Your Sales Ecosystem Is In Danger

 

Our human resistance to change has been well documented for years and has kept many an executive and organizational coach in business. We like what we’re comfortable with. It’s safe. It’s secure. We know what to expect. Change can be scary.

That being said, we’re also intelligent beings, and we know that change is always upon us, hence our desire to be well-informed. So, it was not necessarily surprising for me to hear my industry peers at Channel Visionaries talk about how today’s buyer has changed and how vendors and their partners must change as well if they desire to thrive in tomorrow’s economy.

What was disappointing, however, was the fact that even though we all agreed that buyers have changed (and will continue to change), when it came down to executing marketing and sales strategies within a partner ecosystem, all I heard was the SAME OLD THING.

Actually, it was worse. Now those same old strategies were being amplified with an assortment of technologies and apps, making things even more frightening. We’re setting ourselves up for the marketing technology bubble to not only burst, but to explode. I don’t think twice about fast-forwarding through commercials when I’ve recorded my favorite TV shows on my DVR. How soon until I fast-forward through the digital marketing media that is everywhere I look? Or, am I doing it already?

Old school “push” marketing is no longer a viable option for building relationships with potential customers. In case you’re wondering, push marketing tactics look like this:

• Speaking at (instead of with) prospects and customers
• Sending out messages to unwilling, unreceptive people
• Creating campaigns or experiences that ignore user wants and needs

This “spray and pray” model is exactly what most technology manufacturers are accustomed to doing with their partners and resellers. Pick a product, come up with a campaign, buy a list, then BLAST and dial. Even worse – I heard vendor after vendor pitching technologies and apps that further enable or even automate this horrid “lead generation” process. And while everyone seemed to know and agree how limited and ineffective this is, it’s as if they just can’t stop themselves.

It’s time to take a good, hard look at your entire sales ecosystem. There are “solutions” on the market that promise to make your life as a channel account manager or channel marketing manager easier. And, perhaps for the moment, they will. But I can tell you I’ve never crafted a marketing or sales campaign in my career with the intention of making my own life easier, and I cannot imagine a CEO or board of directors signing off on that project either.

Automating old school, push marketing strategies is the greatest danger I see to the entire marketing and sales technology industry.

We are better than this. We have the information, the research.  It’s up to us to decide to use that information to overcome our human desires to remain the same. Your partners deserve it. And more importantly – so do your customers.

 

 

 

Original Article by Jen Spencer

Fuji Xerox Philippines celebrates banner year in business

2015 is a golden year for Fuji Xerox Philippines, marking its 50th anniversary in the industry recently. In 1965, the brand was introduced to the Philippines, making it the first country to market plain paper copiers in Southeast Asia. Five decades later, Fuji Xerox Philippines has grown to become one of the largest and most competitive providers of document management solutions, priding itself on its quality superiority, reputation for excellence, and the most innovative, efficient, and reliable line of products, services, and solutions in the country.

In the last 50 years, the brand has impressively evolved and expanded, and has consistently achieved great milestones that cemented its name in the industry. Following its introduction to the Philippines, it released some of the most remarkable products in the market that Filipino business owners had never laid hands on before.

It is responsible for bringing in cutting edge products and technology to the country for the very first time, including first facsimile machine, the first full-color copier, first full-color digital copier, first multifunction product. In the early 2000s, the brand continued to reveal one brilliant product after another, including the first Black and White, Color Capable Multi-function machine, and the first Xerographic engine Digital Color Press.

Fully committed to environmental sustainability, Fuji Xerox Philippines also launched Eco.SITE in 2011. Eco.SITE, which stands for Ecology Showroom, Innovation, Technology/Training, Education/Environment, is a dynamic venue that serves as a display area and a training facility for the company’s expanding client base and its team of technicians and salespeople, while reducing the environmental impact of its activities. It is equipped with training facilities, which allow customers to train, simulate, and execute their business. Showcasing an eco-friendly environment made of recyclable post-industrial materials, Eco.SITE provides safe and eco-friendly products and services, encouraging and inspiring its customers and business partners to go green.

As Fuji Xerox Philippines celebrates victorious year in the business, it forges ahead and continuously sets goals that will drive the company to greater heights in the coming years.

