The
keynote speaker at CNS Partnership, Ram Menen said a lot of things,
but nothing was more memorable than the following:
“If
you don’t know who your customers are then we are all in trouble.”
Ram has always
had a way of simplifying issues and presenting even complex thoughts
in clear, simple terms.
Some people
just see things that way and have a knack for translating their thoughts
so that anybody can understand them.
But that
is not what makes Ram Menen great.
Forty years
ago, Dubai was a fairly small Arabic city on the Gulf within the UAE,
but without the massive oil reserves of some of its other UAE neighbors.
But Sheikh
Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai, had the vision of turning
the Kingdom into a major tourist center.
To do this—in
addition to hotels, restaurants, and the relaxation of some Muslim rules—he
needed an airline to bring tourists from all over the world to Dubai.
So Emirates
Airlines came into being.
The Sheikh
knew that the large aircraft he was buying could be sublimated with
cargo revenue, but industrialization was not part of his plan. So how
could it be done?
As luck would
have it, he found Ram Menen, and the rest is air cargo history.
|  Rock
& A Hard Place
Although both are retired, there
is no backing down, as Ram Menen and Bill Boesch stand at the
gates of the Hard Rock Café at the Universal Amusement
Park where CNS/Virgin Atlantic held its opening night event Sunday.
Inside it was all darkness and rock
music, punctuated with such training table foods as fried mac
& cheese, wine, beer, and finger food, but as the music played
on busloads of eager air cargo revelers, badges in hand, filled
the place to bounce to the rhythms of the night. |
“The
genius of Ram Menen and his leadership is evident in many of the things
we take for granted in air cargo today,” said air cargo legend
and TIACA Hall of Fame great Bill Boesch.
“But,
Ram’s major achievement was his creating one of the world’s
greatest air cargo hubs in a non-industrialized country, thereby turning
Emirates into one of the top movers of air cargo in the world,”
said Bill Boesch.
“Airlines
like Lufthansa, Air France, Japan Airlines, etc. are all major cargo
carriers, but a good percentage of their business comes and goes to
their home country.
“Like
FedEx in Memphis and UPS in Louisville, the system Ram created used
its main hub as a total transfer operation.
“But,
Ram Menen did this not for small express products, but for cargo of
all sizes and all commodities.
“He
created an air cargo colossus while maintaining one of the highest quality
services in the industry.
“At
start up, cargo professionals thought that what Ram was doing was impossible,
but he did it brilliantly and left an image on air cargo history that
will only grow his reputation and heighten his esteem as the years progress,”
This is quite a statement from someone who is both outspoken and a visionary.
But there
it is, and the words are especially poignant after Ram’s performance
in Orlando today.
For what
Ram did at Emirates, the song is over, but what Ram did for air cargo
changed everything, and the melody lingers on.
It’s
sometimes hard to identify a truly great innovator when he comes packaged
in a rather self-effacing, plainspoken, humble man.
But today
Ram gave CNS some good words.
The hope
is that some of us took notes.
Thanks, Ram.
Geoffrey/Sabiha
