HR Alignment with Company Strategies
Strategic review
We have undertaken a thorough and disciplined strategic review of our business, which will set our direction for the coming years. In doing so we considered market trends and opportunities that exist in the chosen markets positions, how we derive value from our businesses and the performance of the key operational areas. We have updated our objectives accordingly.
Focus
Our future is about becoming more focused - a clear business model based on diversity and operations of diversified associate companies, focusing on our financial markets.
Integration
We aim to run our businesses in a more integrated way - organizing our activities along lines of business, supported by strong associate companies. This involves deploying proven processes, unique system and best practices within each business. In this way, we will maximize the competitive advantages that come from being a leading financial institution. However, it is critical that we balance this with the need to provide excellent service to customers and to maintain and build relationships with our key stakeholders.
Discipline
We plan to be more disciplined in the application of the best practices. Increasingly we will standardize our approach, applying even greater rigor to financial discipline, ensuring that we have the capital to grow, but maintaining the investor confidence that comes from a disciplined approach to our balance sheet.We maintain our target of increasing earnings per share.
Objective
Our primary objective is to grow our businesses in order to create value for our shareholders. We can do so only if we achieve operational excellence and continue to improve our financial performance. We invest for future growth and are financially disciplined and we develop, recruit and retain skilled, talented and motivated people. In each area we aim to increase our focus, and be disciplined in our approach. As a consequence, we have identified specific objectives in the following areas:
Performance
We aim for operational excellence by performing to the highest standards of reliability and efficiency.We aim to continue to improve our financial performance.
Growth
We will invest in our existing businesses and in acquiring new business in our core markets, to generate future growth. We will diversify more our operational activities.We will be financially disciplined in the way we invest and in the way we manage our earnings stream through diversification.
Talent
We aim to maximize the contribution made by our employees by motivating our people to strive for continued improvement, developing their skills and talents and by promoting a culture that recognizes and respects inclusion and diversity. Our strategy is underpinned by our commitments to developing strong and valued relationships with our customers, regulators, lenders, depositors and the communities in which we operate and to acting responsibly including commitment to reducing our environmental impact and to corporate governance and business ethics.
Relationship
We aim to improve relationships with our customers, regulators, fund providers and the communities in which we operate by focusing on the areas that are important to them such as the quality of services we provide to customers, the quality of information we provide to regulators, by investing in local communities and by the way we address the concerns of, and interact with, all our stakeholders.
Responsibility
We believe operating responsibly is essential to the way we conduct our operations, invest, develop our people and manage our relationships and so responsibility underpins everything we do. Although our activities have no direct impact on environment, we are committed to taking positive action to reduce our contribution to climate change and our other impacts on the environment.We want to operate to the highest standards of corporate governance and we believe in strong business ethics.
Performance
Our aim is for operational excellence, performing to the highest standards of efficiency, reliability, and financial performance.
Efficiency
By improving efficiency, we can constrain the cost of our operations borne by customers and improve returns to shareholders. We review our operations continually to identify opportunities to improve the operational productivity of our investment and our people, and to identify areas in which we can reduce cost or restrict cost increases, planning ahead is essential in our approach to maintaining and improving efficiency. Our primary method of measuring improvement in efficiency is through our financial performance as described hereinafter.
Reliability
Our principal operations are critical to the functioning of the economies we serve. The reliability of our services to our customers, are therefore our next highest priority after efficiency.
Financial performance
If we achieve our objectives we should be able to deliver continued improvements in financial performance, so that we deliver on our commitment to growing our dividend above industry average. The principal measures we use to monitor financing performance are operating profit, earnings per share and operating cash flows.
Growth
Investment and financial discipline are critical to our plans to grow our business.
Investment
We invest in our existing businesses and where we can create value through operational improvements, synergies and financial benefits. Measures we use to monitor investment include investment in lease finance, term finance and other finances.
Generate value from our investments
We aim to generate value from our investments by improving the operating performance of our systems, by selecting investments that will provide the best returns, or in case of diversification, by selecting businesses where we can obtain synergies for the benefit of our customers and shareholders. Measures we use to monitor the value we generate from our investment include our return on equity.
