FEA Farewells Its Longest

Serving Chairman

I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

Farewelling Of

Mr. Nizam Ud

Dean

1,2

Welcome New

FEA Chairman

3

Chairman’s

Speech at the

FHRI Convention

4,5,

6

Health & Safety 7

Graduate Engi-

neer’s Corner

8

Northern News 9

Quality Circle

Journey

10

HRSBA EOQ &

APQO

11

Customer Service

News

12

Diwali Celebra-

tions

13,

14

B U S I N E S S N A M E

Photo: Courtesy of

Mukesh CHandra

N E W S L E T T E R D A T E V O L U M E 2 , 2 0 1 6 Volume 41 | Issue 9 | 2016

The staff and management of the Fiji Electricity Authority bade farewell to the

outgoing Board Chairman Mr. Nizam-ud-Dean. Mr. Dean who worked for

FEA for the past 44 years, served as the Chief Executive for seven years and

was the Board Chairman for the past nine years.

“Wishing

You

Joy

&

Happi-

ness

as you

begin a

new

chapter in

your life.”

P A G E 2

Ni Sa Moce

Former FEA Chairman Mr. Nizam Ud-Dean centre during the

farewell function at GPH which was attended by Minister For

Trade and Tourism Honorable Mr. Faiyaz Koya. Seen here

shaking hand with new the FEA Chairman Mr. Daksesh Patel

and handing over the reins.

Mr Nizam Ud-Dean started

as an electrical engineer in

1972.

Mr. Dean was second-

ed to the Electricity depart-

ment of the Suva City Coun-

cil (SCC) and became the

Council’s deputy chief Elec-

trical Engineer two years

later.

After working for 44 years at the Fiji Electricity Authority, its Board Chairman

Mr. Nizam Ud-Dean was farewelled by staff and Industry stakeholders includ-

ing the Minister for Trade and Tourism Minister Honorable Mr. Faiyaz Siddiq

Koya. Mr Nizam Ud-Dean was the Board Chairman for nine years and spent

years as the Authority’s chief executive officer.

While farewelling him, the new Board Chairman Mr. Daksesh Patel was wel-

comed to the helm of the Board by Minister for Trade and Tourism Honorable

Mr Faiyaz Koya. Hon Mr. Koya acknowledged Mr Nizam Ud-Dean’s leadership

of the Authority during some of its most trying times. “One must not forget how

Mr Dean steered the FEA through economic turbulence which was caused by

the crisis in the domestic markets and international markets of oil supply.

“During his leadership, the FEA was able to achieve one of the best accom-

plishments ever and that was to be financially stable and independent. This is

evidently and impressively portrayed in the good profitability level of the FEA,”

Honorable Mr Koya said.

In 2011 FEA’s total asset value exceeded F$1billion and concurrently added

significant shareholder value in recent years. For this reason, shareholder val-

ue increased from $414.7 million in 2010 to $647.2m in 2015.

“Mr Dean is passionate about business excellence and other productivity tools

which promotes staff empowerment, customer focus, capacity building and

building leadership systems within the organisation. “The implementation of

these tools in the FEA is demonstrated through the financial achievements

and successful implementation of electricity projects.”

P A G E 3

Incoming Fiji Electricity Authority Board Chairman Mr. Daksesh Pa-

tel says he is ready to take the organisation to greater heights. He

says FEA is committed to achieving the objectives of the Govern-

ment to become a renewable energy generating Nation by 2030.

Mr. Daksesh Patel says FEA will be playing a more direct role in

the renewable energy programs and give some of the larger pro-

jects to Independent Power Producers (IPP’s)

“FEA’s balance sheet is capable of raising enough equity and funds to fund some

of the major scale projects and we will be working very hard towards that. We

know for a fact that FEA will be privatised in time to come probably in the next

twelve months and we look forward to getting some great shareholders into the

business and more importantly hopefully the people of Fiji invest in FEA.”

