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Winning as OneCOMMUNICATION NEWSLETTER ISSUE 4 • JUNE 2015

Thomas Edison said it over a century ago, that Genius is 1 percent

inspiration, 99 percent perspiration. What this means is that the real innovation challenge lies beyond the idea, in a long, hard journey from idea to impact.

Our Vision ‘To delight our customers with innovative construction solutions while being committed to sustainability’ offers us this challenge. Of urgency therefore is to cultivate the innovation mindset – to think different, act different, and achieve extraordinary success. No better way to explain it than Winning as ONE. In this fourth issue of WAO newsletter, we focus on innovation and pick a few of our best examples. For one,

we cannot talk innovation without talking about Bamburi Special Product’s ReadyMix business that has revolutionized the concrete business, selling quality and convenience to our customers. We also explored the Affordable Housing initiative, Mservice, and SGR.

In conclusion this is a challenge to you; you have already done your Mid Year review or will be completing that soon, and you by now know what hindered your achieving 100 percent completion rate. How about innovating your working style? Think about it.As usual we welcome your feedback and comments.

Enjoy your read!

In this fourth issue of WAO newsletter, we focus on innovation and pick a few of our best example

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Innovation is a mindsetTo Win As One

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our 2015 goals

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0 (Zero) Fatalities 0 (Zero) LTI

Increase Domestic sales by 18% Increase Premium products by 60% Achieve Truck turnaround time 2 Hrs

1,011kt KK Production Achieve Truck turnaround time 2 Hrs Achieve 50% AF Substitution - NGP Increase Cement production by 16%

Increase RMX volumes by 30% Grow precast revenue by 11% Improve profitability by 33%

Grow revenues in value added products and new market segments by Kes 630m Achieve cost reduction of Kes 750m Generate cash equivalent to operating profit (after CAPEX) Keep overheads at 2014 levels

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rEaDYMIX

Building a concrete success story

When Bamburi Special Products (BSP) came to being, it was the birth of professionalising how

building blocks and concrete were processed and provided to customers in Kenya. Today ReadyMix is one of our biggest innovations, and has enabled thousands of customers engaged in construction of small to large projects, and even home construction access to high quality concrete and convenience.

WAO discussed with Boniface Kamau the Commercial Manager at BSP, to understand the Ready Mix business and how it is fairing. WAO: Take us to the beginning and tell us how BSP and consequently ReadyMix came into being.BK: BSP is the innovation arm of Bamburi Cement Group launched in 1998, and is in pursuit of creating value to our customers through innovation. The company has revolutionised the concrete industry with a rapid growth in its two divisions – the Concrete Paving Blocks and ReadyMix concrete. We are the pioneers in the development of concrete paving solutions for a wide variety of paving applications

under the name BamburiBlox. BSP added to its products portfolio ReadyMix as value adding product.

WAO: What needs are we meeting with ReadyMix, and how are we meeting them better than competition?

We are offering the following solutions to our customers; Quality assurance, Peace of mind, Time saving, Save on material (no wastage, no cement pilferage). Currently we are the pace setters in the industry and pride ourselves as having the highest capacity in terms of Plants, pumps and trucks carrying capacity. This plus quality assurance is our cornerstone which gives us an edge against our competition.

WAO: What markets do we cover with ReadyMix? BK: We have segmented our market into five categories namely: Commercial, Industrial, Infrastructure (roads), Individual Home Builder (IHB) and High end sector. It is at the commercial sector that we are concentrating on at the moment as we build up capacity to cover the other sectors. WAO: Our new Vision is customer oriented (offering innovative construction solutions), how are we achieving this with ReadyMix?

BK: ReadyMix is like a service industry where customer focus is paramount, as the measure of satisfaction is appraised instantly. Our logistics team has developed a scheduling tool that works around the clock to keep our customers happy.

WAO: Our 2015 Goal is to increase RMX volumes by 30 percent, why did we set the target so high?BK: On average our annual growth since 2008 has been steady at the rate of 12 percent. Last year we had an exceptional growth of 36 percent. The company

also invested in a new Plant and planned to increase pumping capacity by the first quarter of 2015. Our ambition was therefore based on anticipated market growth in the building industry and the increased capacity.

WAO: How does the future look like? BK: The future looks bright if more people can embrace this new construction technology and the government to implement the new construction standards in Nairobi and its environs.

ReadyMix is like a service industry where customer focus is paramount, as the measure of satisfaction is appraised instantly.

Boniface Kamau the Commercial Manager at BSP.

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aFForDaBlE HousINg

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Building support one brick at a time

WAO sought to understand our Affordable Housing innovation from Irene Onacha, the

Country Marketing Manager to expound more on our Affordable Housing initiative and why it is exciting the market.

