Jan 2012 Newsletter

Volume 11.JANUARY 2012

Pwani, in its endeavor to change and update its systems and processes has contracted Netcom Information Systems to provide an HRMS (Human Resource Management System) solution. The employees will now be able to log on to the self-service mode and pull out relevant personal data such as leave balance, applying for leave online, checking your pay slip, verifying the personal data etc.

Trainings have been going on the self service module on 13th Jan 2012. Those who have not been trained on this date will be trained during the course of the month by the HR staff.

We are going live in January 2012!Kudos to the HR Team for the effort that they have put into making this happen in a short time of 3 months.

HR INSTALLS HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM SOLUTION

Happy New Year! What a year we have had! A lot of effort and time has been put into planning, reorganizing, meetings and conferences to make Pwani the

‘destination employer’ and to be the best in the industry. The journey has been long and we have all been faced with many challenges…

but the moment of execution is here and now. This is the time to Change our mindsets and challenge the status quo of ‘anything will do’. It is time for us all to take responsibility of our actions!

We are still in a transitional period and everyone involved will know by now that this is the most important period in our

history. This is the action time. Every action and decision made should be upheld to completion. No going back in our words.

The NOW can make or break us and everyone in their respective capacity counts. Let’s remember that all our actions and decisions

contribute to the bigger picture. Let all our actions be focused on achieving our set goals and every activity to show progress.

The ball is now in everyone’s court so let’s not waste time in undue processes, but focus on the bigger picture and with a sense of urgency; pooling our efforts to achieve this. This is an exciting and challenging time ahead for everyone, where everyone has opportunity to learn, to grow and to contribute to the development of Pwani.Enjoy the Journey. Good Luck,PeteC.E.O

Patrick Miriti Mwenda, joins us as Chief Finance Officer. Patrick comes with a strong financial background having worked for a mix of multi-national organizations in key management positions overseeing various aspects of Finance. Enock Mong’are Nyandiko. Joins us as Executive Procurement. He replaces Shadrack Munyao who has since moved to ERP. Enock has over 6 years experience from various establishments .Rakam Ben Kamar. Joins us as Senior Manager Supply Chain. He has gathered valuable working experience and has a strong background in the field of Supply Chain having worked in various management positions in a variety of organizations.

Hellen Kibaya. Joins us as Assistant Executive Accounts. She has gathered impressive experience in the Accounting field and is in the process of finalizing her CPA studies to become certified.

Oliver Ogutu Ochola. Joins us as Executive Accounts. He replaces Augustine Ndambuki who has since moved to Kikambala. Oliver is a Certified Accountant with 5 years experience in the Accounting field. N

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Stocks in value terms comprises approximately 80% our assets in the Balance Sheet. This means that accounting for them becomes a number one priority. How do we account for the stocks? This is a question which resonates in our mind. A simple answer would be to count it and ensure it is recorded properly. But mind you this is not as simple as it sounds.

One fine morning at the Factory in Jomvu. A phone rings….tring tring tring…, “Good Morning Chalo…it’s Andrew from I.A….We need the stock take variances report urgently’’ …. this is a typical call during the month end or year end stock take period. The year end stock take is very crucial as the value of stocks determines the profit we disclose in our Financial Statements. It’s an exercise which needs Planning, Training and Execution in precise detail and accuracy for it to be taken as True and Fair representation of the stocks we carry in our Balance Sheet.

Planning includes setting out the tasks for each department on what it has to do and by when so that we can count stocks properly. Training is for the Team Leaders and Members who would be conducting the actual count, and for the Back Office Team who would be processing data in real time. All this happened in a span of two weeks from 14th December 2011.

On 3rd Jan (execution date), the I.A. Team members started with an introductory and supportive brief to kick off the Stock Take. Counts were conducted with precise accuracy by all teams as they had been sensitized on its importance. The HR Department played a very active role as well by organizing the logistics and refreshments for all involved in the counting. A big ‘’Asante Sana’’ to HR from I.A. The physical counts were completed properly in a day but the back office cell work started thereafter to identify variances and to reconcile them. This is a tedious exercise but has to be done to ascertain where we went wrong and where we can improve on.