Mr. Daksesh Patel says FEA will also increase rural electrification and provide a

more competitive electricity cost to the consumers.

Mr. Daksesh Patel was born and brought up in Ba, Fiji. He completed his un-

dergraduate degree in commerce in NSW and later undertook and completed

MBA program from Massey University in NZ. He worked as a graduate manage-

ment trainee at Asian paints in India for 12 months before starting a permanent

role in the family business, the Vinod Patel Group wherein his father Mr Vinod

Patel was both the founder and Chairman of the group.

In 1997 Mr. Daksesh Patel left the family business and migrated to Australia. A

few years ago when Mr Vinod Patel retired from all executive role and from the

executive board of Vinod Patel Group, Mr. Daksesh Patel joined the family busi-

ness as an adviser to the executive Board of Vinod Patel and also acted as a

Chairman of the executive Board till the Board was able to appoint a permanent

chairman.

Given his strong affection to Fiji, he accepted the invitation from the Government

of Fiji to become one of the Commissioners of the Public Service Commission

Board. Mr. Daksesh Patel is currently the Chairman of FEA

FEA Chairman

Mr. Daksesh Patel

Welcome Our New Chairman

The difference between the success and failure is about how one man-ages their people.

As HR professionals

you have played a piv-

otal role and I did men-

tion that we have differ-

ences in bringing peo-

ple together and work-

ing together for a com-

mon vision which is a

daunting task. It is a

very important exer-

cise.

So managing process-

es in your business

activity should focus on

that and if you empow-

er and motivate the

people, it will produce

the right results.

Fiji Human Resources Institute 2016 Conference Theme: Human Capital Profitable Investment

P A G E 4

UNDERSTANDING/MANAGING PEOPLE

In my many years of experience as a businessman; mainly in my family business and more recently as Chairman of FEA and indeed as a member of sev-eral social organization which I am involved in; I am convinced that managing people and / or under-standing people is one of the most difficult if not the most difficult areas of life; professionally and gener-

ally. Organizations are made or destroyed by people. It’s the people who run and operate businesses. I would in fact go as far as saying that businesses is not about making sure how well you make a product or how much profit it generates; I appreciate and understand these are relevant but predominantly it is important how well you manage people. The difference between the success and failure is about how one manages their people. It is about how do you motivate them, how do you empower them, how do you make them believe in your vision, how do you create the environment of cohesive-

ness. You all know that 5 hands or 5 heads are better then 1. These are not

clichés but these are relevant and important facts. A good example of this is in our daily life. As parents we all expect; at least some of us if not all; that children must excel and achieve within top 10 or 5 or 1 percent of the class. I wake up every morning and remind myself that how will I convince my daughters to study hard. It is almost a habit amongst parents. It is equally a pain taking exer-cise to keep on talking about it because the children feel they are trying really hard but parents think they are not – isn’t it true? Neither looks forward to this daily dis-cussion in the morning but both the parents and children feel oblige to do this nor do both in the end hate it because invariably they will end up arguing. Now imag-ine if the same discussion was positively reinforced. Complimenting children for the efforts and extending support to help them etc.

Think about it, it’s a big difference.

An environment where people fear or as opposed to an environment where people

look forward to something and we must all work towards to the environment where

people look forward to achieving something, where people look forward to having

a discussion on anything and everything. That is a challenge and that is where I

am coming from.

DEFINE HUMAN CAPITAL

Google defines it as “skills, knowledge and experience possessed by the individu-al or population and viewed in terms of value of the cost to the organization or the country”. In that definition we talked about skills, knowledge and experience and value and how this will affect the organization in terms of costs and benefits. Therefore, our action in an organization, society and country will determine the outcome. It is about the choices we make. We have choices and this will in the end determine what sort of organization or country we will have. Cont’d next page

Human Capital in the context of Fiji must take into account these macro perspec-tives, because each area of our activity is one way or the other influenced by a relevant global activity. We are either directly or indirectly influenced by a global society. What happens in the other side of the world will affect us in the South Pacific. We are not living in a close society. We must embrace knowledge from all plac-es of the world because it can teach us new skills, knowledge and enhance our ability to embrace new chal-lenges in life. I draw a great deal of inspiration from my Father and family. I have different set of experiences and I will give you an entrepreneurial based experience and how I see things from this perspective. My perspective is based on how we do things in private family business. In many ways Vinod Patel & Company is an interest-ing case study.

