PwaniVol. 13, MARCH 2012

Redefining

BUSINESSA Publication of Pwani

www.pwani.net

Dear collegues,

As I escort you in to the 14th Edition of Redefining business I would like to

express my pleasure in engaging with you as the editor of this newsletter. Since the first edition, the business has gone through significant changes which have impacted on our ways of working. It has been a challenging journey for the editorial team to provide you with a wide range of topics, thought provoking articles and coverage of all the exciting changes that have taken place over the last few months.

This month’s issue of Redefining Business is largely devoted to planning, an important tool that we need to apply in order to achieve our goals and objectives as a whole. We have included some tips and ideas to suggest how you can plan better to achieve your desirable outcome.

You will also be able to catch up with major activities that the company has engaged in this month as well as staff recognition and awards.

As we aim to enhance the quality of our newsletters, I request you to send in your feedback or contributions to the editor either via email: PR@pwani.net or via the questionnaire attached. The first 5 staff members to send in feedback stand a chance to win 500/- airtime.

Happy Reading!

from theEditor’s Desk

“If you have one hour to cut a tree; spend 55 minutes to sharpen the axe”. – Old Chinese ProverbThis is our pet subject as currently our organization is going through so many changes and so many new exciting things are coming our way; and being launched. The critical factor for the success of these projects is planning. Planning is written about and talked about more than it is done. Planning means looking ahead and chalking out future courses of action to be followed. It is a preparatory step - a systematic activity which determines when, how and who is going to perform a specific job.

Every time a project comes to completion everyone is happy and excited. What we should all know is that there was a thought process and immense time that was invested right from the beginning while the project was just a thought. Whether it is about a big project in the future or your daily to do list you must came up with a plan on how you will go about it, that is the only way you will get it done because if you don’t know where you are going how will you get there?

My personal experience with planning has been a bumpy one. I have now adopted an approach that warrants planning in everything that we embark on; as it’s only planning that can ensure successful execution.

Here are simple 10 tips for Planning that have worked for me:1. Force yourself to plan. Schedule uninterrupted time every day to do your planning. 2. Anticipate possible problems you could encounter in your project because of people,

material, or mechanical failures. Purposely provide preventive actions and contingency plans in important high risk situations.

3. When planning a project, plan in thinking time. 4. Plan for tomorrow, tonight. Your subconscious will help you organize while you sleep. 5. Each day anticipate the sequence of activities that you will do to attain the objectives you

are after. 6. Think about your entire week. How will important projects be sequenced? 7. Do your planning on paper to capture all of your ideas and to be sure none of them get

lost. We can only work mentally with about seven pieces of information without losing some- thing. Write your thoughts down and you will be able to utilize everything you think of during your planning process.

8. When developing a specific plan, list the activity steps individually on small pieces of paper and then sequence the pieces of paper. Then write the whole plan out in sequential order.

9. If you must, leave your office and get away to do your planning in a quiet place where you can think.

10. Don’t hurry the process. Something will get overlooked.

Many a time we get frustrated about the things that didn’t go our way. When you reflect back; the fundamental cause is because we missed a key ingredient in all our strategy; it’s called ‘Planning’.

At times we are forced to make impulsive decisions and ad hoc activities come to dis-rupt our plan, this is where discipline comes in. Planning injects a measure of discipline in our thinking and plan of action. When this happens, refer to your initial plans and think of the goals you set. This will push you back to your tracks. So let’s all make plan-ning a priority in our day to day activities. Don’t let your plans gather dust on the shelf or hide in the filing cabinets. Lay out your goals; if possible write them down and these should be more than bland words. They should act like a guide. Before you start your day lay out your plan, occasionally refer and follow it to completion. That way you will discover that much more is accomplished by the end of the day. And it might even be motivating knowing that you are achieving your goals in a systematic manner. Remember – if we fail to plan – we surely are planning to fail!Good luck as we all plan for a fruitful 2012!

Planning

By: Bharat Rao

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Tree-Planting Practice

The value of trees is often perceived through the goods and services that they provide – timber and non-timber products such as fruits, edible plants and medicine just to mention a few. Apart from these direct benefits, trees provide services such as carbon sequestration (carbon sink), water retention, erosion prevention and recreation opportunities. The recent surge of interest in climate change and the resulting increase in environmental awareness exposed some of these services to the general public. Pwani has identified and seized this new opportunity to improve and ‘green’ its operations by getting involved in tree planting and thus contributing to preventing climate change.