11 days after the count, final adjustments were being completed to factor in the errors in recording or non recording. The final report will be out anytime as we speak….A well conducted exercise. Bravo to all who took part in it and assisted in any way….

By: I.A. Team

STOCK-TAKE 2011 EXERCISE.STOCK-TAKE 2011 EXERCISE.

Since kick-off…We had a meeting where all the goals and plans

were presented to get all the team members up to speed with the plans ahead. The members of the steering committee, HoDs and Super-users were all in attendance. The spirits were up and all were geared to go for it. The zeal and zest was palpable.

During this visit the ERP team consisting of Pwani and Fusion were able to achieve the following:-

• A whole bunch of technical stuff …. * Downloaded Oracle 12.1.3 for accelerate* Download software

...cont.to page 4

Patrick Miriti Mwenda, joins us as Chief Finance Officer. Patrick comes with a strong financial background having worked for a mix of multi-national organizations in key management positions overseeing various aspects of Finance. Enock Mong’are Nyandiko. Joins us as Executive Procurement. He replaces Shadrack Munyao who has since moved to ERP. Enock has over 6 years experience from various establishments .Rakam Ben Kamar. Joins us as Senior Manager Supply Chain. He has gathered valuable working experience and has a strong background in the field of Supply Chain having worked in various management positions in a variety of organizations.

Hellen Kibaya. Joins us as Assistant Executive Accounts. She has gathered impressive experience in the Accounting field and is in the process of finalizing her CPA studies to become certified.

Oliver Ogutu Ochola. Joins us as Executive Accounts. He replaces Augustine Ndambuki who has since moved to Kikambala. Oliver is a Certified Accountant with 5 years experience in the Accounting field.

KIKOMBA MATRESSES WANAFURAHIA ‘PWANI LIFE!’

Pwani launched a National Display Competition named Furahia ‘Pwani life!’ in Oct 2011 that concludes at the end of this month. The objective of this promotion was to enhance ‘Availability & Visibility’ and to internalize ‘Pwani life!’ at the various Modern Trade Retail Outlets across the country. Of the targeted 250 outlets we were able to sign up 185 outlets - big; medium and small estate supermarkets for this initiative.

The photo below is of a Supermarket, KIKOMBA MATRESSES; a busy store in KIKOMBA based in the periphery of Nairobi’ s Central Business District. This is a customer that is serviced by one of our CC’s; Crisscross, that was assigned the jurisdiction of Nairobi. Polycarp Nyawuana, Senior Executive Channel Development, said that, “The photo exhibits the level of engagement & interest

and Globally as a Company.The photos shown at the top are for your attention not to mock anyone but to say, “Please improve as it’s for the benefit of yourself!” All those that have displayed Pride and Care have been recognized (see noticeboards for more details).

This is not the end, it’s only just the BEGINNING…..

The Judgment was based on a number of key points, Effort, Consistency and a Display of the urgency to change. We had the opportunity to photograph a few of the category candidates be it individual or sites within Pwani. What we observed was that Pride and Care was not a new notion for us, however, but that we need some more enthusiasm in all of us to carry it beyond just the competition period. Pride and Care will do wonders in you as an Individual, collectively as a Team

Does this look familiar? Not a very pretty sight is it? And certainly not something Pwani can be proud of! Pwanians need to take Pride in what they do and with due Care at all times.To emphasize on the importance of Pride and Care, the Pwani Wordsmiths came up with a wonderful competition which commenced in December 2011 and ran through New Years to 17th January 2012. This gave ample time for all staff to improve on. We had four categories of awards being contested for: Best Work Station, Best Dress Code, Best Team and Best Working Environment.