FAMILY HISTORY and its Foundation As HR professionals you have played a pivotal role and I did mention that we have differences in bringing people together and working together for a common vision which is a daunting task. It is a very important ex-ercise. As a society we have learnt from our past mistakes and failures. Failure and mistakes are part and partial of life. Human race have learnt a lot from the past mistakes and no individual achieves success without failure. One can safely argue that failure and mistakes is almost a pre-requisite to achieve success. Unfortunately, the reality is there are many admirers and well-wishers for suc-cess and as usual failures are dealt with criticism and negativism. However, to promote and achieve success motivating and inspiring people is critical. Therefore, we must compliment people for their efforts even if they fail. We must make a sincere effort to make them feel triumphant but equally make them realize what lead to their failure. We should also not fear failure. Ironically, it is the fear of failure that helps us to achieve success. Therefore, a balance approach of both constructive criticism and positive reinforcement is a necessary approach and factor in managing people.

MANAGING PROCESSES

A pat in the back is going to go a long way and it is a much better motivation. The minute we are more com-plementing it goes a long way in lifting the morale and better achievement’s. We must go back to simple as-pect of assessing and managing the processes. The focus should not be on outcomes and it is how and what you will do to achieve the outcome is far more important and that’s where the action will be. That’s going to be the return on outcome and that will determine on the average or brilliant outcome whether you get the de-sired outcome.

So managing processes in your business activity should focus on that and if you empower and motivate the people, it will produce the right results. It is a continuous process improvement and that brings me back as to how we can manage people and how we make an impact in people’s lives and tend to forget simple things of getting things right.

LIFTING THE BAR

I am a great believer of this. It is about lifting the bar every time as tomorrow can be better than yesterday. Looking at Usain Bolt and his results and looking at Fiji Sevens Team success story. It is about challenging people, it is about challenging everyone, it’s about a progressive organization and pro-gressive society and it is about lifting the bar. We need to lift the inter and intra game within and create a competitive environment.

RISK

The expectation is inherent as we need to achieve better things. We need to take a joint responsibility and lift the bar. It’s about taking risks. Entrepreneurs are greatest risk takers. It is all about calculated and measured risks. It is stepping outside your comfort zone. It is about a cultural change and this can be achieved via em-

P A G E 5

powerment. It is important and fundamentally important to take risks within the boundaries. If you believe in something, it is worth fighting for. Organizations will not improve if status quo exists.

INNOVATION That leads to the topic of Innovation which will drive tomorrow’s business. It is how well you will differentiate your goods and services a little better which will add value to the customers. An innovative organization is a progressive organization and an innovative organization will be different from others and innovation comes from people. Machines do not innovate, minds innovate and your visions innovate and it is how you manage these brain powers which is the single largest power in the family, organization and the world. It is your ability to manage and expand your knowledge to think of doing things differently and bring that benefit to the socie-ty/organization.

A lot of things that Elbert Einstein did. The beneficiary of those innovations today are the greater human race of the planet and similarly other inventions of other great organizations. What Steve Jobs did for Apple today is not only benefitting the shareholders of the organization but every person who uses the iPhone like myself. But that is the reason why Apple is successful and why Nokia is not successful.

Innovation is very important. It is important not only to growing organization but it is also important for new and dynamic organizations with hope. Innovation is not only about developing product but developing people and bringing in new talent in the organization.

Great organizations like Apple, Google, Microsoft, General Electric and many others have been based on the foundation of great people and innovation. People love to work for Google.

