Industrial Visit 2013

Date

19^th -21^st March 2013

Venue

Six companies around KL/Selangor:

• Great Eastern Life Assurance Berhad
• Pos Malaysia Berhad
• PKT Logistics Sdn Bhd
• Public Bank Berhad
• Sime Darby Properties Berhad
• Cerebos (M) Sdn Berhad

Attendees

42 participants, consisting of Management students, an Accounting student, a student from the School of Social Sciences and an Engineering post-graduate student from the Engineering Campus, Nibong Tebal.

Dr Chee Hong Kok, a senior lecturer from the School of Management (USM) accompanied the students on this trip.

Objective

To engage students in enhancing knowledge through industrial visits

Highlights

Student’s view of the industrial trip

Day 1 (19.3.2013)

We reached Kuala Lumpur at about 12 noon and our first destination was Great Eastern Life Assurance Berhad which was located at Menara Great Eastern, Jalan Ampang. Their tag line was “We are not a life insurance company. We are a LIFE company.” With a warm welcome and generous buffet, the program began with a briefing about the vision, history, structure and operations of the company.

They talked about their marketing strategy, how they changed to a “LIFE” company, how they adapt and adopt the changing environment to strive for the best and how they fine tuned their policies towards their target group. They market their products through agency and bancassurance. Besides that, they have a long list of programs to train the employees for the betterment like LOMA program, FSTEP Training Program and GEvolution. Employees’ performances are evaluated in both qualitative and quantitative yardsticks.

Later, their Finance Department Head briefed us about how actuary, finance, investment operation and risk management work together to control the financial health, pricing of the products and control of the company’s assets.

Proper attire is very crucial in every situation especially going for work or interview. Hence, Great Eastern had arranged a course for us how to dress appropriately to work. Last but not least, the time had come to the section that the students are mostly concern about --- the expectations from the corporate world. In this session, Great Eastern recruits graduates who are adaptable and have creativity.

Our second company destination on Day 1 was Pos Malaysia Berhad (PMB) which was located in Shah Alam. At about 8 p.m., we reached PMB. There, we had a short briefing and watched a corporate video. It was about how Pos Malaysia changed their operation and adopted the latest technology. In 2009, the company had invested so much money to bring in the technology to increase the productivity and efficiency. Mail sorting capability increased from 1 million mails a day to 5 million per day currently. Later, we were divided into 3 groups and taken to a tour of the facility to visit the mail sorting process. Actually, the peak hour for the Pos Malaysia workers is at night. At that time, they just started to sort out the mails, check for the errors and other tasks. They have to make sure that all the work has to be completed before sunrise so that the lorries can transport the mails to their destinations on the next morning.

Day 2 (20.3.2013)

On the second day, 20^th March 2013, we set off to PKT Logistics Group Sdn. Bhd (PTK) in Shah Alam. It is about the modern management introduced by its Group Chief Executive and Managing Director), Dato’ Michael Tio (fondly known as the Facebook CEO of Malaysia). A very warm welcome was extended by Dato’ Michael himself and his colleagues.

Like Vision 2020, Dato’ Michael Tio placed his company with the Vision and Challenges. In other words, he is transforming PKT through the PKT Transformation Program which covers two major aspects: Company Transformation Program (CTP) and Employee Transformation Program (ETP).

Highly focusing on productivity, he introduces working using Facebook. For the information, PKT Logistics is the Facebook compulsory company in Malaysia. Sharing and getting information then making decision in 30 seconds highly increase the productivity until the productivity per employee for a month is more than RM53, 000! After lunch, we had a chance to visit the company’s warehouse (Wave) and its head office (The Ship). We also visited the natural barrier of the company ------ a pineapple farm (for business prosperity).

We arrived at the next destination for the day, Public Bank Berhad headquarters at Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur at 3 pm. After the warm welcome, we listened to a talk by Miss Wu Lee Choo, Manager, Finance Division and Miss Chan Chiew Peng, Director, Retail Financial Services. Later, we also watched a corporate video presentation on the development of Public Bank. After that, we visited the Red Carpet Banking, Dealing Room, Treasury Division and KL City Main Office of Public Bank.

Day 3 (21.3.2013)

The third day, 21^st March 2013, we paid a visit to Sime Darby Properties Berhad in Bukit Jelutong. First, we visited some of its properties. Then, we were brought to a model house with an upmarket design and green features. There, the Manager introduced the Group mission that is sustainability. Hence, we were introduced to a model Ideal house/building research project. This is the latest green technology adopted by Sime Darby Properties Berhad. The Manager first went through a video to let us understand the concept. Later, he led us to visit the whole building. During the process, he showed us how the building was made, why was it made and of course its value in the market and the environment.

After the visit to Sime Darby Properties Berhad, we headed to Cerebos (M) Sdn Bhd. It is the manufacturer of Brands Essence of Chicken under the “Brands” trademark. Ms Jennifer Chan, the representative let us watch a corporate video about Cerebos. Later, we were taken on a factory tour. Ms Jennifer explained about the process and the quality management. Besides that, we had a trial session on its new products. After that, there was a session where we could buy Cerebos products.

At about 5pm, we began to set off back to Universiti Sains Malaysia with full satisfaction and knowledge. We reached USM Main Campus at about 9.30 pm.

Overall, we were satisfied with this industrial visit (though rather tiring due to the tight schedule) which broadened our horizon about the corporate world and potential jobs opportunities where we cannot obtain from textbooks.