I had no idea where or how I was going to find sources of supply for the leather company. If asked, I would not have been able to submit a plan of action. I bought an open ticket, not knowing where I would end up or how much time I would need to spend at any one place. However, there was not a bit of doubt in my mind that the answer would emerge as I traveled.
The next two months were an adventure in trust. Previously unknown people appeared, and doors opened magically.
My first stop was in Istanbul, Turkey. While on the ferry, crossing the Bosporus Sea, a man came and sat next to me. I did not know a word of Turkish, but he knew just enough English for us to continue a basic conversation. He was short, middle-aged, stocky, and bubbling with enthusiasm. After learning that it was my first trip to Turkey, he wondered what brought me there. Did I have a friend in Turkey? His enthusiasm was infectious.
“Yes,” I said.
He wanted to know about my friend.
“You,” I said, pointing at him mischievously.
He clasped my hands in both of his and held them for a long time, laughing with happiness. He took me directly to his small house, where his wife, who could not speak a word of English, also gave me a hearty welcome. Over dinner, they asked me what brought me to Turkey. It took me a few attempts to explain my mission. My new friend’s wife’s face lit up. She had a cousin in the business and maybe he could help me. A phone call resulted in an appointment the next day. My new friend came to pick me up. I would never have found that tannery by myself.
The production process was similar that which I had seen in two places in the United States. But in Istanbul, it was more labor intensive. They dealt in cowhides, but they knew all about sheep and goat skins. We soon calculated that the Turkish skins would be more expensive than the Iranian skins. Turkey did not offer the source for our raw materials. A week’s work was done in half a day, and I left for Iran.
In Tehran, I started at the American Embassy. The embassy’s Commercial Attaché arranged meetings with eight skin dealers. The embassy invited me to use one of their offices and the skilled staff helped by making appointments. A picture of why there had been a sudden rise in prices became clear. Iran had recently experienced three years of acute drought. Unable to feed their stock in the mountains of Iran, the shepherds were compelled to kill and sell much of their stock, and the price of meat and skins fell drastically. By the time the drought was over, there were not enough animals to meet local demand and prices soared. The prices from other suppliers in Iran would be no better than what the company was paying to their current supplier.
Next stop, Afghanistan. Tanning leather was a cottage industry there, and the quality was poor, with a strong odor. A landlocked country, its skins had no export market. The infrastructure was not adequate to supply skins to America.
From there I flew to Pakistan, then to India. In both countries, the leather industry was quite developed, but they were interested in selling only finished leather and goods, rather than semi-finished hides. From India, I proceeded to Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. No prospects there, either. I realized why it was no coincidence that Iran was the sole source of semi-finished skins.
On the way back to the U.S., I stopped in India at my mother’s home. The whirlwind trip had been tiring and not having found the solution for my client had left me feeing dejected. I needed to lick my wounds. My mother coddled me with her love as if I were still a teenager and cooked my favorite dishes.
One night, when it was past midnight, I experienced something that left me breathless—the emergence of an idea.
First, there was an image. It was at a distance, sketchy and out of focus. Once I looked at it and concentrated, it came into focus. I saw the reflection of the image touching my forehead. I was seeing something, not with my eyes, but with my whole body, which was vibrating. As soon as I grasped the image, words started to enter my mind one at a time. There was a feeling that it was not something happening from outside. It had always been there, but I was seeing it for the first time. Everything was in slow motion. It was as if someone had slowed a very fast machine to an extremely slow speed, so I could learn how it worked.
The image that reflected on my forehead was of an old-style factory. The words that flowed in were Karkhana, an Urdu word for factory.
A factory in Afghanistan!
I caught the next flight to Kabul and went straight to the American Embassy. I explained to them that this could be the first production joint venture with the United States. The entire embassy staff immediately got involved, from the Afghan clerk to the ambassador. The Afghan government was also very receptive. Things started to move with speed and a sense of urgency.
It just so happened that a United Nations consultant, who had been the production manager of one of India’s largest leather manufacturers, was posted in Kabul to advise on how the Afghan leather industry could be developed. He provided complete details of such an operation, including the flow chart of the factory, cost and sources of raw materials, and the number of people needed. It was so detailed as to include not only the cost of training new recruits, but also the cost of twine for tying the wet skins. He was a treasure beyond my imagination.
My friends at the embassy also informed me of a U.S. government initiative to encourage private investments from U.S. businesses in countries like Afghanistan. The initiative, known as Overseas Private Investment Corporation, would provide a loan of 80 percent on an investment such as this, plus insure the loan against failure of the business for practically any reason.
The board of the parent company in the USA approved the idea and requested me to implement the plan. Fast and furious actions followed. Local partners were found in Afghanistan, funds were put together, equipment was obtained from Pakistan, a production manager was hired from India, chemicals were shipped from Germany, and, within a year, the first leather factory in Afghanistan was providing semi-finished hides to the United States. My client was now getting skins at a fraction of the cost of its competitors.
The word spread, and I was off and running as an international business consultant.
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