In 1983, during a lull in the Lebanese Civil War, when Beirut International Airport was declared safe for travel, we received a note from Geneva announcing an imminent visit to Lebanon by Herbert Schmitz. The purpose of this visit was a long overdue meeting with Nouhad Al Saeed, CEO of Transmed[1]. The Al Saeed family had been the partners of P&G in Lebanon since 1946 and Schmitz had not been to Lebanon since the war had broken out. The Al Saeed family’s relationship with P&G was much more than a business relationship. Samih Sherif and the two founding brothers, Fouad and Rafic Al Saeed, were perceived as one family.
Management of the business had transferred to Fouad’s son, Nouhad Al Saeed, who fell victim to the vicious amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) disease, and as it worsened it became extremely difficult for him to travel and carry on with his managerial duties. Despite his illness, he acquired an electric wheelchair that allowed him restricted mobility. A car was ordered to drive him around with the wheelchair onboard. Even his fully automated desk at the office, which allowed him to dictate letters, open and close the boardroom door and dial phone numbers using his elbows, did not help him anymore. Hence, it was not surprising to see P&G rushing to plan Schmitz’s trip to Lebanon, the second the travel ban was lifted.
Schmitz expressed a desire to see Intermarkets and receive an update about the P&G business during this visit. At the time, Ramsay Najjar was the group account director on P&G, and the agency was still operating out of the Homsi building on Rue de Damas. Ramsay immediately called his account team into a huddle and the preparation began for a comprehensive copy review to provide the visitor with the update he asked for.
When Schmitz realized that his visit to the agency would require crossing from one side of the battle zone to the other, he sounded concerned and hesitant. But the Transmed team assigned to move him around and care for his security sounded confident enough to drive him to the museum crossing point, where we would be waiting to guide their vehicle safely through the backstreets to Monot Street. I got into the car with Schmitz to welcome him and to keep him company during the last stretch of the drive. We engaged in casual dialogue about this amazing country, which continued to live a normal life despite the dramatic media coverage of the battles that were raging around the city’s hotels and Tel al-Zaatar. However, as we reached the top of Monot Street, where bullet-riddled buildings came into sight, the tone of my composed visitor’s voice suddenly took on a higher pitch as he began enquiring about the safety of the location. When we arrived at the Homsi building and got out of the car to use the service entrance, I noticed a look of grave concern on his face. The side road leading to the Homsi building and Leo gravure looked like the loading bay of a heavily guarded fortress. As expected, the lifts were not operational, so we climbed to the third floor via the staircase. The fighters who had been using the building as a barricade and who had been fighting through the night were taking turns to rest on the makeshift beds that had been placed close to the walls on every flight of stairs. The rest were seated on broken chairs, cleaning their machine guns. They were all rough and unshaven, dressed in dirty black t-shirts and camouflaged battle gear, but they all lifted their heads to eye the visitor and return my salutes. The stench of burnt insect repellent (Katol) and hashish was terrible. I did not turn around to look at my visitor because I knew he could ask me to abort the agency visit and drive him back to safety.
Erwin Guerrovich, Nahi Ghorayeb and Samir Fares, who had been tracking our journey, were all lined up to greet Schmitz. As he was escorted into the boardroom, he instantly noticed the sandbags blocking all the windows and asked why they were there. In a calm and laidback tone, Guerrovich explained that the street below the windows was the partition line and that the building opposite housed enemy militia, who occasionally fired in our direction. As we settled around the conference table, a burst of machine gun fire began outside, and we could all hear bullets piercing the sandbags.
Seeing Schmitz’s petrified expression, Erwin Guerrovich apologized for his brief welcome message, inviting Ramsay Najjar to start the copy review. There was a lot to brief the client about, as the political situation in Lebanon had slowed the regular interactions. The update was a lengthy one, and the presentation material laid out on the table made this point obvious. The fact was further stressed when Ramsay stood up and began our copy review by listing all the topics he was going to cover. At the agency, Ramsay was known for his stretched and overelaborate style of delivery. He went on and on and on while the sound of bullets and explosions continued outside our boardroom windows. Schmitz was getting edgier by the minute and suddenly he interrupted Ramsay in a loud voice, saying: “Thank you Mr Najjar.” Then he quickly turned in my direction and waved at me to stand up, saying, “Yes Mr Raad”,implying that I need to take over and continue. Luckily, we had all worked together on the preparation of the review, hence it was possible for me to quickly take over. The problem was that the battle outside seemed to flare up and the exchange of machine gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades made it very difficult to hear what was being said. So, once again, Schmitz stood up and ordered us to urgently move out of Homsi building to a more peaceful location.
Since leaving the museum crossing, Schmitz had maintained contact with the Transmed people. Now, as we were dashing down the stairs pondering where to go next, he said that the Transmed people had suggested we move to their East Beirut office in Sin El Fil. This made Schmitz relax a little, as he was assured by his hosts that their office was far away from all battlefields. On arrival we received a warm welcome and were escorted to their main conference room, where Schmitz was invited to use Nouhad Al Saeed’s own seat, which had the control panel within reach. The general manager of Transmed’s office showed the chief guest how to operate the controls, which was tailor-made to allow Al Saeed to remain operational, despite his disease. Quickly, Schmitz took control and asked me to resume, while insisting that we aim to wrap up in a hurry. Schmitz pressed the button that had been shown to him and the door of the boardroom slid to a close. By that time, the 16mm film projector we had carried along from the office had been installed and the spool carrying the competitive commercials was already mounted. Just as I gave the sign to switch on the projector the room went into total darkness. This brought total silence to the room and as the outage continued, we began to hear the buttons on the control panel being pressed, slowly at first, then nervously in what seemed to be a panic fit. Then we all heard Schmitz pushing back his chair and trying to noisily feel his way to the door. When he found it, he started banging on it with both hands and shouting: “OPEN! OPEN!”
The staff of Transmed, who were camped outside, dashed to the rescue and we could hear them trying to slide the door in opposite directions. When this method failed, they brought in some levers in a bid to slide them between the planks and force the door open. While the rescue operation was dynamically underway, Schmitz never stopped banging and screaming. Then in the same abrupt way that the power had gone off, the room was suddenly lit again to reveal the aftermath of the panic. Schmitz combed back his hair with his fingers, pushed his necktie to its pre-power cut position and thanked us all for putting together the copy review under the prevailing circumstances. He asked to have the copy review material shipped to him in Geneva because he now only wanted to be driven back to the hotel, pick up his luggage, and from there head straight to the airport.
[1] Procter & Gamble warehouse in Lebanon – Transmed SAL – Business News.com.lb by Lebanon opportunities – Article posted on Sept 12,2012 – “Procter & Gamble to close down its Beirut offices”: http://www.businessnews.com.lb/cms/Story/StoryDetails/2104/Procter-&-Gamble-to-close-down-its-Beirut-offices
Span study of warehousing: http://www.span-group.com/index.php/reference/case-study-1-title/