How to Integrate Print with IT For Strong Growth

As a business owner, growth is constantly on your mind. You’ve spent hours exploring your potential growth areas and wondering how new opportunities will change your company. In this post we’ll explore the huge shift we’re seeing in the marketplace with the convergence of IT and print, and its potential to significantly impact your bottom line.

It’s time to shift your approach

For customers in all sizes of business, productivity is becoming more and more important, with an increased focus on optimizing value for every dollar spent. For channel partners, this creates big opportunities in the types of conversations you can have with your customers. Often, the value you offer is about how well you can make every day easier for your customers, by helping integrate print – a pain point for many – and turn it into a value-add asset on a company’s IT network. That’s a fundamental shift from how you approached customers in the past.

The post-sale opportunity

What happens after the device is attached to the network? How can you build your business with that customer going forward? Robust security, workflow and mobility solutions extend the value of their multifunction printer, so you can come back weeks or months later with additional offerings to serve their growing business. When you converge IT and print, your recurring revenue opportunities don’t end at install; they’re just beginning.

Solve your customer’s pain-points

Most companies don’t view print as essential to their business, but I bet they’d be surprised to know that 40% of business activities are document driven and most companies spend as much as 10% of their revenue on documents. Companies run on documents.

Channel Partners who can capitalize on integrating documents and print with a customer’s IT environment have a unique perspective to bring to the table. When you demonstrate the value of the document management as a tool to drive growth, you’re hitting on the pain points that matter most for your customers.

Three ways better document management can help

Help desk calls

Up to 25% of help desk calls are print related. If you’re a managed services provider who deal with help desk services already, supporting print through Fuji Xerox managed print services is a low-touch way to support those helpdesk calls through one point of contact.

Network security

Printers and MFPs are end points on a customer’s network, just like smartphones and PCs, and a potential point of vulnerability for hackers to exploit. Whitelisting ensures that only known sources can access your network though the printer and keep customer information safe.

Mobility solutions:

Remarkably 83% of companies want mobile printing, but just 14% have deployed it. Cloud-based mobile print is a low-risk investment that will pay you back by making you more relevant, competitive and differentiated. By providing personalized expertise on solutions, you can make them more productive for your customers and more profitable for you.

How Fuji Xerox channel partner are succeeding – how you can too

Fuji Xerox channel partners are having enormous success by leveraging Managed Print Services (MPS) to create unique and personalized experiences for their customers.

When it comes to MPS, Fuji Xerox is helping partners evaluate their customer’s needs, and providing the right portfolio of products to meet them. We’re also providing incentives that help partners capture more A3 and A4 pages in one contract – no more leaving money on the table.

Some of the most impressive successes are coming from partners who are leveraging Fuji Xerox technology to customize and automate workflow for their customers. For customers who have cloud-connected and cloud-enabled A3 and A4 hardware in place, it’s easy to become more productive without making any additional financial investments.

When it comes to productivity, apps are where it’s at. Consider all the ways that your smartphone apps make your life more productive. Apps can do the same for your customers. And when your customers are more productive, your business becomes more profitable.

Four questions to ask beyond the hardware sale

These changes in the marketplace affect everything from how we distribute our products to how we service them. They reflect an industry-wide shift that we must be prepared to accommodate in order to succeed. Here are the questions you need to ask yourself in order to do so:

1. What happens after the devices are on the network and managed?
2. How can I continue to build my business with this customer?
3. Now that I’ve helped this customer create an integrated IT environment, how do I unlock its potential in order to help productivity?
4. How can I leverage these assets and investments to make the business more productive?

As is often said in this industry, change is the only constant. Are you prepared to meet the demands of this changing market? Fuji Xerox can help. If you are a channel partner looking for better ways to serve your customers, visit www.fujixeroxprinters.com today to find out how you can work with Fuji Xerox, or drop me a note – together we can do amazing things for your customers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Data Source:  John Corley

Planning is key for data analytics success: Fuji Xerox

Business leaders are increasingly forced to consider using analytics as its use cases expand over time. Today, there are three stages of business analytics, Ricky Purnomo, Solution Marketing Manager, Fuji Xerox Singapore, told the delegates at DocuWorld 2015 in Singapore.

The first — which is the most common use case — is descriptive analytics, which provides insights as to what happened and why it happened based on historical performance data. Such insights are usually delivered through scorecards and reports.

