innovation

yourmoney ezine

f you are like the average parent, you have forgotten a PTA meeting

of two or you’ve found that your child ‘didn’t remember’ to deliver several important messages from his teacher. Now you will soon be able to keep up-to-date with your child’s progress through texts from his teacher and other school personnel with the Teacher-Family Relationship Management (TFRM) initiative from Coretalk Caribbean.

The two-year-old company has built a reputation as the go-to SMS communication tool for businesses, offering a unique service where

companies and their clients can communicate directly with each other via text messages. This same service will be available to individual teachers and school administrations by the start of the new school year in September. “SMS is the most effective form of communication today. Every parent has a cell phone, but not everyone has access to a landline or the internet,” said Winston Henderson, Marketing and Sales Executive at Coretalk Caribbean.

Coretalk has already conducted pilot studies at Irwin High School in Montego Bay and Southborough Primary School in Portmore. Irwin principal Aldin

Bellinfantie is pleased with the system as well as the feedback from parents. (click here for a video testimonial.)

Coretalk is presently seeking to partner with corporate Jamaica to finance the initiative. “If you are interested in becoming a partner, text the keyword PARTNER to 845-6377 and we will get in touch with you,” Coretalk CEO Leighton Campbell urged.

Teacher-Family relaTionship managemenT

from Coretalk Caribbean

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From left: Leighton Campbell, CEO with Winston Henderson, Marketing and Sales Executive.

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amaicans don’t really invest; they prefer to save, whether it is in a tra-ditional savings account, piggy bank

or under the mattress (yes, that still hap-pens.) Those who do invest are under-standably guarded about the companies they put their funds into. No one wants to be the poor sap whose hard-earned money goes down the drain due to mis-management or unscrupulous practices.

Many onlookers and even some of those who do invest are not sure exactly what the companies are doing with their mon-ey. Just last month, general manager of the Jamaica Stock Exchange ( JSE), Mar-lene Street Forrest, had to come to the defense of the Junior Market against an investor who argued that the companies were pocketing the capital raised instead of putting it back into the business. How-ever, those who have bought shares in the Lasco Group of Companies will be seeing the fruits of their investment in short order as Group chairman Lascelles Chin recently outlined plans to invest up to US$11 million ($935 million) in the ex-pansion and integration of the affiliates.

Speaking at a recent Mayberry Investor Forum on the Lasco-affiliated companies, Chin pointed out that all the capital raised in the initial IPO was reinvested in the business and that he did not take any for himself from the sale of his shares.

The Lasco Group has been creating waves on the Jamaica Stock Exchange Ju-nior Market since its historic listing in last October. Lasco is the first company to list three separate entities on the market and they have all recorded remarkable mar-

gins of growth. Each of the three com-panies posted a combined net profit of $737 million for the year ended March 31, 2011, which was more than tripled their earnings from the year before. The Group reported that it had no long-term debt and over $200 million in cash flow, which will enable the companies to un-dertake such a large expansion plan at no significant capital costs.

The multi-million dollar expansion will see an increase in productivity and efficiency as well as the addition of 10 new prod-uct lines, which will be the first of three phases of expansion, which should be completed by April 2012.

Chin told shareholders that these invest-ments are aimed at making the companies more efficient and doubling the sales for the manufacturing arm within the next two to three years. The planned expan-sion would add nearly 70,000 square feet to the current 100,000 square feet factory space located at White Marl, St Catherine. This would include a brand new state-of-the-art facility to house both the manufacturing and distribution arms of the company to alleviate capacity con-straints.

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lasco plansmultimillion dollar expansion

Those who do invest are un-derstandably guarded about the companies they put their funds into. No one wants to be the poor sap whose hard-earned money goes down the drain due to mismanagement or unscrupulous practices.

From left: Dr. Eileen Chin, Managing Director with Founder and group Chairman Lascelles Chin

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Chin also outlined other developments across the Group, including plans to in-crease exports, which currently accounts for only nine per cent of total revenue. Lasco has a strong presence in the US, where products are traditionally market-ed in New York and Florida, which have large Jamaican populations. The company is now expanding to more states with five new distributors, which is expected to increase sales volumes. Lasco Manufac-turing (LASM) also plans to restructure its UK market as well as re-enter the Ca-nadian market, which has strong growth potential. There are also plans to expand its reach across the Caribbean as sev-eral islands have provided positive feed-back. Chin also spoke on plans to ramp up exports to Africa and the Middle East – LASM has already begun exporting to Oman.

