Dubai office hosts series of workshops
EMIRATES EMPLOYEES are going back to school and it’s a move that South African-based cargo manager Kum Naicker describes as the best step forward the airline has taken in its cargo development programme.
Emirates SkyCargo has launched a major campaign called Step Forward to give its staff world-wide a clear understanding of future needs.
“Old business rules are being replaced with new ways of working,” says director Ram Menen. “The growing trend for end-to-end supply chain management has created the need for new business relationships that go beyond current boundaries.”
The expansion of the supply chain through partnerships with forwarders and agents to provide the cargo customer with a speedy total logistics solution tailored to his needs is the aim, says Menen.
The campaign consists of a series of two-day workshops that began last month at the Emirates Aviation College. It will run through to the end of June 2003.
“The workshops provide an ideal medium for all of us to learn new ways of doing our job better,” says Naicker who, along with local staff member Shaun Diedricks, attended a workshop in Dubai last month. Now the balance of the Emirates SkyCargo staff in this country will be sent across during upcoming months for a similar experience.
“What made it so interesting was that we were interfacing with staff from all parts of the world and at all levels of employment in a variety of exercises,” says Diedricks. “You would have top level managers as well as down-the-line workers who are entire newcomers to the company presented with the same situations. We all learnt a great deal from it. It’s a programme which can only have positive results.”
The workshops explain the basics of the supply chain and its impact on the freight business, then go on to demonstrate how expansion along the supply chain through business partnerships with forwarders and agents is the way forward for the airline.
SkyCargo’s overall business strategy has come under examination with the workshops showing the tactical tools to be implemented at station level. They are intended to communicate changing customer requirements in the air logistics market and examine the extent of the potential market.
The major aim is to communicate to staff the value of the airline’s services to the end user. Cargo marketing and business development manager David Pierce sees in them the importance of giving even the smallest client in terms of volumes the same service as the largest.
