BCL on Friday launched its new set of values that will re-define the company that has become the livelihood of over 80, 000 people living in the Selebi Phikwe area while simultaneously attempting to create a long term value.
“We want to ensure that our stakeholders understand where we want to go,” Montwedi Mphathi, the company’s General Manager said.
BCL over the years has been a going concern as it owed a number of creditors from outside the country and government of Botswana, which has over the years bailed out the company to keep Selebi-Phikwe alive.
 
But it has since undergone a healing process that will also help the illusive process of diversifying the economy of the town. If BCL mine life is prolonged beyond 2013, there is a likelihood that some investors will come to the mining area.
“BCL used to be a company well supported by government,” Mphathi explained. “Government used to give life support in terms of loan postponement. Life was very difficult, but we have since moved from that support.”
This has enabled the outfit to a situation where it is now able to see its future after moving from what Mphathi describes as a ‘trauma room’.
“This is why we launch these values. It is all about long term value creation,” he said ahead of the launch of the new values on Friday night.┬á
The new values that were to be launched to stakeholders on Friday night are respect and recognition, excellence, proactive, dependability and adaptability.
The company said its respect and recognition values innovation, embraces diversity and recognise individual contribution and the potential in each one of ‘our people’.
It said on its excellence value that it is passionate about what it does and will do it right the first time around.
 
“Continuous improvement and ‘peak to peak’ performance is the norm rather than the exception,” the company stated.
On the proactive value, BCL said it is committed to creating the future ‘as we want it to be, not given to us to adopt’, adding it will emphasise prevention of problems not just solving them.
The other value launched on Friday was dependability saying ‘our commitment is our word, what ever it takes’. With this value, the company aims to proactively advise its customers and stakeholders whenever ‘we cannot meet our commitments’.
With the adaptability value, it said because continuous improvement is a way of life at BCL Limited, ‘we are highly adaptable to rapid change’. “We will effectively position our company and work processes as dedicated by our cyclic industry”.┬á┬á
After restructuring and clearing of debt, BCL is currently owned 94 percent by government of Botswana and the rest (6 percent) held by Norilsk.
