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F: Mr. Rice, I know we’ve asked you here to talk about EBS University, but before we begin, let’s talk about the company. EBS Electronics seems to be enjoying a boom at the moment. Can you put some figures on that?
M: Yes ... well ... in 1990, EBS’s total sales were $11 billion. But in 1996, our sales grew by more than 5 billion and the sales total for the year was $27 billion. So ... while we used to think that 15% growth was good, for some time we were reckoning on achieving 20 to 50% ... though recent developments have changed that.
F: And what about international expansion? Where are your big growth markets?
M: Over the next five years, we’ll be hiring 100,000 new employees... in Asia alone, it’ll be 60,000. The real development during this period will be concentrated in East Asia—mostly in China, India and Vietnam. We’re hoping that one day the market there will be as big as Europe. Over a longer period, we’re also planning to expand into the Middle East and into Southern Africa. All this development is very important for the company. For example, the plans for China will bring investment up to $100 billion. A few years ago, I’d never have dreamed that we’d be selling $3 billion dollars worth of products there, which we did last year. It’s hard to believe that only seven years ago we sold nothing there at all.
F: Can we talk about EBS University itself? Can you explain—simply—how it works, and who it’s for?
M: I suppose it’s really similar to a community-based education system—a bit like a village school—except, of course, this is a global village. Basically, it’s designed to provide education and training for every single member of staff, from the Managing Director to the newest recruit.
F: And what kind of education and training is actually on offer?
M: Well, we have core courses that everyone is required to attend. They focus on things like reducing manufacturing time as well as quality issues—both for people and services. We also offer a range of options, everything from personnel, finance to languages. We run courses, for example, in French, Japanese, Korean and Mandarin.
F: Can we turn now to the question of motivation and how you go about keeping people interested in their work?
M: We never underestimate training. It’s a challenge, for example, keeping someone aged 20 skilled until they’re aged 60. So we do what we can. While some employees get as much as three days’ training a month, the minimum is fixed at three days a year. We also have a feedback system in the form of a questionnaire that employees answer every six months, and in this way we can keep up-to-date with employees’ opinions.
F: So you really do believe in investing in your employees?
M: That’s right. We allow an amount equivalent to about 4% of an employee’s salary for his or her training—to ’maintain them’, if you like, because we think they’re important. A piece of machinery, however, gets as much as 10%-12% of its purchase price spent oil maintenance now, I believe that people are more important than machines, so we still have a long way to go.
F: It would seem, though, that EBS is more broad-minded than many firms in its approach to educating and training its employees.
M: Well, EBS has been in a state of constant renewal since it was founded in 1938, but it wasn’t until the late seventies onwards that the company started trying out new methods of training and education. EBS University was the result of those experiments and has been operating very successfully for the last fifteen years. I suppose overall what distinguishes EBS from other multinationals is that we educate all our employees and not just management.
F: Thank you, Mr. Rice, and I hope that EBS University continues to do well in its educational role.