Putting pedal to the mettle

WHILE 2020 was a year of disruption, it was also one where corporate entities and businesses showed admirable mettle when it came to changing strategies to cope with the new way of things globally.

The coronavirus-hit year was to have been the Asia Corporate Excellence & Sustainability Awards (ACES) triumphant homecoming to Malaysia, after being hosted in Singapore since its inception in 2014, and then Bangkok in 2019.

"The seventh edition of ACES was to have been held in Malaysia in 2020 in a nod to the Awards having achieved what we deemed near perfect vision in our messaging, the understanding of the nominees of what it takes to become an ACES winner, and the on-boarding of the core values and principle sentiments behind the Awards. No one could have predicted that we would have had to defer the glittering, black-tie affair to a later date. This was a disappointment, especially seeing the stellar crop of winners we were looking forward to celebrating with on the night," said Shanggari B, chief executive officer of MORS Group, the organiser of the ACES.

However, the CEO was quick to note that the worldwide pandemic was a worthy trial by fire to many of the corporations, organisations and business leaders who were nominated for the ACES. While it is a given that the number of nominees increase year-on-year, candidates for the awards were put through an even more grueling judging process than usual, and by quite an unexpected 'judge': Covid 19 itself.

With financial forecasts out of the window, the fiscal year of many companies shifted from profit to survival mode. This unexpected turn of events proved to be a live demonstration of the agility needed in corporate leadership today, and became a badge of honour for many of the captains of industry, who were seen rallying their troupes in unprecedentedly bold management strategies of each top executives' devising.

Therefore, despite the unavailability of a rule book, and tried and true game plans, each Leadership category winner excelled in leading on the fly, demonstrating both business acumen and heart when making the difficult decisions for business survival.

One winner who has had many years of experience swimming against the current is PT Mowilex Indonesia, a paint manufacturer who impressed the jury in the category of Asia's Best Performing Companies.

The 50-year-old company established in Jakarta is one of the market leaders in Indonesia in the premium-grade paints category. With about 3,000 outlets across the archipelago and approximately 1,250 branded in-store locations, the company's paints are used by professional property developers, woodworkers, mural artists, and individual customers who have been using Mowilex products in their families from generation to generation.

The company was originally planned as an Indonesian joint venture with one of the global top five paintmakers, but when the deal fell through, Mowilex's founder, then in his twenties, decided to forge ahead regardless. Despite the minimal resources, his enthusiasm and commitment to the goal of being "better, not bigger" carried the company from strength to strength.

Mowilex is an environmental leader in its field, being the first paint company to produce water-based paints in Indonesia. The company even held out against plastic packaging until 2018, and has now set a goal to reduce its use of plastic by 80 per cent within eight years. In 2019, the company became the first manufacturing company in Indonesia to achieve carbon neutrality and be certified CarbonNeutral®.

A wide range of Mowilex's retail products have also been certified with the Singapore Green Label, with its top professional paints receiving Gold certifications from Green Label Indonesia with a score of 98 out of 100.

The company has also excelled in community care, winning the Top CSR Awards of ISO 26000 Implementation, Top CSR Leader Commitment, and Top CSR for Environment Initiative by Info Business magazine.

Its latest CSR programme, the Mowilex Sustainability Initiative, is built on three pillars: Awareness towards the environment, community development, and product commitment.

This initiative, launched in 2019, has supported the non-profit environmental organisation Conservation International's (CI) whale shark conservation programme in Saleh Bay, in the West Nusa Tenggara province and is pre-funding another five-year programme run by CI to protect the marine habitat in Sumbawa.