The second phase is predictive analytics, which uses a variety of statistical techniques including modeling, machine learning and data mining to find patterns in historical and transactional data. Those patterns will then be used to predict trends, identify risks and opportunities for the business.

The final phase is prescriptive analytics, which combines hybrid data, business rules with mathematical models and computational models to suggest steps to take to support predictions while showing the implications of each decision option. By continually taking in new data to re-predict and re-prescribe, prescriptive analytics tool will improve prediction accuracy and prescribe better decision options.

While analytics seem enticing, business leaders should not jump into it without proper planning, advised Purnomo. “Don’t dive into a massive amount of data just because you have the right infrastructure such as a data warehouse, or the latest analytics tool. To benefit from analytics, you need to start with a business goal, craft a strategy for it, and then invest in the right tools.”

Purnomo went on to further explain the steps that business leaders should take in order to reap the benefits of analytics. Firstly, they should ascertain the insights they hope to find and determine how those insights would support a business goal. They should also determine how much time and money they are willing to invest in the analytics project.

Secondly, they need to know what data they have and the quality of that data. By doing so, business leaders/analysts could determine if they have the necessary data to analyse to gain the insights required to support business goals. He added that it is important to ensure the quality of data as that drives the quality of insights. “It is a common misconception that analytics techniques would influence the quality of insights but in reality, it only allow you to process wider set of data faster.”

Once the first two steps are settled, the necessary data will need to be prepared for analysis. “Besides determining which data to include, you’ll also need to enrich the data and clean them up (such as deduplication). For larger organisations, having a data steward to look into this process might be useful to ensure that this doesn’t go out of control,” said Purnomo.

Next, modelling by data scientists comes into play. “This is the best way to understand the data — by using mathematical model, build hypothesis etc. Even though it could help uncover insights, there is no guarantee to it as it might tell you that the data doesn’t work and you need to pick a different set of data. The focus here is more on experimenting with the data,” said Purnomo.

“Deployment, the final step, should only be done when you’ve found the right data and model. Deployment is where insights are being put into action,” added Purnomo.

“Analytics requires proper planning and foresight as to what data, tools and skills you need. This can only happen when you understand the business question/objective. Business leaders should also understand that analytics is more complicated than it seems and does not guarantee insights. However, you might learn something unexpected from it. Just like research, analytics is an investment, not a work process,” concluded Purnomo.

Rediscovering Kyoto’s past and preserving it for the future

The field of historical restoration is highly specialized and requires delicate work. Old manuscripts often fade, rip or degrade over time, and most end up lying unexplored in old estates and heritage sites, along with the rich well of information they hold.

Advances in technology, however, are making it possible to bring these volumes of history back to life. Such is the case in Kyoto—Japan’s old capital and home to 1,200 years of Japanese culture and history. Here, Fuji Xerox Kyoto, along with various heritage sites and government agencies, has taken on a unique community initiative in the form of using its multifunction devices to produce exact reproductions of historical documents.

The commitment to reproducing historical documents started in October 2008 with the full-color reproduction of Saichuoboe—a finely illustrated manuscript of Kyoto customs and meal menus from the Edo period. Hidetoshi Hamada, President of Fuji Xerox Kyoto, shares that it was when he held the original Saichuoboe in his hands, it sealed the company’s decision to utilize Fuji Xerox products and technologies to create exact three-dimensional reproductions to preserve such documents for future generations.

“It is everyday documents like [the Saichuoboe] that had sustained Kyoto’s 1,200 years of history—in these historical documents are stored the wisdom and aesthetic values of many past generations,” says Hamada.

Re-creating the Past

Saichuoboe’s success eventually led to the establishment of Fuji Xerox Kyoto’s Cultural Affairs Office in May 2010, with Takahiro Mazawa, the then-administrative head of Fuji Xerox Kyoto, leading the in-house project. Requests for reproducing historical documents eventually increased by word of mouth, with some documents presenting their own unique set of challenges.

While replicating monochrome documents was easily achieved, Mazawa shares that “getting the color right has been a very difficult challenge.” The faithful reproduction of gold paint and subtle tints of white, for instance, had proved difficult when utilizing copy machines developed for office use. The color adjustment requirements to replicate the subtle shades and halftones unique to historical documents, presented staff members with a seemingly insurmountable challenge. “Our equipment was simply not designed to handle Washi-traditional handmade Japanese paper,” Mazawa reports.