By: Geoffrey. Wanyonyi

C.E.O Peter Beard

Director of Operations,Kikambala Plant. Riten

NEWSEarly this Month, Pwani signed a 3 year contract with Rongai Workshop and Transporters ltd to ensure better efficiency and consistency with logistics and transport of goods.

Peter Beard, C.E.O. Pwani with Ritu Bahal, Marketing & Finance Director Rongai

The tree planting exercise was officially launched on 8th of March 2012 by the CEO Mr. Peter Beard, where a group of Pwani tree enthusiasts planted over 400 trees. The project will see over 20,000 trees being planted on a 25 acre land. “Pwani has made environmental sustainability an integral part of the business. Being environmentally friendly is one of the core values that have contributed to the foundation of our company” said the CEO. He emphasized the need to have a clean and orderly workplace that befits the stature of Pwani in a corporate world.“The environment and the economy are really both two sides of the same coin. You cannot sustain the econo-my if you don’t take care of the environment because of the resources that we use whether it is oil, energy, land … all of these are the basis in which development happens. And development is what we say generates a good economy and puts money in our pockets.

If we cannot sustain the environment we cannot sustain ourselves” Prof. Wangari Maathai.

The journey to environmental sustainability began with a realization that taking care of the environment is the key to achieving operation efficiency. A few months ago, the problems besetting Kikambala were basic hygiene inconsistencies. Several initiatives have been undertaken – deep cleaning exercises and strengthening of EHS department. The synergy from staff at Kikambala has brought the sense of things being looked after and that some thought has gone into the working environment. Now Kikambala is beaming in beautiful landscapes and well kept workplaces.

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“Everyone wants to be appreciated, so if you appreciate someone, don’t keep it a secret.” Mary Kay Ash

….and a secret we will not keep. Kikambala would like to appreciate Peter Wambua, Wilson Masha and Stephen Chai from the maintenance department for going beyond the call of duty in the extra hours and hard work they invested in installing an additional mixer at the finishing line.

This mixer is in use in line 2 for laundry soap production, and has tremendously reduced production pressure in that initially only one line was in use for both laundry and toilet soap.

“Feeling appreciated is one of the most important needs that people have. When you share with someone your appreciation and gratitude, they will not forget you. Appreciation will return to you many times.” Steve Brunkhorst

KIKAMBALA APPRECIATES HER OWNBy: Evelyne Gitimu

Congratulations Beatrice Lusike for successfully obtaining the East African Customs Freight Forwarding Practicing Certificate Course in Customs Procedures, Freight Logistics and Management. This 6 month gruelling course was done at Kenya Revenue Authority Training Institute.

She now joins Priscah Akinyi as the second staff in the department with this qualification. We encourage others in the department to emulate the two.

Congratulations!

Sim showing his gratitude to Masha&Chai for a job well done

Chai, Peter and Masha with the mixer they installed

February is a month to celebrate at Jomvu and Pwaniwide. For the first time in the history of the Refinery, the team at the plant chalked up a phenomenon in performance, exceeding plant output capacity for 22 of 28days of running and posting overall daily average of 402mt on installed capacity of 400mt. Big up to Refinery team, Jomvu Factory and Pwani!

This is truly living Pwani Life, that has saved the Company approximately Kshs. 1M in variable cost. To the heroic team, no turning back, remember now this is our bench mark.

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“For quicker I.T Service please use the help desk on the intranet” That ‘s the first poster you see when you get to the office premise

every day since it was put up 3 weeks ago. Indeed the existence of the Helpdesk software can add value and productivity to a number of key areas in an enterprise.

Benefits to Staff From any of the 3 locations we are able to provide I.T support. This means supporting users in remote locations just got a whole lot easier.The bottom line for the user is that they get better and timely service. Recurring issues

can be prevented and they have confidence that nothing will “fall through the cracks”.

Benefits to the I.T Support TeamA centralized database allows the team to monitor, as well as being able to easily report on user’s helpdesk history.

for quicker IT services...

for more information contact jocelyne.muhati@pwani.net

Benefits of Helpdesk Service

With the use of add-on tools such as the Priority Manager, jobs can be pro-actively managed for timeliness, accuracy and structured workflow.

