Crushing the entreprenuer, the Bidvest way.

AN OPEN LETTER TO BRIAN JOFFEE - C.E.O OF BIDVEST


Hi Brian, my name is Andrew.

You wont know of me.
I am an entrepreneur, a bit like you I suppose.

You wont know of my company, we are relatively well known in Event Management and Sports Marketing circles - we do OK.

We are certainly not as big as you, nor do we compete with you - yet we are surprised to find that the "Full Might of the Bidvest Group" will be used to crush us!

That's quite concerning when our turnover is probably one tenth of your salary, Brian!

To clarify, this claim was made by one of your top execs  and Brian, I really think before you commence the crushing, we should chat about this in a calm, non-crushing, and vaguely professional sort of way.







Some background for you Brian.

We dont advertise much.


Some of your consumer brands must spend fortunes in Radio and TV advertising. Being a supplier predominantly of professional services we prefer to work on relationships built through a proven track record and word-of-mouth, 

However Brian, for the past 18 months we have sponsored a marketing insert on a regional radio station, aimed directly at marketing people in the advertising and publicity industry.

As entrepreneurs in a creative space, Brian, we decided to do a radio campaign that is topical in the marketing community - and draws parallels between the attitude we find some clients have to paying for Event Management services, and the companies on radio that insist on making their own adverts. This discussion was started and propagated by the marketing community, through several forums.

Luci Hirsch - A good sport, AND a nice dress!

We have over the past year or so been flighting a few ads that parody the principles of these executives doing ads, often badly, instead of using a professional voice over. 

They are non-offensive and play the principle, not the player - basically we highlight the methodology, not the man, Brian!




 We have flighted parodies of Luci Hirsch, and Morningside Pharmacy - as an example.

These have provoked interesting debate in the marketing community (they are flighted once a week Brian, at the end of a marketing programme, it's NOT a mainstream ad campaign) and have been met with overwhelmingly positive feedback, from Parodied Personalities and Marketing Men alike. 

Anyway Brian, the reason for this is not to suggest I am a brilliant marketing strategist, nor a Maverick businessman - but to point out that I really find a few things that unfolded last week quite disturbing.

You see Brian, one of our new parodies happens to be of the MD of one of your companies. He does his own radio advertisements, (I am sure you can figure out who is he) and general consensus on the marketing blogosphere was that he should be the subject of one of our Spoof Ads.

So we did. The ad is here if you want to hear it Brian. 

Maverick Spoof Radio Ad - Cars 


Why this gets interesting, is that the MD concerned apparently has taken the greatest offense to this parody assuming that we are making fun of him, which is not the case.  

We would have hoped your colleague, having clearly having a sense of humour failure, would have engaged us on this matter using some sort of professional dialogue...an e-mail, a note asking to see the script, hell even a phone call asking for context would have been nice. 

He didn't do that Brian.
He tried to bully us into submission using the Collective Crushing Capabilities of the entire Bidvest group as a big stick.

Not very Entrepreneurial friendly is it?

He tried to get the ad pulled off the radio station, which as we are not actually breaking any rules here, is rather tricky to achieve. 

He then phoned us directly and in a relatively eloquent 3 minute tirade - it cant be classified as a conversation as we literally couldn't get a word in edgeways - he shouted about how the might of the entire Bidvest Group would be used to "crush us"!

Yup, the Bidvest Group is apparently on standby as we speak to "crush us" for this heinous act of corporate treachery Brian. 

That's not really in the spirit of promoting entrepreneurism is it Brian? 

Interestingly though you claim this to be one of your cornerstones of your business model. 

Dont take my word for it...take yours!

In your annual report, Brian, you make the following statement...


The Bidvest model is a way of doing that. We encourage local entrepreneurs to build the operations they control by applying the disciplines that turn small businesses into big ones.

Couldn't be further from the truth in the context of this particular MD - not sure he read it Brian!

I'm also not sure he read the bit before - where you claim that "more fundamental than that is turning good people into great people." - based on his conduct in handling this matter.


So Brian, I guess at the end of the day, we are all in a bit of a pickle.

We cant really phone the MD concerned as he clearly invoked the Bidvest wrath - not his own companies. Frankly given his telephone manner we would rather not pick up the phone to him anyway. No one likes to get shouted at like a 2 year old caught with his hand on his gavel.


We cant really phone the radio station, as we are doing nothing wrong.

So, i would really like your comment on Company Crushing, Brian, if you don't mind.


I look forward to your response.


Oh, and guess what Brian...we pulled the Ad....so call off the Crushers!

Oh and for the record ...

...we did not pull it because of the threatening tirade by a member of your management team.

.. we didnt pull it because we were scared of Bidvest Crushing us.


We pulled it, frankly, because if that's the calibre of staff associated with the particular company, we dont really want our brand associated with it , even in a parody! We have standards you know!


Proudly Bidvest? You must be so proud, Brian!