Weekly Digest News from around Bata World

Transcription

1 Bata September 4, 2015 Weekly Digest News from around Bata World AT A GLANCE Bata Singapore Gets Expert Guidance on Striving for Excellence BCP Schools Across India Celebrate Together We Are Bata People: Jesús Alcántara Sends In a Selfie An Announcement from CEO Jack Clemons on Company Manager Changes Group CEO Jack Clemons announces two company manager changes. Pit Stop with a District Manager in Slovakia Serving the Community: An Interview with Mutinta Chiselenga Q & A with Nicholas Mudaly Bata Club s First Year in India A Success Worth Celebrating Visit Renowned Bata Shoe Museum Without Leaving Home Prize Motorbikes and More for Hari Raya

2 Bata September 4, 2015 Group CEO Jack Clemons announces two company manager changes. CORPORATE An Announcement from CEO Jack Clemons on Company Manager Changes Dear colleagues, I have the pleasure of informing you of two Company Manager changes which will take place within our organization and which are effective as of September 1, Barbara Franceschetto, currently Company Manager in Peru, will take on the position of Managing Director in Bata Italy. Leading a revamped Italian commercial structure, Barbara s primary task is to accelerate the turnaround underway in the Bata business in Italy. Barbara has been working with Bata for more than 15 years and began her career in Italy; she has held several key senior positions in the Bata Shoe Organization, including Retail Head in Chile and Company Manager in both Singapore and Peru, before moving to this new position. Barbara will report directly to me in my capacity as Acting GMD for Europe. Marcello Pace, after many years of fruitful service at Bata, has tendered his resignation and will leave the organization to pursue another opportunity; I wish him all the best for his future career. Jocelyn Yong, currently Retail Manager in Peru, will take on the position of Acting Company Manager in Peru. Her primary tasks are to consolidate the retail business of Bata stores in both Family and City Concepts and continue the development of local sourcing in Peru. Jocelyn has been working with Bata Peru for 15 years, working in all the key roles in the company. Jocelyn will report to Justo Fuentes, Group Managing Director of Latam. I wish to extend my sincerest congratulations to Barbara and Jocelyn, wishing them and their teams in Italy and Peru great success! "We make great shoes accessible to everyone!" Sincerely, Jack Clemons Bata Group CEO

3 Bata September 4, 2015 District manager Rudolf Ondracka underlines the importance of collaborative teamwork in his stores. STORE Pit Stop with a District Manager in Slovakia What did you think when you first heard about the Bata Retail Race? I read about the race in an . After reading it thoroughly, I was looking foward to it because this competition is taking place in Czech and Slovak stores too and could motivate people in our stores and districts. Tell us about your district and the stores in it. I take care of nine stores in western, central and eastern Slovakia. The cities, some of which have two stores, are Kosice, Presov, Poprad, Liptovsky Mikulas, Banska Bystrica, Nitra and Nove Zamky. They have different store concepts. Three are Metro Concept, and the store in Nitra, one of the stores in Presov and both stores in Poprad are Superstore Concept. And two are Scarpissima stores. In most of these stores the key customers are 25 and older, but in Kosice and Banska Bystrica the target is wider. Of all Bata s district managers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, you performed the best in the Bata Retail Race in the third week of August. How did you accomplish this? I didn t achieve it by myself, but with people and the power of the teams. When the team is good and peaceful, the work is easier. Describe how your store teams are involved in the Bata Retail Race. In the race, sales estimates are important. I try to maximize and believe that nobody is giving up. The status is listed every week in a table, after evaluation, and everybody can look at their results and discuss situations. Every store compares their results with similar stores in other districts. As I said, it s only about people in the stores and the mood in our stores and districts. Good work brings results. What is the most exciting part of the Bata Retail Race for you as a district manager? Since the beginning of the Bata Retail Race there have been five Special Bonus Weeks, and I won maximum points in three of them in Weeks 18, 26 and 29. The prizes are interesting for district managers, as they are for store managers, but more important is results and satisfying our superiors.