Other plans include diversifying the ser-vices offered by Lasco Financial Services (LASF), including a prepaid Mastercard and education loans, which were launched earlier this month. Also addressing inves-tors at the Forum, managing director of LASF, Jacinth Hall-Tracey, noted that changing demographics and consumer needs required the company to respond with additional services that are faster and more accessible. She noted that LASF aims to be as “near to the bank as pos-sible”, offering as many financial services as feasible under its license.

The scope of the expansion is certainly wide-ranging, but Chin assured investors that the plans have been well thought out. “We do very careful research and we are not going to take chances with

your money,” he said. “We will increase the efficiency and improve the way we do business to increase our market share and profit.”

The Lasco Group has been a consistently profitable venture over the years. Since listing on the Junior Market, the three affiliates have recorded increased sales volumes. The remittance section of LASF

grew by 30 per cent last year, well above the industry average of five per cent. Lasco’s remittance arm has also been the number one Moneygram agent in Jamaica for a number of years and its cambio is in the top 10 islandwide.

Lasco Distributors (LASD) also grew 15.6 per cent in volumes. Chin attributed this to restructuring of the different functions and work flow adjustments, plus the ad-dition of several new products. LASD is also the leading distributor of infant formula, outselling major international brands like Nestle, Mead Johnson and Enfamil. The company boasts 20% of the bath soap market and 10 per cent of the toothpaste market. The success of the Lasco brand is due largely to the lower prices of its products, compared to its competitors.

Additionally, Lasmed, Lasco’s pharmaceu-tical division, now has over 140 products. Chin pointed out that Lasco is the only company in this part of the world with its own brand name in generic drugs, which are sold at a fraction of the price of branded drugs. “As part of our phi-losophy, we do not come to market with any product unless the quality is similar to or better than the competition, and the price is at least 15% below the competi-tors’ prices,” Chin said.

Peter Chin, LASCO Group Marketing Manager.

There are also plans to expand its reach across the Caribbean as several islands have provid-ed positive feedback. Chin also spoke on plans to ramp up ex-ports to Africa and the Middle East – LASM has already be-gun exporting to Oman.

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t’s almost a form of self-punishment to call a local business to ask even a simple question. You’re often put on

hold for so long that you forget why you called in the first place or you’re greeted with a weary voice droning the traditional “How may I help you?”, even though the tone makes it clear that you’re interrupt-ing her day. Generally speaking, the qual-ity of customer service in Jamaica has def-initely been below par for a long time, but companies like Sagicor Life Jamaica (SLJ) have made a concerted effort to combat this with specialized call centres and well-trained agents.

As part of a larger plan to “significantly impact service quality levels in 2011”, SLJ has created a new Contact Centre to im-prove call handling rates. “We understand the vital importance of customer satisfac-tion and loyalty and charged our team with creating an environment where the customer feels well served,” SLJ President and CEO Richard Byles stated earlier this year. “It’s not good enough for us to sim-ply answer the calls; we are challenging the team to meet our clients’ information needs on the first call.”

Leading this charge is Kristine Bolt, Vice President of Customer Experience and Productivity. She explained that the new Contact Centre is a merger of the two call centres associated with the compa-ny’s major business lines. The first step in the process was hiring Shernnette Greg-ory, a contact centre professional with 10 years experience in the customer service

industry, to streamline the system. “We [also] built out a new space for them and really upgraded how we handle every-thing. [We did] a lot of training in terms of job knowledge and customer experi-ence – managing the customer, managing the calls, multi-tasking so you can manage

a call better, just being able to give our customers who call us a consistent quality of service,” she said.

The contact centre currently handles ap-proximately 22,000 calls per month. Ac-cording to Gregory, 85% of these calls are answered within three seconds, which is far faster than the industry standard of 30 seconds. She also pointed out that the centre brings all customer communica-tions under one roof as SLJ clients can also send emails, faxes or chat online with an agent.