WAO: What is the Affordable Housing program about?IO: Lafarge launched the Affordable Housing initiative four years ago to address the housing needs of low income families. The key objective is to make an impact in the housing sector for 2 million people globally by year 2020. The current growing urbanization of populations leaves us with the important challenge of providing all inhabitants with decent, affordable and sustainable housing, no matter what their income level. Lafarge’s commitment to affordable housing has resulted in the development of innovative solutions to address specific needs of populations such as housing microfinance, alternative construction materials, rehabilitation of informal settlements and mass housing solutions. At least 300,000 people in 18 countries have already benefited from these programs.

WAO: What Affordable Housing programs are running in Kenya?IO: Currently we are piloting the housing microfinance program which we have called ‘MASKANI’ in partnership with two microfinance institutions.

WAO: What exactly is ‘MASKANI’? ‘MASKANI’ is Bamburi’s Affordable Housing

initiative that is targeted at individual home builders. Under the program, Bamburi has partnered with various financial institutions to provide financing to individuals to construct, renovate or extend their homes. In turn, Bamburi will provide technical support comprising; free architectural drawings, free bill of quantities (BOQs) and schedule of materials, free technical assistance and construction advice, access to the best quality building materials and finally access to Bamburi’s countrywide retail network.

WAO: How will Bamburi execute this initiative?IO: The pilot exercise will enable us get all the key learnings on how to structure the program. In

addition, we have two technical assistants on board (an Architect & Quantity Surveyor), who are providing the technical support to the borrowers. We have developed a catalogue of house designs to suit various needs and loan sizes. We will also train the financial institutions loan officers on construction basics, how to pre-check housing applications and accelerate the disbursement, in addition to how to sell the housing loan.

WAO: What are the interest rates on the loan?IO: Each financial institution will offer different rates, however, what one must consider are the additional benefits that will be accorded to them especially the technical support which when quantified is quite significant. Please note; the borrower will be required to pay a nominal fee for registration of the project at the respective Councils.

WAO: Can staff also participate in this program? Certainly, we encourage staff to participate in

the program and they will enjoy the full benefits as outlined. Please contact Arthur Bore on ext. 2524 or email: arthur.bore@lafarge.com

Irene Onacha, the Country Marketing Manager

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It’s here at last! Bamburi’s latest service offering.In June Bamburi launched the latest upgrade of

its MService, short for Mobile Service. This is an application (app) available in the Google Play Store for Bamburi dealers to download from.

Launched in conjunction with Movas Pay, MService 3 seeks to enhance our customers’ experience as they transact with us.

The application assists dealers from wherever they are to:

• Place orders• Track their order position• Request and view mini statements• Request full statements and invoices• Receive delivery and payment notifications• Confirm receipts of deliveries• View price lists

• Provide feedback to Bamburi / suggest service enhancements.

All what is required for one to access the service is for them to first download the app from the Google Play Store onto their phones or tablets; With internet connection they are then able to access the service at no extra costs. Upon downloading the app, they receive a PIN number that allows access to the service anytime anywhere.

Some of the benefits of this service include:• Real time interactions with SAP (our operations system)• Adequate time to run transactions. This is unlike MService2 where USSD transactions were timed at 2 minutes• Ability to place multiple orders in

one transaction• More user friendly interface

We are finally Digital!

MsErVICE

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Introducing MService 3…

Launched in conjunction with Movas Pay, MService 3 seeks to enhance our customers’ experience as they transact with us.

Access Bamburi mService App from Google Play Store on your Android phone. Launch it and this screen should appear.

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Start here...You can log in using your Customer ID or registered phone number

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Logging in

You can log in with your customer ID or registered phone number

Once you are logged in the main menu will appear with the listed options

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Main MenuYou have an option to select single or multiple orders

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Placing Orders1. Select purchase location2. Then choose your

desired brand

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Placing a Single Order

Buy your cement via our reloaded

mService on Android!

Under “Transport Method” you have options to collect the purchase or have it delivered

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Entering Details1. Enter Tonnage and...

2. Review your order before submitting

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Completing an Order1. Select Purchase

Location

2. Select multiple products

3. Enter Tonnage for selected products

4. Followed by delivery options

5. Review and Submit Order8

Multiple Orders

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sTaNDarD gaugE raIlWaY

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Project Description Country: Kenya Name of Project: Standard Gauge Railway project (SGR)Client: Kenya Railways Corporation C/o Ministry of Transport & Infrastructure Contractor: China Road and Bridge Corporation (K)LtdSupply period: September 2014 to 2017Project Team Leader: Geoffrey Ndugwa, Commercial Director Key Account Team members: Samuel, Muhingo, Daniel Yu, David MulwaSupply to the project to date: 127Kt

