theceomagazine.com | 73about much more than just business. “We did not want our
business partners to be just willing sellers. We want more than
that. We want them to see that this is a company that cares
about a lot of things. It cares for its employees, it cares for
the society, and it cares for our planet.”
Julie’s encourages its business partners to come to
Malaysia to meet its team, and get to know the business.
“We want their people, not just the owner or CEO of
the company to come,” says Martin. “We also want the
procurement people and some of the other staff to visit
us. We invite a lot of people to visit our factory, so they
can see for themselves what the story behind the brand is.
This is very important to us.”
The company has a multicultural workforce, which can
be a challenge to building a strong culture. “We not only
have local workers, but also some foreign workers. This is a
big challenge because we have quite a few nationalities, some
from Vietnam, some from Nepal.” This led to the company
tailoring its training methods to support all its staff.
“The staff speak different languages so, for instance, we
will have Nepalese providing training to the Nepalese staff,
to ensure that we’re all one big family.”
The future for Julie’s means embracing automation and
ecommerce, to keep the business strong. “Ecommerce is an
interesting challenge now, because you can’t keep doing
things in conventional ways,” Martin says.
For Martin, Julie’s is about much more than just biscuits;
it’s about promoting his country on the world stage. “What
I’m trying to do is not just promote Julie’s, but also Malaysia,
to make people see that Malaysia has many things to offer.
That is also my job,” he says.
“When people come to Malaysia to visit our plant, we
also take them around to show them our culture, and how
Malaysia is a multicultural country.”
The company is also involved in supporting the local
community. “We work with a lot of NGOs and we get our
people involved. We want them to see that this company is a
very caring company” Martin says. “We want the country to
see that the Julie’s is something that has been made by them.”
The company also has a community program called
Mentoring SMEs. “My goal is getting together with
government agencies to see how we can help SMEs,”
Martin says. “We have this responsibility to give back
to society.”
Julie’s will always be more than just a job for Martin.
“Our mission is we care; we love the Earth, and we care for
our society.”“EXPORTING TO
80 COUNTRIES
IS NOT EASY TO MANAGE.
EVERY COUNTRY HAS ITS
OWN CULTURE, ITS
OWN BELIEFS, AND ITS
OWN BUSINESSPRACTICES.”