FGV Annual Report 2015

68 Felda Global Ventures Holdings Berhad Annual Integrated Report 2015 Business Operations Review Corporate Centre Our Corporate Centre brings together all the support functions needed for our Business Clusters. This refers to its governance oversight role that covers Human Resources, Finance, Corporate Services, International Business Development and the Chief Executive Officer’s Office. The integration of these functions at one cost centre allows us to work transparently while reducing costs and redundancies. The Corporate Centre provides the strategy and direction across each cluster that drives these activities in collaboration with one another. Executing the Transformation This Centre drives all the initiatives of the group-wide Transformation Programme. The key pillars of this plan are Revenue Enhancement, Cost Optimisation, Growth, Sustainability, People and Operational Excellence. In 2015, the Corporate Centre team worked on several transformative projects that provided impacted results. Towards the end of the year, it implemented a cost savings programme at the Group’s headquarters. In September 2014, we set each Corporate Centre a target to reduce their budgeted spending by a minimum of 15%. From targetted overall reduction of RM219 million, it achieved a final result of RM262 million. Cost optimisation efforts will continue to extend across the Group. In addition, to improve procurement efficiencies, vendor engagement and negotiation processes were enchanced, while simultaneously employing the, internationally accepted Material Classification Coding System (UNSPSC). In all, this has helped to obtain market competitive rates for materials and services needed. In 2015, these initiatives have so far yielded a 23% average savings against a base of RM91 million. Efforts to attain a single group-wide ISO 9001:2015 certification provided a catalyst to enhance quality management systems across the Group. The benefit of such certification results in streamlining our processes and ensuring the ability to meet and exceed customer and Stakeholder needs. FGV is expected to be fully certified by September 2016. Strengthening Human Capital Investment in human capital will lead to operational excellence. The Corporate Centre team has established a talent management and succession planning framework to attract, develop, motivate and retain productive and engaged employees. Developing a conducive system, that is also aligned to the Group strategy, will reduce the risks of not having the right successors in place for critical positions. In addition, it will help us minimise operational costs by reducing the turnover of high potential employees. With this framework in place, employees are rest assured of their career development, thus allowing them to focus their energy on maximising their full potential. These efforts in human capital enhancements were acknowleged through our project agreement with Olam International to conduct a ‘Gabonese Nationals Training Programme’ for over 2,000 smallholder farmers. Training of the first batch of 54 Gabonese workers was completed by experienced FGV trainers in October 2015. They were trained in plant and soil science, the cultivation and maintenance of oil palm estates, RSPO standards, occupational safety and health, best agricultural practices and basic English language. In addition, they were given the opportunity to learn how to farm on a commercial scale. Creating Sustainable business corporate Accelerating the Group’s transformation initiatives remains Centre’s priority moving forward. We are cognisant of the need to continually improve our standards and will lay down the foundations to optimise the way we work in view of yielding better outcomes. The path towards integrated thinking will allow the FGV family to strategise on a more holistic view, hence attaining our goals not just on a financial platform, but also from a non-financial perspective.