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man for all seasons

Business and political leaders or customers, for Ross Cormack every interaction is a learning experience
Mayank Singh

Ross Cormack, the CEO of Nawras Telecom, is a bundle of energy. He walks fast, talks fast and exudes remarkable enthusiasm at any given point. Having spent over 25 years in the telecom sector, the speed and agility of the industry appears to have become a part of his DNA. Cormack has worked with some of the biggest names in the business – AirTouch Italy, Cable & Wireless UK, Virgin Mobile Singapore, Hong Kong CSL, GEC Europe, Pacific Telesis US, Plessey UK and Q-Tel Qatar.

Says Cormack, "When I started work you called your boss ‘sir’, other people dialled the numbers for you, secretaries were gatekeepers and there was maximum insulation between customers and companies." As the sector changed from a government-owned industry to a private one, old mindsets gave way to a fresh approach. "Having started in a different era, I had to unlearn a lot of things."

In the zone
The most important learning in the transition has been to become customer focused. Cor-mack feels that he is lucky to have got several opportunities in his career to work closely with customers.

When GEC launched a hostile bid to take over Plessey in 1986, John Clark, chairman, Plessey, asked Cormack to do investor relations to counter the offer. "It was a tremendous exercise, which gave me a chance to get to know a lot of people who were following the bid. I soon built up an enviable network." Eventually, the GEC bid failed.

Speaking about customer focus, Cormack narrates an interesting anecdote. While working for Virgin Mobile in Singapore in 2001, Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group of companies, asked Cormack to meet him in Australia (where Virgin Atlantic was introducing its new planes) as he was hard pressed for time. "As Branson disembarked, he was on the phone speaking to John Howard, the Prime Minister of Australia, about flying out refugees from East Timor who had been caught by the Australian police." Then there was the Australian media to deal with. Despite being caught up in this melee, Branson was all ears for Cormack and wanted an update on customer details about each Virgin Mobile store. "He is extremely focused on customers, listens to people and is full of ideas."

Cormack seems to have learned a thing or two from Branson. Says Khalid al Mahmoud, chief operations officer, Nawras, who has worked with Cormack since February 2005, "His management style is participative. He is engaging, open and an excellent listener."

A focused approach is another thing that Cormack is effusive about. He compares two organisations to prove a point. When he joined Hong Kong CSL in 1998, the mobile service provider had just become the number two player in the market. The company went on to create the world's first lifestyle brand called 12Free, which became a runaway success. "CSL did very well as its team was completely focused on basics like speed of delivery and customer satisfaction. "Compared to CSL, the team at Cable and Wireless, where he worked from 1995-2000, was far brighter but, "it was difficult to get anything done at the company as the team was completely unfocused."

Nawras has been built around these learnings. Imad Sultan, director, W J Towell has had a close association with Cormack as Matrah Cold Stores, a group company, is the principal distributor for Nawras in the sultanate. "He is a team builder who is always on the lookout for opportunities which would benefit Nawras and its partners," says Sultan.

Time out
Cormack counts playing with his five-month old son, John, as one of his great pleasures. "It is very relaxing to spend time with him." He also enjoys playing games on the Internet and keeping in touch with his friends.

When it comes to music, he is partial to the sounds that he grew up with. His favourites range from Rod Stewart, Razorlight and Berlioz Requiem to Shakira and Blue. "He is an open person with no inhibitions," says Rajiv Chaudhary, managing director, Light & Shadow. When Chaudhary approached Cormack to walk the ramp for Power Walk, a fashion show featuring CEOs, he was pleasantly surprised when the latter insisted on wearing Indian outfits instead of western. "His ramp act was so well done that Hemant Trivedi, the designer, walked up to him and suggested that he could easily take up modelling as a full time career," says Chaudhary.

Despite a hectic schedule, he does manage to catch up on his reading every day. "I like reading biographies and political histories." The diary of Winston Churchill is his favourite. Ask him about books and he rattles off a list of books that have caught his fancy recently. Shantaram, a novel about an Australian convict on the run by Gregory David Roberts, and Snow, an account of modern Turkish society by Orhan Pamuk, are books that he has just finished reading.

When it comes to travel, he is more than partial to South East Asia. Thailand, and Phuket in particular, tops the list of favourite destinations. "We love the food, climate, beaches and architecture of Thailand." Bali comes a close second. Singapore, where he met his wife Rose, holds a special place due to sentimental reasons. "We enjoy shopping and dining out in Singapore." While there, he rarely misses an opportunity to dig into delicious pepper prawns. In Hong Kong the same holds true for dim sum.

Looking back, Cormack considers himself lucky to have had a number of mentors and fruitful associations. During the years when he was with AirTouch in Italy, he got a chance to work with Romano Prodi, a professor at the University of Bologna. Prodi was leading a campaign to liberalise the telecom sector in Italy and Cormack was an avid supporter of the cause. Prodi has since gone on to become the prime minister of Italy twice. "One day when I went to see him I got a chance to see his dairy, my appointment was sandwiched between the finance minister and the head of the Catholic Church and I was quite amused," chuckles Cormack.

Though he has had several mentors over the years, Cormack counts his father Alan as the biggest influence on his life. "From a very early age he used to take me along to his office and taught me the qualities that a manager should have." This economics and production engineering graduate from the university of Birmingham has come a long way. While his vision and values have been shaped by a number of influences, one can safely say that Cormack's persona is far greater than the sum of the parts.