The arrival of Fuji Xerox’s technology development engineers eventually addressed this. The engineers’ dialogue with Fuji Xerox Kyoto eventually led to the creation of the Historical Documents Taskforce in February 2011, a group comprising 10 technology development engineers and staff from Fuji Xerox Kyoto.

Heading the Taskforce was Kazuo Asano from the Fuji Xerox’s Imaging Platform Development, who intuitively sensed that specialized challenges – such as recreating the metallic hue of armor illustrated with gold and foil pigment – entailed the use of solutions beyond the scope of conventional technologies.

This was the case with the ‘Onmatsuri shinpo shinki ezu’, a beautifully illustrated manuscript dating from before 1870 that catalogs the numerous religious instruments and costumes used in the fabled annual festivals of its home, Kyoto’s Shimogamo Shrine.

Fuji Xerox Kyoto came up with the idea of reproducing the original in an A3-sized double-spread format. Previously, the details of the illustrations caught between the bound pages were difficult to see. “But face-to-face pages have been reproduced seamlessly on single sheets that present all the details in perfect clarity,” relates Jun Sugita, a priest of Shimogamo Shrine. Holding the Fuji Xerox reproduction of the manuscript, Sugita says this gives their order the peace of mind that comes without having to worry about damaging the precious document. “The manuscript will remain in use a few centuries from now [because] it can be handled the way the original was intended to be handled.”

Community engagement

The Fuji Xerox Kyoto initiative has successfully replicated 60 documents, with the oldest one approximately 788 years old, and the benefits of restoring Kyoto’s historical documents have not been exclusive to the customers alone.

The challenges presented, for instance, enabled the technology development engineers to break out of the mental barriers and limitations created unconsciously throughout the course of their work.

The project also opened opportunities for art students studying Japanese painting and imaging technologies to participate in the program, with as many as nine university interns working on the project during its busiest period. Coming into contact with rarely-seen historical documents has spurred a heightened appreciation among the younger generation of the value of preserving Kyoto’s rich early traditions.

Beyond the Taskforce’s enthusiasm to develop products to meet new needs, the community contribution activities were also made possible by Kyoto’s vibrant reservoir of cultural resources. For example, the unique Japanese paper and traditional binding strings used in the reproduction projects were all available within a two-kilometer radius of Fuji Xerox Kyoto.

As the scope of the project expands, President Hamada of Fuji Xerox Kyoto says, “We’re thankful for the opportunity to work in an environment surrounded by 1,200 years of history. The reproduction of historical documents is closely linked to our corporate mission of building an environment for the creation and effective utilization of knowledge. We look forward to finding new ways of contributing to the preservation of culture through these activities.”

Digital Disruption: Future Opportunities for the Print Industry

Printer vendors are having to make major changes to their business models to sustain their leadership and relevance. Long term survival will depend on their ability to adapt to market disruption through both innovation and building relationships with complementary product or technology providers.

The print industry, like many industries, is on the brink of significant change. Market disruption, characterised by intense competition, more demanding customers and a constantly shifting technological landscape, is threatening the legacy hardware-driven business. As the print industry struggles with declining print volumes, hardware commoditisation, lower margins and sustaining growth, vendors are increasingly re-examining the structure of their businesses and looking for ways to deliver better financial performance.

As such, the industry is poised for a wave of acquisition and restructuring as vendors look to adapt to new market demands and shed assets that no longer meet strategic needs. Lexmark and Xerox are the latest to declare that they are exploring strategic options. While typically, hardware companies have relied on earnings growth to deliver shareholder value, shrinking legacy hardware markets has seen revenue falter, leading to acquisitions in the software and services space.

Lexmark’s bid to expand its enterprise software presence began with its acquisition of Perceptive Software in 2010. It has since made 13 software related acquisitions, the most recent being Kofax for $1Bn. Meanwhile Xerox acquired ACS in 2010 to build its business process outsourcing service capabilities. This has paid off for Xerox, with services now accounting for 57% of its revenue. Speculation is now rife as to whether Lexmark’s hardware business will be acquired, or if and when Xerox will split into two separate technology and services businesses – in a similar way to HP’s split into HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

Whatever the outcome, the market is undoubtedly set for consolidation. All vendors are navigating the same path and trying to understand where the new markets lie – the cloud, mobile, big data and the Internet of Things. While some vendors ,such as HP and Ricoh, are working to commercialise their 3D printing technology – this for now is a relatively nascent market.

