First Written on Friday, March 10, 2006

Highlands Mineral Water Company Limited was established in Nyeri, Kenya in 1947. Nyeri is a very small town on the foothills of Mt. Kenya and adjacent to the Aberdare National Park. It is famous because Lord Baden Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts movement and the legendary Big Game Hunter, Jim Corbett spent their last days and are buried there. Jim Corbett is the most loved Englishman in India and a Royal Bengal Tiger reserve is named after him.

Highlands Mineral Water Company is a family managed organization. It is one of the pioneers of the soft drinks industry in Kenya. It produces and bottles drinking water, cordials, squashes and ready to drink juices. It was a bottler for Pepsi and having its own brands of carbonated beverages till 1997 when Pepsi exited out of Kenya. Highlands' focus now is to become a total beverages company. It has Kenya Bureau of Standards and NSF certification for its products. It is working towards obtaining ISO certification, under the overall guidance of our Mr. Madhavan T Gopalachary, who is the Management Consultant to the company. He works along with other certifying and training bodies as the Management Representative. He has completed preparing the 3 year strategic plans for the company. During this time, he has also completed the organization structure, recruitments, systems, methods and processes for the company. His assignment was completed by end August 2006. 

He studied the company and its various operations for 12 days and then carried out three workshops as detailed below:

  1. Strategic Planning Workshop for the Board of Directors of Highlands Mineral Water Company Limited was held on February 26, 2006 at Hotel Outspan, Nyeri, Kenya.

Feedback of the Board of Directors:

  • The workshop was totally different from what I have been used to. I have attended a number of workshops, seminars and training programs. The difference was in the simple, practical and interactive nature of the workshop. There was no long winding monotonous lecture. The entire findings on enterprise diagnostics was short and to the point. There was only 10 slides in the presentation on "where are we ?" and "why are we there"  and took only 40 minutes or so. The discussion on "where do we want to go ?" and "how to get there" was healthy, frank and open. Every point was addressed and it was an eye opener. The points raised and answered were beneficial to both the company and the individual. I learnt where we are going wrong. Finally, I learnt how a family business should be run, though I am not a member of the family. I am giving below some of the salient points we learnt:

  • Boundaries and Limits of each of us, as Directors of the company 

  • Get professionals to do it and learn to empower and delegate the work

  • Invest in training and staff development

  • Always be on the lookout for opportunities to grow the business. It takes a 'can do' attitude

  • Friendship and Work do not go together. There are frustrations everywhere, but when you love your job, it makes all the difference

  • Those who work for you should meet deadlines

  • When you are not sure what decisions to make, listen to your heart and do what feels right

Keep it up Mr. Madhavan. You have shown me the light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you - Kiran Suthar, Director - Sales.

The above is the compilation of the views of all the Directors of the company. 

  1. Strategic Planning Workshop for the National Sales Team of Highlands Mineral Water Company Limited, Nyeri, Kenya was held at the Greenhill Hotel on March 04, 2006. A 4 hour training workshop on "Achieving Sales Excellence" was also held for the participants.

Feedback of the participants:

  • Very interactive and educative

  • Managing by Objectives (Targets)

  • Team now aware of the direction the company is taking

  • Created confidence in sales team

  • The team is now aware of the consequences of non performance

  • Time spent not enough, needed to learn more

  • Excellent Presentation

  • I am more focused than before

  • Time available was not enough. We need more training on regular basis

  • Understanding what the marketplace is and the consumer needs

  • The workshop gave us focus. We learnt our shortcomings and on how to correct them

  • We realized the importance of collections and that a sale is not complete unless the money is received

  • We learnt accountability

  • We learnt the attributes of a good sales person

  • We learnt about the BCG Matrix and product classification

  • We learnt how to strategize and the tactics to be adopted in the field

  • We learnt to set goals, targets and objectives

  • We learnt the purpose of a business

  1. Strategic Planning Workshop was held for all management staff, other than the Board of Directors, on March 05, 2006 at the same venue.

Feedback of the participants:

  • Very open discussions

  • Good interdepartmental come together

  • Different views on functional opportunities

  • Good understandings of difficulties faced by other departments

  • Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the company and the way forward

  • We knew our strengths and weaknesses but had no idea on how to approach them. The workshop provided us the approach to be taken.

  • The workshop taught us that how a group of 10 different individuals can fail or complete the task with better results as a team.

  • The workshop has provided us a direction.

  • The workshop was excellent and learnt that we should know where we are going

  • We learnt the weaknesses of the employer in relation to employees as well as the weaknesses of the employees in relation to the employer. This will enable us to improve understanding and have a smooth working relationship.

Note: Duplication or Repetition of comments has been avoided. The names have been skipped in the case of employees as per our policy in the case of in-house programs.

Information & Public Relations for MMG Consulting, Kenya,

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