Aldrin Fernandes has reached a point in his career where he no longer has to wear a tie to work. The reason? He is his own boss. In fact, this 37-year-old is CEO of Concept Group – a major player in the media sector. Shalaka Paradkar meets the ‘Bandra boy' who has lost none of his youthful zest. Photos by Arshad Ali.
From starting off as a salesperson in a Dh1,000-a-month job to heading a multimillion dirham conglomerate – and all this before he turned 40 – Aldrin Rafael Fernandes exemplifies the classic Dubai success story.
With his congenital allergy to neckties and, indeed, all forms of formal attire, and fashionably spiked bed-head hair, 37-year-old Fernandes, CEO of Concept Group, is seriously cool.
His youthful looks belie his age, a fact Fernandes says has been both a blessing and a curse.
“Many people don't take me seriously in the first instance. They expect someone older with grey hair. That's OK,'' he says, sipping his morning drink of coconut water. “They learn.''
Fernandes talks in soft, measured cadences, but some who have witnessed his meteoric rise say he knows how to play hardball. Competitors have learned the hard way that the casual exterior hides a canny business acumen.
Take, for instance, Concept Media's acquisition of the tender to advertise on Dubai buses. Before Fernandes appeared on the scene, another agency was the sole concessionaire and no other group had shown any interest in advertising on buses.
Fernandes was probably the first to figure out that Dubai public buses – which collectively cover about 165,000 km along 62 routes daily – can literally be the perfect vehicle for brand exposure.
In an aggressive move, Fernandes's bid – three times the amount paid by his competitor – upped the ante for outdoor advertising in Dubai. Concept Media subsequently won the advertising rights for the entire fleet of more than 500 buses. The buzz hasn't stopped since.
At Concept's 15th floor eyrie, the company celebrates that 2004 coup with cute models of Dubai buses stacked near the office entrance. Fernandes's expansive corner office overlooks Dubai Media City and is decorated with a collection of model vintage cars, a telescope and a warm picture of him with his 6-year-old daughter, Aleandra.
His persona sits at odds with these surroundings. For our interview he wears a candystriped shirt over faded jeans, accessorised with a necklace.
His fashion sense epitomises the quintessential Bandra boy, as they are known in Mumbai – smooth-talking sharp dressers – the sort mothers warn their daughters about.
“Early on, I realised it was important to carve your own distinct identity. It isn't necessary to conform. When I was a salesperson, it was mandatory to wear neckties and I really hated them. Now that I am my own boss, I've resolved never to wear one again. It's the biggest perk of my job,'' he says.
Fernandes grew up in Mumbai's western suburbs and had an idyllic childhood as the pampered son of middle-class Mangalorean Catholic parents. He studied at Mithibai College, the breeding ground for many a Bollywood film star.
He laughs when asked how easy was it to impress his in-laws. “Not easy at all. Especially because I married at 22, after having taken a wedding loan from my employers.''
His wife, Giselle, is currently director of Concept Events, yet Fernandes believes it's a bad idea to work with family.
With the runaway growth his group has experienced over the
past three years, Fernandes feels it's now time to slow down. He is at a personal and professional crossroads now, where is business consultants and family want him to slow down.
“I think I am going to do that now. The next three years will be about taking it easy, spending more time with Alex and watching her grow up.''
While the Concept conglomerate has eight companies and several new ventures on the horizon, Fernandes retains some old-fashioned business values.
Many of his long-standing clients have yet to sign a formal contract and his rise through the ranks has given him a very humane touch when he deals with employees. Cool and collected, there's no denying this Bandra boy has done his bit in shaking up Dubai's media scene.
I
I cannot sit still, I am a restless soul who constantly needs to be doing something. My wife would like me to be more of a 9 to 5 kind of person. But it's not something I can do – or something I want to change about myself.
I strongly believe there is a predefined path for every individual to take and a higher purpose to be found in life.
I'm yet to discover mine.
I am moving myself out of the group intentionally, so as to have an aerial view and chart the course [Although CEO, I call myself chief strategy officer.] On the anvil are new projects, new magazines and expansion abroad.
I am an hands-off executive. I have handed over day-to-day operations to the business heads in each of the companies who keep me informed.
I need to slow down now to spend more time with my family and my daughter. I need to dedicate more time to renewing relationships with my extended family.
I want to take stock and consolidate over the next three-four years, both personally and professionally.
I am ambitious, but I never thought I would own a company or run a media group.
I know I look very young. Until now, I have always had long hair and dressed differently – it's important not to conform just for the sake of it. Sometimes though, looking young works against me. People expect me to have grey hair, for whatever reason, and cannot believe that I own this company.
ME
Me and my roots:
I was born on October 22, 1969, to Louis and Lorna Fernandes. I was born with a hole in my heart [a congenital heart defect].
I studied in a day school in Mumbai's Santacruz suburb, Sacred Heart for Boys, as well as in a boarding school in the hill station town of Mount Abu in [Rajasthan], north-western India. The years in boarding school helped form my character – they gave me a sense of independence and developed my crisis management skills. They were probably the most important years of my life.
After graduating from Mithibai College, I helped Dad a bit with his printing business. My maternal uncle Clement was in Dubai at the time and he owned Concept Advertising. Whenever he came home, he'd tell us stories about advertising and the media which really interested me.
He and my father influenced my career options – I had my heart set on getting into advertising.
Me and starting out in Dubai:
In 1991, I underwent heart surgery to plug the hole in my heart and came to Dubai immediately after this.
I started off in the HR department of Emirates, a job I got with a lot of difficulty. It paid me Dh1,000. I decided to give it up for another job in a media firm that paid Dh1,800. My family thought I was a fool for giving up a job with Emirates, with all its perks of free tickets, to join a media company.
