Rodrigo De Marco, GAC Brazil

Based on measurements of CSF5/person and successful completion, GAC Brazil has been awarded the top performing company in the GAC World in 2011.

Group Vice President Americas, Lars Heisselberg, commented; "It’s extremely rewarding that GAC Brazil received the Best Country in the GAC Corporate Academy Awards for 2011. I’d like to commend Rodrigo and his team in GAC Brazil their commitment and efforts in achieving this outcome."

As both the Country Manager and GLO of Brazil, Rodrigo De Marco is closely involved in Brazil’s involvement with GCA.

"From my perspective I see double benefits from GCA, firstly the courses are designed to fit into our daily work despite our remoteness to the rest of the GAC
World. Secondly the courses expand our knowledge in different areas of the business, which allows us to remain on task in this competitive market we work in.

"The business outcomes are clear! We can see strong evidence that the English communications in Brazil improved significantly after participation in the Global English Programme, while business performance increased following courses in the Sales Development Programme."

Lars Heisselberg concluded by saying; "Besides the fact that GCA helps us enhance our skills base, which in a very competitive environment is essential, GCA brings the overall GAC values together. Staff embracing these learning opportunities also make new friends and feel the GAC bond and connection across borders. With Brazil being slightly off the beaten track I feel that the latter is exceedingly important to all our Brazilian colleagues. Parabéns GAC Brasil!’’

For the second time since the GCA
Awards began, Ramachandran Nair has taken out the Best GLO Award, bringing it back to GAC Oman. He offered the following thoughts about the award:

"First of all, I would like to convey my sincere thanks to management and staff at GAC Oman for their support and encouragement during 2011, without which such an honour would not have come to Oman for the second time! To me, the role of GLO is always challenging. It is the key link between GCA and the organisation, so the focus on spreading course awareness is very vital, thereby helping to develop a strong learning culture within the organisation. The increased CSF5 outcomes for GAC Oman in 2011 indicates that learning and development forecast was again very well executed this year.

"I see the key tasks as encouraging and following up on staff participation and assisting them throughout the course period. In 2011, we managed to significantly improve participant success rates by listening to their issues and finding appropriate solutions without disturbing regular tasks. Also as a result of the BELIT initiative during the year we have seen many personnel choose to improve their business communication competence through the Global English Programme.

"One of the initiatives in the company is to share learning outcomes from the current courses into the weekly management meetings. This ensures that follow up and support for participants is happening regularly, and allows the learning to be shared across the whole company. It supports the business focused outcomes of the Academy’s courses."

Patrik Hallden, GAC Oman’s General Manager was also very pleased with the award, commenting;

"GAC Oman has been a strong supporter of GCA since its establishment, and it has been an important factor to our success. Having a proactive and resourceful GLO who understands the strategic value of learning in our business makes all the difference! Ramachandran has done a great job of this."

Moly George from GAC Qatar last year won the Best GLO award, but this year took out Best Participant for her outstanding results in five courses throughout the year; the Global English Programme, FSS, PCR, GSH and the GLO course.

"First of all let me acknowledge the pride and honour in receiving the Best Participant GCA award. This achievement may not be possible without getting an appropriate environment from my office and management (GAC Qatar). Moreover the facilitators and other participants inspired me to accomplish this journey with another feather to my cap.

• English is the window to the world especially when we are in an organization like GAC, we need practical knowledge in the common language to give a better performance to our customers. I recommend all GAC employees to participate in the Global English Programme.
• Fundamental Selling Skills gives us an opportunity to understand the uniqueness of selling in a multicultural environment and learning from our actions: Negative and Positive Sales Impact in our negotiation skills.
• The GAC Sales Handbook course presents effective sales tools and processes including CSF6. It helps us be more evolved in presenting ourselves and understanding our customers needs, to become more skilful salespeople.
• Profitable Customer Relationships helps develop a ‘CUSTOMER ACTION PLAN’ to analyse different types of small and big clients and choose the best options for ensuring profitable business outcomes in line with GAC TIME.
• The GAC Liaison Officer course introduces CSF5 and its alignment; the influence of learning outcomes in our business and improving the return of human resource investment.

