Front Right: Ahmad Suhaimi Anuar (CEO/PESB), Hisham Othman (CEO/EON), Dato Sri Syed Zainal Abidin (GMD/PROTON), Armin Baniaz Pahamin (President/PEDA), Abdul Rashid Musa (DRB-Hicom/PROTON) |
If there was one community that was close enough to be called a family, then it must be the Proton Edar community!! When I was first born into the community via my appointment as a dealer in 1997, Proton Edar had less than 200 staff and the dealers operation department was only a two-man show managing 86 showroom and less than 100 service centres in the network. We were the number 1 biggest manufacturer and Perodua was second. Now.. Proton Edar employs more than 2,000 manpower with approximately more than 220 showroom and more than 200 service centres nationwide. The total direct employment in PROTON exceeded 12,000 employees and combined with DRB-Hicom's total workforce of 55,000 people, there are now 67,000 employment in DRB-Hicom eco-system.
Forget the 67,000 people, Proton Edar family has grown so big, that I even felt a stranger whenever I entered the Centre of Excellence complex in Subang Jaya. Once, I used to be able to walk into the building and recognise by name every single employee including the tea lady. The Proton Sales and Service Convention was one avenue that is important to foster the spirit of camaraderie within the community. As in every other years, all sales & service branches and dealers, those in regional offices nationwide as well as those attached at the Head Office were all united at the Glenmarie Ballroon, Holiday Inn, Kuala Lumpur. Click HERE for the first Blog on the Convention, this second blog is mostly picturesque blog. Again, thank you Noor Affendi Mohd Karim for the pictures (Click on picture to enlarge).