Benefits to the Helpdesk CoordinatorThe support team is being assigned jobs, using a structured workflow and is required by the system to provide accurate and timely service. The Helpdesk Coordinator can quickly generate meaningful reports that can highlight performance bottlenecks, recurring user issues, and outstanding service issues.

By: Jocelyne Muhati

The Helpdesk benefits everyone. Please USE it!

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It is said, “Safety today to avoid tomorrows regrets”. The Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) department at Pwani is dedicated to en-sure no injuries, damages, diseases or energy losses happen in our work and even home envi-ronments. This can however not be achieved by one department, so let us comply with the safety rules set forth.

It is our obligation to ensure that before we start any activity either at home or at our work place we should consider “the 4-whats”. Ask yourself:

• What can go wrong?• What can cause it to go wrong?• What can be done to prevent it from going wrong?

• What can be done to minimize the negative consequences if it does go wrong.

Don’t be safety blinded,be safety minded.

The emptySoap Box

Nothing is impossible. Infact, the words themselves say I M POSSIBLE. I would like to share with you a simple story that demostrates that every problem has a solution.

One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management was the case of the empty soap box, which happened in one of Japan’s biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soap box that was empty.

Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly line empty.

Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high- resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soap boxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty.

Shared by: Murtaza Saeed

No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent whoopee amount to do so. But when a workman was posed with the same problem, did not get into complications of X-rays, etc but instead came out with another solution.

He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.

Moral of the story: Always look for simple solutions. Devise the simplest possible solution that solves the problem. So, learn to focus on solutions not on problems

In addition, we should also apply SAWA (Safety at Work Always) by keeping the 3 golden rules as our key towards safety. These are:-

1. COMPLY: Follow procedures, laws, commit-ments, regulations and policies.

2. INTERVENE when you see something which can cause injury, or damage to assets please intervene by stopping the work and correcting .

3. RESPECT your neighbors. It’s said that you should treat others how you would like them to treat you. In this regard, consider your neigh-bors when it comes to noise (high decibels) or polluting the environment with toxic gases.

Let’s be safe every day.

By: Evelyne Gitimu

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Across 2. Animal used to tow. 4. Snoop, poke your nose in.6. In a ....means in a short while. 7. Anger, rage or indignation.8. Abbrev for an EA country.9. A letter of the sofa notation. 11. To be bothered or think about e.g. loved one, work.13. A domestic tool used for digging.15. A common multiplier in math denoting three and fourteen points.16. Field with mineral deposits.17. Unit of quantity measure for most raw materials e.g. CPO, PFAD, e.t.c.19. Fear mixed with admiration. 20. The undertaking which drives the organizational processes.21. Pronoun to describe in the first person.22. The rules or laws that guide our actions, behaviors or thoughts.25. To increase (5) the height (5).

Down1. An increasingly popular soap in the Kenyan market.2. More common.3. The closing trio in the alphabet.

FUN TRIVIABy: Andrew Kubai

1 2 3 4 5

6 7

8 9 10

11 12 13

14

15 16

17 18

19 2021

22 23 24

25

4. Delight of association with or to.5. A prefix to denote a repeat.7. Representation of a person, character e.t.c.10. To preserve or maintain the level of.12. A leash or rein as of a horse.14. To take on, employ or betroth.15. Authority, influence or command.17. To interfere with, alter or mess.18. Invoice or demand for payment.20. Intellect, brain, wit.23. A pastry taken as a dessert or snack in between meals.24. To hardly survive.

One Night 4 college students were playing till late night and could not study for the test which was scheduled for the next day. In the morning they thought of a plan. They made themselves look as dirty with grease and dirt. They then went up to the Dean and said that they had gone out to a wedding last night and on their re-turn the tire of their car burst and they had to push the car all the way back and that they were in no condi-tion to appear for the test.

So the Dean said they could have the re-test after 3 days. They thanked him and said they would be ready by that time.On the third day they appeared before the Dean. The Dean said that as this was a Special Condition Test, all four were required to sit in separate classrooms for the test. They all agreed as they had prepared well in the last 3 days.

The Test consisted of 2 questions with a total of 100 Marks.

