HEALTH WARNING

ROLE OF BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS IN THE PREVENTION OF AIDS IN AFRICA

In so many ways, the values that forged and shaped Leon Sullivan’s work provide us with the basic tools to combat the problem of disease in Africa. We must educate people; we must provide them with the knowledge of how to prevent and fight disease. When we train them, we must provide them with the skills and know-how to control the conditions and circumstances. We must invest in the society; we must provide the economic power that places modern medical equipment and the latest drugs in hospitals in Africa. The ideals that Leon Sullivan lived for should be the cardinal guiding principles of doing business in Africa.If there is one single disease that has riveted global attention on Africa, I believe it is HIV/AIDS. This scourge has killed infants, children and adults in large numbers. Twenty years after the first clinical evidence of AIDS, mankind is still dealing with the disease. The statistics of mortality and infection are simply mind-boggling, and they continue to mount by the day. AIDS is the No. 1 killer in Africa today. Available statistics also show that, across the continent, there are 3.4 million infections every year; 2 million to 3 million deaths last year and 28 million people living with HIV/AIDS. Life expectancy is gradually approaching a century-low of 30 years. (Source: United Nations Report.)
The message that AIDS is sending to all of us as government, business or individuals is very clear — the scourge poses a real threat to mankind. We must do something about it — and quickly.

Why We Must All be Concerned as Individuals
We all have known people who have succumbed to this disease. I am committed to fighting HIV/AIDS. I would like to see each of us make that commitment. We must ask each other: I care, do you?

Why Business Must be Involved
The HIV/AIDS crisis poses one of the greatest challenges ever faced by business globally, especially in Africa. The epidemic threatens the health, stability and sustainability of the work force. It increases the cost of doing business through its effect on productivity and sustainable cost incurred over health. Those who die from the disease are our colleagues, friends and, in some cases, relatives. They are real people, people whom we knew and interacted closely with.
As business looking to the future, we are constantly preoccupied with the process of growing a new generation of leaders. Clearly, HIV/AIDS poses the danger of wiping out that generation, and this includes some of our best and brightest talents. Business is indeed facing the prospect of labour attrition through HIV/AIDS, because the disease primarily strikes people in their 20s to 40s, the most productive segment of the labour force. Our very survival depends on our ability to control HIV/AIDS in the workplace, thus protecting our most valued assets – the men and women who make our companies what they are. Business must take the lead position in the fight and struggle against HIV/AIDS.

What We Must Do
We must take the business of educating people on how to prevent AIDS as a very serious matter that gets top priority in our various organizations. The education must be delivered in a convincing manner by the leaders of the organization. In the fight against HIV/AIDS, there should be no competition. Business organizations must team up and share information and best practices to achieve results for the benefit of us all. We must work proactively with the medical community to evolve ways and strategies to prevent the disease. We need to plan right and then approach the plan as a business issue through efficient and effective implementation. We must start now. People are dying every day. There has to be urgency in our action. We must teach our people the right kind of attitude toward those infected. The HIV/AIDS infection must not be used as a factor of discrimination in our workplaces. Most important, business must take its best practices in the workplace to the rest of the community at large. Let us make an impact with the superior quality we have in house, in terms of financial, technical and human resources.

The Best Practices Approach
The best practices approach was specifically developed under the auspices of the United Nations to check the AIDS epidemic in Africa. The approach is based on a bigger, broader effort founded on partnerships/coalitions of the government and the private and community sectors. Government provides the leadership; the private sector provides the expertise and resources, while the community sector helps to mobilize the society for effective response.
The Nigerian Business Coalition Against HIV/AIDS, inaugurated last February by President Olusegun Obasanjo, has made some good progress so far. But we need more participants, and we all need to do more. An important mandate of the coalition is to facilitate the sharing of information among business organizations and to communicate the techniques and strategies that work.
The AIDS scourge has caused widespread devastation for about 20 years. It is now time for a joint and collaborative action to fight this pandemic. This war must be fought on all fronts and together in the spirit of the private/public partnership for the overall good of mankind.