Project profile• Largest infrastructure project in Kenya at a total cost of USD 3.8Billion• Construction period of three years• Financed by GoK and EXIM Bank, China • Construction of a total track length of 609.3km of SGR between the coastal town of Mombasa and the Kenya’s capital Nairobi. The railway line is expected to connect to Juba in South Sudan, Kigali -Rwanda via Kampala in Uganda

Scope of work• Concrete sleepers • Bridges , viaducts, tunnels• Cement consumption estimated at 700Kt

• Freight exchange centres in Mombasa, Voi and Nairobi• Supply and installation of auxiliary facilities e.g water systems, power, communication stations etc

Winning as ONE!The direct sales team aggressively looks out for upcoming key infrastructure projects. The team made an early contact with the EPC Contractor, China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) and identified specific functional challenges to win the contractors’ confidence to offer a complete solution.A cross functional project team comprising of Logistics, Commercial, Finance and Plant was formed to offer an integrated solution. Key needs identified:a) The consultant had specified cement specs for CEM I 42.5 & 52.5 to conform to GB 175-2007 of the Chinese concrete standard for railway construction with a blaine between 3000-3500, fCao <1% and LOI range of 3.0 & 3.5 for 52.5 and CEM I 42.5 respectively.b) Bulk fleet size capacityc) Production capability, stretch productiond) Safety considerations on 17 different sites along the railway line

(Continued on page 7...)

President Uhuru Kenyatta has a feel of the project.

Building better cities, one railway sleeper at a time!

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sTaNDarD gaugE raIlWaY

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The offer:• The inadequacy of bulk fleet was mitigated with packing cement in 1 ton Jumbo bags to buffer stock at sites in tandem with increase in the bulker fleet size• The Plant team made several production adjustments to meet the required cement specifications. Bamburi is the only local manufacturer that has so far met the specs. A sample sent to China National Center for Quality supervision and Test of cement confirmed compliance• The credit policy was reviewed by the finance team to incorporate insured credit and cover any amounts exceeding the bank guarantee limit. • Corporate Affairs positively lobbied and engaged national stakeholders, agencies and associations that local manufacturers had the capacity to supply and the capability (quality, logistics…) to the expected standards and specifications • A real time communication platform on Whatsap is being used actively to monitor activity on the project to mitigate any undesired supply chain consequences • A Chinese resource was recruited to manage communication nuances

geographical spread

(Continued from page 6...)

President Uhuru Kenyatta inspects the project .

The project in high gear.

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NgP MIlls

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NGP has innovatively increased the mills output (ton per hour) by 8% since February 2015. This

has also reduced the specific power consumption in grinding (kwh/ton) by 10%.

How it was doneThe main component that does grinding in cement ball mills is the grinding balls (also called grinding media/ ball charge). The process team has been implementing the same ball charge distribution for the two mills at NGP for the last eight years and after analysis an opportunity to increase output and reduce power intensity by changing this distribution was found.

An audit was done by the process team together with Magotteaux (grinding media supplier) and a better ball charge distribution was developed to deliver finer cement at the exit of each compartment of the ball

mills. This new distribution was partly implemented in Cement mill 2 in February 2015 and cement mill 1 in March 2015 using old balls. Since then, we have noticed an increase in mills output by 8% with a corresponding 10% reduction in power intensity (kwh/t).

The performance for the months February, March and April 2015 was for this reason on average 10% above usual targets.

Special teams that made thishappen:• NGP pocess engineers (David Nteere, Harrison Kimathi)• Maggotteaux Grinding Account Manager (Michael Delige)Kudos to the team for this achievement!

NGP increases mills TPH by 8% through innovation

A truck being loaded at NGP.

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5 Q’s For...

WAO: In brief what does your job entail?PA: It can be summarized in three words, “delighting the customers”. At Customer Service we handle two key service elements:• The Relationships – this entails identifying and anticipating the customer’s future and current needs, then ensuring that we meet and fulfill these needs• The transactions – where cement turns to money. Servicing customers orders as fast and efficiently as possible. I therefore coordinate the activities of the teams at the Customer Service Centers in Mombasa and NGP to ensure that we have thrilled customers.

WAO: Our new Vision gives our operations a focus on delivering the best customer service. Being at the center of Bamburi’s customer service, do you think we can deliver this promise (and how)?PA: Most definitely, there is commitment, ownership and accountability amongst staff towards being a customer centric organization and it is embodied in the staff members’ attitudes; and note I am not just talking about the customer service staff. There is passion in the finance team when pushing for GRN’s so that suppliers can be paid; I get SMS’s from the logistics team to find out why a delivered order truck has not loaded. It is most exemplified when you meet maintenance and production staff members who want to engage on truck turn around and what can be done to improve our loading time, and Plant shut downs are completed in record time. It is in the passion of

the sales team proposals or IT providing solutions for system challenges all in a bid to improve service. To top it all there is EXCOM support.Improving the bonus schemes and the bonus KPI’s have given the culture change the bolster it needed. It is important to always recognize effort and dedication.

