SEPTEMBER 2016
VGL INSIDERS Quarterly Newsletter
CONTENTS 04
REVISING OUR PERFORMANCE REVIEW JEFF ALLAR
05
BALANCED SCORECARD JEFF ALLAR
10
WELCOME VINEET VASHISHT JEFF ALLAR
12
SUMMER 2016 – WHAT A SUMMER IT HAS BEEN
18
BEAUTY PRODUCTS UPDATE - TJC JULIE VALE-SMITH
20
SPORTS DAY AT STS, CHIN REX CABACONGAN
24
MAGICAL MOMENT AND MAGICAL JEWELRY SHIRLEY HAN
27
STORY WRITING TRAINING ANUBHA CHOUDHARY
30
RECREATIONAL TEAM BUILDING FINANCE & ACCOUNTS
32
RECREATIONAL TEAM BUILDING VGL IT
36
PROCESS IMPROVEMENTS RAJ SINGH
39
NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT IN GEMSTONES VISHWADEEP SHARMA
41
STELLAR SANJAY
42
THE FLUMMOXED SOUVIK NANDI
43
AWARDS SINCE LAST ISSUE
46
ASSOCIATE SENATE OF VGL
47
MOMENTS FROM MCM
GROUP PHILOSOPHY OUR VISION Be the Value Leader in Electronic Retailing of Jewelry and Life Style Products.
OUR MISSION We will, Build a learning organization with high performing people, Offer Low Priced high quality products, Delight our customers every day.
OUR CORE VALUES Team Work Honesty Commitment Passion Positive Attitude
REVISING OUR PERFORMANCE REVIEW RATINGS TO ALIGN EMPLOYEE AND BUSINESS PERFORMANCE It is a well-recognized best practice in organizations who focus on effective performance management that the entire process begins with goal setting that links individual employee goals with overall business plan of the business. Then ongoing feedback through the year on how the employee is doing against their goals occurs. High performing organizations in the US like Midway USA (an all internet retailer) and in India such as HCL Technologies and Infosys have used various performance management practices to great success, driving superior performance in their teams.
Here at VGL, we are working hard to make that happen. We have had performance reviews occurring for several years and have the opportunity to get better at that goal. Despite a year where we did not grow top line and saw profitability not where we wanted to be, 55% of our employees were rated very good or excellent and another 44% were rated good. Yes, less than one percent of our employees were rated below average or average. Thus, we can get better at how well the performance ratings of our employees align with how the business does overall. This year we are having a much stronger focus on having managers set SMART goals for their employees. SMART stands for Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant and Timely. Our goal setting approach this year is a very top down approach, starting with our Chairman and Managing Director – Sunil Agrawal. He then set goals for all of his direct
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reports using the SMART methodology and the process has continued on from there to the rest of the organization. As of September 16th, approximately 75% of our employees have their goals for the year and we are working very hard to get the rest of the employees who do not have their goals to get them from their manager soon. As well, we have updated our performance ratings and the table below shows what the old and new ratings are going to be.
Since the goals that employees will have are measurable, it will make the determination of what their rating will be much easier. If you happen to have a goal based on revenue, then if you are right on the target, you will be rated “meets expectations”. Meeting expectations is something that all of us should be happy to be rated – it means that you delivered what the business expected you to do this year! If you exceed the revenue target by 15%, you will be rated “above expectations”. It’s as easy as that. You will be able to go to your performance review next April with your manager and you ought to be able to know what your rating will be on all of your key responsibility areas (KRA’s)/goals.
Hopefully this short update introduces you to the changes we are making. If you have questions, feel free to talk to your manager or your HR contact.
CURRENT
NEW
Below Average
Below Expectations (<80% of target)
Average
Occasionally Meets Expectations (80% - 95% of target)
Good
Meets Expectations (95% - 105% of target)
Very Good
Above Expectations (105% - 120% of target)
Excellent
Exceeds Expectations (>120% of target)
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BALANCED SCORECARD In the last issue of VGL Insiders, we introduced you to the VGL Balanced Scorecard, a tool to help us understand how we are doing against many key areas of our business. So we are going to provide a quarterly update in this newspaper of our results.
