Life’s Rewarding Experiences

 

I have just finished reading a book which it has taken my Uncle-in-law ,Mr Leslie Davidson, (pictured above) 40 years to write and what a hilarious and deeply moving account of his early days at Unilever it is. The book is a personal record of some of the events which occurred when he was sent by Unilever in 1960 with his young family to set up one of the first oil palm plantations in Borneo. When Leslie returned to London in 1974 to become the Chairman of Unilever’s Plantation division he found in the archive every monthly report and every letter exchange between himself and Unilever’s London office and he used these records to help pull together the various stories in his book.

When I met him at his nephew’s 50^th birthday party last week we were comparing the mobility requirements of the young management of today (perhaps at Unilever but true of any large corporate) with his own experiences as a 30 year old on assignment in the 60’s.  Management today expect business travel, top class accommodation and private schooling for their children – it was “much different in his day”. He amusingly quoted from his book the aftermath of the 1963 monsoon (in his December report he predicted the monsoon would be ‘comparatively mild’ which in fact turned out to be the worst weather forecast since Noah’s wife told him it was only a passing shower!):

“As I watched our house disappearing into the darkness, I reflected sadly that although I had often stood on my verandah and waved goodbye to a boat going off down the river, it was the first time I had stood on a boat and waved goodbye to my house going down the river.”

But his stories do not reflect at all on the hardship of his living circumstances they are instead (as he states in his Preface) a tribute to some of his oldest friends who were involved in the oil palm plantation projects from his neighbours, the workers, the officials he had to entertain to the medicine-man. The people Rudyard Kipling refers to as:

Not the great nor well-bespoke,

But the mere uncounted folk.

What has happened to those young corporate executives and their sense of adventure and challenge – international assignments appear to now be all about financial reward due to sacrificing current lifestyles rather than about the rewarding life experiences of working in differing environments and cultures and having amazing stories to tell at dinner parties in years to come.

This book demonstrates Leslie's leadership not amongst Unilevlers London management team but in creating a harmonious estate community out of a truly disparate range of races and religions.

If you have any connections with Unilever today you may find it an interesting read but although it has been published you will not find it any Waterstones book store (unless in Signapore) you will need to ask me to lend you my personal copy.