To gather everyone, to foster teamwork and collaboration at the same time. Giving values to our people. Our theme this year is “Building Teams, Molding Leaders”.
Insights on Apple Motivation Camp 2017 from Apple Group Chief Operating Officer Mr. Bernard Woo
Apple Group Chief Operating Officer Mr. Bernard Woo
As Apple-nian gear up for Apple Motivation Camp this year, we are honored to have Apple Group Chief Operating Officer Mr. Bernard Woo to share his thoughts.
On a personal note, Bernard joined the Apple Group in 2012, managing its subsidiary company, Apple Aviation Sdn Bhd, and in January 2017, assumed his current position. Prior to this, he spent the major part of his working career in the airline field and brings with him an extensive knowledge and experience in the air transport industry.
With this, we would like to pick his brain and posed him four powerful questions……..
Why is Melaka chosen for AMC?
We consider the facilities and traveling time when deciding on the place for AMC. Bearing in mind the tight business schedule with two travel fairs consecutively over the last two weekends, Melaka is an ideal venue for our event as it is only a two-hour drive from KL. Also, the city with its rich and colorful history appeals to many people.
It is also in our agenda to visit the site of Impressions Melaka, a project related to our group. We are eager and excited to see the progress of this project. Basically, we do not want to have a too taxing journey on Apple-nians, hence Melaka is chosen, a good place for us to relax, refresh and recharge!
What is the objective of AMC?
The theme for AMC is “Building Teams, Molding Leaders”.
In our company, we have four generations, starting with me, the Baby Boomers, Gen-X, Millennials, and Gen-Z. So, four generations are now working side-by-side and you have four different expectations of teamwork and this is a real challenge to create the teamwork culture we desire. In addition, we have many departments in the company with people coming from different background and experience to contend with.
Furthermore, we have a system of reward which is basically individual-based and sales-driven. As long as employees are compensated and celebrated for their individual performance and contributions, we are failing to encourage teamwork.
So, to balance this, we have programmes like AMC to foster teamwork. We need to create a work culture that values collaboration. In a teamwork environment, people understand and believe that thinking, planning, decisions, and actions are better when done cooperatively. We believe that “none of us is as good as all of us together”. Therefore, we engage an outside specialist to help us to create the teamwork culture and move forward together.
How is this year’s different from the previous camps?
Every annual company event has its own purpose and merit. This is the first annual event that I am handling. I gathered that last year’s event was to give a break to everyone with a trip to Pattaya.
This year, the event focus on team building activities that will increase the ability of Applenians to participate in planning, problem solving and decision making to better serve our customers.
We hope to promote:
- collaboration and teamwork,
- problem solving and decision making, and
- ownership of decisions, processes, and changes.
I believe we have a good value proposition for Apple-nians at the AMC and everyone will benefit from it.
Any encouragement, message or words for Apple-nian on the upcoming motivation camp?
I don’t expect with two days at a motivation camp, we will see changes immediately! Team building is a process and it is something that we need to do every single day at work. The AMC has to be viewed as a critical part of a larger teamwork effort and is one component in an overall team building plan.
I hope that the wonderful sense of teamwork at the AMC will have an impact on everyone and the experience gained translated into action back at the office.
By and large, many companies do not invest in their people. In Apple Vacations, we believe in investing in our people, building their capacity and capabilities, for our future. This is the way forward.
We are a people company, dynamic, evolving and changing with the time. The only constant is change as they say …….
Agreed and well said as we ended our interview …. just as the great Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 500 BCE) the Greek philosopher has once written.