Figures 1 and 2 show the Balanced Scorecard and the column titled 2016/17 Q1 Actual shows how we did in the first quarter of the year. If the results are in a red color, it means that we did not make our goal in the first quarter. If the results are in a green color, it means that we met or exceeded our goal. Feel free to contact the measure owner to get more details on our results so far and what actions are being taken to continually improve or contact Jeff Allar (jeff.allar@vglgroup.com) for any overall questions regarding the Balanced Scorecard.
JEFF ALLAR
SVP, HUMAN RESOURCE, VGL GROUP
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VGL BALANCED SCORECARD
Vision / SMaC Mission Goal Alignment
Measure(s)
Owner
Net Promoter Score UK: Agarwal / Jain US: Lyons / Paez Customer Delight
#1
Unique Customers UK US
Agarwal / Jain Lyons
Average Selling Price UK:Agarwal / Jain ($22) US: Lyons • TV • Web Low Priced
Aggarwal
Jewelry Sample Defect UK: Agarwal / Jain Rate US: Lyons
3b
Lifestyle Accessories Sample Defect Rate UK US
Agarwal / Jain Lyons
Customer Return Rate UK: Agarwal / Jain US: Lyons
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NA NA
UK-126.180 US-269,282
UK: £19.87 (TV- £20.25, Web-£17.62) US: $17.44 (TV$20.22,Web-$11.72)
#2, 3a
Gross Margin
High Quality
2014/15 Actual
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61%
4%
9%
UK-22.7% US-4.51%
2015/16 Actual
2016/17 Plan
2016/17 Q1 Actual
Relevant Benchmark
76% 43.32% (2H 15/16)
55% 51% for Q1, 55% for FY
74.07% (7/20) 45.5% (7/22)
UK-120.776 US- 247,622
12% Growth YoY Q1- 175k (LY185k); Q2-180k(LY-190k); Q3-200k(LY200k); Q4-190k(LY180k)
UK - 52,078 (-4.4% YoY) 7/20 US: -13.1% (110,769) (7/22)
Retail : 65.3 Fashion: 71.1
QVC – 13M Evine – 1.4M
UK - £23.02 UK: £21.26 UK: £21.17 (TV- £23.70 Web(TV- £21.8, Web-£19.2) ( TV-£21.9, Web- £ 18.07) £ 40 - QVC £19.57) 7/20 US: $19.66 (TV- $22.60, US: $24.50 (TV- $30.52, $60 for QVC, HSN, Evine US: $23.68 (TV-$27.17, Web-$12.59) Web-$14.42) and JTV. Web-$15.82) (7/22)
60%
VGL - 63.15% LC- 58%; UK- 48.8%; (7/20) STS, NY-18%; VGL, India-26%; STS China- 21%; STS Bkk- 14%
HSN – 32.4% QVC US – 36.2% QVC I – 38.3% Evine – 34.4%
VGL – 63.9%
UK: 3.97% (7/20) US: .78% 7/22)
3%
<1%
7%
<1%
UK: 2.2% (7/20) US: .75% (7/22)
UK-22.2% US-$11.8%
UK-22% US-17.5%
UK: 24.3% (7/20) US: 19.15%
QVC – 18.4% Evine – 19.8%
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VGL BALANCED SCORECARD Vision / Mission Goal
SMaC Alignment
Measure(s)
Owner
Revenue
Aggarwal
UK
Agarwal / Jain
US
Lyons
Mfg Cost as a % of Revenue OH Cost as a % of Revenue
Singh
Price Index Value Leader
3a, 5
Manufacturing Cost
Ops cost per net piece sold
Learning Organization
High Performing People
8
8
7, 8, 9
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Manufacturing Cost as a % of Sales
Pantala
US
Lyons
UK
Agarwal / Jain
Employee Sat with Training
Pre Tax Profit per EE ROIC
Allar
Aggarwal, Allar Aggarwal
2014/15 Actual
$226.8M
2015/16 Actual
$195.23M (fcst)
2016/17 Plan Total Net - $230.4M Ecom - $41.1M
58% <15% 57%
2016/17 Q1 Actual $46.9M (USD) $8.6M (USD)
UK: 59%
85%
LC: 51% Total (47.3% TLV, 41% NJP)] (7/22)
85%
NA
14.5% 11%
13.5% 10%
18%
23%
4%
7%
US-$9.47
US-$11.81
LC $12.63>$14/pce;
LC $12.62 (7/22)
UK-£7.62
UK £8.10
UK-6.58>6.40/pce;
UK - £8.47 (7/20)
NA
58%
$5.1k
$1.7k
Relevant Benchmark
VGL - 63% LC – 49% LC 54%>60%; UK – 9/16 UK- 45%>50%; VGL India – 89.44 VGL-India - 75%>80% China – 8/16
$4,462 per FTE ee 26.8%
USD 457.9 (on 3796 FTEs) 12%
Inditex - $4.1M HSN - $43M QVC - $57.9M All Industries -- $88.6M
VGL GROUP • SEPTEMBER 2016 |
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WELCOME VINEET VASHISHT As many of you know, Vineet Vashisht joined our VGL family during the early summer as our Chief Technology Officer (CTO). We hope many of you have already had the pleasure of meeting and working with Vineet.
