The mobile Roadhound

For the past 20 years, Ben Sharma, managing director at Roadhound, has seen the mobile phone distribution business go from a niche marketplace to become a distributor of a mass produced item – the mobile phone.

He started the business back in the late 1980s when phones came in the brick style and were worth around $5000. Phones from reputable companies like Motorola were called the ‘Motorola bag phone’, because it literally had to be carried around in a bag and weighed around three kilograms, and were being used by tradesmen and businessmen.

Car retail

Sharma actually started out in the retail car audio and general car accessories business in the late 1970s. His shop – Galaxy Sounds – was based in Maitland, New South Wales, just west of Newcastle.

The previous owner was not making any money and was happy to sell the business to Sharma for about $2500.

“At the time I had no interest in continuing my studies at the University of Newcastle for a Bachelor of Science degree. I just did it to keep my family happy – especially my mum,” he recalls.

“My passion was to get out in the workplace and earn a dollar. Besides, university was an
expensive experience – every time you made a mistake you hurt the back pocket dearly.”

Sharma’s first experience in selling communications was the CB Radio – at the time there was a wave of take-up from people in isolated areas.

When he saw his first mobile phone, he decided to give up the car radio and general audio retail business and headed into the wholesale of mobile phones.

“I think the sheer technology of the piece of equipment’s processing power can be compared to old computers. It could send data with an instant result for the recipient – at the time I was just like WOW,” he says.

Distribution business

However, in the distribution game, life is difficult. Sharma had to convince manufacturers he was the right guy to do the job for them. Being based in Newcastle during that era was a huge disadvantage for him.

“Manufacturers saw it as a negative – if you were any good you had to be based in the big smoke. However, I felt being based in the area had the advantage because of the staff I employed. Their mind-set was they had a little bit of ownership of the job – they did care about giving the business the dividends,” he said.

When Sharma started out he got his break from one or two distributors that accepted Roadhound being based in a ‘provincial town’. Mitsubishi, which manufactured its products out of Rydalmere, Motorola and then Nokia, made Roadhound successful.

Back then he had to overcome the prejudice – Sharma had to deal with the fact that it was not financially stable enough to become a really good distributor; and with Motorola, its biggest prejudice was the perception that distributors in the city offered better service.

“I think passion, perseverance, ethics and scruples can help you go a long way in business.” He is a firm believer that the ‘end doesn’t always justify the means’ when you’re in the distribution game.

“Unfortunately a lot of companies have lost that belief and I don’t subscribe to their way of doing things. That is why we have a stronger relationship with the likes of Nokia, Motorola and Samsung,” says Sharma.

Being truthful

Sharma has seen the benefits of his beliefs, with vendors trusting what he says he can deliver, because in distribution “a partner depends on you and you depend on them”.

What keeps Roadhound going, says Sharma is the trust between it and the manufacturers. Roadhound is a regional distributor that usually gets to the bulk of the market. It has relationships with the little dealers, right up to organisations with a 100 to 200 stores.

To make Roadhound financial all the time, all the profits remained in the company to make it financially stronger year after year. At the end of the day Sharma subscribed to the litmus test, which was the ability to “deliver on promises”.

“I had to prove to the Nokias of the world ‘Yes, we could do it’ and basically not to take on more than

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