The shifting business landscape may be daunting, but there are some key opportunities for print manufacturers to maintain or even enhance their competitive positions:

• Adapting to the “as-a-service economy” The consumer preference for services over products and subscriptions over purchases is permeating into the business market. This is driven by increasing customer demand for flexibility that will allow them to take advantage of new technologies. With an as-a-service model, customers are not burdened by significant upgrade costs and can more accurately estimate the on-going cost of access to technology. Managed Print Services (MPS) is already an established service model in the market, offering a lucrative recurring services revenue model along with increased customer retention long after the printer hardware sale. While the MPS market is relatively mature in the enterprise space, there are further opportunities to tap into the largely under-penetrated SMB market. For the channel, digital services around printer device diagnostics and predictive/ preventative maintenance have significant untapped potential. MPS vendors should drive further innovation in their engagements around cloud delivery, security and mobility. These are key enablers, not only for the as-a-service economy but also digital transformation.
• Driving the digital transformation journey. Despite talk of its demise, paper remains a key element of the connected and collaborative office workplace and still plays critical role in the business processes of many organisations. However, paper bottlenecks can hinder business productivity and efficiency. Print vendors are uniquely positioned to connect the paper and digital worlds and are developing stronger expertise in workflow solutions and services. In many cases leveraging investments in Smart MFPs, which have evolved to become sophisticated document processing platforms, provides vendors an opportunity to maximise the value of their hardware offerings. Vendors need to change legacy perceptions of their brand and be accepted as a trusted partner in the enterprise digitisation journey. Business process optimisation and workflow capabilities will become a key point of differentiation for vendors in the industry, requiring a balanced hardware, software and service portfolio.
• Exploiting the Internet of Things (IoT). All printers are things and the connected Smart MFP is part of the IoT landscape. Vendors can exploit the enormous data generation to monitor actual customer product and service usage. This data enables manufacturers to deliver better service performance through predictive data analytics (think proactive service and supplies replenishment) and by collecting information about customer usage of products or services, vendors can improve product design and accelerate innovation. Developing strategic partnerships with open technology vendors can also pave the way for seamless integration of printers/MFPs with mobile devices and drive the development of a broader mobile solutions and services ecosystem.
• Expanding high value print services. Notably, this year some online brands, such as Net-a-Porter and Airbnb have expanded their brands into print. In fact print launches amongst independent publishers are at a 10-year high. Print’s tangibility and durability, its credibility and trust can set it apart from the noisy cluttered online landscape. Research has shown that readers are more likely to retain information on printed material leading to higher engagement levels. Many of the traditional print vendors can leverage their own or third party hardware (including print, visual and display signage technology), services and tools to develop cross media channel communications. Partnerships and alliances with technology vendors in this space will enable print vendors to participate in both the online and offline customer communications space.

The print industry cannot afford to rest on its laurels and must be mindful of the speed and dramatic transformation experienced in other industries. Consider how Salesforce, Amazon Web Services and even Uber have rewritten the rules of their markets. Is there potential for a similar disruptive force in the largely closed and proprietary print industry? Disruption may not come from traditional competitors but from those outside the industry. To adapt and thrive the industry must become more open, expand partnerships outside the industry and continuously innovate. This means creating new products and/or channels and engaging customers, partners and employees in new ways. Ultimately the question remains, is the print industry ready to disrupt itself?

 

 

By: Louella Fernandes, Principal Analyst, Quocirca

Malaysia Pro Guardians Security Mgt : -Guardians Collaboration With Fuji Xerox Printers Channel Malaysia

NEW YORK, NY and KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA–(Marketwired – Nov 12, 2015) – Malaysia Pro-Guardians Security Management Corp. (OTCQB: MPGS), a highly skilled and professionally-trained security protection team, has announced today that it has reached a collaborative agreement with Fuji Xerox Printers Channel Malaysia, a joint venture partnership between the Japanese photographic firm Fuji Photo Film Co. and the American document management company Xerox that develops, produces, and sells xerographic and document-related products and services as well as regulates the authenticity and marketing of relevant Fuji Xerox products in the Asia-Pacific region.

