Leaders in trust:
Interview with Ian Lincolne, former Managing
Director, Fiji Water
We
had the great opportunity to interview the MD involved in one of the biggest
brand successes in recent years: Fiji Water. With its proposition of 'a taste of paradise' the brand went from
nothing in 1996 to an extensive global distributer in 2009 by the time Ian left.
The company was bought by one of Hollywood's richest couples in 2004.
Ian Lincolne, the former MD at Fiji Water, helped
to drive Fiji Water’s success story with trust building at the forefront of
strategy.
For Ian trust is central not only to employees and
customers, but also to other stakeholders in the value chain including
suppliers and people in the extended community. Lack of trust breeds contempt,
employees are less likely to go the extra mile, and suppliers might not put you
first. People that trust you are more forbearing, give you their discretionary
effort, support you in difficult times and are proactively helpful and creative
for you.
Ian explains that at all points of the journey
trust from partners, suppliers, staff and government was critical. ‘It was an
audacious undertaking to want to build a global water brand from scratch. After
painstakingly getting the product and business plan right before launch, trust
in our value chain had to be built with our future customers. Imagine coming in and saying 'we want you to
buy our water from this obscure place with minimal marketing investment at higher
cost than your current product and you will make a better margin while selling
good volumes'.
‘David Gilmour, the founder, and the US based CEO
Doug Carlson implicitly trusted the employees and led from the front in “always
doing what we say we will do”. Passion, intellect and integrity were qualities
we sought in employees and translated into building trust in our competence,
relevance and vision. The intensely personal experience of dealing with Fiji
Water was a point of difference in the industry and professional relationships
flourished in an environment of trust.’
‘Clearly consumer trust was critical. We were
convinced we had a strong proposition with “a taste of paradise” that was “an
affordable luxury”. People often had no idea where Fiji was, but the allure of
a South Pacific paradise was very strong. Trust was the glue that bound the
business to its suppliers, employees, customers and consumers and was inherent
in David’s mantra that “visibility invites trial and trial leads to advocacy”.
You only move to product advocacy when the product and business is trusted.’
‘Support for relevant events, targeted sampling,
product placement, supply to public figures and providing value across the
supply chain led to greater distribution opportunities. The branding promised
an aspirational experience and the product quality and consistency delivered on
the promise. From there we continued to build the brand, underpinned by building
and fostering the trust of all in the value chain.’
‘While trust has always been at the centre of my
management style and we actively focused on building it into the entire supply
chain, reading about HuTrust®, I understood clearly why many of our actions
where so successful. But of equal value I could also see in hindsight why some
things were not successful. It gave me a new perspective on the topic of trust
and the existence of a pragmatic and proven methodology will help me in the
future to use the framework of trust and be more effective at building it.’
