Let me tell you about my dinner with Maria Ozawa

Last month, Lexus Manila executive vice-president Ichiro Suzuki (yes, same name as the baseball player) sent me a text message, wishing to plan a casual dinner. We had bonded together at the August launch of the LC500 grand tourer; perhaps he simply wanted to hang out for some drinks and tall tales from our youth.

What, in fact, he had in mind was to have me meet Maria Ozawa, who is now based in Manila with a Filipino boyfriend and a couple of bars to manage. This dinner took place last week, at the classy Nobu Restaurant in City of Dreams. We had a beer before Ms. Ozawa’s arrival, whereupon I asked Suzuki-san the big question: What does his company intend to do now that their sales director has been poached by BMW?

His countenance registered surprise. Either because he didn’t know how to answer, or he couldn’t believe I wanted to talk shop even with the knowledge that Maria Ozawa was just minutes away from joining us for a proper Japanese meal. He guardedly said they were already making arrangements for a smooth transition. When I inquired if they were worried that they stood to lose their sales director’s impressive network of VIP clients, Mr. Suzuki replied: “That would be interesting… to see which of the two is more important — personal loyalty or brand strength.”

I took it to mean that the Japanese executive was himself wondering whether luxury car buyers in this country based their purchasing decision on personal influence or on the product itself. If it were the former, there could be significant customer migration from Lexus to BMW next year. If it were the latter, Lexus would have nothing to be anxious about. Suzuki-san is aware that his brand has gone from strength to strength since formally opening its Bonifacio Global City facility in January 2009, and is now challenging both BMW and Mercedes-Benz for the top spot, sales-wise, in the local premium car segment. Last year, Lexus sold a total of 670 units against BMW’s 1,016. This year? Through August, Lexus had already sold 805 vehicles, comfortably ahead of BMW’s 689.

Surely, in Mr. Suzuki’s mind, all of this sales success couldn’t have been just the handiwork of one individual. While a gifted and well-connected sales strategist can indeed drive traffic to the showroom and engage people, in the long run the customers come back because of more crucial factors — chief among which being product quality and after-sales service.

Our work-related conversation was, to my absolute annoyance, interrupted by the appearance of Maria Ozawa. If she thought that she could rudely barge in on our business chat like that just because she possessed a beautiful face, she was right. Because I completely forgot about Lexus and BMW as soon as she sat next to me. Just kidding. The truth is that I couldn’t take my mind off the transferring sales boss, especially when Maria told me what the yakuza did to members who wanted to quit their organization. I assure you I’m not a putrid deviant who’d rather visualize a bespectacled dude than a winsome lady, but I was developing the outline for this story in my head.

The sales director in question is Adrian Spencer Y. Yu, who has certainly come a long way since his days as a sales agent at Honda Cars Makati in the 1990s, his first job. From there, he moved to PGA Cars, the local distributor for Audi and Porsche, in January 2000, working his way up to the general manager post and in the process expanding his network in the upper echelons of the business community. In October 2008, he crossed over to Lexus Manila, where he would receive mentorship from then company president Daniel M. Isla.

Allow me to underline the weight of that last sentence.

Pre-Lexus, the 42-year-old industry veteran had been notorious in motoring circles for being an obnoxious character. I know this from experience, but that’s another story. Under Mr. Isla’s guidance, he slowly transformed into a mellower, more agreeable version of himself. “The most important thing I learned from him is how to deal with people — dealing with customers and, most importantly, [sales] team members,” Spencer revealed. “I learned the value of making team members happy and motivated.”

Imagine a salesperson with a vast network, and then give him serious people skills. That’s what BMW is getting here. Someone who has the mobile numbers of Audi owners on his phone, and the Lexus philosophy under his belt. Deadly, if you ask me.

But how did Mr. Yu find his way to BMW?

Two decades ago, one of Spencer’s clients at Honda was a man by the name of Ramon S. Ang, who bought an Accord and a CR-V from him. Mr. Ang would continue to do business with Spencer through his stints at PGA Cars and Lexus Manila. Spencer would personally deliver the cars to his high-profile customer, eventually gaining the latter’s trust and confidence.

Mr. Ang, of course, is the president of San Miguel Corp., which has recently acquired 65% of BMW distributor Asian Carmakers Corp. (to be renamed SMC Asia Car Distributors Corp.). By all relevant accounts, the guy is a micromanager who likes appointing lieutenants he feels are loyal to him. It still isn’t clear what Spencer’s exact designation at BMW will be. What is clear is that RSA, perhaps Lexus’s most prized client before he decided to take over BMW in our market, liked what he saw in his fresh hire.

Mr. Yu is staying at Lexus until the end of this month, after which he plans to take a well-deserved break before commencing his tenure at BMW in December. Current Lexus Manila president Raymond T. Rodriguez declined to comment on this development, but according to his predecessor, “the company is in cruise control.”

Oh yeah… Maria Ozawa. Over sake and teppanyaki, she shared that if one wanted out of the yakuza, that poor soul had to cut a finger or two as some sort of indemnity. Thankfully, Lexus is not an organized crime syndicate. So yes, Spencer can go use all 10 of his digits to tally BMW sales.

You may e-mail the author at vbsarne@visor.ph.