All these courses helped me to apply SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat) analysis in my career with GAC. Hence I am trying to achieve more confidence in any given situation in my personal and professional life as well as being a "Trusted Advisor" for my internal and external clients.

In 2012 I am looking forward to any new HR development courses. CGE (Corporate Governance & Ethics) is also a new and interesting subject for me. From my experience I recommend all GAC staff to enroll in their concerned job oriented subjects such as AFO, SFO, GSB, SAO, GFE etc. GEP, FSS, GSH, PCR are useful tools for any general staff also.

Borrowing a famous quote: "Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence". Robert Frost

Jimmy Liak is one of the first in the GAC World to complete all three courses in the Sales Development Programme; Profitable Customer Relations (PCR), Fundamental Selling Skills (FSS) and GAC Sales Handbook (GSH). The award for Best Participant goes to Jimmy for his consistently high outcomes in all three courses.

"PCR & FSS are both great enhancements to developing our selling skills. Like many other salespeople, I sometimes get too carried away with selling or promoting services and forget the about human factor ie, the feelings of the customer... These courses help to bring this into our day to day sales activities.

"I would say GSH has the most impact among the three modules. Before GSH, my sales approach was not so organised and was lacking in some tools that resulted in missing important information during the meeting or discussion. With the knowledge and knowhow using tools in GSH, I can prepare meetings and questions more effectively in achieving my goals or what I intend to achieve in the meeting.

"I really enjoy learning in a group. Everyone contributes, reflects and shares their experience. I think this is the most important factor for GCA’s success. I get far more out of this real life experience than from the text book. In 2012 I am looking forward to a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) refresher workshop."

Neil Godfrey, Group Sales Director, Shipping, has been involved in the development of the GSH course and commented;

"The GCA Sales Development Programme has something for even the most seasoned sales professional. In three stages, it is helping build a better sales force across the GAC world by training and reinforcing best practices through providing practical tools but also through the shared experiences of our sales staff across different business cultures.

At the same time as educating our people to be better organised and prepared, the programme also focuses on the importance of knowing your customers, understanding their needs and positioning GAC to become a preferred supplier and ultimately, a business partner. In short, the GAC Sales Development Programme guides us to being customer focused and this is a building block in the overall Group objective of being a learning organisation."

The Global English Programme focuses on improving business English skills alongside the normal work routine. This year Hari Nair from GAC Dubai has been awarded Best GEP Participant for his outstanding results in the course.

Hari has been a participant in GEP for one year, and says that "the regular assignments as well as the Speaking and Listening activities have helped enormously. There is no doubt that my communication skills have improved, particularly in telephone conversations and when drafting emails."

"Support from the management is a very helpful factor in achieving my learning goals" says Hari. "I am so grateful with my Line Manager (Manoj Kuriakose who was also a GEP participant during that time) who never hesitated to support me whenever I needed it. He even finds time and voluntarily extended his help just to teach me and assist me with my assignments."

"The Global English Programme is not for support staff only, but for all GAC people with different job roles around the world. It helps us improve our communication skills and gain that confidence when we face our customers. At the beginning of the year I was a Shift Supervisor. Four months ago, I was promoted as Stock Controller taking the role in managing stocks with administrative work as well. Now, I have been promoted again as Customer Service Representative. I believe the confidence I’ve enhanced and the knowledge I’ve gained from GEP with the support of my Line Manager are big factors which help me in my promotion. My managers have seen the improvement I’ve shown and worked hard with. I am sure that the other GEP participants within the GAC World will also enjoy the same benefits that I’ve taken advantage of. We are all busy. It’s only a matter of time management, self discipline, and perseverance in achieving our goals in life.

Pramod Kumar, Customer Service Manager 3PL, has been extremely impressed with the improvements in Hari’s overall communication."With the exceptional performance from Hari I believe GEP course has lot in it to offer but it depends upon the individuals how they apply themselves to this course to reap maximum benefit. I have seen a clear improvement in Hari’s English communication skills, and I even got an appreciation call in this regard from Mr. Jim Preston. He is the supply chain manager with ‘The One’, a client for GAC Dubai 3PL, and Hari
is an active member in the customer service team attending this client."