“It’s not good enough for us to simply answer the calls; we are challenging the team to meet our clients’ information needs on the first call.”

sagicor liFe Jamaica ups Customer serviCe standards

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Kristine Bolt, Vice President of Customer Experience and Productivity

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Several calls to the centre are also re-corded. “Calls are recorded for a num-ber of reasons. One is that we can score the calls in terms of quality. You can play back the call and say that the person was greeted properly, the information they asked for is what they got, [the agent] in-troduced certain things to them, they ex-plained options to them and so on,” Bolt explained. “The second reason for recod-ing calls is for training purposes. When you have new agents or you need to just train the existing agents, you can use calls that have been recorded to show them what to do and what not to do.”

Contact centre agents undergo intensive training in several areas: job knowledge, which covers the various SLJ products; communication skills; voice and speech training; telephone communication skills; introduction to the contact centre indus-try; multi-tasking; SLJ systems training and overall customer service training. There

is also a leadership training component where agents are empowered to manage themselves.

Since opening in December 2010, the Centre has seen an 18% increase in the number of calls handled. “We’re answer-ing 98% of our calls and we’re answering them fast. When customers call, they’re also able to get better information be-cause we have also upgraded our systems for finding customer information and be-ing able to speak to the customer quick-ly,” Bolt added. “They can expect a higher quality level of interaction when they call us on the phone. Our agents are better trained on all our business lines to deal with any customer.”

“We’re answering 98% of our calls and we’re an-swering them fast. When customers call, they’re also able to get better information because we have also upgraded our systems for finding cus-tomer information and being able to speak to the customer quickly.”

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insightsbyTracey-Ann Wisdom

uly 17, 2011 will mark the 12th ‘birthday’ of SpongeBob

SquarePants, the loveable but accident-prone Porifera from Bikini Bottom. Along with his merry band of cohorts, SpongeBob has literally infiltrated the hearts of television viewers worldwide, transforming itself from mere children’s entertainment to international icon and multi-billion dollar cash cow – US$8 bil-lion a year, in fact.

In a media environment where change is the only ‘sure thing’ and many shows are canned even before they hit the screen, SpongeBob’s 12-year Nickel-odeon run is an anomaly. However, it has built a strong cross-generational appeal which has helped maintain its status as the most-watched show on cable. According to a 2009 AdAge Me-diawork’s story, SpongeBob accounts for as much as 30 of the 100 top-rated shows in any given week in Nielsen’s cable ratings, as well as the top-rated animated show among children two to 11 for the past seven years.

Undoubtedly, the concept behind Ste-phen Hillenburg’s megahit was a spark of creative genius. There was certainly nothing like SpongeBob on TV when the cartoon debuted with moderate ratings in 1999. Since then, the oddball pineapple dweller has exploded into a cult icon, amassing fans from tweens to celebrities like Justin Timberlake, Ser-ena Williams, Bruce Willis and LeBron James – even President Obama! Today, SpongeBob SquarePants is currently broadcast in 171 markets with average

monthly viewership of 70 million. The website also receives over six million unique visitors per month.

However, viewership alone cannot create a brand, especially one with the level of success SpongeBob has achieved. According to Gary Marsh, president of entertainment and chief creative officer of Disney Channels Worldwide, “If there’s an upside to a show, it’s because we’re able to exploit

it off TV.” Marsh definitely knows what he’s talking about. He’s currently in charge of Disney’s megahit Phineas and Ferb, which many industry insiders have dubbed ‘the next big thing’ in terms of licensing potential. SpongeBob has more than 700 license partners world-wide, including Paramount Studios, toy makers Hasbro and Burger King, which has had several Kids Meal tie-ins with the character.

The runaway success of the SpongeBob brand holds several lessons for entre-preneurs both large and small, whether your focus is going global or cementing your own distinguishable niche:

In a media environment where change is the only ‘sure thing’ and many shows are canned even before they hit the screen, SpongeBob’s 12-year Nickelodeon run is an anomaly.

BECAME A GLOBAL BRANDhow spongeBoB

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Make it necessary: Neces-sity is the key to creating a product or offering a service that is second to none and will earn your company good market share. You might wonder what need could SpongeBob and his friends possibly satisfy, but entertainment is something people crave, especially chil-dren. According to US Bureau of La-bour statistics, Americans spend more on entertainment than they do on health care, utilities, clothing or food. If people feel that they need your prod-uct for any reason at all, this will influ-ence them to make a purchase.