Vineet comes to us from Aritzia, a leader in womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fashion in Canada. While there, he led the effort to lay the foundation for eCommerce growth working with cross-functional teams to align systems, processes and organization structures to long-term growth as well as creating the Product Management discipline to drive consistent growth in eCommerce revenue through continuous improvement. Prior to Aritzia, Vineet progressively moved through various roles with Abercrombie & Fitch where in his last role as Director IT eCommerce, he led all roadmap, architecture, development, and integration of eCommerce initiatives with operational and capital budget of combined $25 million. He grew a small eCommerce team into an organization of 25 employees split into specialized disciplines of 10
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Front End Development, Native App Development, Systems Integration, Web Engineering and Product Information Management.
We like to get to know our new family members on a more personal level, and Vineet was kind enough to answer some questions for us not related to his role at VGL. We hope you enjoy learning about the personal side of Vineet as well. He and his wife, Geetanjali have two adorable
Weimaraner, Guru and Dev. The hardest thing for him to get used to living in Texas has been the housing. The rental market can be a challenge when looking for a place that will allow two large dogs! What he has enjoyed most about working here is the passion. Everyone is passionate about what they do and he loves the energy he feels every day when talking to folks.
The top location on his bucket list of vacation spots is Hawaii; he’s always wanted to go there but hasn’t made it there yet. His favorite food is Chinese or Vietnamese (extremely spicy) and his least favorite is Hungarian (but he admits he’s only had that once). The last thing he ate the day he answered our questions was Eggplant Parmesan from Macaroni Grill (yum!).
Vineet definitely prefers Star Trek over Star Wars, and to be specific, The Next Generation. However, when he was a kid Superman was his favorite super hero, and if he could have a super hero power, he would like the ability to fly! A few more random things to note about Vineet are that his favorite website (outside of any of our company sites, of course) is hbr.org. His favorite word is “fast” and if he knew he would not fail, he would like to try to find something I would likely fail at so he could get better at it. We asked what story his family loves to tell about him, and he says that he’s the story teller so they would probably tell a story about him telling a story! And lastly, his very first thought on the morning he answered our questions was “What time is it?” Isn’t that everyone’s when the alarm first goes off?!
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SUMMER 2016 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; WHAT A SUMMER IT HAS BEEN As you all know, there is never a dull moment in the Home Shopping Industry and this summer has been no exception! We have been working hard on a number of different projects and are excited to share with you some of the things we implemented in the last 3 months.
Memorial Day in the United States is considered the kickoff to the summer season and ours was very successful. Our events were strong and sales were great. We saw that success carry over to the 4th of July weekend, in which we set a record selling 50,000 pieces in one day! Labor Day Weekend in September is seen as the end of summer and we celebrated with another strong weekend of promotions and sales. It was an exciting summer at LC!
