It was early morning on Wednesday, November 13th 2019, and Ziad Maalouf was not asleep. He could not sleep, not with his mind burdened by what had become a serious problem facing Seven-Up Bottling Company, which he oversees. It was part of his job as the Managing Director to figure out a solution to this challenge. And that was exactly what he was doing as he sat in his study that early morning, typing furiously on his computer.
By 4:37 am that morning, Maalouf had sent out an internal memo and copied 25 top executives of the soft drink manufacturing company. In the memo, he made it clear that he was ready to declare war against the company’s competitors. He would not rest until the war was over and Seven-Up had emerged victorious, he declared.
But the internal memo leaked
Much ado about nothing really! Sinzu’s “Art of War” was required reading in business school, and so the war rhetoric is par for the course. Meanwhile, despite the borderline xenophobic undertones of the piece, the memo clearly viewed the competitive space as 3-pronged and not directed solely against the indigenous brand. Furthermore, the Pepsi vs Coca-Cola turf war is already taken for granted.
I really see nothing wrong with Maalouf’s tenancy to defend his market share. I admire his competitive spirit and his willingness to change the narrative of ‘business as usual”. Nonetheless, this seems like a sponsored write-up and I’d rather take it with a pinch of salt.