Development or Detergent? - by Fouad Kronfol

A few months ago Nadia and I had dinner at the Cafe de Paris in Geneva. This venerable establishment has been in operation from the 1930's when the owner "invented" a new dining formula consisting of steak, salad and unlimited fries with the meat cooked in a butter sauce the recipe of which is a secret to date. On every occasion that I visited Geneva I have always had at least one meal at that restaurant. My very first visit was in 1961 also my initial trip to Geneva. And, therein lies a story!

On 2 March 1959 I was appointed in UNICEF's Eastern Mediterranean Area Office as Reports Assistant at the General Service E. level for a period of probation to be reviewed on 28 February 1961. At that time the Beirut office was "regional" in function but still listed as an area office because the real regional office was in Paris .For those who may remember him my first personnel action form was signed by Tony Berouti as the EMAO Administrative Officer.The UN salary scales were later revised and I was given the grade of GS.5 step 5. Because of the uncertainty of the Beirut office structures, as a result of the Lawrence Michelmore management review, my probationary period was extended on 1 March 1961and my new personnel action form was signed by Rachid Koleilat, the Area Representative. Although I was still attached to the regional office there was talk of moving me to the area office in the new structure.

My job initially in EMAO was to set up a reference library in the new office premises that UNICEF had acquired when they moved away from the UNRWA HQ. I had worked at the AUB library as a student and had some experience in this domain. Basically it consisted of placing all the official HQ issued Executive Board documents, as well as much of the public information materials, in an organized manner so the staff could retrieve and use them. Needless to say I benefitted from the months that I was doing the task to read much of the materials and hence, I believe, that I probably got the best possible orientation to UNICEF of any new recruit.

While all that was going on, and I was told that my future with UNICEF was still not decided, I had applied for a job with Proctor & Gamble, the American conglommerate which had set up a new office in Geneva to cover their European and MENA activities, and were recruiting a regional sales manager. A big P&G delegation came to Beirut and organized a one day initial screening of some 350 applicants from all over the region. A couple of months later I received a letter from P&G inviting me to Geneva for further interviews. I consulted Mr. Koleilat on whether I should go and he advised me that since UNICEF was unable to guarantee my continued employment I should not lose this possibility with P&G.

Together with 5 other potential candidates I travelled to Geneva for a four day period of more intensive and personal interviews with a wide range of P&G officials. This was my first ever visit to Switzerland and I very much enjoyed exploring the city. Much less interesting for me became the exhaustive and intensive interviews with the prospective employer. Their accent was clearly on loyalty to the company and the brand while my main concerns were the practical issues of responsibilities,emoluments, and living conditions. After the second day, one of their Personnel Division's staffers, who happened to have gone to AUB and got friendly with me, asked me to lunch. He informed me, unofficially, that I had become the leading candidate but advised me to tone down my requests for info on salary, benefits etc and to play up my wish to become a P&G staffer because I believed in their mission and their outstanding employment reputation. This demarche did not sit well with me, however, and I continued with my frontal approach.

In the back of my head was the knowledge I had acquired about UNICEF, its mission and its projects.I was touched by the humanity of the staff I met and their attitudes towards me. My main interlocutors were Rachid Koleilat, Martin Sandberg and Tony Meager as well as Arthur Robinson, all of whom taught me a lot on different aspects of the organization. In many ways I had become a humanitarian and social development person and was a believer in the United Nations and its actions in the world.Even though my continued employment was not guaranteed I knew that I had a very good chance and that many senior staffers would support me. Contrasting this with the materialism, commercialism and impersonality of work in a global economic conglommerate became increasingly a no-brainer for me. Although I had limited experience with UNICEF I could not see myself as "selling detergents" for the rest of my life! I was relieved when P&G sent me another letter saying they could not offer me employment and that they would soon organize another round of interviews for the post in Geneva. Meanwhile UNICEF converted my contract to a regular appointment as of 1 September 1961 in the Beirut Area Office as a Programme Assistant with Mr.Koleilat, the Area Representative.

Before I forget, let me inform the reader that the lunch to which I was invited by the P&G staffer was at the Cafe de Paris. At that time it was considered a very high-end and chic restaurant which I certainly could not afford, so it was very kind of my host to let me enjoy that particular establishment. Some 65 years later it is still one of my favourite restaurants in Geneva.