Q.1. Your Name........................ (2 MARKS) Q.2. Which tyre burst? (98 MARKS) a) Front Left b) Front Right c) Back Left d) Back Right.....!!!

Who is Smarter now?By Murtaza Saeed

March 2012.indd 6 04/04/2012 15:28:15

Death leaves a heartache that no one can heal, but love leaves memories that no one can steal, Fare thee well Desai.

When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight ~Kahlil Gibran

These words ring true whenever Vinod comes to mind, and Iam sure many who knew him either professionally, on a personal level or both can attest to

this. He was a friend and colleague to many and his presence amongst us shall be missed. To many that you have assisted in one way or another, you

have left a mark in our hearts; To the god that you tirelessly worshiped, may His grace be with you. Though the pain of his loss runs deep, let us all look around at his contribution and embrace that pain as fuel for our journey from where he left off. He may have left us, but in return, he has also given us a treasure and that is the memories that he spent with us.

Our heartfelt condolences as Pwani family goes out to Vinod’s family and friends back at home. Words cannot express how saddened we are by the gap that he has left as a husband, father, son, brother and friend. Please know that our thoughts and prayers are with you during this tragic time. May the good Lord be your comfort and peace.

Tribute to Vinod DesaiBy: Robert Owuor.

A few weeks ago, Jackline Nkumba, Senior Manager – B2B and Vinod Desai, former Senior Manager – Production were in Ethiopia for a business trip. We had a chat with Jackline and she had a few words to share.

Q. How would you describe yourself in two words?A. Driven and systematic.

Q. What does your job at Pwani involve?A. Selling soap noodles and bulk oils (glycerin and DFA) to the

local and international markets as well as giving customers technical support to develop and improve their soap.

Q. On your recent trip to Ethiopia, you ‘made Pwani proud’, what

did it entail?A. We were in Ethiopia to help one of our key customers to reen-

gineer their laundry soap by changing their formulation which would consequently reduce their production costs significantly. In addition, we provided tips on how to run their plant more ef-ficiently.

SNP Team Makes Pwani Proud By Anthony Odeo

Jackline Nkumba, Senior Manager – B2B

Q. Given the opportunity to make Pwani better, what would you do?A. Ensure everyone understands their role and its importance in contributing to Pwani’s success as

a whole.

Q. Any words for colleagues? A. Respect for self and respect for others makes this world a better place.

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Do you hate it when you really need money, but your wallet is empty? Do you worry about how you will manage your wallet and plan how to spend your money? Well, thanks to spending wisely and saving, this can be stopped. Read some tips below.

• Plan your budget early. Don’t wait until you run out of money to apply financial self-restraint. The most important thing about budgeting is to keep your expenditure within the limits of your income. If you do not keep control of your finances, you may experience financial hard-ship.

• Think about your budget carefully. Do not un-derestimate the amount you need to live on.

• Avoid splurging too much at once. If you go out to the movies, for example, don’t buy movie theater snacks. 4

• Save half of each paycheck and use the other half for spending. Or divide it into three, some for spending, some for

saving and some for bills. • Do not get a credit card unless you are under

deadly circumstances. A credit card just tempts you to splurge out.

• Compile a list of what you need, and what you want. Budget for it so that when your salary comes in, you can buy what is on the list. Don’t buy anything that is not on the list, though. Include food, clothes, and extras for the kids.

• Know when to limit yourself. There will be a great temptation to over-spend; especially if you need to buy new things such as clothes and books, but remember this can lead to a cash shortage later on.

• Don’t go out and spend all of your money at the pub, drinking. It is such a waste. Limit yourself to a couple of drinks or no drinks per week. Or you can just quit drinking altogether. It will save you a lot of money. And possibly your life.

• Go through all of your old stuff, sort out a section that you don’t want and sell it. Hold a garage sale or auction off stuff. Instant cash!

• Avoid borrowing money. It adds up to the cost. You really want something. Put it on a list, and get it next month!

• Limit your computer, telephone, television, radio, and electricity time. Use candles in-stead of lights, watch less TV, go and visit your friends instead of calling them, switch off all switches when you are not in the house or at night.

• Pay bills promptly to avoid any ‘late’ charges. Make sure you know when you have to pay fees, bills and so on.

Spend Money WiselyBy: Neelma Shah

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