Tweet
Glen Christian bats for meritocracy, contentment at the workplace
BY Garfield Myers Editor-at-Large - South/Central bureau
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Mandeville, Manchester - Like so many other entrepreneurs, Glen Christian believes "the answer to Jamaica's problems will come from business, not politics".
Glen Christian
He believes party politics should take a back seat and that Government should "fly the gate" removing bureaucratic "red tape" so entrepreneurs can thrive, thereby creating employment and progress for ordinary Jamaicans.
But after 22 years of building from scratch the pharmaceutical giant Cari-Med as well as Kirk Distributors Ltd, Christian also feels that Jamaican employers and business people must examine the way they have
done business.
Much about the old-fashioned ways of private enterprise have been counter productive and there is need to change, Christian told the Manchester Chamber of Commerce Annual Awards banquet at the Golf View Hotel in Mandeville recently.
"I think that as business people and managers we have to move away from that Backra Massa plantation, command-and-control culture," Christian, who took the 2007 Observer Business Leader Award, told his audience.
"It (backra massa mentality) has not served us well. It has only bred suspicion, resentment and resistance at the workplace. And today, we are paying dearly in falling productivity and profits," Christian added.
He argues that the need for change in politics and business has been hastened by the current global financial meltdown, which he contends could prove to be qualitatively worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Crucially, he believes his own experience in transforming his Group from an entity that employed just three people in 1986 to one that today is the "largest distributor of pharmaceutical . products in the Caribbean", employing 425 people is worthy of being shared.
To begin with, says Christian, he relied on his "strength", which was the knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry gained after spending 16 years of his youth at the pharmaceutical company HD Hopwood.
Having gone into business on his own, Christian remained focused on pharmaceuticals for 10 years before diversifying into other products.
He "constantly" ploughed back the profit into the expansion of the business and the development of the employees.
And, says Christian, he put employees first "because one cannot win without people".
"At Cari-Med the worker is king. It's not just a cliché. We look out for the interest of the workers. We truly believe that if you want to be successful, you have to treat your workers well. We don't see them merely as instruments of production . They know we as management genuinely care for them and that caring and camaraderie builds loyalty and trust," said Christian.
He claims that a spin-off from paying attention to workers' welfare is that the staff attrition rate at Cari-Med is less than one per cent.
He believes that one of the strengths of his group is a deliberate policy to give "preference" to the relatives of employees "as long as they have a good track record and if they meet the company's requirements".
"We utterly reject the view that we should not employ family members because of the fear that it will spawn collusion and corruption in the workplace," he said.
"I don't believe that most people are thieves and crooks and the trust I repose in my workers is reciprocated," he added.
In line with the philosophy that "'Pasen crisen them pickney fus'," Christian says employee's children are the first choice for summer jobs.
"We also have a Managers Sponsored Education Fund where managers make monthly contribution which assist employees' children who are entering the High School system. These children are assessed after two years and based on their performance the benefit could be extended to the 5th Form," he said.
Christian boasts that "90% of my management staff is home-grown. We develop talent internally by cross training which motivates others toward peak performance. It makes them see that if they excel they can move up in the company, too. So it builds a culture of meritocracy. You can't inspire and motivate people if you don't keep score through performance appraisals."
He believes strongly in mentoring and cultivates an "open door policy".
". everybody knows that they can come to sit down with me and discuss any issue. My management style can be classified as 'management by walking around'," he declared.
Holding to the view that 'contented cows give better milk' Christian says he has paid attention to "quality and quantity" of meals served at his staff canteen. Transport is provided for those working beyond 7:00 pm, there is a regular Friday afternoon social, there is an annual awards ceremony and in 2006 he took 60 of his "sales and marketing people on a cruise".
The policy of meritocracy extends to family, with Christian telling his spell-bound audience that none of the members of his immediate family working at Cari-Med report directly to him.
In the succession plan, promotion would be on the basis of merit not on family relationships, he said.
This was meant to protect the company and its employees from the disaster that often befell family-owned companies because what was saved "with a spoon the children (spend) with a shovel".
"Our succession plan is well in place," Christian assured his audience "all my senior managers hold shares in the company. we promote from the basis of meritocracy.."
