Financial Times

Singer helps housing programmes

Singer Sri Lanka has donated Rs. 2.2 million towards constructing 22 houses in the districts of Anuradhapura and Nuwara Eliya under the 10,000 houses programme of the Ministries of Housing and Plantation Infrastructure and Housing Development.

The project encompasses 22 families selected from the poorest of the poor and those unable to meet even the basic loan requirements. The two cluster housing schemes will be called the 'Singer Shakthi Gama'.

"Singer is a company that has always been in the forefront of cricket and entertainment but very few know of our work behind the scenes with the community.
With shelter being a priority need for mankind, we realized that this housing programme would be the ideal way for us to contribute towards the betterment of society," said Hemaka Amarasuriya, Chairman of Singer Sri Lanka after handing over the sponsorship cheque to Minister of Housing Development P. Harrison at a recent ceremony.

Harrison said Singer is the first such company to help in this national project and hoped others would follow suit.

'Bottom Up' wins NYK top berth

A courageous move to disband the traditional top down model of management and hand over its future in business to an employees' collective has paid rich dividends for NYK Line Lanka, the local agents for global giants NYK Line.

The company was awarded the prestigious Best Customer Service Award for the year 2002, by the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers, UK- Sri Lanka branch, on the Colombo to Europe trade. "We made a strategic decision sometime back to replace the hierarchical system of top down management and allow employees on the ground to actually run our operations. This 'bottom up' system saw employees teaming up regardless of rank in making operational decisions," said Christopher Pieres, Executive Director of NYK Lanka in a statement issued by the company.

With the traditional departmental system out of the way and a new team concept based on trade lanes in force, NYK Line entered a decisive phase that would later give it the cutting edge in service. Decision-making power firmly in their hands, the front-line staff of NYK soon found a system of operations that works best in meeting customer expectations. "They are the people who know the customers, their concerns and demands. The new approach delighted our customers," says Pieres.

NYK Lanka implements a rigorous training platform with emphasis on service delivery and personnel development. The company encourages its people to constantly value-add to their products as well as their personal lives. The company is a joint venture between NYK Line, Japan and the giant Hayleys Group.

SLT sweeps the board at 5S awards

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) bagged 13 awards and 2 certificates of excellence at the Taiki Akimoto 5S Award Ceremony held at the Galadari Hotel recently.

Organised by the Japan-Sri Lanka Technical and Cultural Association (JASTECA) for the seventh time, many prominent government and private sector institutions took part in the competition in which SLT was adjudged the Overall Winner. Being a large organisation spread throughout the island, SLT took part in the competition as separate units.

The Kandy Unit won both the Taiki Akimoto Overall Winner award and the Service Sector Winner awards.

The Chilaw and Kurunegala units picked up the joint Overall 1st Runner-up award and Joint Service Sector Runner-up award, respectively. Seven merit awards went to Matale, Kegalle, Bandarawela, Badulla, Avissawella, Ampara and Outside Plant Maintenance Centre

(OPMC)-Narahenpita, while Negombo and Gampola units secured two Certificates of Excellence.

The aim of the Taiki Akimoto awards is to promote quality awareness while encouraging organizations to excel in achieving high standards in productivity and quality.

A large number of organizations in the manufacturing, plantation and service sectors took part in this year's competition.

Photo shows Shuhei Anan, SLT, CEO (right) receiving the Overall Winner Award from Noriyuki Murata, Chief Operating Officer, Research Institute for International Management of Japan.

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