Continue from previous edition
Given that we are all parts of ABC Transport and have a vital role to play – regardless of structural differences in departments – and such role is capable of inducing a spiral (positive or negative) effect on other people’s performance, we either add value or devalue one another. In simpler words, our acts impact on how each one of us acts. Remember, this goes a long way in influencing our success and happiness as employees. This explains why we need to understand the necessity of brand building. This is why we need to personally brand ourselves in order to reduce the frictions that unhinge the smooth functioning of our corporate wheel. This reaffirms the need for staff to regard themselves as brands, not merely employees, whose focus is on getting paid at the end of each month. If we don’t see ourselves as brands, we most likely will not identify with the overall brand. In fact, personal branding helps the company to create harmony and not cacophony. Therefore, it becomes inevitable to make every employee a “Brand Manager”. Some marketing experts would state it as “aligning human capital strategy with brand strategy”.
As Mr. Murrel noted, “Marketing is all about positioning – use it to position and differentiate yourself in the marketplace.” Thus, we are all in the business of marketing; marketing ABC Transport in our homes, places of association and social functions, and any other place visible enough to voice out our ABC brand. While we carry out this task, we should remember that only those employees who are personally branded would be in a more advantaged position to understand the dynamics of promoting ABC brand perfectly well. So, you see? The goal of Personal Branding is simply to build and/or improve your trust relationship with colleagues, your employers, and the company. However, you have to act in a constant, consistent and congruent way, in order to create an effective – and lucrative – personal brand.
Now do you think it is high time you developed your own personal brand statement and identity while supporting, enhancing and consolidating our own ABC BRAND?

By
UCHE PETER UMEZ (Customer Service)

 

ATTITUDE AND HEALTH WARNING

One day, I walked into one of the fast foods in Owerri and said hello to the waiter. Without looking at my face she said, “What do you want?”
I looked at her and said, “Fried rice and chicken.”
“Is it take-away or are you eating it here?” she said, avoiding my face as if there was something she didn’t like about me.
I quietly said, “Take-away.”
She quickly packaged the items in a white nylon bag and laid it on the counter.
“How much?” I asked.
“It is N1,200 only,” she said curtly. I was now beginning to wonder why she had this kind of cool, brisk manner of dealing with customers, like she wasn’t forced to serve the public.
Well, I counted out six notes of N200 and handed them.
She couldn’t even say the customary “Thank you” or “See you next time.” She could only turn to the person beside me, without raising her face to meet the customer, and say, “Next.”
I was so worried at her disposition to customers that I decided to stand aside and watch her a while, to see if that was her nature or she just treated some customers that way; a sort of let-me-see-how-much-snacks-you-can-buy mentality. I observed that she related to everybody in the same way. I wondered why and how such a beautiful lady could be placed in such a frontline position where she was allowed to portray the image of Service.

I, however, ticked myself off for failing to correct her behaviour when I got home that afternoon.

We all desire success, yet many have thousands of reasons why they cannot succeed. In truth, all we need is the right attitude to those in superior or subordinate positions; employers and employees; customers and friends.

What is Attitude? Attitude is a disposition to situations of lives, which can be shown by actions or in actions. Many of us have something to worry about but all the same you have the special option of wearing a smile rather than a frown.

Attitudes are just like a look or wear that you put on. However, one important factor is our having a job and retaining it is the right attitude to work because most employers prefer someone with homely and friendly disposition with while relating to co-employee and customers. Remember your attitude not fate determines your success in life.

A negative or positive attitude starts with you because you have the key to your attitude. Try to cheer up no matter the situation. Do not let the situation at hand handle you but rather handle it with the right way.

Finally, you are in charge of your attitude like I said before. Choose every moment, day time and how to have the right kind of attitude to life.

Chidimma Onouha