Cooperative matches strong growth with broader, more focused training
ACDI Multipurpose Cooperative (ACDI), an organization that offers a host of financial services and diversified assistance programs to members of the Philippine Air Force and their families, is now riding the cusp of a brand new era.
Formed in 1981 with a capital of just P200,000 that was pooled from the combined resources of a few young PAF officer pilots, ACDI has since metamorphosed into one of the fastest–growing cooperatives in the country with total assets amounting to more than P12 billion. From the initial twenty six ‘ cooperators,’ its membership has since leaped to 93,000 — with its network of 28 branches and 80,000 offices continuously growing at an astonishing pace.
To sustain this growth, ACDI board chairman and Ret. Major General Gilbert S. Llanto recently inked an agreement with Learning and Performance Partners Inc. (LPPI) for the provision of a customized type of training for its personnel. Led by Armi Treñas, a learning and development professional, LPPI has since gained a reputation for delivering customized training programs for different industries, offering a more strategic approach to learning by working closely with top management to understand the competencies needed at various levels of the organization. She then designs programs that will develop these through structured and creative approaches, individual and team settings, as well as classroom and non-classroom settings.
Armi’s firm has been conducting development programs for ACDI’s managers since 2013 and will, in fact, begin training the coop’s chief executives at its new building located at Bayani Road in Taguig City this coming August. ”For the upcoming training with LPPI by the third quarter of this year, our senior executives will be given the Top Management Program curriculum. They will all go through that,” beams Llanto.
Benefits of customized training
Prior to the creation of this year’s training program for senior executives of ACDI, LPPI has been providing Supervisory Training Courses for supervisors, Basic Management Program (BMP) for managers and Management Development Programs (MDP) for mid-level managers. The BMP is conducted every January and has, as participants, 20 executives from the coop and five executives from ACDI subsidiaries.
The LPPI training teaches flexibility so ACDI managers can easily adapt to various initiatives of the coop. The training lasts for four months and the trainees are made to tackle a variety of learning methods including case studies. The trainees, who are mostly women and working students, are then required to conduct research and do workplace application in the next three weeks. After their training, they are eventually deployed to ACDI offices either as branch managers, assistant branch managers or as assistant department managers.
By the end of this year, Llanto adds that they will also be asking LPPI to provide BMP bundled with investment management training for an additional batch of ACDI managers. The ladderized LPPI training of BMP, MDP and TMP use real world approaches but they have been designed specifically for the cooperative.
Llanto adds that the personal attention and collaborative effort put in by Armi and her team is one of the main reasons why they have decided to partner with LPPI. The programs have also been providing favorable results since they’ve been carefully crafted to suit the coop’s needs.
“With Armi facilitating the training half of the time, I am confident that it will be the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) discipline that will be inculcated and imbued in our budding managers,” says Llanto, in a way exuding full confidence at Armi’s capability to train his people. He should know. Llanto is also a graduate of the AIM like Armi, who taught at the AIM’s Center for Lifelong Learning.
A transformation
As the cooperative continues to grow, Llanto believes that the training provided by LPPI remains relevant and necessary. “It has really proven to be very helpful to ACDI’s cooperative stores and the newly-launched health maintenance service to members,” he says.
In the early days, not every ACDI manager went through formal management training. A branch accountant is usually just upgraded or promoted to a new extension office. ACDI also just sends its managers to take managerial courses in a well-known university. “But the general managerial course being offered there is not really geared towards our finance-based and quasi-banking operations,” lamented Llanto.
ACDI pools members’ savings and loans the money to them at low interest rates. The members are made up of officers and soldiers from the Philippine Navy, the Philippine Air Force and the Philippine Army. Civilian employees of the cooperative and its subsidiaries, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) pensioners and their dependents are also included as members.
The cooperative generates about 50 percent of its capital from members, who invest their money in time deposits. The capital is then invested in agriculture like vegetable and poultry production. ACDI also operates an aviation school and a convenience store that sells products to members at lower prices. The coop also leases out residential condominium units and offers insurance service to members.
“If before they were just working in an extension office or branch as a teller, savings clerk or loans officer, they sometimes don’t get the total picture,” Llanto says. The course and modules that LPPI will provide shall help them better understand how the coop makes money, and where the money goes. “This way, they would be better prepared to fulfill their tasks when the time comes that they become promoted to managerial or for whatever other positions that may become open in our branches and departments.”
“LPPI’s job is to build the confidence of our people, for them to appreciate and help execute the management’s plans as dictated by the board of directors. We will forever be indebted to Armi for the very good training and the very professional manner with which she has been conducting the programs for us,” Llanto ends with a smile.