Todd Brink, eCommerce Director, joined our family in June. Todd has over ten years of combined experience in eCommerce and Marketing, starting his eCommerce career in multimedia design to eCommerce Marketing and finally as a Senior eCommerce Product Manager in charge of Product Management, Analytics, and UX/UI/Design for hhgregg in Indianapolis, IN. Prior to this, he worked in retail for Best Buy and he is a graduate of
Purdue University in Indiana with a degree in Computer Graphics Technology. Todd relocated to Austin with his wife, Ashlye and two kids, son Jackson and daughter Quinn. Todd is an active soccer player and loves all sports, technology and spending time with his family. He jumped right in to help with the Hyrbris launch and is working diligently on many other projects. Please join us in welcoming Todd to the family! Marketing and Production have been bringing in new Expert Hosts to continually improve our team of cohosts.
Karen Connelly joined the family in late August. She has over 25 years of experience in the home shopping industry and is one of the most recognized television home shopping hosts. Among her many achievements, she was the first host to achieve one million dollars in gross sales in one hour! Beyond hosting, Karen also has expertise in sales and sales training, managing host sales teams, talent development, merchandise planning, and running her successful jewelry line.
Our other new Expert Hosts include Anne Lynch, David Lindsay, Robert McCannel, Shawn Diddy, and Liz Fuller. They each have an extensive but diverse background in home shopping and we are thrilled to have them. Welcome all! 12
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are so appreciative of them and inspired by what they do! To help keep things moving, a number of employees from all areas volunteered to help pick orders over the course of a week. That was a great experience that really showed that our family pitches in whenever and however needed. Thank you to all of the volunteers!
Now that the Warehouse has moved, we are feverishly working on building upgraded studios and additional space to fully support our live production in the location the Warehouse used to occupy. Construction is moving along very quickly and we are very excited for the work to complete so we can begin utilizing the new space and new studios! As is tradition for our Holiday season, the Marketing team held a photo shoot for employees and their families who wanted
A major accomplishment this summer, equal to that of the Hybris launch, was moving our Warehouse to a larger location in the building next door. It took an incredibly long time to plan and build even before the actual move took place. The Warehouse team definitely faced some challenges, but they remained positive and focused on the task at hand and are now operating in their new home. We
to be included in our annual holiday book sent to customers. This year included video and we canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait to see what fun came from that! Everyone had a great time and we VGL GROUP â&#x20AC;˘ SEPTEMBER 2016 |
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know this is something that our customers really look forward to and enjoy receiving each year.
As always, the Associate Senate and Social Works Committee continue looking for opportunities to create fun and celebrations and for volunteer events to give back to the community. In July we held our 5th Annual Company Picnic, this time with an Olympic Theme. We had a dunk tank (our diving event), tricycle races (cycling), a game throwing pool noodles through hula hoops tied together to make the Olympic rings (javelin), a pie eating contest, and many other activities. The Social Works Committee started a walking club for employees, called “LC 2Steppers.” It has been a big success with over 100 participants. Everyone tracks the number of miles they walk and so far, we have walked over 1,900 miles! This
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has been a great way to encourage a healthy habit and it has been enjoyable. Social Works also coordinated a group of volunteers to help sort and pack school supplies with the Partners in Education Foundation and the Round Rock Police Department. The bags we help stuff were given out to over 7,500 students to help them start the school year off prepared for success.
The summer has now passed and we focus our attention to planning the holiday season. We are excited about the events and promotions we have planned and we look forward to a very successful 3rd Quarter!
