Better response
to local market
changes
Export office opens on Canaries
For several months now Mr R. de Haan has been work
ing on the island of Tenerife. He was sent out by Heineken
to help further boost the sales of Heineken and Amstel on
the Canary Islands.
0
R. Sierhuis, head of Technical Training International:
'The fact that we have a unique treasure-house of know-how
and specialist expertise within Heineken is something we must
exploit to the full. Technical Training International depart
ment is the vehicle for transferring that know-how and exper
tise to employees in the operating companies.'
HEINEKEN INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE NR. 29
PAGE 4
The Canary Islands (Gran Ca
nada, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Fuer-
teventura, Hierro, Gomera and
Palma) have grown to become
an sizeable export market for
Heineken over the past five
years. Tourism is one important
reason for this success. The
Heineken agents on these islands
have also made a big contribu
tion to the strong increase. Luck
ily, the popularity of Heineken
beer has not remained limited to
tourists. The local population in
particular has also shown a
marked preference for
Heineken.
But there is a downturn visible
in the tourist trade. Just like
mainland Spain, the Canary Is
lands are feeling the effects of de
clining tourist interest. Besides,
competition is increasing con
siderably on the local beer mar
ket.
Malaysia and Singapore.
Language
Language can sometimes pose
difficulties. 'We stick to the
Heineken rule that a trainee should
have a reasonable command of En
glish', explains Mr Sierhuis. 'We do
make an exception for participants
from Central Africa. Training ses
sions for them are given in French.
Sometimes a trainee is sent on a
crash two-week language course
upon arrival in the Netherlands be
cause we feel his English is abso
lutely inadequate. In such a case we
have to change our training pro
gramme, but I think that that's
where our great strength lies: we're
very flexible.'
Changing a scheduled course
programme is no easy matter. The
department doesn't have its own
tutors; for on-the-job training ses
sions and practical traineeships it
always has to call on the experts
from HTB and the production de-
A purposive marketing ap
proach is urgently needed and
Heineken's export department
realised that the local agents
could really benefit from some
support in the marketing area.
It was therefore decided to
open up an export office on the
island of Tenerife. The building
which housed Rolom - the local
branch of El Aguila - has served
as a base for Roel de Haan since
the beginning of September. His
assignment involves consulting
with the agents on setting up suc
cessful promotions, advertising
strategies, pricing agreements
and quality assurance and
making a more detailed study of
the local market.
partments. Especially for the 'tailor
made' courses the help of HTB ex
perts is indispensable. 'Luckily, we
have no complaints; we get excel
lent co-operation from all special
ists and experts.'
Future
Heineken's Technical Training
International has to prepare itself
for a different working method to
face the challenges of the next de
cade, feels Mr Sierhuis. 'We must
adopt an even more professional
approach, make greater efforts to
meet the needs of our clients. For
merly, the work used to come to us,
now we need to focus more on
quality than on quantity.'
A group of senior managers on a visit to the Den Bosch brewery. They were
taking part in the Brewing Seminar during which they were taught the
general principles of the brewing process, raw materials, packaging and
quality control. From left: Messrs. Lans (HTB Technical Training Interna
tional), Targetti (Personnel Director Birra Dreher), Sierhuis (head of Techni
cal Training International), Sudjono (finance director Multi Bintang), and
behind him: Mr Ubbink (production manager Den Bosch brewery), Kamer-
mans (regional co-ordination Asia), Déméné (commercial director Grande
Brasserie de Nouvelle Calédonie), Bruning (regional marketing manager),
Siertsema (co-ordinating director Africa), De Voogd (general manager Den
Bosch), Plata (marketing and sales manager Birra Dreher), Rijkens (deputy
group general sales manager Asia Pacific Breweries) and Korthals Altes
(director business development, Guinness Anchor).
Flexibility is
our strength
As Manager Personnel Man
agement Services HTB, Ron Si
erhuis is also head of Technical
Training International. 'Our aim is
to enable every operating company
to achieve a good result using local
manpower resources. In principle,
we only fetch foreign trainees to the
Netherlands to attend courses
which are not available in their
own countries.'
To achieve this aim, the depart
ment organises courses and semi
nars, gives advice to operating
companies in setting up courses lo
cally and ensures that expatriates
are well prepared before they are
sent abroad.
Continuing need
The scope for the latter type of
activities is becoming increasingly
smaller, as the number of foreign
postings is on the decline. And that
in turn is a direct consequence of
the increased know-how of local
employees, making it unnecessary
to send out expatriates. But doesn't
this mean that Technical Training
International will end up digging
its own grave?
Mr Sierhuis doesn't agree. There
will be a continuing need for train
ing courses, he feels. Technical and
technological advances make it ne-
The volume of the activities
of Technical Training
International can best be
illustrated by means of a
few salient figures. In 1989
the department organised
20 basic training courses,
gave seminars attended by
80 participants, and
compiled as many as one
hundred tailor made
training programmes.
cessary to organise training pro
grammes. Besides, the general
(brewing) knowledge of technical
specialists needs to be refreshed
now and again. This is done by
means of the specialist skills semi
nars.
Tailor made
Each year the department offers
a programme of eleven courses and
seminars. Often these are standard,
off-the-peg courses, but the depart
ment can also put together a course
made to measure for one individu
al. A good example of such a tailor
made programme is the course fol
lowed by Mr Jong, the production
manager at the Antillian Brewery.
We reported on his experiences in
the previous issue of Heineken In
ternational Magazine.
Long time
A course sometimes takes a
week, but it can also last up to nine
months. Mr Sierhuis admits this
seems a long time: 'A technological
controller or an executive engineer
may sometimes spend nine months
in Zoeterwoude to complete a
training course. During that period
he really gets to know the HTB de
partments of relevance to his job,
he's taught a wealth of specialist
know-how and he learns how we fit
together within Heineken. For nine
whole months: watching, listening,
observing, taking everything in -
that's very intensive but we need
that period to let the trainee absorb
our Heineken culture, to teach him
to think in line with Heineken prin
ciples.'
Europe and Africa
Participants in the courses hail
from all over the globe, but Europe
and Africa provide the lion's share.
It's mainly the operating com
panies El Aguila (Spain), Dreher
(Italy), Murphy's Brewery (Ireland)
and Athenian Brewery (Greece)
which regularly send employees to
Zoeterwoude for a course or a sem
inar. Course participants arriving
in the Netherlands from the Afri
can continent are mostly from
Nigerian Breweries and Central Af
rica. Trainees who come to Zoeter
woude from the Asia region stem
predominantly from Indonesia,