PRIDE AND CAREPRIDE AND CARESince kick-off…We had a meeting where all the goals and plans

were presented to get all the team members up to speed with the plans ahead. The members of the steering committee, HoDs and Super-users were all in attendance. The spirits were up and all were geared to go for it. The zeal and zest was palpable.

During this visit the ERP team consisting of Pwani and Fusion were able to achieve the following:-

• A whole bunch of technical stuff …. * Downloaded Oracle 12.1.3 for accelerate* Download software

...cont.to page 4

demonstrated by the said outlet. As is evident this customer is very passionate about Pwani displays because our products took the centre stage in the limited space available.” The reward criterion in this competition was for the most creative display; however it has to be sustained and hence consistency is a prerequisite to qualify.

The promotion has met most of its objectives, including identifying the ‘gaps in supply chain & distribution’. The information gathered is constantly being communicated to the respective CC (Channel Champion) to improve on. By: Sales Team

* Send hardware ready diagnostic tool to Oracle* Installed Oracle software on Pwani servers* Send Oracle load diagnostic tool to Oracle (both are re quirements to get access to the Accelerate workspace)* Backup database – key back up that we may go back to when we apply the configuration.

• Together, the team reviewed business process flows for Pwani as they are to understand the business and its needs with re-gards to the system and reviewed Oracle’s process flow videos to orientate the team to what the system will look like when complete.

• Looked at and reviewed the business principles. These are Fun-damental norms, rules, or values that represent what is desir-able and positive for the organization. This

exercise though has to be revisited often during the implementation.• Agreed on the organization structure to be set up in Oracle. This is not an organization chart like you are thinking.

It’s a thing like you have never seen before and I promise you that it will blow your mind. We hit yet another milestone in December – - BASELINE CONFIGURATION!!!- This means we have the basic system in place and after some tweaking here and there we can present a good percentage of the system/solution.

But it’s not all work, work, workThey say all work, no play makes Jack a dull boy and we did not all want to compete for the name Jack; so we took time off to play and celebrate at the end of the year. 21 days of workspace were over and we had just completed the download of the configuration tool and filled up several documents with information. All members of the team and the HoDs went out to Cinemax to bowl together. I wish I could use the word palpable again to describe the evening mood……. it was great fun! By: ERP Team

The first month of 2012 has begun. Some of us have already started working on our New Year’s resolutions and have started making changes in our daily life. Whilst these resolutions are still fresh in everyone’s mind and bearing in mind, this month’s theme, I have picked up an interesting excerpt from a book by Stephen Covey entitled “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” that talks about “BEGINNING WITH THE END IN MIND”.

To begin with the end in mind simply means to start off any project with a clear understanding of your task and the end goal to be achieved. As soon as you take on any project in hand you first have to begin by understanding the task and the primary objective of this task so that you take the correct steps towards completion of this task.

You can aim at the completion by simply following the below tasks with a lot of discipline:-

• Make a To Do List. List down all your tasks. Then cat-egorise them, break them down and assign a schedule for its completion.

• Organise your To Do List. Try to evaluate each task and determine its urgency and importance. Priority should be given to deadlines and emergencies. Trivial and frivo-lous tasks can be categorised as non-urgent.

• Follow through the tasks especially when they have been delegated to ensure that you are doing the things that you are committed to do in the agreed time line. Regular meetings to assess the progress of the task are essential especially in group activities.

• Evaluate your To Do List. Make it a habit to regularly evaluate and update your To Do List.

• Discipline and Persistence. Discipline and persistence to the very end of each task is needed to ensure that the task is executed to the end.

The above are a few guidelines that may help you to ensure that you see any task to the very end.

This sense of accomplishment will give you a great feeling of achievement and motivation and will propel you forward in life!By: Aarti Malde

BEGINNING WITH THE END IN MIND

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KIKOMBA MATRESSES WANAFURAHIA ‘PWANI LIFE!’Cont. from page 3