commitment to tea did much more than fulfill one person’s dream. Although he may not admit it, that passion, and the single mindedness with which he fought disbelieving government ministers and officials, multinational and other vested interests and naysayers amongst his own countrymen, has driven along with it, the fortunes of an industry. His passion for tea ignited in him a desire to offer the real tea that he knows, to consumers, minus the blending, cost reduction and other ‘corruption’ of his beloved tea. That led to the birth of the first genuinely producer owned tea brand in the world.
Since then his stubborn pursuit of quality has brought Ceylon Tea back to supermarket shelves in a host of countries. In Australia and New Zealand, countries where traditionally consumers enjoyed fine Ceylon Tea, when my father’s Dilmah made its debut in 1988 20 years ago, Ceylon Tea had disappeared from stores. The big boys will tell you that there was no demand but the reality is that they bought out all the wonderfully committed small, owner operated tea companies that brought colour to the tea category in these countries. Then when they went about seeking to profit from their investments, Ceylon Tea – with its high quality and correspondingly high price – was one of the components of their newly acquired brands that were cut.
Cost cutting is one thing, but cutting the heart out of a brand is another. These were brands built on Ceylon Tea. Not having a choice, of course consumers could not demonstrate their enjoyment of quality, Ceylon Tea. They did though, when little Dilmah emerged in a tiny corner of supermarket shelves, and it is consumers who saved Dilmah from an unceremonious demise when the big boys responded to my father’s launch by reducing their prices well below his cost of production. That was just to oust him, and strengthen their stranglehold – fortunately consumers determined otherwise.
It is passion that has kept Dilmah afloat and interestingly has now given other producers the courage to bring their own brands to the market. It’s not an easy proposition though but that’s a whole different blog. The benefit of that passion, is that it has kept quality and choice in the tea category. In the early 1900s, tea became famous due to a vibrant and passionate crop of brands, founded, owned and operated by men who loved tea. Their demise and the sale of their companies to a handful of dominant corporations, robbed the consumer and the producer of their champions. My father emerged as a 21st Century champion in his passionate commitment to Quality, Ethics and Authenticity – ultimately to Integrity in tea.
Dr. Illy was the same, and the significance of these men of passion, is that they are helping or have helped resist the onslaught of bland but obsessively commercial brands bent only on profit maximisation. That applies equally to coffee and tea as to cars and cheese. Even today, the unwritten pact between some retailers and multinational corporation which supply 30-40% of the products offered in their stores, is a dangerous limitation of choice. It benefits those involved in the deal but not the consumer or the producer – to my mind, the most important ‘cogs’ in the wheel of commerce.
I have to generalise here – in its unrelenting pursuit of a fundamentally flawed definition of success, global business may be forgetting a simple truth, that it is the producer and the consumer who are the drivers of business. The reasons for that are described by Prof. Bakan in his book ‘The Corporation’ where he brilliantly charts the history and growth of corporations, which dominate trade today. And that is a real pity because the consumer has the power to change the destiny of the producer (through his or her purchases), and the producer has the ability to change the lives of the consumer (through quality, authenticity and innovation for health and well being). There is so much symbiosis there which is aborted only by the guy in the middle – not the importer, distributor and retailer, which are important partners in bringing produce to the consumer – but the corporations who seek to dominate markets, dispassionately disregarding producer, consumer and integrity in their quest for ‘success’.
Ultimately, perhaps our consumer landscape will take on an Orwellian complexion; the corporations and their pursuit of profit and power may well evolve into the establishment of one supreme entity which will monopolise our lives. But in the meantime passion, and the expertise, involvement and dedication it brings, is our most potent, most just and most important weapon in delaying the onset of that terrible option.
5 comments
Tomasz says:
Jul 3, 2008
Reading your text about passion, written with … passion, was a pleasure. As was probably planned by you, text invites to discussion about founders, company owners, dedication, integrity, and all the other complicated matters that create present market reality and the future. I stress the word complicated, because being your loyal reader I pay much attention to all your presented opinions and sometimes feel that you paint the reality in white and black only, forgetting sometimes that life brings many shades of grey too.
