Jan - Mar 2004  HEADLINES Capital Raising Exercise We have successfully completed the first round of our capital raising exercise by raising US$45 million (S$78 million) of private equity from three first rate investors of global standing. Outspan Coffee wins exclusive Cafe Bean contract The Ivorian team, with the cafe trading desk, got exclusive rights for all the black/ brokens in IVC. IVC sells all the country's Black Beans and brokens to a limited set of buyers. Multiplex factory project completed in Vietnam Olam's sprawling plant for processing cashew & pepper (to ASTA specifications) became operational at Vietnam. Milk powder business launched Our foray into Diary Products has got a fillip with the launch of Milk powder. Milk powder is currently being traded with some of our existing large African customers. IN THE PUBLIC EYE We have received public recognition for the effectiveness of our business model and for innovating successfully to find growth and create continuous value. These recognitions have come in the form of: Being featured in a Harvard Business Review article titled "Growth Outside the Core" Being featured as an anchor case in a recently published book titled "Beyond the Core: Expand your market without abandoning your roots". More... BUSINESS UPDATE Considerable investments have been made to strengthen our leadership position in each of our existing businesses: We have relocated the headquarters for Cocoa business to London to be closer to our customers and origins. We have opened an edible nut marketing operation based out of New Jersey in the USA. Cotton has established a sourcing operation based out of North Carolina in the USA. More...  Perspective Dear All, Welcome to the first issue of Olam Tidings. The central purpose of this newsletter is to serve as vehicle for communicating the key developments across Olam in a quarter. Year 2003 has been a key inflection point in our history. The significant highlights include:   Excellent results for FY 2003 with revenues and earnings growing at 21%    and 19% respectively. FY 2004 has got off to a promising start (one of the    best ever for us) and this augurs well for our prospects in the current year.   Successful completion of the first round of capital raising exercise by raising    US $45 million (S $78 million) of private equity from three first rate    investors of global standing. More in Capital Raising Exercise.   Public recognition for the effectiveness of our business model. Successful    innovation to find growth and create value. More in In the Public Eye.   Considerable investments to strengthen Olam's leadership position in each    of our existing businesses. More in Business Update.   Continuous pursuit of other profitable growth opportunities, particularly in    adjacent possibilities: Successfully completed pilots in entering new product adjacencies (Peanuts, Pulses and Beans, Spices, Wheat & Wheat Flour, Milk Powder). Set-up the second cashew processing facility in Brazil. Feasibility study completed to investigate opportunities in packaged foods. The launch is planned in February.   We have made significant progress in improving our financial flexibility on    the back of our equity capital raising exercise by way of raising non-   transactional fungible working capital funding. We hope to report concrete    results in this area during the next quarter.   The focus on HR function has been strengthened. KRA workshops were    conducted, deliverable template for various roles developed, 360 degree    multi-rater feedback mechanism was launched having response levels of    almost 100%. Currently the individual Personal Development Plan process is    under progress and has been completed for West Africa.   Awareness of Risk Management and our ability to capture, measure,    monitor and manage risk has improved significantly. Risk management    culture has begun to take strong roots. You can read more about Risk    Function under Spotlight.   SIP, after a very difficult start has begun to demonstrate its potential to    provide accounts and MIS support for a rapidly expanding and increasingly    more complex operations. We were nominated as one of the six finalists    under the Environment, Energy & Agriculture category in the Computer    World Honors Award. The Computer World Honors Program is an initiative    between the leaders of the global IT industry and the Smithsonian's National    Museum of American History to identify, document, archive and honor the    work of organizations that have applied technology innovatively in their    respective fields.   Despite paucity of resources the Audit team has been successful in punching    above its weight and persuaded the operations to view internal control    process more seriously. I hope you find the information in this newsletter useful and relevant. I would like you to send contributions on happenings in your region or articles of interest to HR so as to make the newsletter more interesting going forward. Happy Reading, Sunny Verghese  Performance League Last years Performance League of Products and Countries is given in the table below. This is for period April 2002-June-2003 (15 months). The ranking is calculated based on Resource Productivity i.e Profitability based on Resource utilized. Resource Productivity of Product Resource Productivity of Countries Ranking based on Absolute PBT Individuals from Operations who have achieved over 150% on Resource Productivity  In-Focus Samit Shetty on competition, challenges and profitablity. In this free-wheeling and extensive interview, Samit Shetty talks on topics as varied as competitor issues, regional factors in profitability, success factors (personal and professional), role models and the importance of long-term focus. Read the full interview here. Take away: Tenacity pays. Raising budgets are tough, but one should do it. Studying competition and regional differentials in the long and short term takes time and enthusiasm, but it's worth it.  Spotlight Risk Function: What is the genesis of Risk function? How does Olam manage the constant trade-off between controlling risk and taking risk in an attempt to enhance return? Olamites Vivek Verma, Rajeev Kadam, Prakash Jhanwer hold forth on the various aspects of Risk function. Click here for the full interview. Vivek Kadam Prakash Take Away: Ensure that a) the risk exposures emanating from the conduct of Olam's business do not lead to financial distress and b) shareholders obtain a fair return on the equity / risk capital that they have invested.  Management Thoughts The Japanese Fishing Story Here's a fascinating anecdote on how a challenging environment is essential for a man to thrive. This interesting case was observed by L. Ron Hubbard in the early 1950s, and is popularly known as the Japanese fish problem. Take away: Instead of avoiding challenges, jump into them. Beat the heck out of them. Enjoy the game. If your challenges are too large or too numerous, do not give up. Inviting Thoughts: If there's anything that your colleagues need to know, write to HR-News@olamnet.com. It could be articles you read somewhere or a happening in your region that could be useful to all of us.