Well colleagues, the end of 2010 is upon us, and we are soon going to be rolling into yet another year of business. Where has the time gone? What have we been doing? And more importantly, did we achieve what we set out to?

As with any business, our external environment is forever changing. Success is directly related to the ability of a company to identify, adapt to and predict these changes. South Africa is a diverse country and while we are still classified as “developing”, you can be certain that our external environment is far from stable.
So, for 2011, our focus in the “World of Sun, Sand and Sea...  aka Coastal Region” will be the following two words:

• EFFICIENCY
   
• PRODUCTIVITY

You may be asking, what is this guy on about? Well these are defined as:

EFFICIENCY - refers to the use of resources so as to maximize the production of goods and services. A business is said to be more efficient than another (in relative terms) if it can provide more goods and services for society without using more resources.

PRODUCTIVITY - is a measure of output from a production process, per unit of input
What this simply means is that we have to start working smarter, getting more out of what we have and doing things better without spending more.

How do we do this? Well we can look at -
• Appropriate ambulance allocation
• Reduction in mission times
• Geographic allocation of vehicles
• Utilising “non-mission” time to increase ER24 brand awareness
• Reducing wasteful expenditure
• Being pro-active instead of re-active
• Review of call out criteria and call types
• And the list goes on............

Why would we want to do this, you may ask? Isn’t this a whole lot of hard work?

Well, in general, the benefits of this approach are, to name but a few:
• Improvements in employee benefits and working conditions
• Performance incentive schemes become feasible
• Increased profitability which means the business is able to continue operating
• You are able to feel more secure in your employment and about career prospects
• A better quality of work life
So, there it is.........   I think it is worth the effort and so should you.

In closing, I would like to thank all staff for the good effort, team work and spirit they’ve shown throughout the year. Enjoy the holidays, have a great Christmas, and see you all again in the New Year.

BE SAFE OUT THERE!

Ben Johnson - Regional Manager