How do you attract the best people for the organization? It is how they connect with their beliefs and core val-ues of the organization and that remains the fundamental principle. It is about how they feel motivated to be part of the great story or journey and carry on with the organization and that remains the fundamental chal-lenge. People are limited, limited resources and we want to get the best people in the organization and we are all fighting for a very little percentage.

QUALITY/QUANTITY

We need to measure our organization from quantity and quality perspective. We may have the best out-comes in terms of numbers but these numbers fluctuate. It is the quality that we tend to forget about.

EMPOWER Empowering our people by bringing in to share our vision, making them feel part of the team, make them feel they are part of the journey, make them feel they are part of the shareholders in terms of shared vision. Edu-cate and train the employees on the job, leading by example and exploring their potential will have a greater impact which will have a better return on human capital as a profitable investment.

About Fiji Human Resources

Institute

The Fiji Human Resources Institute (FHRI) is an imitative of a group of dedicate d and committed Human

Resources professional with a common vision to develop our nation’s most valuable assets, our people.

FHRI was officially launched in August 2005 by the former Vice President of Fiji, Late Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi

at the Raffles Trade Winds, Lami.

FHRI is affiliated with the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI) and is a member of Asian

Pacific Federation of Human.

P A G E 6

P A G E 7

Chief Fire Warden at Head Office Bob Mitchell briefing FEA Team on the importance of Safety Fire drills. It is also mandatory that fire drills are carried out twice a year at all locations including Business Excellence approach

Chief Fire Warden also highlighted the importance of aligning FEA’s fire drills activities and re-sponses towards being proactive and building a community resilience towards emergencies as per NFA’s vision.

Fire Wardens Conduct Fire Drills at Head Office

The inspection of lifting equipment has com-

menced in Central region by Ministry of Em-

ployment – NOHSS. FEA is committed to-

wards its statutory requirement under the

law. Through HS department continues mon-

itoring FEA would like to ensure that employ-

ees are not using defect tools and equip-

ment’s

P A G E 8

Name: Kamendra Narayan Swami

Graduate Mechanical Engineer

Generation SBA

Suva

Greeting Everyone,

I’m greatly honored to be represented in this edition of Wailiva’s

Graduate Corner.

I graduated with a double degree; Bachelors of Engineering Technology

majoring in Mechanical & Manufacturing and Bachelor of Engineering majoring in Mechanical

Engineering from the University of the South Pacific in 2013 & 2015 respectively. From there a

new journey began for me, joining the workforce and having the privilege to work for such a

prominent organization as FEA in the role of Graduate Mechanical Engineer. My journey so far

has been in Generation SBA and under tremendous leadership and guidance from my mentors, I

have mastered a vast array knowledge in regards to practical engineering and this is not just lim-

ited to core power generation.

In my career in FEA so far, I have undertaken numerous projects and some major tasks. Some

key highlights includes the refurbishment of two IDO bulk tanks in the Kinoya depot in which I

was assigned as site engineer, the construction, testing & calibration of new HFO 1300MT tank

at Kinoya depot along with the fabrication of its new 8” fuel lines connecting it to the fuel receiv-

ing bay, overseeing the installation of the fuel flow meter at all FEA’s thermal power station,

managing the installation & commissioning of the new fire sprinkler system at Sigatoka power

station, working with the owners engineer on construction of the New Kinoya power station,

managing the cartage, installation & commissioning of four Cummins KTA50 and an overhauled

CAT3516 gensets at Savusavu power station as well as an overhauled Cummins QSK23 gener-

ator at Levuka Power Station, and also the planning, installing and commission of the new 8”

HFO fuel pump with new discharge system.

I currently working on the major overhaul of a Ruston 16RK270, which is the G6, Labasa. It’s a

medium speed generator with a designed output of 3.2MW. Working on this project with the

Labasa power station team has been a remarkable experience so far as I have not only acquired

an in-depth knowledge of Diesel power generators but also managing major projects as a whole.

I have gained an overwhelming awareness of the operation & maintenance of diesels engine

used in power generation including its component, mechanisms and also its working principles.