Financial discipline
In order to deliver sustainable growth, we must be disciplined in the way we manage our Balance Sheet. This means that we will return cash to shareholders to the extent it is not required for our investment objectives.
Talent
Prime Finance depends on the talents, skills and motivation of employees. We aim to maximize the contribution made by our employees developing their skills and talents, motivating and driving continued improvements and promoting a culture that recognizes and respects inclusion and diversity and where all our employees share our core values described on page 10 of this report. In addition to obtaining the views of employees on an ongoing basis, we periodically carry out employee surveys to identify areas where we can improve the way we develop and interact with them.
Motivation and performance
We plan to improve our operational performance and the service we provide to our customers by motivating our employees to strive for continued improvement. Our aim is for a world-class performance management system, involving integrated common performance processes, a single set of performance criteria, pay linked to leadership qualities as well as operational and financial performance and greater differentiation between levels of performance.
Development of talent and skills
Critical to our success is identifying, recruiting and developing talented people and helping all our managers and employees to serve to the best of their abilities.
Inclusion and diversity
In order to recruit, develop and retain talented people, we aim to achieve a more inclusive and diverse workforce. A number of areas have been identified to help achieve our vision of developing and operating our business in a way that results in a more inclusive and diverse profile, and to be seen as an employer of choice. Performance measures we use to monitor our objective of promoting inclusion and diversity include the percentage of female employees and the turnover ratio.
Values
Our aim is for all our people to be proud to work for Prime Finance and to share our core values of professional excellence, integrity, teamwork, transparency, leadership, superior performance and sustainability.
Relationship
We have a diverse range of stakeholders including employees, lenders, depositors, customers, regulators, government and community.We strive to be open and constructive in our dealings with external audiences. Our relationships with stakeholders are critical to our success. Our strategy involves improving those relationships by focusing on the areas that are important to them, such as the quality of service we provide to customers, the quality of information we provide to regulators and shareholders and the way we address the concerns of and interact with all our stakeholders.
Customer service
Our objective is to satisfy our customers with the quality of services we provide,with our responsiveness when things go wrong and our dedication to continued improvement.
Regulatory relationship
One of the critical elements in our regulatory relationship is in building trust. This involves being responsive to the need of our regulators for accurate information, complying with rules and regulations, operating in an ethical way and most importantly, delivering on our promises.
Lenders and depositors
We aim to work in partnership with our lenders developing constructive relationship, and working together effectively. Our objective is to developing contractual arrangements with our lenders and depositors that align their interests with our own as far as possible and share financial risk appropriately.
Community involvement
Prime Finance's role as a good corporate citizen supports our strategic ambitions and is delivered through a sustained and consistent approach. In all our investment, we aim to develop our business, support our employees, support our communities and enhance our reputation.Our approach is based on two principles: Investment in our communities and investment in our people. Sharing of best practices across our business and working collaboratively with key partners and stakeholders enable us to maximize how communities benefit from our activities.
Responsibility
We are committed to operating in a responsible manner and this underpins our commitments to performance, growth, talents and relationships as discussed above.As a financial institution,our activities have an indirect impact on the environment. We remain very cautious while sanctioning loan keeping in mind the purpose of the loan and the nature of business of the customers.We are committed to strong governance and high ethical standards.
Protecting the environment
We are committed to continuous improvement in our environmental performance. Our objective is to help protect the environment for future generations. In addition we are committed to :
- Being cautious in financing our clients with special focus on how and for what purpose the fund will be utilized;
- Financing clients which are compliant to environmental issues.
Corporate governance
We believe strong corporate governance is essential to operating responsibly and achieving our goals. We describe our approach to report on corporate governance on page 64 to 70 of this Annual Report.
Business ethics
We are committed not only to ensuring that all our behaviors are lawful and that we comply with our policies and regulatory guidelines, we also expect all of our employees to live up to our core values as set out on page 7 of this Annual Report.