By Lavern Clarke, Staff Reporter 
Peter Lawson (left) shares a joke with his boss Michael Lee-Chin, chairman of National Commercial Bank, at the bank's annual general meeting held in Kingston in May. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
FOR PETER Lawson, failure is akin to a four-letter word: not to be spoken in any company. He gets goose bumps at the thought, and refuses to give voice to it.
In his world, life is built on dreams or visions if you prefer that are conceived only to be spun into workable projects, and measured as successful by the size of the "fiscal" turnaround. In other words, money-makers.
It is a description that sounds slightly contradictory the fey 6 foot 3 inch capitalist but somehow isn't.
"I was always a dreamer; still do. The only difference is I sit back and map out exactly how I will make it happen," said Peter, speaking with The Gleaner from National Commercial Bank's boardroom at the Atrium in Kingston.
To date, he has made things happen in different continents, places like Australia, Africa, the Americas - events that are captured in his curriculum vitae under descriptors such as: financial and distribution analysis; devising procurement strategies and supply infrastructure programmes; comprehensive country and region business reviews; and advisor on investment and cross-business opportunities to some of the world's top corporate bosses.
STAYING ON TOP
To him, they boil down to one thing staying on top of the game through market access and penetration and cost-saving strategies.
But that is Peter at 38 years old a success in his career as an internationally sought business strategist having worked with entities like Coca-Cola and Shell; a family man with wife Tanya Michelle, and two kids, Arielle and Christian; a one time designate, he says, as the largest black owner of race horses in South Africa; and classical pianist who tries to immerse himself daily in the works of Bach, Schubert, Chopin, Joplin, and others, having committed several hundred pieces to memory.
For him there is advantage in everything, and so when asked about his reception in the corporate world given his age, he laughed.
"People often expect a more 'mature' individual. By the time they get over the shock, we've concluded the negotiations," he said.
The story begins with seven-year-old Peter whose initial destiny was mapped as he sat watching television.
Nothing unusual there, but this Jamaican boy was not entranced by cartoons; he was captivated by the co-ordinated speed at which the fingers of a pianist were gliding across the keys as he performed Scott Joplin's The Entertainer.
"I decided then that I would be able to emulate that pianist," said Peter. He would later adopt the piece as his signature, but his all-time favourite pianists were Vladimir Horowitz, and Murray Perahia.
With the support of his mother, Sylvia Earle Lawson, whom he said had her artistic side and had been on the stage at one time, he began learning the piano with Minna Moss-Solomon, and when she passed on, he went to study with Dorothy Tavares at age 11.
"She had a real impact on my life," said Peter, recalling Mrs. Tavares' gift of making the beauty and expression of the music real.
EXPRESSION
"At the back of my mind, I saw myself as an expression; considering how to share my music with the world."
His performances then were mainly done at Chapel. His more public performances would happen later abroad.
But while music dominated young Peter's life to the extent that even his other loves, cricket and table tennis, and his boyhood friends got attention only when it did not conflict with his time at the piano the 'commercial' side of his personality was also evolving.
Both Peter and his only sibling Deirdre, now a doctor, were instilled with the discipline from very early of the value of managing their finances, especially by their engineering father, Leo Lawson, current chair of the National Contracts Commission.
FIRST VENTURE
Peter's first venture into business came at age 14, then still a student of Jamaica College. He became a distributor of Bubble Yum and Bubblicious bubble gum which he sourced from the United States. Having done his market analysis, he had found that while children were demanding the commodity, the stores did not carry those brands, leaving him with a clear gap to plug.
"Gum gave me my first taste of commercial freedom," said Peter, his long fingers poised atop NCB's boardroom table as if he were at the piano.
From wholesaling packets of three and four to students for on-selling, his distribution network grew to the point where he was also supplying pharmacies. And from the proceeds, Peter would save and buy his music books, but he made sure to save at least half of every dollar earned. He next moved into training dogs, but found it to be more fun than work.
Academically, Peter modestly describes himself as an average high school student who gave no trouble and did okay, developing a love for Physics along the way only because he had to study it so much then. It was expected that he would have followed in his father's career footsteps.
But while he was in sixth form, Peter's mother who is now a retired sociology professor decided to head to the United States to pursue further studies, and still fixed on his music, he went with her. He eventually entered the University of Florida as a civil engineering major, but was forced to make a choice when the school challenged him on the number of music credits he was racking up.
He chose music, but he also gave his assurance to his concerned father who Peter felt sure had visions of his son ending up as the starving artist - that he would go back to school to study finance and management.
MUSIC STUDENT
He graduated from Florida in 1989 with a first degree in music, studying with Prof. David Kushner and the concert pianist Bernice Maskin. Peter's years as a music student were filled with recitals, performing on US National Public Radio, and he had even come to the attention of the Florida Secretary of State, George Firestone, for whom he did a solo recital in 1986 at the 'Live! At the Capitol' series.
Also in those years, he gave performances on behalf of Florida Arts Celebrations, going into schools to play in the interest of exposing youngsters to the masters and developing within them an appreciation for the classics.
"Classical musicians are usually lumped into the mad genius category," he said. "It was an opportunity to let people see that we are normal people."
Shortly after leaving Florida University, Peter went back to school, selecting Emory University to pursue his MBA where he studied under Jeffery Rosensweig. It was there that he first came in contact with the Coca-Cola Company, the world's largest beverage maker, with which he would have a seven-year relationship.
