Steve Jordan talks to Alain Taïeb, president of AGS, as the company passes its half century.
AGS is 50 years old. It now has 147 offices in more than 100 countries. It is also the seed from which the MOBILITAS Group flourished to incorporate many of the industry’s most iconic brands.
But, as with many large, successful companies, AGS emerged from more humble beginnings. The company was started in 1974 in Paris by Andre and Sarah Taïeb. They named it after their three sons: Alain, Gilles and Serge. Alain remains as the company’s president and the president of the Group. Andre and Sarah’s daughter, Joelle, also plays a crucial role in the business and her son, Cédric Castro, is now the group CEO.
AGS has been a tremendous success, without doubt. But the mid-seventies saw the launch of many new international moving companies all joining onto the nascent wave of globalisation. Many failed. Some survived modestly. A few thrived, but none grew to dominate the industry in quite the way AGS did.
Alain now lives in Athens, having left London, where he lived for 15 years. I asked him what was the secret of the AGS success?
“Most businesses come from a basic idea,” he said. “To be successful you need to differentiate yourself, through the quality of your services, to accumulate awareness and goodwill; have a long-term vision; and work hard. Working six hours a day, five days a week is no way to be successful. You have to sacrifice some things in favour of your business adventure.”
Alain has always valued assets. Many companies now operate as ‘move managers’, which is not how he does things. “Some just sit at a desk and organise moves all over the world, but they are just traders, they have no assets. They can go fast and make good profits, but if things change, they disappear.”
Building a reputation
Alain said that there are always difficulties when building a business, but you need to keep on the same road and never give up. “Reputation is built through quality of service,” he said. “With social media nowadays, reputations can be built and destroyed in very short time. You need to be good always and, if something goes wrong, resolve the problem.” He said that movers, by definition, generate risk. “If there’s a problem, the customer doesn’t care how it happened, he just sees you. It’s you who is causing the trouble, so you must resolve it.”
So we need to minimise the risk and intervene the moment something goes wrong. “If you don't experience a problem with a company, you don't know how they organise a solution. You can have a client coming back even if there was a problem. I think this is common sense for all reputable companies and we have plenty in our industry. There is nothing exceptional about it, just be good.”
Relationship with the industry
Within the industry has Alain experienced any resentment resulting from the success of AGS? ...
Photo: Alain Taïeb.