Buoyed by the rising demand for its products and enhanced efficiency
in operations, Crown Paints Kenya continues to enjoy a huge market
share. The firm’s CEO attributes its sterling performance over the last
few years to adoption of the Organizational Performance Index (OPI).
According to the Crown Paints CEO, Rakesh Rao, OPI promotes
competitive excellence and professionalism. “It is the best tool to
diagnose the health of your corporate processes and thinking,” he
proffers. “It is an in-depth look at your vision, mission, processes,
policies, strategies, customer care and organisational culture so as to
promote professionalism that leads to profitability.”
Rao admits that OPI has helped change many things at Crown Paints
especially because it challenged people to analyse themselves
and improve what they do. Now, Crown Paints undertakes not only
customer care surveys but also employee satisfaction surveys.
“The first time we conducted an employee satisfaction survey was
eye-opening,” according to Rao. “We have since gone through a
learning curve on how to engage with our employees. We explained
the company’s vision and mission as well as the Balanced Scorecard
which measures employee performance.”
He explained that although Crown Paints has a vision, mission and
corporate values, these were previously not written down. This
has since been rectified and the document signed by the director.
“We engage all employees towards living them for the company’s
success. Crown Paints is reaping the fruits of involving employees in
its strategies, which makes them claim ownership of the company’s
processes.” reports Rao. This, according to him, explains why Crown
Paints Kenya has in the recent past received numerous awards for
innovation and financial management.
Rao reiterated, “I am sure that without OPI, Crown Paints Kenya would
not be where it is today. OPI builds team spirit, encourages team work
and sets the direction and vision of the company.”
CEO attributes impressive
performance to OPI
Crown Paints Finance Director Patrick Mwati displays Crown Paints’ Company
of the Year award
Crown awarded a mark
of Kenyan identity
Crown Paints Kenya Limited has been awarded a mark of
identity by the Brand Kenya Board (BKB). The mark of identity
titled ‘A Touch of Kenya’ was developed by BKB to enhance the
competitiveness of Kenya’s products and services.
While presenting the award to Crown Paints Kenya Limited, BKB
Chief Executive Officer Mary Kimonye said, “A Touch of Kenya is
to grow key sectors of the economy and position products and
services favorably across the globe. Crown Paints has another
feather in their crown. They have adopted the mark of identity,
with the byline ‘A Touch of Kenya’. This mark was developed by
Brand Kenya Board to enhance the competitiveness of Kenya’s
products and services.” She added, “We are proud that Crown
Paints is outstanding in the market and is at the same time,
creating an authentic and credible brand for our country.”
The mark is a modernised version of the shield found on the
nation’s flag, which Ms Kimonye pointed out is necessary in
helping Kenya’s tourism sector diversify away from its traditional
crowd pullers such as beach and wildlife. “We are talking about
putting Kenya out there on another level. We can no longer be
satisfied with just marketing in Kenya, ” she said.
Commenting on the award, Crown Paints Kenya CEO Rakesh Rao
said that Crown Paints is committed to developing world class
products. “Our vision is to create an innovative and colourful brand
in East Africa and, of course, one of our core values is innovation.
Innovation is one of our key strategies for competitiveness in
the market. We have invested in an innovation core team and an
internal innovation policy to push the initiative.”
“In today’s business world, the customer is key to developing new
innovative products. Therefore, we involve all our stakeholders,
that is, customers (dealers, users), sales team and production
team. We organise periodic innovation workshops where all
the stakeholders participate and come up with new products
and process ideas not only in coating but also in other business
processes. We collect the ideas and then shortlist as per business
priority and feasibility. These shortlisted ideas are selected for
implementation during the year. The teams that came up with the
ideas are rewarded as per our Innovation Policy,” Rao explained.
A grandiose set-up awaited the distinguished
guests of Crown Paints at the Sikh Union
Club on July 13, where members geared
up for the hottest match of the World Cup,
Argentina versus Germany. No stone was
left unturned to ensure that the guests
experienced ultimate luxury whilst enjoying
the game.
Crown Paints CEO Rakesh Rao and his team
welcomed the guests to the venue. Members
had a chance to indulge in a photo-session,
get their faces painted according to their
favourite team after which they were
escorted to their respective tables.
A children’s corner complete with a mini-
football pitch were designed for the young
ones to indulge in some sporting activity.
Inside the marquee tent, special effects
lights representing the flags of the two
teams emanated from each side while a
band churned out peppy tunes ahead of the
match. The bar ensured that drinks flowed
endlessly throughout the evening and there
were sumptuously-themed food stations.
There were vegetarian and non-vegetarian
delicacies to cater to various palates. Large
screens were erected for pleasurable viewing
of the football final which saw Germany
beating Argentina.
One of the distinguished guests who
attended the event was the Indian High
Commissioner, Yogeshwar Varma. A
fittingly colourful final ceremony it was!
We Celebrated
August 2014
13
EVENTS
NEWS BRIEFS
Samba Style!
