Facing a huge debt, slumping production and pressure over the planned end of cane cultivation at the Wales estate, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) yesterday launched a `New GuySuCo’ that includes diversification but there were few details.
‘New GuySuCo’ was one of three concepts that formed the corporation’s change management programme. The others are ‘One GuySuCo’ and ‘The Putting GuySuCo First’. They were unveiled at the GuySuCo head office at Ogle for Executive and Senior Management of the beleaguered corporation, a GuySuCo release said.
According to GuySuCo, the ‘New GuySuCo’ concept captures the essence of the direction in which the Corporation is progressing.
It will include sugar cane cultivation, sugar production and a Diversification Division that will focus on a variety of ventures, some of which include: aquaculture, fruit crops, dairy farming, livestock farming and rice cultivation.
GuySuCo at last count faced a debt of around $82b and the planned closure of cane cultivation at Wales and the ending of operations at LBI have raised questions about the fate of hundreds of workers.
The corporation’s release said that ‘One GuySuCo’ is an aspiration, and will be used as an approach in the social mobilisation programme.
It promotes greater internal collaboration, synergies, partnerships and team building and will be used to bring on board employees at all locations and divisions, and to promote shared values within the corporation, GuySuCo said.
The release added that ‘The Putting GuySuCo First’ concept is the internal campaign as a mechanism that will be utilized in an effort to achieve the ‘One GuySuCo’ and realize the goals and objectives of the ‘New GuySuCo’. The aim is essentially to organize managers and general staff around the transition process and the ‘New GuySuCo’, as well as to secure commitments to the transition process from the individual, departmental and estate levels.
The objectives of the campaign include fostering greater ownership within the Corporation and the compilation of a list of commitments from employees, departments and estates on their involvement in the transition process and beyond. Also, the campaign is aimed at targeting employees and focus will be on the individual, departmental and estate levels.
“The Executive and Senior management staff who participated in the session today, made pledges and commitments to what will be done at the individual, departmental and management levels to enable a smooth transition process and ensure that the ‘New GuySuCo’ is successful,” the release stated.
Moving forward, the release said that members of the Executive Management committed to creating a clear new vision and identity for the Corporation; being professional and improving performance levels; remaining focused at all times; foster a culture that motivates and inspires, be open with communication; ensure good governance, foster creative leadership; lead by example, develop and promote shared values, foster team spirit, and to using the transformational leadership style.
Additionally, departments on the other hand committed to working more as teams, setting clear goals and targets, going the extra mile, stretching when required, facing challenges and being more solution-oriented, being humane at all times, improve the image of the Corporation; improving efficiencies and multi-tasking when necessary.
“Individual commitments were also made by those present, some of which included; working to the best of their ability and supporting others, ‘being open to change’, taking ownership, ‘being more efficient’, increasing output, ‘being flexible’, ‘being positive’, ‘being a team player’, ‘being honest’, doing self-evaluation in order to be more professional, ‘being creative and thinking outside the box’, and committing to tasks and meeting deadlines,” the release said.
GuySuCo also said that several of the expected outcomes include a mobilised workforce around the transition process, greater ownership within the Corporation; and more committed individuals, departments and estates to the transition process, the ‘New GuySuCo’ and the ‘One GuySuCo’.
The Putting GuySuCo First campaign will cover all estates during the months of July and August and will continue until June, 2017, the release added.
