John Linton

My first consultancy job with Landell Mills was a privatisation study of a fisheries project in Zanzibar. The high point was seeing the star of Bethlehem from the roof of the Zanzibar Club (it is the confluence of three planets that happens every 2000 years). The second job was another privatisation study for a fisheries project in Papua New Guinea – one that I had helped set up some ten years before. A high point of this project included meeting all my old mates and breaking down in a small boat in the middle of the Gulf of Papua.

I joined Landell Mills full time in March 1991. My first assignment was managing the Inhambane Fisheries Rehabilitation Project in war-torn Mozambique. Given the on-going war, we had a project plane in case of emergencies. All heady stuff for a young man from a sheltered background!

Because of my experience, I managed private sector development and became a director in 1995/6 with responsibility for Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. If I won a project, I was also responsible for delivering it. It certainly focused the mind when writing bids!

The standard answer would be that I had extensive experience of working in developing countries. I spent seven years in Papua New Guinea and two years in Sudan. But the thing that changed my professional career was working for an American management consultancy called Alexander Proudfoot. They gave me that ability to analyse businesses. I adapted their methodology and had some outstanding successes: Maldives Tuna Cannery for one, as well as the European Union (EU)/African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) Business Assistance Scheme (EBAS) – see below – and the Zambia Export Development Project.

While we are all here to make money, I do believe that Landell Mills put doing a good job first. Also, Landell Mills trusted me and gave me the freedom to use my initiative as long as it worked. Of course it didn’t always work but when it didn’t, I had a supportive management. We were a team.

Where do I start? EBAS is probably as good a place as any. EBAS was a huge matching grant scheme for ACP countries. We tendered for a €6 million contract to set up the systems, set up offices in five ACP countries and an office in Brussels, and promote and implement the project.

My initial inclination was to pass on bidding for the contract – I would be punching way above my weight. But then I was told we would have no chance of winning and we would be wasting our time. That made my mind up! Anyway, we won.

The project itself was wall-to-wall chaos with some outstanding results. Perhaps the best one: we provided a matching grant to an insignificant Kenyan savings and loan society called the Equity Bank. They have since done fairly well – the bank now has 16.9 million customers, one of the largest customer bases in Africa.

It was a vibrant and exciting project. I seemed to spend most of my time flying from one corner of the world to another. I also made many friends that I still have today. It could no doubt have been more profitable, but it was huge fun and I am proud to have been associated with it.

Other memorable experiences include:

• Turning a tuna cannery from loss to profit in six weeks, having never set foot in a tuna cannery.
• Sleeping in a stockade on the Limpopo, surrounded by hippos.
• Being marooned on a Ukrainian freighter in the Red Sea.
• Being arrested as a Mossad spy in Damascus (they eventually realised I wasn’t!)
• Sharing a Jacuzzi with the soon to be president of Zambia.

The list goes on...

Let me finish here by saying I loved working for Landell Mills. Like anything, there were good times and bad, but the good vastly outweighed the bad. I feel that I have been very fortunate. I am also delighted to see that Landell Mills has gone from strength to strength. John Landell Mills (God rest his soul) would be proud.