I got a driving licence and moved into sales and left the company to join a publishing house. Careerwise, they were the most important six years of my life (1993-1999). I was reporting directly to the owners and would probably have never left the place, but for an unfortunate circumstance regarding … remuneration practices.
[Through that event was born my deep-seated belief that you must take care of your people first. What happened there is etched firmly in my mind, so today when my staff members come to me with a problem, I can empathise with them.]
During the years in publishing, I was able to understand the UAE market and develop business relationships.
My years in advertising sales helped me sniff out a successful business from a not-so-successful one. Even today, I can immediately tell whether a walk-in client has potential or not. In Dubai there's a lot of talk and one must be able to cut through the glitz and see the genuine article. Otherwise, you end up chasing your own tail.
It was during this time that I considered emigrating to Canada with my family, which by then included Alex. [I quit my job] and asked my uncle Clement if I could work out
of his office before we left for Canada. He gave me a desk and I had my list of clients. Concept then was a small advertising agency with a staff of eight, working out of an office in Deira. Though it was set up in 1981, [business] had not really picked up.
I joined the business and it started growing tremendously – the business I brought in far exceeded the volume they already had. I was really excited about my job. Six months later, we left for Canada, bought a house there, but returned, because I wanted to be back in Dubai.
Me and growing the business:
In 2002, certain situations forced us to shift our office from Deira to Media City. The same year, I bought 50 per cent of Concept.
We were one of the first companies operating out of Media City. The next year, my uncle decided to migrate
to Canada and I bought the entire company from him. We soon expanded into various aspects of the media business.
It was a conscious decision not to become another big advertising agency. Instead of vertical growth, we opted for horizontal growth into events and public relations. Today, we have eight companies, with 140 staff and an annual turnover
of Dh40 million.
Luck has also played its part in my success – being at the right place at the right time.
A lot of our success can be attributed to Dubai's growth. Nowhere else in the world could we have grown like this in such a short period of time.
Me and my parents:
My uncles and aunts always thought my parents spoiled me by indulging my every wish. We were not a particularly well-to-do family, we often had to make ends meet by taking recourse to loans.
When I was in college, I remember telling my dad I wanted a bike. He promised to get me one if I secured a first class in my exams. I wasn't a studious kid, but managed to get a first class and asked Dad for the bike. He didn't have the money, but took a loan and got me the bike.
Everyone in the family was upset about dad's decision – borrowing money to satisfy my whim. As a teen, I would be out partying all the time. I don't think my parents ever expected me to suceed. But I always wanted to do something for myself. After classes, I would help Dad out in his printing business.
My first business venture was when I bought a small screen printing press and set it up at home, so I could execute small jobs. Though my family had seen that [entrepreneurial] side
of me, they didn't expect me to reap such success. Today, they are very proud to see how well I've done.
A few years ago, I asked Dad to sell the printing business. All his life he has been through a lot of financial hardships. My main objective in coming here at the age of 20 was so I could send money home and help my family pay off loans.
I wanted my parents to have a comfortable life now that we're doing well. So that's what they do now – they spend six months with my sister in Canada, three months with me and three months in Mumbai. I am proud I can help my parents spend their retired life in comfort. That is my greatest achievement.
My daughter has a protected childhood here. And it makes me look back at my life in Mumbai with nostalgia – growing up in Santacruz, playing with apartment mates, falling down, getting hurt ... I want my daughter to have all of that.
Every few months, I need to reconnect with my roots. I travel pretty often to Mumbai, though it's for business. I also like going back to Mangalore, where I hail from.
MYSELF
You started off thanks to the helping hand extended by your uncle. Is it good to work with family?
True, I started working with my family, but it's not something I would recommend. [Aside from working with my wife,] I don't do business with family any more. It creates a lot of complications and issues.
With age, one learns a lot. I have now made a conscious decision not to work with relatives. Wherever we can help someone, we do so. But professionally it can be tough to deal with relatives on a day-to-day basis.
We come from a close-knit Indian family where it's very difficult to give instructions to someone who is older [or receive instructions from someone only because he is older]. I used to have a lot of family members working with me earlier, but now there are just a couple. However, it's important to help family when one person is more successful than the others. But it's not wise to formalise that help as an employer-employee relationship.
How easy or hard has it been to make it big in the media business here?
Doing business here takes a lot of patience and judgment. Sometimes people are never at the appointed place for a scheduled meeting. But I take that as an opportunity to
learn more about the company by chatting with the secretary or the office boy.
Instead of feeling bad about being stood up, I make it a point to follow up – because you have a psychological advantage in that the other person is apologetic and defensive.
One day, just after we had launched our company, I went to meet a client in Jebel Ali with an exhibition stand we had designed. I didn't have a car or helper at the time and had to haul it up to his office all by myself. When I finished, I was drenched in sweat only to find that the client wasn't there.
Anyway, I set it up and spoke for a while with his secretary. she was perhaps moved by my plight and probably told her boss about the incident. And from that day, that client has been one of the biggest contributors to our bottomline. And we don't even have a contract yet! It's all operated on trust.
What was the biggest success in your career?
Without a doubt, it has to be winning the advertising concessionaire for the fleet of Dubai buses. I was in the UK … when I heard the news. It was one of our biggest-ever wins. Thanks to us, advertising on buses is part of many media plans today.
The World Bank project, ‘Invest and Live in Ras Al Khaimah' was one of our biggest achievements. This was a project when all the group's companies came together to make it happen.
We got investors there, it was a successful event and Concept's work was much appreciated. In advertising, we have built up brands like Cellucom and Postcard Millionaire and done it quickly, thanks to our overall capabilities. Our strength is sales. It's an art and a science and we spend a lot of time training our salespersons.
