Intro Track
At 3:52 Greetings Xenophiles!
Happy birthday to Johnny Cash who would have been - should have been 94 today. That was both the best thing he ever did and the best version of U2’s One ever.
In my humble opinion, of course.
Now over to Brian for the rest of ‘On this day in history’.
On this day in 1930 the first red and green traffic lights were installed in Manhattan.
In 1975 on this day the first televised kidney transplant took place.
On this day in 1983 Michael Jackson’s Thriller album reached number 1 and has basically stayed there ever since.
First - a recap
Brian Johnstone Part 2
1. France - Munich
Arrival in France (Best Job in “Retail Real Estate at the time” Haagen Dazs - Flagship shops
Opening new stores on the best streets of the best cities in Europe: Paris Champs Elysees;
Brussels; Amsterdam; Zurich;
Barcelona (timed for the olympics); Madrid, Turin; Genova; Antwerp; Cannes; Nice; 2 shops in Monte Carlo) - (Moody French Arhitect and Princess Grace’s accident…)
Transfer to Munich - Last minute decision - someone believed a Brit could do a better job than a German. Focus was new Burger King restaurants in former East Germany (they uprooted me from working on projects in the South of France to places like East Berlin; Dresden, Leipzig and worse…)
Klondyke gold rush fever across former east Germany, looking for locations - started developing partnerships with Gas & Oil majors for Co-branding. Became more involved international (opening new markets Europe, Turkey & Middle East)
19:17
2. Amsterdam - Munich - Moscow
Transfered to The Netherlands, part of the team negotiating the acquisition of Dutch business. Fire and closure of Schipol Airport….
Transfer back to Munich 2009 An attempt to engage and bring some enthusiasm to the German team to help expand into new markets.
Driving the expansion across CEE contiguous countries - Poland, Czech, Slovak, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria and Russia…. Russia - this was considered by HQ team to be a “Share Price” sensitive project and it was a really tough, challenging project, McDonalds, interference.
Late night contact (re) negotiations…..
Move to Switzerland and regular commuting to Italy Bata Footwear 2010 Retail real estate in the fashion footwear and accessory business as it tried to transition
Move to Moscow 2012
Restaurants & bars Franchise brands and own brand. Strange middle of the night awaking…..
Responsibility for the Security department…! End of 2013, Ruble started to depreciate and most of our contracts were in USD (No Fx corridor + Russian CPI index)
Attempting to negotiate rental concessions from Russian landlords….
We left russia the week Russia moved into Ukraine…
We returned back to Munich - I didn’t expect to see our belongings again, which were being transported overland Ukraine or Belarus in a Russian registered truck. I had been offered a position by Wagamama to structure and lead their international business and said I could live anywhere. That was an amazing time…..
19:34
3. Chaotic, Quixotic, Exotic
Why settle in Romania? What do you do here? Bucharest Supper Club
19:47
4. Next Chapter
What happens next?