Dato’ Sri helped facilitate the partnership which provides special products and services to the company in exchange for Proguard Security Services’ help in regulating the abuse on non-genuine toners into the government sector. Third party printer consumable products being interspersed into the economy would ultimately result in a high failure rate of printers as well as automatically void the warranty on Fuji products. This would result in a higher cost in managerial maintenance in the long run. With the proposal by Proguard Security Services (M) Sdn Bhd to help aid Fuji Xerox’s efforts, the Malaysian government will be able to enjoy cost savings as well as enjoy the highest printing quality with 100% genuine Fuji Xerox consumables.

Hua Fung Chin, Chief Executive Officer, commented, “Dato’ Sri continues to think brilliantly for the prospective future of the Malaysian Government, regarding both yearly costs in products and services and maintaining the highest printing quality with genuine Fuji Xerox products. The joint cooperation agreement is tied up into a 5-year contract with exclusive rights to both parties. In solving the government problem of illegitimate products in circulation and helping reduce their losses in mismanagement of products or services, the agreement will help advance the company by providing the government with a long-term solution. With our continuous analysis with the relevant government authorities, we can together reduce any further losses.”

About Malaysia Pro-Guardians Security Management Corp.: Malaysia Pro-Guardians Security Management Corp. is a highly professional protection team that upholds and maintains safety of their client interest to support our main core business in protecting our clients from any potential harm. It is the only private sector security company that is allowed to carry firearms in all of Malaysia. All of our security personnel are well trained to be professional, reliable, and highly trained to meet the highest standards in any critical situations encountered which include first aid, protocol utility, and diplomacy in a wide variety of tactical, protective, and security related subjects. Our company recognizes that each client has specific needs and objectives, which are each assessed and addressed individually; solutions are planned and tailored to the most rigorous demands. Additional information about this company is available at: http://www.proguardsecuritymanagement.com

Fuji Xerox introduces data center services for Singapore businesses

Fuji Xerox Singapore has introduced its latest Data Center Services for businesses in Singapore.

Equipped with tight security surveillance, network monitoring and helpdesk support, Fuji Xerox Singapore’s Data Center Services are customized and comprehensively packaged for businesses of all sizes.

Fuji Xerox’s customers are able to fully utilize Tier-3 Data Center facilities, which are designed to meet the emerging need of businesses for industry-specific solutions and cloud-based IT infrastructures.

“With the proliferation of new technologies and growing digital economy, we aim to provide companies with market-leading business solutions that are cost-effective and scalable,” said Richard Ong, Head of Integrated Enterprise Solutions and Services, Fuji Xerox Singapore. “Through Fuji Xerox’s Data Center Services and leveraging the expertise of our existing team of professionals, companies can ensure enhanced business competitiveness, accelerated growth and increased productivity.”

The services that are available include Private Cloud Plus, Disaster Recovery Services and Managed Services.

Private Cloud Plus

Fuji Xerox’s Private Cloud Plus is a solution that provides customers with safe and secure access to the cloud. The solution can be fully integrated into businesses’ existing IT infrastructure or even combined with customized software solutions.

The fully dedicated IT infrastructure is built around a highly secure environment and powered by high bandwidth performance with a range of tailored services for companies including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS).

Disaster Recovery Services

With the Disaster Recovery Services, customers are provided with back-up and recovery solutions, system replication and high availability solutions. This service can be subscribed as a standalone service or as an add-on to customers’ existing IT infrastructure and system.

In addition, certified Business Continuity Management consultants will also provide the relevant expertise to ensure customers are equipped with the right resources, infrastructure and contingency plans. This helps businesses to ensure a continual smooth delivery of their products or services should a disruptive incident occur.

Managed Services

With Fuji Xerox’s Managed Services, businesses can further reduce their operational and labor costs, further enabling them to control capital expenditure more effectively. Fuji Xerox’s Managed Services includes ongoing project and administration management for businesses’ IT infrastructure with network monitoring and helpdesk support, data migration, server and storage upgrades, database management and consultancy.

“The launch of Fuji Xerox’s Data Center Services will provide optimal performance and maximum operational efficiency for businesses, enabling them to scale further and achieve desirable business results in today’s fast-growing market landscape,” adds Ong.

