company closer to locals. As local employees gained more
experience in planning and execution, they built “a lot
of good business acumen”. Frankly, it’s quite plain to see
that locals would understand their own country better.
They know what works, what doesn’t and can go home
to their families after work. There are no cultural barriers,
mistranslations or bewilderment at differences. By hiring
locals and sitting down with them from day one, relevant
strategies are drawn up and deployed based on a personal
connection to the market.
“They understand the market; what works and what
doesn’t,” Harry says. “With this, they can offer ideas to the
US office and tell them, ‘You know what, this might work
for our country’. Local teams know what will work in their
market, what will not work and why. Collectively, the whole
team learns together, works together, and becomes more
successful over time.
“It’s called ‘zero distance to customer’ and, to us, it is
very meaningful,” Harry says. “Panduit Asia–Pacific has been
growing continuously over the past eight years, meaning
we have eight years of record sales. And in that period, there
are many years where we hit record profits as well.”
The third phase of Harry’s plan was a stronger focus on
the company’s partners. Panduit Asia–Pacific currently has
two manufacturing locations, three customer briefing centres,
four warehouses and 18 sales and non-sales offices in the
region. Added to that are 369 distribution partners and
1,241 ONE Panduit Partners, a global network of partners
the company personally trains and certifies to install its
solutions and systems.
But despite the wide networks and large team, Harry
doesn’t fool himself into thinking everything can be done
within the company. In the end, he nods to the classification
of Panduit as a manufacturer – and a successful manufacturer
needs partners.
“We love our fantastic partner network that has helped
us see stunning results over the past eight years. We’ve
had record sales and profits because we decided to not use
more resources in Asia. Instead, we enhanced our overall
productivity. It delivers better value to our customers, and
we are now faster in meeting our market
needs. Our partners are extremely important,
and we really treasure their support. They are
a true part of Panduit.”THE FIRE FOR PROGRESS
On the topic of his employees, Harry’s eyes
always light up. He believes that engaging
people is the most critical factor for success
in businesses.
“Since 2014, our employee engagement
continues to trend well above IBM’s industry
benchmark,” he says proudly. “IBM’s
benchmark is a composite of thousands of
employee responses, representing every score
across similar organisations worldwide. Thanks
to focusing on our core values and building
a strong culture of accountability, our
engagement results are now approaching
the top five per cent of all companies in
the survey. It’s a phenomenal achievement,
a strong indication we’re cultivating our
culture and growing it in the right direction.”
Over the past three to five years,
employee engagement has continued to
climb. Harry confesses he can’t help but be
a little surprised to see its continuous rise
and that it’s all thanks to two things.
First is the employees’ attitude when
planning for the business. If they are involved
from the beginning, they become part of the
solution, which helps them feel valued and
excited. They are motivated because they feel
like a part of a team that can collaboratively
plan, execute and see tangible results.64 | theceomagazine.com