|
of
Paul Cuyegkeng
to all Students
of
Dole Work Ethics |
 |
|
My Greetings to all the participants of this seminar on Dole Work Ethics. I am very thankful to all the Members of the Dole University Academic Board and to all the facilitators who made the Module and the schedules of seminars possible. All our Associates must take up this workshop, and all our partners must have an idea about our Corporate Values. The six Dole Values, which you, together, will discuss and understand have been deliberated by the Board of Regents. I assure you that starting from your Leaders we begin to think, learn, and act on, for a common understanding and acceptance of these values. The Values are, in the order of strategic presentation, Quality, Cost, people, Customers, Teamwork, and Entrepreneurship. If you were to observe the world today, you would be amazed at how fast the environment around us is changing. With the advent of the information revolution, higher level of educational attainment and better standard of living, the cycle for change has been reduced in my estimate by a factor of 4. More frightening is my estimation that the cycle will be further reduced by a factor of 2 by the turn of the century. Therefore, for Dole Asia to be a significant player in the coming century, we have to keep pace with these changes. As markets and conditions shift, all of us whether we are involved in Sales, Marketing, Distribution, Transportation, Logistics or Production must change. The only way we can accomplish this is to think and behave as one. And this can only be accomplished by attaining a strong common culture. Let us now go over these six values. The first and foremost is Quality. Dole is quality. If we do not have quality, we have nothing. There should be no doubt in our minds that we do not compromise quality. Name any great company Toyota, Honda, Hewlett Packard, Sony, Merck, and you will find the reason for their success lies in the quality of their products or services. It is therefore critical that we develop a quality attitude. An attitude to produce the best product, an attitude to have the best operation, the cleanest produce cannery, the most efficient distribution. An attitude that upsets you when someone mistreats your product or when you see your product in less than perfect condition in supermarkets. An attitude that makes you burst with pride when you see your product displayed beautifully on the shelf and you can tell the stranger beside you - This is my product. The second value is Cost. There are 5 reasons why we should focus on Cost. First, by having the lowest cost and best quality, we can penetrate any market. Second, lowest cost will allow us to pay our partners, the farmers, a bit more than what others pay them, so he can have a higher standard of living. Third, lowest cost would allow to provide more value to our customers. Fourth, lowest cost would provide us with more flexibility to reward our people more, and finally, lowest cost would return more to our shareholders. In all my experience with Dole, the attainment of low cost has always been a cherished value. And maybe that is why we have lasted more that 100 years. The third value is People. Our biggest asset is people as far as I am concerned. For me, it is simple. we, the people, create Dole. The combined effort of all of us is what make Dole what is today. What is left of research without the scientists. What productivity is there to talk about without our production associates. How can we serve our customers without our sales associates. Make no mistake about it - Dole does not produce quality products, service our customers with a smile, help the farmers with his expertise, Dole people do. It is thus important that we continue to increase our people asset base - not by increasing members but by increasing their value thru the Dole University and the concept of continued learning. The fourth is Customer. One has just to imagine what happens if all our customers all of a sudden decide not to buy from us. You are right - we will be bankrupt. that is how important a customer is. What is a loyal customer's worth? in financial language - What is the net present value of our customer base. How much does it cost to lose a customer. Answer this and you will be enlightened on why customers are important. The fifth is Teamwork. Nobody today believes that one person - no matter how great - can do it alone. This holds true also for Michael Jordan. He may score 60 points, grab 20 rebounds and dish-off another 20 assists, but still needs his team mates to outscore the opponents to win. Our operation is so complex today that the only way we can compete and succeed is to work as a team. The sixth value is entrepreneurship. This is founding strength of Dole. We were founded by a great entrepreneur, Jim Dole. He was followed by successive entrepreneurs Malcolm MacNaughton and Don Kirchoff. Today, we are still being lead by an entrepreneur. People who think like entrepreneurs have a unique perspective. They ask provocative questions and the answer they arrive at drives their attitude and behaviour. This, in turn, determine the company's performance. Entrepreneurship drives changes in the organization and challenges the bureaucratic rules that stifle growth. If we could show more initiative for cutting costs, serving customers, and improving productivity, we could gain the advantage we need to compete in the new business environment. Those in a nutshell are our values. I hope you study and internalize these as they are vital to the success of our future organization. I thank each and everyone of you for sharing your time with us. |