4 Bata September 4, 2015 Nicholas Mudaly is the finance director of Bata Zimbabwe. INTERVIEWS Q & A with Nicholas Mudaly How did you become the finance director at Bata Zimbabwe? I have always had a passion for shoes. From a young age my grandmother would tell me how particular I was about the shoes I wore, to the extent each lace needed to be proportionately balanced. I joined Bata in 2009 following a career with a leading supermarket chain in South Africa, and I have been a Bata man ever since. What is the most important part of your job? Partnering with the department heads: me getting to know their business, while getting them to know their numbers. What do you regard as your proudest achievement for Bata so far? With Bata being a key player in the Zimbabwean industry, we are often in the media limelight, and I am proud to be an ambassador of Bata Zimbabwe. How is Bata Zimbabwe adapting to the modern marketplace? No doubt the market and conditions around us are shifting posts from time to time, and our business model needs to remain likewise flexible with the changes so we are able to remain competitive and profitable. Our focus has been on product, cost cutting and generating new revenue. Which projects are you focusing on in the rest of this year? A major focus of our company will always be sustainability. We are currently working on a new initiative that will kick-start by empowering more than 200 women while generating new revenue for the company. We are also looking into the option of setting up two new ABUs [associate business units] that would improve our supply chain and drive manufacturing competitiveness. Proudly, Bata s e-commerce launch will be a first of its kind in Zimbabwe. I m looking forward to this. What kind of interaction do you have with other Bata teams internationally? It is very important to stay connected and share best practices. The training initiatives taken by the Lausanne team are commendable and take advantage of the recent investments in communication systems. One of the Bata Core Values is Be Bold. How does this apply to your role as finance director?

5 Q & A with Nicholas Mudaly With the role comes responsibility that requires one to be physically and mentally prepared. It is important to stand firm and take any challenge head on. You are one of Bata s youngest finance directors. What makes Bata a good place for young high achievers to aim for? As a company we continue to focus on training and developing our people, and as a global organization, opportunities are endless. What qualities do you believe are essential to being a successful finance director at Bata? Leadership, strategic thinking, directing and managing change. What is your personal favorite pair of Bata shoes and why? The Ambassador. Because it is iconic. Bata September 4, 2015

6 Bata September 4, 2015 Mutinta Chiselenga, a management trainee at Bata Zambia, also coordinates the Bata Children s Program (BCP) in the country, through which employees volunteer to empower children in the community. INTERVIEWS Serving the Community: An Interview with Mutinta Chiselenga How did you get involved with the Bata Children s Program? When I was in school I was involved with a lot of child welfare activities. So when I came to Bata last year in March, upon hearing about the Bata Children's Program from the thenmanager of human resources, I decided to join. What do you enjoy about being a BCP coordinator? Getting to put a smile on the faces of the children we are privileged to give a helping hand to. What was the most useful thing you learned at the BCP meeting in May with coordinators from six other African countries? It was a great experience meeting coordinators from various parts of the region. I learned a lot of things, especially BCP activities that can be done without even necessarily having to put in so much money: mentorship, random acts of kindness, teaching vulnerable children how to read, volunteering time playing with children, etc. In what ways have you seen BCP in Zambia develop? Since last year, when I joined the company, BCP has really developed in terms of activities and community impact. We have seen growth in the number of active volunteers and included some others who are not employees of the company. Currently we have 30 active volunteers. Initially our activities where based only in the Chazanga compound outside Lusaka, but we are now giving children a step ahead in other places such as Katombora Prison in southern Zambia and Kalingalinga, Lusaka. Is there a BCP initiative that is most dear to you? Bwafwano Community School; this is one of BCP Zambia s babies. We do our best to ensure the children that attend this school have an environment conducive to learning. Last year we painted the school, and this year we donated school shoes and bags. What upcoming BCP initiative are you looking forward to? The early Christmas party we hold for the children of the Bwafwano Community School. What is the most common comment you hear from the Bata employee volunteers after an activity? I enjoyed volunteering, and we could do more.

