BANZA May 2016 Issue | Page 68

At-Mau-Sphere | BANZA John-Pierre was born and raised in Beau Bassin, where he also attended all his schools. Growing up, he had only one thing in mind: to work on cruise ships and travel to other countries. As things don’t always go as planned, he went on to work in retail stores instead. “After some time, I joined bigger companies. I worked as a corporate sales representative in Emtel, the mobile telecommunications company. I left after three years to work on a more challenging project in Madagascar. Madacom wanted to increase its subscriber base, so I was tasked with building a team of 12 people to work in sales and marketing in the corporate sales department. Following Madacom’s success, I came back home after two years to establish a water sports business. It didn’t do well as I had to recruit skippers, who were not loyal to the business most of the time.” He closed the business and began to hunt for a job. “I landed in Saga Holidays, a travel company which plans holidays tours for people over 50 years of age. I went to Kent, England where I underwent rigorous training on customer service. Back in Mauritius, I had to ensure that the clients had the best holiday experience, meaning, I had to stay full time at the hotels to respond to queries in time.’’ In 2008, John-Pierre, always on the move, joined a fish processing company in | BANZA 68