Saving our forests by purchasing the right products

It is not often that consumers check the labels on the packet drinks they purchase. For those who do, it is mainly to check the calories and its nutrition content. However, the simple act of purchasing the right packets would make a difference in saving the world’s forests from illegal logging and ensuring that forests continue to thrive in the future. It’s the belief that every effort makes a difference that spurred Tetra Pak, the world’s leading supplier in carton packaging, to support sustainable harvested forests since the company’s inception in 1951. “From day one, when our founder designed the first Tetra Pak carton, he had the environment in mind, believing that a package should save more than its cost, and this could only be achieved by starting with what it’s made of,” said the company’s environmental director for Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia, Terrenyz Tan. The company uses paperboards sourced from “known and legal sources”, including those that are certified from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). “FSC is the gold standard in forest harvesting because it is the best in forest management certification, and it goes hand-in-hand with what Tetra Pak believes,” she said. World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia conservation director Dr Sundari Ramakrishna said the reason FSC was the gold standard was because of its high level of regulations that FSC certified Forest Management Units need to abide to. “WWF supports FSC because it has been tested and proven, it is robust and it is transparent, especially through consultation with the various stakeholders,” she said. Sundari said that it was important that consumers understand the meaning behind the labels on their purchased goods, and begin purchasing FSC certified products. FSC Malaysia chief executive officer Marcellinus Frederick Lamhai said that there were a wide array of FSC products in Malaysia. “AirAsia’s in flight magazine uses FSC certified paper, some of IKEA, Kimberly-Clark products as well, paper from Fuji Xerox and Canon, and stationary from Staedtler, Faber-Castell use FSC certified material,” he said. Tan said that for Tetra Pak, it currently sources 20% of FSC certified material but the company intends on pushing it to 100% in the future. “There are still limited FSC certified forests, so we can’t go 100% yet as the supply is limited. That is why we hope that by raising awareness on the benefits of FSC, there will be more demand for FSC certified products in the world which would lead to more forest managements striving to achieve the FSC certification,” she said, adding that as of 2014, there have been 44 billion FSC labelled cartons sold globally. Tan said that companies that sell and have FSC labelled products also needed to abide to the FSC regulations and get the Chain of Custody (CoC) certification, which ensures transparency. “We want consumers to feel empowered when they pick up one of our cartons and take notice of the labels and know that by buying an FSC labelled product they have already taken a step towards helping the environment,” she said. – November 5, 2015.

13 firms including Fuji Xerox win awards for sustainable practices

Accolades and honours were conferred on a range of firms that have excelled at employing sustainable practices and promoting environmental awareness. The 13 winners named at the Sustainable Business Awards ceremony held at Marina Bay Sands last night were singled out for their efforts in what is an increasingly important part of the corporate world. The 40 initial entrants were judged on the sustainability of their business practices in benefitting, not only the firm itself, but also the environment and its stakeholders, today and into the future. They were also assessed on their efforts to improve the well-being of their staff, those employed in their supply chains and people in their local communities. Royal DSM, a life sciences and materials sciences company, emerged as the overall winner. It also won two awards under the supply chain management and climate change categories. DSM executive vice-president Roelof Westerbeek said in a statement: “Business leaders, like DSM, have to take a larger responsibility to address the challenges of climate change. “Disruptive technologies, disruptive business models, and the move towards full inclusion of environmental and social impacts into business decisions, will be imperative to leave a more sustainable world for the next generations. There are tremendous value creation opportunities for those companies who do this right.” Telco Singtel took top honours in the stakeholder engagement and materiality category, which looks at how well companies monitor stakeholder perceptions and how they deal with them. Keppel Land was awarded the strategy and sustainability management award. Ikea Singapore topped the workforce category that was assessed on the measures a firm takes to boost staff morale and skills. Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific was highlighted for its innovative efforts in waste management and materials productivity. The personal products giant Kimberly-Clark was praised for its efforts in water reduction and for investing significantly to support the water needs of the communities in which the firm operates. Organised by Global Initiatives, this year’s awards saw almost double the number of entrants this year over last year. The assessment process for these national and multinational companies from a diverse range of sectors involved having to complete a comprehensive sustainability assessment form online, followed by interviews with global consulting firm PwC. An expert advisory panel then reviewed the results of a questionnaire and interview process and decided on the winners. – See more at: http://business.asiaone.com/news/13-firms-win-awards-sustainable-practices#sthash.9tM1shck.dpuf