7 Bata September 4, 2015 When the Bata Club finished its first year in August, it was a milestone to be noted. MARKET TRENDS Bata Club s First Year in India A Success Worth Celebrating The Bata Club originated in August 2014 with the objective of creating a strong brand connection and increasing opportunities to seed multiple visits and encourage incremental sales through targeted campaigns. Enrolment in the Bata Club is a onestep process. Membership accounts are created simply with customers names and cell phone numbers. On joining, benefits like 1 percent of receipt total as loyalty points, regular brand updates through text messaging, special birthday and anniversary discounts and customized offers via weekend campaigns are some of the many privileges offered to members for being Bata loyalists. During its six-month pilot phase, which went through this January, 800,000 customers enrolled in the Bata Club from two cities covering almost 200 stores. Then a pan-india rollout was initiated in February, including 14 cities and 609 stores. Currently, the Bata Club boasts 4 million customers. The loyalty program has also been extended to Hush Puppies and Footin customers through the Hush Puppies Signature Club and Footin Fashion Club. The plan is to further privilege these members by providing them with experiential offers through cross promotions and tie-ins with other brands. This will create a better brand connection and provide customers with more point-redemption options. A promotional campaign was carried out in August to mark the Bata Club s first anniversary in India. Regional and corporate office employees were offered vouchers of 500 rupees off on purchases of 2,000 rupees. Rajeev Gopalakrishnan, Group managing director of South Asia, said, Our loyalty members are of prime importance to us, and we will always like to delight them with privileged services and extra benefits as a gesture from the brand. It is a great feeling to have completed one year of our loyalty program. We believe that creating loyal customers is an important and integral part of any organization, adding great value to the business. To have created 4 million loyal customers is a big win for us and would help us understand our customers even better."

8 Bata September 4, 2015 How many Bata people have always wanted to visit the world-famous Bata Shoe Museum but couldn t make the trip to Canada? CORPORATE Visit Renowned Bata Shoe Museum Without Leaving Home Suzanne Petersen, the Bata Shoe Museum s collections manager, led the project. The All About Shoes website was created to invite our international visitors into our museum exhibitions, she explained to Bata World News. Through the website, we share some of our most important exhibitions, and within them we reveal our precious artifact collection. There are 11 exhibitions on the site, each with a unique storyline that shows off a unique aspect of our collection. All About Shoes contains 500 images, of which 200 are in 3-D, using technology designed specifically for the museum. These images can be rotated in all directions, as if actually holding the object. And a new technique allows visitors to examine the D images in extreme detail when zooming in. With animation and sound introducing each section, artifacts come to life and can be manipulated and examined so that stitching, beadwork and even the most intricate embroidery can be appreciated. On Canadian Ground features the largest display of three-dimensional photography in an online exhibition to date and includes audio clips about various methods of footwear production. Other exhibitions to click through include The Perfect Pair, Tradition and Innovation, Our Boots and Chronicles of Riches.

9 Bata September 4, 2015 In the last week of August, Bata Singapore played host to Roberto Longo, president for customer service, and Rino Rizzo, former CEO. CORPORATE Bata Singapore Gets Expert Guidance on Striving for Excellence On Aug. 24, Rizzo and Longo started their visit at the merchandising department. At a shoe line review, the category managers and buyers shared their strategies for Bata Singapore. The experienced visitors encouraged them to challenge themselves by emphasizing on collection building. Over the next few days, Longo and Rizzo were accompanied by Imran Malik, Group managing director of Asia-Pacific, and Pierluigi Pontecorvo, company manager of Bata Singapore. The group visited several stores and provided insightful advice on retail operations. They stressed that, in order to provide the best possible experience for customers, stores must be in excellent condition and staff well-versed in the products. Rizzo and Longo expressed their appreciation to hardworking store managers and are optimistic that they will continue to go after exceptional results unwaveringly. Before leaving on Aug. 28, Rizzo, Longo and Malik also joined the local team on a visit to the iconic shopping belt of Singapore, Orchard Road. There, they saw major shopping malls like Takashimaya and CK Tangs and lent their business acumen to discussions of ideas. The visit was enlightening and motivated the Singapore team to focus on strengthening the business by providing a selection of reputable products and a distinct in-store experience. Pontecorvo enthused, We are highly motivated from meeting Mr. Rizzo and Mr. Longo, who have given us invaluable advice that will help us to reach our goals!

