Value Trust in your Value Chain to succeed.

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.’