Port managers urged to aim high

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FRANK ASAELI of PNGPCL

Papua New Guinea Port Corporation Ltd’s port managers have been challenged to take the company to the next level to achieve its goals.
Chairman of PNGPCL Dr Ila Temu said that this in his opening remarks at the company’s annual managers’ conference last Wednesday.
The conference, themed ‘Managing change’, was to be the stepping stone for PNGPCL to go forward as its management and port managers undergo critical issues facing the company and set strategic directions to help achieve its goals and objectives.
“I am making a commitment to support the process of change that leads to better results and the board will support that process, so it is up to each of the managers to take it to the next level because operating at the current level is not going to make it,” Dr Temu said.
“So the board is challenging each of the managers to take us to the next level so that we are no longer just catching up.
“We need to be driving force in the growth of the economy.
“We are not just supporting that growth but we need to be taking the lead in that growth as well.”
Dr Temu said the board was also committed to help the managers better their skills to manage the business better, such as building the appropriate structures and required capacity within the organisation to drive that change process.
“I am aware that this is already happening,” he said.
“The board is quite active in terms of the organisational structure and supports the changes that ensure that we move to the next level.
“The port manager’s role is the key business activity and that’s the main reason why we exist.
“To have the port and port managers to provide the service to our economy, to allow services to flow through the ports and getting that right has to be the biggest objective for our organisation. 
“We have not got there yet.
“The country is growing really fast because of the resources boom and because of all the activities that are going on.
“As I have said before, I do not want PNG Ports to be an organisation that’s holding that growth because of our inability to support port infrastructure services.
“So we need to shift, we need to change our mindsets so that we are moving with that growth rather then pulling that growth back,  and moving that growth means that we need to change our culture and our way of doing business,” he said.
“We have to be sustainable and put the money into infrastructure so that the infrastructure capacity does not hold us back.”
Chief executive officer of PNGPCL  Brian Riches said: “This conference on managing change will help direct and motivate port mangers going forward as we set out to strategically manage change in our corporation to increasingly help achieve our goals and objectives.”
Mr Riches said this conference was about changing the mindset and culture of the port managers away from the public service culture into efficient and more effective customer service culture.