16th ICA Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop on “Management of Consumer Co-operatives,” Singapore
The 16th ICA Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop on “Management of Consumer Co-operatives” was held in Singapore from 31st of May – 3rd of June 2016. The workshop was organized under the aegis of the ICA-AP Consumer Committee and hosted by NTUC Fairprice (Singapore). 17 cooperators and 4 observers from, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Japan attended the three-day training workshop. The objectives of the workshop were to: promote understanding of the socio- economic role of consumer cooperatives; learn the human resources development experiences of two organizations; and to establish a international network of consumer cooperative leaders and managers.
Participants of the ICA-AP regional workshop on Management of Consumer Co-operatives
The program started with a welcome address and overview of NTUC Fairprice by Mr Tng Ah Yiam, Deputy CEO, NTUC Fairprice. This was followed by a lecture on NTUC Enterprise by Mr Quah Chee Seng, NTUC Enterprise. During the course of the day, the participants heard from NTUC Fairprice resource person on, Retail Operations; Purchasing, Merchandising and International Trading; and Supply Chain Management.
On the second day, two case studies on staff training and human resource development were presented by Ms. Juliana Tan, Training& Development Manager, NTUC Fairprice; and Ms. Vo Thi Ngoc Huong, Director, Human Resources Department, Saigon Co.op (Vietnam).
According to Ms. Tan, training was a core function of NTUC Fairprice. The trainings fulfill a variety of purposes – impart knowledge, improve understanding, build a bridge between departments, and strengthen team work. They often conduct cross-departmental trainings. For example, managers at the Fresh Department section interact with staff at the Purchasing Department to understand how products are purchased. Regular joint study meetings are conducted between the Wine Department of the store and the Purchasing Departments.
Ms. Huong made a presentation on the human resources development efforts in Saigon Co.op, According to her, excellence in a person can be found irrespective of age. When they identify staff who is willing to learn, they offer a number of options, including sending them to acquire an MBA degree either in Vietnam or overseas. Saigon Co-op focuses on enhancing English speaking ability of store managers through books and resources acquired from the internet. She mentioned about the big annual meeting, where all Store Manager’s gather to discuss the objectives of the following year and ways to achieve these.
On the third day, group discussion and presentation sessions were held on, “What they learnt from the workshop,” followed by a debriefing on the presentation by Ms.Tan. The meeting was brought to an end with Mr. Nalin De Silva from Sri Lanka “The three-days workshop was very informative. The most impressive part was to learn about customer-centered operations. We are not able to start the big thing however our store may try to correct the customer’s voice as possible at the store, and consider how they could be benefited by our store”