I agree that the corporate world is much different than the one of the family businesses. The first is based on profit maximization, lie, appearances, “reputation management”, while the other based on the easily recognizable person-owner who puts at stake his and his family’s reputation which requires integrity, focus on much longer perspective, treating the profit as remuneration for good work, and not the single and most important goal. OK, but reputed family business becomes successful with time. Usually temptation comes to achieve more. More requires funding. Funding is usually given by multiple small shareholders. Not even recognizing it, a family business becomes a corporation… or the family loses its business. This happened not so long ago with a jewelry company Kruk in Poland. A family business for 150 years. New family generation developed the business nicely and needed funds for even faster growth. They went public and so much believed that there are no dangers to such a “family” business that they did not notice a very aggressive investor who was buying their shares. Eventually this investor ran for the enemy take-over and succeeded. As a result the family lost control of the company and ended with something like 3% shareholding.
Look at this issue from the perspective of the Illy family. I loved their coffee once, it was delicious, and I agree that Dr Illy was probably the person fully dedicated to quality. But also in their case the temptation came and this family company agreed to a joint venture with one of global corporations – Coca-Cola. Nobody knows how much such cooperation would affect the future quality, dedication, integrity of the family business. My conclusion is that the values of the family business are not guaranteed forever. One has to carefully weight his every step, every decision, every spoken and written word. The moments will eventually come, probably many times to future generations of owners of every single family company, when question will have to be asked and answered: do we still want to be a family company standing on the pillars built by the founder, or we agree to become a corporation… because we cannot say no to the development temptation?
A couple of days ago I had a pleasure of attending a meeting organized by the Fairtrade brand. In spite of media announcements, six people attended, me and my wife included. A young gentleman gave a speech illustrated by a presentation intended to prove how unfair the trade is, and how good a remedy Fairtrade brand offers. Presentation was poor in facts, but gave a lot of demagogy. After presentation a lively discussion started, and all present agreed that developing countries must be given a chance and post-colonial exploitation by the corporations must be finished. All present however were doubtful that Fairtrade brand is the answer. The young gentleman, a nice and passionate person indeed, had no knowledge to answer our very simple questions related for example to the issue of the prices paid to the producers in developing countries. He only declared that the producer gets “much more” for his produce than would normally on the market, and that covering of costs is guaranteed. I asked if covering costs is enough to allow development, because usually profits are necessary for that, but got no reply. I asked also how it is in case of tea, which usually is traded at auctions. The answer was that he doesn’t know, but surely the Fairtrade branded estates must be selling their teas at auctions as well. He could not explain how in such case a higher price for their tea could be arranged. I do not blame this chap, he tried to do his job properly, but unfortunately had no knowledge. But my feeling after this presentation was that I was subject to manipulation and lie. Fairtrade thought that the presentation will be given to people who know even less than their speaker, would believe him, ask no questions and make decision to accept Fairtrade branded products in their shops, or would by such products for their own consumption. How many people believe in what they say. Their figures about growth and development are impressive! But how many people buying Fairtrade products ask questions, how many try to understand the reality?
Who will thus win: integrity or lie? passion or cold profit calculation? quality or media budgets? Do you know the answers?
aeichener says:
Jul 8, 2008
I like the very thorough and circumspect comment by Tomasz – compliments !
I harbour a strong aversion against FairTrade, exactly because I cgherish fair trade. Too much demagogy and an incredible amount of self-righteous and bloated arrogance.
Alexander
Dilhan says:
Jul 12, 2008
Thank you for your observation Alex. As with politicians and power, Fairtrade – the organisation – has yielded to the lure of commercialisation. It started as a noble cause, and there are many still in the organisation who are noble in their intentions – for Fairtrade is a large and diverse organisation – but there are equally many who have jumped on the bandwagon to legitimise the sins of big business.
Yet, I must give Fairtrade due credit for without Fairtrade, the fact that trade is fundamentally unfair would not have come to the attention of the public. It is on the methods of correcting that situation that we disagree with Fairtrade. Fairness in trade needs much more fundamental change than the token solution that FT offers.