RECRUIT
But how does a musician get one of the world's largest multinationals to recruit him for an interim internship, when other more experienced business executives are theirs for the taking?
Apparently, not by selling himself as "a pianist who can do anything in this world", but with heavy persuasion that he could devise a strategy to help the company overcome conversion hurdles in soft currency markets and source needed currency in countries and regions like Jamaica, Dominican Republic and Africa, zones that in 1991 operated tight foreign exchange markets. The hook however was that he could be hired cheaply, with no training required.
"I sold him (David Taggart) on the idea when I said it would be a low cost experiment," said Peter, one that could save the company money if it worked.
It worked; so well, said Peter, that Coca-Cola hired him even before his studies were complete. He then went to work in Atlanta with the likes of Taggart, chairman Roberto Goizueta, Weldon Johnson and Jack Stahl, and opted to stay with the company after graduation - despite more lucrative offers - having been captivated by the Coca Cola's promise that he would travel the world and work with a brand that was second to none.
STRATEGIES
His time with the company saw his strategies to devise more efficient distribution systems bringing results in increased market share for brands, Fanta, Lift and Sprite, and improved marketing channels for the product.
"I never saw a limit to how much I can achieve," said Peter, as explanation for his success in the company. It also helped that he actively sought out projects, and had a boss in Taggart who believed in 'stretch opportunities' that is, giving employees new levels of responsibility and allowing them to prove themselves.
He gets so caught up in the brands that he sells, that those who worked with him knew that to buy a competing product was "classical CLB - career limiting behaviour." He still refuses to drink Pepsi, being one of a small population who can actually tell the difference in taste, and refers to the competitor as the 'P' word.
Recall that Peter is a dreamer, who still has visions of setting up his own farm and developing a world class company in the Caribbean, and is preparing himself to grab the opportunity when it comes.
When he got the Coca-Cola offer, his father thought it would serve his son well to work in a "structured professional environment".
But: "My spin was to learn and develop a certain set of skills in an environment where I could learn from other people's mistakes," Peter told The Gleaner.
STRONG ADMIRATION
So, despite strong admiration for Coca-Cola and the values espoused by what he still calls "the greatest company in the world", he left in 1998, after seven years of advancement.
His next stop was London to work with the Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and later to take up another career enhancing opportunity to run his own business division within the company. His job with the international oil company began with him as 'senior corporate advisor' to the chairman and executive committee of managing directors on mergers/acquisitions, divestments, development projects, and when and where to invest.
Within the three years that he stayed with Shell, he was named the Executive Director of Oil Products and Chief Marketing Officer for the Southern Africa belt and other sections of the continent - bringing Shell to market leadership position in unleaded fuel sales, highest unit sales and return on equity for the industry.
The job took him across countries and oceans - on the luxury Concorde when the occasion demanded and even in small rented planes into places like strife-torn Liberia. And he sat on several boards: Shell South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Easigas South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Shell Auto Care (Pty) Ltd., Shell Zimbabwe (Pty) Ltd., and BP Zimbabwe (Pty) Ltd.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
His accomplishments included reshaping 'The Garage' Shell's car repair and service centres taking it from a loss maker into profitability.
"It was a fascinating opportunity to have. I worked with bright minds," said Peter. "I could never have imagined this little boy from Jamaica being there and working with the most senior officers in an international company."
During this time, he continued building his stable of race and brood horses, which he currently races in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, in South Africa, and also in Florida.
He had developed an interest in horseracing as a boy in high school, and got so involved then that he could quote all the horseracing statistics, he told The Gleaner.
And as his career advanced, Peter was also guest lecturing in business at Emory and Whartons, as well as in music at music schools. He also became proficient in Spanish and French.
Peter speaks effusively of a number of persons who have been his mentors and who have helped to shape his career - his parents, Goizueta, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, Sir Phillip Watts, Taggart, Stahl, and Neville Isdell.
He portrays the corporate executives as focused businessmen who were serious about developing their companies and the people who worked for them, but within the parameters of certain corporate ethics.
So when he got to Tyco International, having been offered yet another career building position as Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Strategy to head the Fire & Security Division whose operations spanned 100 countries and 95,000 employees.
Peter, who speaks sparingly of his time at Tyco, said he knew within a short time that he would have a limited run with the company. He left last year after 14 months.
Today, Peter resides in Coral Springs, Florida, with his family, but flies regularly to Jamaica as part of his new job.
THINKING OF 'TOMORROW'
Having left Tyco, the business strategist decided that he next wanted to work with Jamaican companies whose thinking was 'tomorrow' in orientation. Following consultations and advice from the likes, he says, of James Moss-Solomon, he was put in touch with Michael Lee- Chin, and began working with the billionaire banker/fund manager in April.
As Senior Vice President for International Marketing and Business Strategy with AIC Limited, Peter will be concentrating on positioning NCB, a one-year old acquisition, as a local bank with regional reach and world-class standards, and similarly will be mapping a differentiating strategy for AIC itself.
"The broad dream for NCB is to be recognised and regarded as the premier financial services institution in the Caribbean and for the image and actions of NCB to illustrate commitment to raising the country's competitiveness," he said.
At the moment, NCB is considered second in the market to Bank of Nova Scotia, but the strategist notes confidently that with the plans they are now devising, that will change, and soon.
"Neither Mr. Lee-Chin nor myself likes to be second," said Peter.
As to his own plans, fleeting thoughts of entering politics have been replaced with a resolve to make his contribution to regional development from the corporate sphere; and his farm remains a dream, for now.