FUN & CELEBRATIONS
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BEAUTY PRODUCTS UPDATE - TJC Hello Everyone This is my first VGL Newsletter contribution and I want to take the opportunity say “Hello” to everyone and update you all on what is happening in the Beauty Category in the UK. According to Wikipedia The experience of “Beauty” often involves an interpretation of some entity as being in balance and harmony with nature, which may lead to feelings of attraction and emotional well-being. Because this can be a subjective experience, it is often said that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”
I personally believe that Beauty comes from within, and I think myself fortunate enough to work with some of the most beautiful people on the planet. It is hard to believe that we only launched the Beauty Category in May 2015, we have had some very successful show and some not so successful shows but both have been invaluable in the understanding of the TJC Beauty Customer and what they do and do not like. 18
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JULIE VALE-SMITH BEAUTY BUYER, TJC
They love skincare but are not so keen on cosmetics, they love anything natural but not so keen on big brands with additives, they buy for themselves, not for the children or the man in their life - This is just something we have learned about brands we have launched and discontinued in the past twelve months.
Nevertheless, we will continue to trial new brands until we find the right ones for our customers continuing with the ones that have proved to be our best sellers such as;
Douvall’s Argan Oil, Astalift, Opatra and Dead Sea Spa, to name a few.
In June 2016 we launched the Fragrance category to test the market in time for Christmas. We have been delighted by the response, one fragrance sold out within minutes and since we have held many successful repeat shows. If there was such a thing as ‘smelly vision’ I would never have to worry again about hitting my sales target.
I was very careful about which fragrance brands to launch. Taking into consideration the average age of the TJC customer, I chose fragrances that would have been familiar to them in their earlier years, these scents would provoke memories from their past and we have received some wonderful feedback from Customers with many comments as below: “Very excited to see this wonderful perfume for sale it’s fabulous. All my friends are asking what it is and where they can buy it.”
We are now sourcing more fragrances to add to the range in time for Christmas,
as it’s the busiest season of the year for me and where most of my annual sales will come from.
At the time of writing there are 116 days left till Christmas and I am just back from a buying trip to China where I was looking to purchase gift lines for all the Family. Amongst my finds are Mini Nail Polish Hand Dryers, Beautiful Sparkly Cosmetic bags, New Perfume Atomizers, New Hair brush sets, Men’s Face/Nose Hair Trimmer to name a few. I am looking forward to a very busy and successful Autumn Season and October will see the Launch of our own TJC Brand of Premium Toiletries which have been made in the UK exclusively for TJC. The Fragrance we chose to launch with is Lavender and Rose Geranium, a contemporary Classic English Fragrance made with 100% essential oils of Lavandula Angustifolia and Pelargonium Graveolens. The range consists of Bath & Body Products and Home Fragrance lines, all at affordable prices and will make fabulous Christmas gifts VGL GROUP • SEPTEMBER 2016 |
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SPORTS DAY AT STS, CHINA The Human Resources Department had organized an awesome sports festival for the whole company this July. The major aim of this event was to enhance and celebrate the morale, teamwork, camaraderie and company pride of employees working at STS Gems Ltd. Whether you are overtly athletic or not, the important attributes are team spirit and company pride! These values prevail over anything and everything else!
This year, instead of playing the usual sports game, we tried to do things differently by introducing group games. The basic intent was to facilitate the core values of team spirit and group work! These games included tug-of-war game, Chicken run game, jumping rope game, pillow fight game and fun relay race game. Four teams were created, viz-a-viz teams A, B, C and D. Each team had equal 20
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REX CABACONGAN FINANCE MANAGER, STS CHINA
number of males and females. Everyone took part in this colorful and fun event because that same day, adults transformed into kids as they poured their hearts into these games. They focused on the enjoyment and terrific fun derived from the sports, an appreciable feat in itself. The results were as follows: Winners of these events: 1. Team C â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Champion
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2. Team A - 2nd place
3. Team B - 3rd place
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4. Team D – 4th place
After the half day games event, the whole company proceeded to have lunch together. Smiling faces and joyful hearts were on display that day. It was indeed, a spectacular view and a phenomenal event.
Now, everyone is asking when the next gathering will take place. I’m sure that our Human Resources Department is up to something even greater and better. For now, let us sit back and wait for the best of the fun to unfold.