WAO: What aspect of your job do you love best?PA: Every day is a new challenge; no day is ever the same. Finding solutions to the issues raised during the day and delighting your customers is fulfilling.

WAO: What are the challenges in the job?PA: We are in a very competitive environment and it is imperative that we support the sales team in achieving their goals. Any delayed action has a significant effect, for example delayed loading can affect a “Koraga”(concreting works) at a customer’s site or the customer makes a switch to a competing brand. We must be on top of our game every day in every way. Very few of our dealers have warehousing, this therefore makes it critical that we ensure our end users receive their cement in time, in full and billed correctly.

We must also continually improve ourselves by keeping abreast with industry changes and also self development to remain relevant. This has led to the use of innovation to keep ahead of the pack. We recently launched MService 3 which is a service application available to our dealers that helps them place orders, get mini-statements, confirm cement deliveries, query account balances and much more. WAO: Share with us a most interesting encounter you have had with a customer.PA: There are too many to single out one, from dealing with irate drivers who have blocked the gate to the Plant due to delays in loading and calming them down; to celebrating a commendation email from Oriom our most tasking customer; to receiving praise from a home owner after helping them sort out their leaking water tank.

WAO: Any additional comments?PA: Allow me to take this opportunity to acknowledge and fete the Customer Service teams in Mombasa and NGP. They work tirelessly 24hrs 363 days a year, ensuring service delivery. They are a great team to lead. Thank you.

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Patricia Aruwa - Customer Service Manager, Bamburi Cement

Finding solutions to the issues raised during the day and delighting your customers is fulfilling.

Patricia Arawa

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CUSTORMER SERVICE / KEY SALES CONTACTS

What happens when you receive a query from a friend or a potential customer on a sales and marketing aspect of our business you are not quite familiar with – like how and where to acquire our cement in different regions, bulk buying among others?

Here are mobile phone contacts of our Sales personnel to call and refer the client to:

Key Sales contacts

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1. Adopt a Positive ToneProjecting an enthusiastic, natural, and attentive tone while on the phone can help a customer feel comfortable during a conversation. When you answer the phone, smile as you greet the person on the other side. A smile can truly be heard through the telephone. Smiling as soon as you connect with the customer will begin the interaction positively and create room for a productive and friendly exchange.Be aware of your vocal qualities throughout the call. Control your rate of speech, your pitch, and your overall timbre. A high pitch connotes youth and often fails to suggest an authoritative image, while a low pitch can sound harsh. Find a middle ground in order to sound natural and interested.

2. Clear EnunciationThe ability to understand what someone is saying on the phone separates a productive conversation from one filled with tension. Speak clearly. Enunciate and use simple words and phrases. Don’t employ overly complex vocabulary. The last thing you want to do is confuse the customer on the line or make them feel inferior. Also, avoid slang and filler words. Saying things like “dude,” “yeah,” and “um” will detract from the quality of the interaction, making constructive problem solving harder to attain. Chewing gum or eating during a conversation can also lead to mumbled speech.

3. Be sincere Starting with the greeting, conversations over the phone must be sincere. Include the company’s name, your name, the department you are in, and offer your assistance as soon as you answer the phone. Doing this will ease the customer into the exchange. Once in the conversation give the customer genuine answers. Be sure to word these in a positive manner, as you don’t want to inject any negativity into the exchange. Avoid phrases such as “I don’t know,” “I can’t do that,” or “Just a second.” Specify how long completing a task will take, and state what you can do rather than what you cannot. Answering a customer’s questions with sincerity and positivity will not only satisfy them by the end of the conversation but will also help calm an angry caller.

4. Use the NameAs soon as you receive a customer’s name, use it. Write it down. This will help you remember the client’s name and will personalize the call. Include it naturally throughout the conversation. Also, don’t be afraid to ask them for the proper pronunciation. Most customers will appreciate this gesture. Get the spelling correct, too. Callers will value the personal touch you provide with a name.

5.Leave the Customer SatisfiedFinishing a conversation on the right note can create lasting positivity and a satisfied customer. In order to achieve a great ending of the call, make sure that the caller understands the information you passed along before you hang up. Ask the customer, “Is there anything else I can help you with?” Answer any final questions they may have to ensure complete comprehension and satisfaction. Also, provide any information that the customer might need in future. If they need to call back share optimal contact times and who they should call. Finish the call in a friendly manner. Say, “Have a nice day” or, “It was nice talking with you”. This will let the customer know that you happily helped them and that you would be willing to aid them again in the future.

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PHoNE usE

5 telephone communication tips for customer service

This newsletter is produced by the Communications Team.Comments and suggestions? Write to: ke-communication.department@lafarge.com