BY Garfield Myers Editor-at-Large - South/Central bureau
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Mandeville, Manchester - Like so many other entrepreneurs, Glen Christian believes "the answer to Jamaica's problems will come from business, not politics".
Glen Christian
He believes party politics should take a back seat and that Government should "fly the gate" removing bureaucratic "red tape" so entrepreneurs can thrive, thereby creating employment and progress for ordinary Jamaicans.
But after 22 years of building from scratch the pharmaceutical giant Cari-Med as well as Kirk Distributors Ltd, Christian also feels that Jamaican employers and business people must examine the way they have
done business.
Much about the old-fashioned ways of private enterprise have been counter productive and there is need to change, Christian told the Manchester Chamber of Commerce Annual Awards banquet at the Golf View Hotel in Mandeville recently.
"I think that as business people and managers we have to move away from that Backra Massa plantation, command-and-control culture," Christian, who took the 2007 Observer Business Leader Award, told his audience.
"It (backra massa mentality) has not served us well. It has only bred suspicion, resentment and resistance at the workplace. And today, we are paying dearly in falling productivity and profits," Christian added.
He argues that the need for change in politics and business has been hastened by the current global financial meltdown, which he contends could prove to be qualitatively worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Crucially, he believes his own experience in transforming his Group from an entity that employed just three people in 1986 to one that today is the "largest distributor of pharmaceutical . products in the Caribbean", employing 425 people is worthy of being shared.
To begin with, says Christian, he relied on his "strength", which was the knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry gained after spending 16 years of his youth at the pharmaceutical company HD Hopwood.
Having gone into business on his own, Christian remained focused on pharmaceuticals for 10 years before diversifying into other products.
He "constantly" ploughed back the profit into the expansion of the business and the development of the employees.
And, says Christian, he put employees first "because one cannot win without people".
"At Cari-Med the worker is king. It's not just a cliché. We look out for the interest of the workers. We truly believe that if you want to be successful, you have to treat your workers well. We don't see them merely as instruments of production . They know we as management genuinely care for them and that caring and camaraderie builds loyalty and trust," said Christian.
He claims that a spin-off from paying attention to workers' welfare is that the staff attrition rate at Cari-Med is less than one per cent.
He believes that one of the strengths of his group is a deliberate policy to give "preference" to the relatives of employees "as long as they have a good track record and if they meet the company's requirements".
"We utterly reject the view that we should not employ family members because of the fear that it will spawn collusion and corruption in the workplace," he said.
"I don't believe that most people are thieves and crooks and the trust I repose in my workers is reciprocated," he added.
In line with the philosophy that "'Pasen crisen them pickney fus'," Christian says employee's children are the first choice for summer jobs.
"We also have a Managers Sponsored Education Fund where managers make monthly contribution which assist employees' children who are entering the High School system. These children are assessed after two years and based on their performance the benefit could be extended to the 5th Form," he said.
Christian boasts that "90% of my management staff is home-grown. We develop talent internally by cross training which motivates others toward peak performance. It makes them see that if they excel they can move up in the company, too. So it builds a culture of meritocracy. You can't inspire and motivate people if you don't keep score through performance appraisals."
He believes strongly in mentoring and cultivates an "open door policy".
". everybody knows that they can come to sit down with me and discuss any issue. My management style can be classified as 'management by walking around'," he declared.
Holding to the view that 'contented cows give better milk' Christian says he has paid attention to "quality and quantity" of meals served at his staff canteen. Transport is provided for those working beyond 7:00 pm, there is a regular Friday afternoon social, there is an annual awards ceremony and in 2006 he took 60 of his "sales and marketing people on a cruise".
The policy of meritocracy extends to family, with Christian telling his spell-bound audience that none of the members of his immediate family working at Cari-Med report directly to him.
In the succession plan, promotion would be on the basis of merit not on family relationships, he said.
This was meant to protect the company and its employees from the disaster that often befell family-owned companies because what was saved "with a spoon the children (spend) with a shovel".
"Our succession plan is well in place," Christian assured his audience "all my senior managers hold shares in the company. we promote from the basis of meritocracy.."