INDUSTRY IN-DEPTH
NIZOO CHAGAN: MD OF FALCON

By Toni Parsons

The impression that stays after a chat with Nizoo Chagan is that his success story is a rags to riches story that is true for a number of post apartheid South Africans. One could very easily creaye a play based on the story of this man - a play that would be both uniquely South African and universally accessible.

His story happens to be a particularly successful one, made so simply by a strong drive to succeed and ambition to go above one's station. What sests him well apart from other similar tales though, is that he has maintained a certain awareness of what it is like to be sitting at the bottom of the pile, and just how hard it is to work one's way up. It is easy, initially, to find him arrogant and to believe that he is a little hoist on his own petard. A perception that undergoes an interesting change as you talk to him, leaving you unsure of what happened in between the start and the finish - was I really that mistaken about the man at the start of this interview?

Like many non whites who grew up under the apartheid regime, Nizoo was forced to leave school at the end of the equivalent of Std. 8, with only a Junior Certificate under his belt. That seems a little surreal to most adult whites, I am sure, but was slightly better than the norm for non whites at that time.

Forced as a result of familial obligation to begin his working career at the of 16, he started out as a factory labourer working at Safety Car Plates, and vowed, evetually, to own the company himself.

Twenty five years later saw him at the top of the ladder, having worked upward, bits at a time from factory labourer to managing director of the company. Due to labour laws in this country, he could have all the rsponsibility that went with the position, and very little of the recognition or financial reward that goes with such a position, leaving him, understandably, a little frustrated.

1985 found things starting to change for the better in the working environment, and Nizoo was head hunted by what is known as Uniplate, a position he opted to accept, only to find himself working independently by 1990, with the idea of starting his own business., and then again in 1994 back with Uniplate as he merged the two companies, with the idea of growing what he had built into a larger, stronger force to be reckoned with. In 2000 he was asked to relocate to the U.K. in an effort to revive the foundering sibling company there, and returned in 2003, company well on its feet, and he, raring to get going here again after getting the company firmly back on its feet and independent.

By his own admission, Nizoo has worked pretty much non stop for twenty five years to ensure th success of his business. Despite the fact that he clearly has created all the success he could have dreamed of, and has fulfilled all aspirations of owning a company, he maintains his realistic and sharp grasp on life, and on what makes him successful. He believes that his understanding of the industry as a result of having worked his way to the top, step by step, is what has made him successful, added to his strong sense of leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation. Remaining focused on the ideas and motivations that made you successful in the first place will help maintain your success, and allow you to become focused on aspects that will detract from your success, and becoming complacent will let all you have worked for slip through your fingertips.

An area that has been spent lesstime on, and plans to change, is his home life. As a result of working long, hard hours in order to rise to the top of his profession, Nizoo readily admits that his wife has received little of his attention. He clearly feels fairly strongly about this - when asked what he would do if he had unlimited finances and no need to work at all, jis response is without hesitation. travel around the world, indefinately, learning to live in other countries and cultures, and experiencing life in ways that would be almost impossible here. Of course, what fun would that be unless his wife was with him to share and enrich the experience for him.

When he is asked about his ideal car - if he could pick any car, no financial restraints whatsoever, what would it be? Expecting and answer something like a Lamborghini or a Ferrari, you could have blown me away with a feather when his response was that it would have to be a 3 series BMW - the big cars are just too much work to drive in, and as long as it goes, it seems, he is happy. He did mention that he feels a certain obligation not to drive an ostentatious car, or lead a lifestyle that would appear extravagant or ostentatious to observers, as he feels it would be hypocritical to do so, while still

running a factory that faces problems that all businesses do - problems of balancing salaries, benefits etc. so that both the employees and employers win. Driving around in a seven series BMW while still negotiating relative amounts of money for salaries is possibly not the optimum way to get results from one's staff as he sees it, and perhaps therein lies one more key to his success - working not only on his staff but on himself in order to get an optimum response and result from them.

As an ideal retirement retreat, he pictures himself in a small town, settled in a little cottage away from the sea - the noise disrupts him, apparently - with his wife and somewhere to spend his energy. He admits to not ever seeing himself escape the business environment in some sense, and to having a strong sense of social obligation, leading him to offer his services after retirement, for a minimum of three days a month, to help teach and further others who are less fortunate and have had fewer privileges. As someone who understands, truly, what it is like to be underprivileged in a country where the gaps between the have and the have nots is colossal, his imput, innovation and advice, I would imagine, will go far with those who are willing to use his experience as a starting point.

The more you talk to him, the more you see that there is a powerful sense of social responsibility to Nizoo Chagan, perhaps instilled by a lifetime of hard work to change his destiny and become everything he believed he could become. As you hear more and more about him, you realise that, whether it is intentional or not, this is someone who has gone against the grain all his life, and is not anywhere close to changing over to the conformist mentality. It seems he works very hard at thinking outside the box, and at living his life in a way that, while not necessarily offensive to others, will definately stir things up a little, especially among those with preconceived ideas about the ways others should behave. South Africans this determined and headstrong are in short supply, and we can only hope that those who come into contact with him glean a little of what he has to offer, for if they do, the forward path for those who err on the side of the have nots, and strive to change it, looks undeniably a little brighter.