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MAGICAL MOMENT AND MAGICAL JEWELRY JEWELRY FOR CHINESE TRADITIONAL WEDDING No one will doubt that, the day of the wedding is one of the most important, happiest and exciting days in every girl’s life. In traditional wedding, special Chinese style jewelry makes this moment even more gorgeous and magical. It makes us believe in something beautiful and significant.
In the traditional Chinese style Wedding, the color red & Gold are the most important colors. They are considered to be the symbol of happiness, love, joy, prosperity, success, luck, and faith. That’s why the traditional weddings are always filled with red themed things in order to bring auspicious blessings and respect originating from the culture itself. At dawn of the wedding
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| VGL GROUP • SEPTEMBER 2016
SHIRLEY HAN DESIGNER, STS CHINA
day, the bride puts on new her wedding dress, wears a pair of red shoes and waits for the “good luck woman” to dress her hair in the style of a married woman. She waits for her future husband to escort her home, with married women telling and advising her about how to be a good wife and companion.
The bride’s mother will then dress her girl with exquisite golden necklace and ear rings, to bless her with good fortune. And the groom’s mother will also give her golden bracelets, which signifies that she also loves her like her own daughter. She will also put on her phoenix crown with tassels or bead strings. She then covers her face with a red silk veil, while the husband is waiting outside.
happiness and luck, as they have been crafted with my best wishes.
This gorgeous pendant is inspired by the culturally relevant Phoenix design which symbolizes joy and peace. Beauty and glamour of phoenix is intrinsically showcased with beautiful filigree design and vivid semi-precious gemstones. Phoenix is also popular as “Wife of Dragon”. What could be more fitting than this very pendant for a bride.
This is a really magical and exquisite moment. We sincerely hope that they will have a happy life together and they’ll find their best moments together.
As a designer, I would also like to share with you some of my designs inspired by this enchanting traditional wedding. I hope my design also bring these couples VGL GROUP • SEPTEMBER 2016 |
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This beautiful pendant is inspired from Chinese knots which symbolizes connection of emotions, endless love and integrity. Heart shape is a universal symbol of love and this vivid red heart cut gemstone brings everyone’s attention to this piece. Chinese knots have great importance in each and every auspicious ceremony and wearing a Chinese knot designer jewel will certainly bring abundance of good wishes to the bride. This piece is inspired from the “Flower of Love and marriage”. Every bride needs good wishes before entering into a new world and being part of a new beginning. This jewel will definitely bring a lot of beauty and good wishes for her upcoming life. It is masterly crafted with gold and vivid red gemstones to add more of auspicious beauty and joy. This hair clip is inspired from ancient Chinese “butterfly love story”. Butterfly is considered to be a prominent symbol of beauty, happiness and love. Every girl wishes to be beautiful like a butterfly and she can then pursue her love. This look of jewelry has been designed to integrate the best of cultural and latest trends. I hope you liked what I had to present!
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STORY WRITING TRAINING All products have some specific requirements and collaterals for great sales. The way these requirements are documented has a tremendous influence on the final sales execution. For this we have to team up across different groups and collaborate closely for best results. To achieve this, we at STS gems, China conducted a ‘Story Writing Training’ session from 6th September to 8th September. On an overall basis, it was a successful interactive session where each and every team contributed their best to make story writing process more streamlined. What we covered were 3 basic questions of Why, What and How.
This main session was subdivided among 3 subsessions among different teams. These programmes were designed specifically to meet the requirements of each department. We started with casted jewelry on first day and proceeded to the Watch and fashion jewelry team on 2nd day,
ANUBHA CHOUDHARY SENIOR STORY WRITER, STS CHINA
Why
• Importance of Stories • Impact of Good storytelling on Sales
What
• Required Key points • Key Attributes of product stories
How
• Practicle workshop • Cross departmental Q&A
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and finally the lifestyle product team on concluding day. These sessions were exclusively designed for each team as per the products they are dealing with. This was done in order to provide them with a more personalized approach and close understanding of their own products.
Overall it was a great learning session for all the teams including story writing team, where we came to know the specific requirements from each team. After this session all teams are now much more committed towards better streamlined story telling process. We are sure that story telling will be highly improved in coming times.