10 Bata September 4, 2015 The Bata Children s Program (BCP) India organized simultaneous festivities at its adopted schools for the country s 69th anniversary of independence. BCP / SUSTAINABILITY BCP Schools Across India Celebrate Together A total of 40 enthusiastic volunteers from Bata India s Gurgaon corporate office and the manufacturing offices of Batanagar and Bataganj participated. Key to the event from BCP were Jayaprakash Ramchandran, vice president of manufacturing; S.K. Mandal, general manager of Batanagar; Srinivasa Rao, general manager of Bataganj; and Subir Chakraborty, general secretary of the Batanagar Union. Volunteers helped in conducting a quiz competition for all the students and distributed gifts and packets of sweets. Celebrations also involved the children raising the flag, putting on a vibrant parade, and performing a colorful cultural program of song and dance. A few students delivered speeches on the significance of the day. To add even more excitement to the occasion, a magic show was arranged for the children, lighting up their faces with awe and astonishment. The school principals and teachers expressed their appreciation of the BCP initiative, and Ramchandran commented: It is important that our schoolchildren value the significance of this day. No child should be uneducated about the country s progress, and Bata is making sure it is able to provide quality education to as many children as possible through the Bata Children s Program.

11 Bata September 4, 2015 The offices and factory of Bata Mexico recently had guest visitors stop by various departments: Bubblegummer cats! INTERVIEWS We Are Bata People: Jesús Alcántara Sends In a Selfie How do you fit into the Bata world? I am a graphic designer and work as a visual merchandiser on the Bubblegummers creative team in Mexico. How did it happen that the Bubblegummers cat visited Bata Mexico's office and factory? One day, after a workshop with all the creative team in the Bubblegummers showroom, we decided to take selfies with the Cat because, as part of our marketing plan with our customers, we present them with cats to support the displays in shop windows. That s when we started to take our selfies, but in the meantime, we thought it would be much more fun if we visited all the departments to make an ordinary moment in others workday a joyful moment. What do these selfies show? The photo in the upper right, with all the cats, was the moment when we decided to take more selfies in the other departments. Accompanying me are Adriana Esparza, product designer at BBG Inc.; Abigail Esparza, architect; and Tania Hernandez, product designer in licenses. On the lower left, with us are our company manager, Luis Pinto, CFO Carlos Gomez, and Marina Ortiz, directors assistant. In the upper left photo, we have most of the accounting and credit departments. And finally, on the lower right is the cost and efficiency department, showing part of our factory. What do you like most about your job? I always liked being creative, and the most amazing thing about my job is that everyone may think that I spend my time playing, but that is design. It looks like I'm playing, but I'm enjoying my job. Want to send in your Bata selfie? Just a few photos you take of yourself, alone or with colleagues, to bwn@bata.com. Show off your creativity! Photos must be horizontal, and be sure to use the largest file size allowed on your camera or phone.

12 Powered by TCPDF ( Bata September 4, 2015 Bata Malaysia went all out for the big Hari Raya celebration. MARKET TRENDS Prize Motorbikes and More for Hari Raya The company organized a three-week Hari Raya campaign in newspapers and on national television, and all stores were decorated with special POP displays for the holiday. In a sign of its dedication to the community, Bata Malaysia also donated shoes to three different children s homes. Stirring great excitement for the Hari Raya promotion, a Bata selfie contest was held through Facebook. Contestants stood a chance to win a Yamaha Nouvo LC motorbike, and a total of six of these were given away as prizes. These novel prizes were recently presented to the winners by Duncan Cowe, finance director, and James Selvaraj, senior manager for advertising and promotions. Cowe commented, I was glad to meet the winners of the contest as they gave some very valuable feedback. It was great to deepen the relationship with some of our loyal customers. Hari Raya Aidilfitri is a Muslim celebration that marks the end of the Ramadan fasting period.