The Interview:
Sunday Post Magazine
(Hong Kong)
Fionnula McHugh plugs into the live wire of "corporate solutions"
Ron Kaufman isn't shy when it comes to shouting his name from the rooftops. The former frisbee-festival organiser, now a self-styled sultan of motivation, advises multinational companies on how best to impress. He does this at the speed of sound, pouring forth non-stop streams of ideas. Fionnuala McHugh plugs into the live wire of "corporate solutions".
Ron Kaufman is an American who lives in Singapore and describes himself as "an internationally acclaimed innovator and motivator for partnerships and quality service". He has just written a book called Up Your Service! which is the culmination of two years' writing and a decade's thought on such matters. It features 137 photographs of Kaufman in various poses (some with his four-year-old daughter, Brighten) and he flicked through it while we sat in a room at the Conrad Hotel, saying encouraging things like, "This is really fun, you're going to giggle ... See this one?" - pointing to a picture of himself looking puzzled - "Mindset! Duh! And this one?" - pointing to a picture of himself holding a drill - "Tools! Hello? You just got it!" In fact, I did giggle, right on cue, because Kaufman, who is nobody's fool, knows how to keep a journalist or a roomful of people entertained.
Before we met I'd looked up his Web site (www.RonKaufman.com) which parades a list of testimonials from companies such as Motorola and Sony ("Thank you for that 'gigawatt' impactful session"), and which also included a Sri Lankan television advertisement for his seminars. "Unbelievable!" boomed the voice in the commercial, above a sea of astounded Sri Lankans, and that is how Kaufman markets his skills: they, and he, are unbelievable. His career path is also amazing, having included eight years as a frisbee-tournament organiser. Recalling those halcyon days, Kaufman - who operates on about warp-factor seven, despite giving up coffee in 1992, sleeping four hours a night and being a lacto-vegetarian - went into such overdrive I could see my writing going fuzzy around the edges as I tried to keep up with the torrent of words and jokes.
Much later, analysing how he deals with clients' problems, he said, "My brain starts inventing. That's a miracle to me, my brain - wooohhh! - and I'm sure that happens because I grew up in America. Go West young man! If it feels good, do it! Walt Disney! Did you know he went bankrupt six times? Americans love that, they love an underdog." I wasn't sure, exactly, why Kaufman pictured himself in this category, so he stood up - he's 1.63 metres tall - and announced: "I'm a little guy who can't play basketball." Hence the frisbee connection, where a man can evidently learn to walk tall among his peers. "That gave me real ease with mass groups. What I did were not tournaments, they were festivals. I'm saying, How many people can we entertain? I've been a populist all my life, I enjoy people." As a result, in 1985, he took 18 people on a Frisbee Flying Friendship Tour of China. "On the frisbees it said - are you ready for this? - okay, it said 'World Peace Through Communication, Co-operation, Friendship, Laughter and Play'. The Chinese people just dug it, that was the coolest event I've ever done." He was so inspired by the trip he set up Citizen Diplomacy Tours to take Americans to Russia. With frisbees? "Whatever. It was to break down the walls of misunderstanding. I did that for a while then Chernobyl blew up and that put the kybosh on that." He was in San Diego ("You can say I was an expert in body work and breath therapy from my California days") when someone he knew suggested he conduct "a half-day personal development module" for American Express. "I'd never done a corporate gig in my life, and when I met the head honcho he said he wanted me to design a five-day event. So I'm organising what looked like a frisbee festival - let's have friendship, laughter and play - but I'm intellectually nimble enough to make that shift. And they loved it! They'd never had such a great time! Guess what happened then? Referrals."
The unexpected result was that he ended up in Singapore. "In 1990 the government of Singapore, through the National Productivity Board, which is now the Productivity and Standards Board, wanted Singapore's service to improve. The indigenous culture was not inclined towards service, it's a trading culture, so they've got a problem. You've got to upgrade the level of graciousness, but how do you shift the culture of an entire society? They found me." Goodness, I observed (predictably enough), so you're the reason Singapore is the way it is. But Kaufman, who'd surely heard this line before, immediately looked serious. "I would never say that. I would say that I've been privileged to help make a contribution to ongoing service improvements. A lot of expatriate consultants will fly in and take credit and that's not respectful. What can one little guy do?" On the other hand, the Singaporeans, who initially took him on for a week, obviously took to the little guy, and when all the other expats departed, they asked Kaufman to stay. Why? "Something about my style works very well with the local population. Okay, this is non-humble, this is a moment of raging ego. I'm very good at what I do. Not only that, I feel at home in Singapore. And I'm more comfortable out than in America. America might feel monochromatic to me now."
The conferences Kaufman now gives regionally, judging by his performance with me, are infectiously high-kinetic events, so I can see why, as he claims, people come out of them all fired up and raring to go. "I'm not Steve Martin or Jerry Lewis, it's not entertainment, it's a business conference. But I'm going to make it so practical and easy that you'll leave saying, 'I'm going to do something!'" As it happens, he's giving a talk here, at the Exhibition and Convention Centre, on May 3 about Up Your Service! if you want to see him in fast-forward action for yourself. (You can contact him at Ron@RonKaufman.com.) While I was pondering who, exactly, his volume might be aimed at, he cried, "So when people say, 'Who's this book for?', I say, 'Are you human?' This book will make you a better service provider, a better customer, a better colleague. And for dating, I show you where the hooks are. I'm a little bold and forward - are you married?" I said no, so Kaufman declared he was a successful matchmaker and would go on marital alert on my behalf, which, given his energy ("Let's work it! Boom, boom, boom!") and staying-power, is an encouraging, or possibly terrifying, thought.
"I came out here as a hired gun, a Lone Ranger consultant. Ten years later, I have a family, a beautiful house, a strong career and a public identity as a professional in a region where they appreciate it. In America, I'd just be one more guy with a show. I can pour on 100 per cent of what I'm capable of doing here and they lap it up." He paused for a nano-second. "The trouble with me," he remarked, looking untroubled, "is that I never went dry."
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