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RECREATIONAL TEAM BUILDING F&A
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Finance & Accounts went out for recreational and team building outing on 27th Aug’2016, and it was a fun filled day somewhere in mountains away from hustle and bustle of city. We didn’t just unwind or felt rejuvenated but could also talk about stuff beyond routine debit & credit. We have returned to work with a stronger bond, higher commitment and more positive & passionate outlook. VGL GROUP • SEPTEMBER 2016 |
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RECREATIONAL TEAM BUILDING VGL IT
Team outings are a great way to facilitate bonding with team members, reduce stress, and avail the chance to get to know each other outside of the office.
We, the VGL-IT department, went for a team building and outing on 5th Aug, 2016 at Heiwa Heaven Resort near Agra Road. It was a wonderful one day outing experience. Team bonding is also an important factor in order to deliver successful projects.
TEAM BUILDING
- Explaining by Kotesh Team-building exercises are important not for the immediate experience of the activities performed by the team, but also for the group skills, communication and bonding that results from taking up such exercises.
Team-building programs provide realistic experiences that empower individuals to contribute to common goals of the team. The basic ideology is to promote team work and positive group energy. 32
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PROCESS IMPROVEMENTS At VGL India, we are always looking for opportunities to innovate! We in fact hired from one of the best engineering schools here two Graduate Engineer Trainees, Sajid Alam & Ramesh Yadav, who joined us in month of June 2016.
Sajid
Ramesh
Soon after their induction they were initiated in observing our existing processes to suggest improvements wherever lacking. Their findings, ideas and close watch through the implementation have resulted in improved quality, saved time, increased productivity. READ MORE TO KNOW FURTHER ABOUT THEIR IDEAS:
CUTTING MACHINE: This team has developed Cutting machine which is used to cut items from casted tree. This machine is developed from scratch putting new concept in place. This machine can save 36
| VGL GROUP â&#x20AC;¢ SEPTEMBER 2016
RAJ SINGH
VP OPERATIONS, VGL INDIA
80% of time. This is another step towards automating the process, reducing human efforts and increasing productivity.
COATING OF PLASMA POLISHING MACHINE HANGER & KEY Team has introduced Polypropylene Powder
SUCTION PEN FOR STONE GRINDING:
Around 1200 stones are processed per day on cabs machine which is followed by grinding. Current practice is to insert the stones on one end of wooden stick by using glue which requires a separate workstation.
Coating with required thickness on plasma machine hanger which is used to hang Jewelry items for polishing. Same hanger is used multiple times in its lifetime. After Polypropylene Powder Coating it increased life of hanger and it can be reutilized after coating. MODIFICATION AND REINSTALLATION OF OTEC GYRATE MACHINE
In order to remove workstation, minimize cost and time, team has designed and developed Suction mechanism to hold the stones. It will remove the uses of glue and stick. MODIFICATION OF CASTING TREE OF STAINLESS STEEL PLANT: Current rejection of Steel plant casting is 30%. Team has come up with a new design for wax tree.
In final design number of pieces increased by 25% and rejection decreased by 20% in single casted tree of Stainless Steel. This is a great success and we are now more productive in steel Jewelry production. We can serve more orders and delivery faster.
Team identified non-working OTEC Gyrate machine in SS Plant. Parts that needed to be replaced cost Rs. 2.5 Lacs ($3,750). Team improvised and brought it back in working condition for just Rs.1500! ($22.5) This machine is completely functional and running error free for last 2 months. NEW PROJECTS UNDER DEVELOPMENT Hydraulic Shearing Machine:
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Currently manual shearing machine is used for cutting casted runner, which is very risky and also it engages two workers and takes lot of time. Team has identified new machine which is risk-free and need single worker to operate it. This machine will automate the cutting of casted runner. Packaging Machine:
In order to automate the packaging of Lifestyle Product which is right now by manual taping and strapping our team has identified the machine which will automate the packaging system. This machine can be custom made based on our requirement. Soon our packaging team will be using this machine. IMPLEMENTATION OF RFID Introducing RFID
The implementation of this system will start from casting to export department and later on this will be adopted by other departments too. It will reduce human effort and time of entry, goods can be moved faster from one department to another and information can be displayed real time. Tracking of each item can be done quickly. This is under testing phase and soon we would be able to implement. We are continuously trying to improve our processes and make our supply chain process stronger. In future, we would be able to equip our manufacturing unit with world class facilities which will help us to match our customer demands efficiently.
NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT IN GEMSTONES
VISHWADEEP SHARMA SUPERVISOR, GEMSTONES, VGL INDIA
NEW STONES DEVELOPED FROM NATURAL MATERIAL LIKE PEACOCK FEATHERS
Green Gold stone With Peacock Black Feather doublet cut stones.
Green Gold stone With Natural Peacock Feather doublet cab stones.
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NEW STONES DEVELOPED FROM SCRAP
Stone combinations (Black Tourmaline, Mohave Turquoise Green & Purple) Inlay Stone designs.
Stone combinations (Mohave turquoise Blue & Purple) Inlay Stone designs.
Stone combinations (Black tourmaline with Mohave turquoise Purple) Inlay Stone designs.
Stone combinations (Black tourmaline with Mohave turquoise Green) Inlay Stone designs.
Stone combinations (Mohave turquoise Blue with Constitute Turquoise) Inlay Stone designs.
Stone combinations (Constituted Turquoise with Lapis) Inlay Stone designs.
Stone combinations (Constituted Turquoise With Green & Purple Mohave turquoise) Inlay Stone designs.
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| VGL GROUP â&#x20AC;¢ SEPTEMBER 2016
STELLAR SANJAY
SANJAY DEVNATH RECEIVING BEST PERFORMANCE AWARD
Sanjay Devnath is VGL India employee since 1997 and has worked across various processes throughout production like Polish, Setting, Modal, Sampling and has recently rotated through Steel Jewelry and Plain Jewelry manufacturing. Sanjay has been awarded several Excellence awards for his designs that have generated considerable interest among our buyers. Sanjay credits his success to his unwavering belief in our core values and has a strong desire to see VGL become number one.
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THE FLUMMOXED
T
he dark shadows are creeping by Twisting and turning I feel so high Not without a hint of glitch
Buried so deep my consciences cry. All the sparkles have long given up The hindrance was strong but not quite enough I crumble upon I feign the switch Clenching to voices harsh and rough. I exist now but I will fade away tonight The prisoner of my soul, my spirits are bright It’s too late and too early to flinch I seal my vision trounced by the night. By Souvik Nandi
Manager, MP&A, VGL India
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| VGL GROUP • SEPTEMBER 2016
AWARDS SINCE LAST ISSUE
NAMC
VGL has been awarded Bronze by National Awards for Manufacturing Competitiveness (NAMC) 2015- 16. NAMC appraises and applauds the manufacturing competitiveness of Indian organizations and encourage them in their process of becoming world class. Raj Singh, VP Ops & Pushpendra Singh, VP HR represented VGL at the event held in Chennai.
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RAJASTHAN STATE EXPORT AWARD
VGL has been selected for Rajasthan State Export Award 2014- 15 by Rajasthan State Government.
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| VGL GROUP â&#x20AC;¢ SEPTEMBER 2016
INDIAN BUSINESS IN THE UK 2016
TJC, UK won ‘Indian Business in the UK 2016’ award. These awards are nominated by the general public, by customers and not by ourselves which makes them very special to us. VGL GROUP • SEPTEMBER 2016 |
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ASSOCIATE SENATE OF VGL, INDIA ORGANIZED A CARROM CHAMPIONSHIP IN MONTH OF AUG, 2016
SANJIV ARORA & NITIN SHARMA OF STUDIO WON CARROM CHAMPIONSHIP.
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| VGL GROUP â&#x20AC;¢ SEPTEMBER 2016
MOMENTS FROM MID YEAR MCM SEPT. 2016 AT JAIPUR, INDIA
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www.vglgroup.com