Make it different: Novelty is the key to setting yourself apart from your competitors and making your product a hit. SpongeBob’s allure is his ability to make normal things exciting, funny and new again. His unflappable nature and child-like optimism are huge draws, but the fact that all this ‘human’ activity takes place in a community under the sea – which, by the way, in-cludes a squirrel who wears an air suit for breathing purposes – makes it even more fun and interesting to the aver-age viewer. In a similar way, ensure that the product you offer is unique or put a fresh spin on something that is already in existence. For instance, bookshops are fairly common in Jamaica, but they are mostly known for their textbook selection. Bookophilia created a new mould by focusing on the reading ex-perience, not just selling books people like to read, but creating an atmo-sphere where shoppers can read in the store. The store also runs a book club and offers weekly readings for children, among other services.

Make sure you can sell it: The majority of SpongeBob’s suc-cess is due to merchandising – branded clothing items, toys, stationery, bedding and party favours are selling like hot bread. Examine your business model to see whether you can make and sell branded items, even if it’s just t-shirts. For instance, Usain Bolt’s Tracks and Records is a sports and entertain-ment lounge that not only offers good food and a hot hangout spot, but sells branded t-shirts, key chains, mugs and other items. Granted, this is not where the bulk of the business’ money comes from, but it does provide a strong rev-enue stream.

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he discovery of a passion at a young age is often an indica-tor of one’s future career path,

which is the case for Michael Linton, the self-proclaimed “head cook and bottle washer” of UPS Services Ltd. “I first realized my propensity to fix and build things in primary school and was intro-duced to electronics in second form at Calabar High School,” he said. “We would connect batteries to motors and video games and sell games like an ar-cade to fellow students. There began my journey into electronics.”

That journey also led Linton to a de-gree in Electronics (with a minor in General Physics) from the University of the West Indies and a career as an engi-neer. However, after a while, he began to feel like he had reached a plateau. This dissatisfaction led him to ‘hang up his own shingle’ in 2009. UPS Services offers UPS (uninterruptible power sup-plies) and battery sales, UPS installation and servicing, power audits and power protection.

Linton, as the sole proprietor, man-ages the day-to-day administrative op-erations of the business as well as the engineering aspects of the job. He has over seven years UPS servicing and in-stallation experience with units ranging from 250VA (volt-ampere) to 200KVA (kilovolt-ampere). He has been trained by UPS systems manufacturers MGE France, in three-phase systems instal-lation and servicing. Linton also works with direct and indirect lightning pro-tection equipment.

Linton takes pride in the small things on his entrepreneurial journey, such as registering the business and opening a store, and counts repairing a 30KVA UPS that was ready for the dump as one of the company’s biggest accom-plishments so far. “We repaired, re-stored and reinstalled it and it is work-ing normally today,” he said.

Of course, there have been challenges as well. Last year, the business took a major financial hit and Linton had to close the store and scale down opera-tions for a while. However, UPS Servic-es is back on the right track and Linton is in planning mode. “The plan for UPS Services is to add alternative energy and electrical engineering services to our offerings. In five years’ time, UPS Services will be known island-wide for quality power services. The long-term vision for the company is to become a power generation and distribution company,” he stated.

Linton is also a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Association (YEA), which has also helped to expose him to new clients. “When I started with the YEA, it was good to see other young people doing well at business. It encouraged me. I did not occupy any post with the YEA, but was a part of a business show put on at one of the hotels in Kingston. It was high energy from start to finish. I made contact with new prospective clients and actually did business with persons who attended the show. The YEA is an excellent place to network and begin your business,” he said.

He encouraged other young people who have a mind for business to go for it: “Have a plan as to what you will do and how you will accomplish it. Start, no matter how small, and build on it.”

Michael linton GivinG You ‘power when You need it’

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“When I started with the YEA, it was good to see other young people doing well at business. It encouraged me. I did not occupy any post with the YEA, but was a part of a business show put on at one of the hotels in Kingston. It was high energy from start to finish. I made contact with new prospective clients and actually did business with persons who attended the show. The YEA is an excellent place to network and begin your business.”

byTracey-Ann Wisdom

Michael Linton, Founder and Manager of UPS Services Ltd.

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