THE GLOBAL INSTITUTE OF LOGISTICS LAUNCHES RELATIONSHIP ORIENTATION CERTIFICATE PROGRAM (2007-07-30)
Hong Kong's legendary Foreign Correspondents' Club was the setting as the Global Institute of Logistics launched its innovative Relationship Orientation Certificate Program in the company of a strong press contingent.
Kieran Ring, CEO of the Institute, speaking at the announcement, said:
"The first workshop intakes will take place in Hong Kong in late August and early September 2007. The construction of a corporate culture which reflects the collaborative dynamic has been the focus of the Institute for some time, following the seminal work in this area done by academics such as Sin et al and Panayides and So."
Also present were GIL Council Members Paul Goldsbrough and Wilmer Aguilar.
Mr Goldsbrough said:
"I am particularly delighted by this development. In fact, the main reason I accepted the role as Chairman of the China Chapter of the Global Maritime Council was that I wanted to see these skills - so important to the industry - passed on."
Bruce Stinson, Managing Director of ChiLab Limited - the training company which has developed the program for the Institute, told the gathering of press and industry leaders:
"The Logistics industry is a very efficient one. It has a natural focus on Left Mind skills and this is not surprising as any industry which collects, transports, ships, tracks and delivers such a huge amount of material every minute of every day must naturally have a focus on logical, sequential, deliberate processes or chaos would ensue."
"I am sure that is why virtually all of the training available in the industry is based on the skills which support that logical and sequential thinking."
"Until now, that situation has left a glaring gap. The industry is also about people - millions of them - and when relationships between companies break down, as they do very regularly resulting in huge loss of revenue streams, it is invariably because of a relationship breakdown between people somewhere in the supply chain. All of the Left Mind training in the world won't fix that or stop it happening."
"The GIL Certificate Program follows the academic work which has proved the importance of Relationship Management and has its focus on Right Mind skills which are vital to maintaining healthy relationships."
"Working with a strong Board of Advisors, we have developed a three month program which takes participants right through the range of Relationship Skills identified by the academic work as the cornerstones: Communication, Bonding, Shared Values, Trust, Reciprocity and Empathy."
"We also underpin the program with vital work on Creativity and Emotional Intelligence. Without these it is difficult to make progress on the six elements"
All involved believe this incentive will change the culture of the industry and see far better Relationship Management emerging as best practice.
A purpose-built office, with a training room for medium-sized groups, will be opened in early September and will be the base from which the Certificate Program will be rolled out world-wide. Early reports indicate keen interest from some major industry players and a number of the early enquiries have come from China - sure to be a major source of program participants.