This overhaul happens once every 5-7 years and I was glad to be a part of it.

All in all, the past 2 year in Fiji Electricity Authority has been a blast, both working with such an

amazing group of people and the level of job satisfaction & experience. I have relished my time

in FEA so far and will surely do my best to the best of my abilities to work towards the better

FEA.

I am really proud to be a part of Fiji Electricity Authority and “Energising our Nation”.

Graduate Engineers

P A G E 9

Northern News

The Savusavu Team conducted their fire drill recently and the Team was being ably led by

Team Leader O & M Ronesh Narayan. Vinaka Team

Savusavu Team Celebrated Diwali

Savusavu Team decorating their office for Diwali celebrations. The Team pictured above organised a lunch for the Team

P A G E 1 0

Following the recent success at this year’s National Convention on Quality GMHR Mr. Naveen Lakshmaiya has laid the platform to sustain QC innovatively within FEA.

He has set the target of 90% employee engage-ment in Quality Circles from 2017-2019.

A Milestone Chart has

been prepared and ap-

proved by GMHR which

details all QC related ac-

tivities for 2017.

It is a new challenge and he wants everyone to

come on board and be

part of this change at FEA.

We will also raise the

standard of our in-house

QC competitions and all

Mukesh has been part of the Team of coordina-tors who were assigned to manage QC Teams by regions and he was coordinating the Kinoya QC Teams.

We wish him all the best on his new role.

Congratulations to Mukesh Naidu for being nominated as the QC Manager. Mukesh has been tasked with manag-ing all the QC Teams in-cluding the activities as well as organizing the In House elimination rounds and the 2nd In-House QC Conventions.

New Quality Circle Manager

Quality Circle GMHR Sets New Standards on QC Journey

the best to FEA QC Teams

on your Journey of Quality

and Productivity

Sustaining Quality Circles innovatively to achieve excellence

2017-2019 A 90% engagement

P A G E 1 1

Caption describing

picture or graphic.

Asia Pacific Quality Organisation (APQO) Conference, 20-23 November 2016, Energy Events Centre, Rotorua, New Zealand

HRSBA Employee Of The 4th Quarter Congratulations to Bob Mitchell for being nominated

as the Employee of the 4th Quarter.

Picture left: GMHR Mr. Naveen Lakshmaiya congratu-

lating Bob Mitchell and handing him his certificate.

Dear Colleagues,

It gives us great pleasure to have the honour in hosting the APQO 2016 Conference in

Rotorua, New Zealand. This Conference has only been held once before in New Zealand

in over 20 years. We look forward to seeing you in Rotorua in November 2016!

A b r a h a m F e n n , T o n y S t e p h e n s o n

Central Conference Committee NZOQ

Team FEA represented by ULHS Manasa Saraqia, Training Officer Samuela Naisua, Human Resource Officer

Elenoa Navoce and Meter Electrician Saiyad Shameel are currently in New Zealand attending the APQO 2016 Con-

ference.

Manasa Saraqia

Samuela Naisua Elenoa Navoce

Saiyad Shameel

P A G E 1 2

Customer Service SBA

Customer Service Team led by GMCS Mrs Annabel Ducia and CIO Mr. Umesh Chandra with the Training Facilitators

for Gentrack Training which was conducted at Head Office Training room recently.

P A G E 1 3

Team FEA Celebrates Diwali Central

FEA Head Office Team celebrated Diwali at the event included the “Fashion - Cat walk Show”, Rangooli

and entertainment items. Management and staff got together to celebrate this wonderful event and later

tucked into a hearty lunch prepared by the committee led by Executive Projects Officer Karunesh Rao.

P A G E 1 4

Team FEA Celebrates Diwali Western/ Northern

Team

Picture left: Taveuni Team led by Team

Leader Krishneel Naicker celebrating Diwali

with staffs and a contractor.

FEA Navutu Team celebrated Diwali at the

Navutu depot recently. Picture above.