Bruce Malamut says:
Sep 13, 2008
Great pic!
hmmm … whatever might Merrill be cupping that current production from Somerset against? I am taking a wild guess based on location and history that there may well be a cup or two of Kahawatte’s Craighead on that cupping table. Certainly the Somerset quality is besting its sister factories at Dessford and Radella but I wouldn’t be too sure about how the Somerset fares against the brilliant teas Craighead has been making recently. But then, I admit that I’m biased in favor of orthodox production.
The Fairtrade conversation is a fascinating one. The goal is noble without question. But how the goal is actioned remains debatable so long as the Fairtrade Organisation(s) refuse to open their books to public scrutiny – I, for one, want to know how much of that dollar actually gets to the producer.
If FT wants funding from serious donors like the Gates Organization, I sense they must action some policy changes vis open access to their financials before they can make serious progress.
Bruce Malamut says:
Sep 27, 2008
Sorry, Dilhan. Got carried away with the FT matter, which in any event is dying in its tracks based on destination markets’ import houses doubting FT’s very expensive, questionable value to their and their customers’ bottom lines (both financial and humanitarian).
As a sidebar, I’d like to mention a related trend in the destination markets – this one has hurt producers, packers and consumers’ balance sheets and wallets alike.
Like FT, it’s something whose goal has been sold as inherently noble and healthy for producers and consumers alike. Like FT, it’s something very much “in vogue” over the past decade or two, yet its meager benefits are much misunderstood by many producers and most all consumers alike.
Nowhere has it been scientifically demonstrated that organic tea is even remotely healthier to consume than non-organic tea. Organic is simply tea which is grown in a different style, and more important not necessarily a better, more healthful style.
Most large, sophisticated tea producers know this, but the consumer doesn’t. Here in the North American *Specialty Tea* Trade, it is one of the key reasons why importers have been forced to marginalize the great Ceylons they used to carry in large weights one quarter century back.
Make no mistake – these eight North American guys are “passionate” as it comes about great Ceylon’s as anyone on earth. We’re all tea experts, have been in the trade since the late 1960s and have “seen it all.”
Organic tea is a marketing fad – nothing more, nothing less. In tea, it is fad which has hurt the producer and consumer’s profitablity alike – and it is (like FT) based on misinformation.
Of the three major producing / bulk exporting states, only one has bought into the organic fad in a serious way – India. Another, Kenya – to their great credit – produces absolutely no organic tea.
Please don’t misinterpret my comments on organic tea – it decreases orthodox output by 40% to 55%, has not been verified as to its alleged human health benefits and hurts an expert and careful teamaker’s profitability badly.
Because, like Dilhan, I too have been passionate about great teas since childhood interning in the trade in the late 1960′s, the double whammy of FT-plus-organic tea vexes me greatly.
This week, my producer colleagues in Ceylon and I lost an order for a container of great and true specialty Ceylons because “the cost vs quality proposition of Ceylon organics” didn’t suit the buyer now, as it has never done.
That firm would prefer to throw their big budget at their true passion – best orthodox lowgrown and midgrown Ceylon leaf, semi-leaf and tippy grades. Full-stop. No FT or Organic Ceylon tea for this very selective specialty tea importer, like many others of their ilk who truly do understand the costs and benefits of Fairtrade Organic tea’s extreme price premium. The judgement by such tea experts has been finalized – the trend of FT/Organic goods from Ceylon is not on, because these specialty buyers far prefer buying the best quality being produced at origin. They have little interest in fads.
At nearly double the USD / EURO FOB price from five years ago, great orthodox Ceylons have already become marginalized in the large consuming nations of the West. Throw in the added costs of FT/Organic, and great Ceylons would reach nearly triple their export price from five years ago.
There comes a time to “just say no”. This should be food for thought for world-class tea producers, exporters and importers alike. When servicing demand for “trendy and chic”, greatly over-priced rubbish overtakes servicing demand for top quality orthodox teas which are timeless, the passionate teaman must simply rethink corporate priorities.
I vote for very top quality. Time has told us that top quality inherent in the leaf and cup always wins over slick marketing (e.g. FT and organic) in the end.