motor sports - Honda Malaysia

our newest dream
Passion • Quality • Challenge • The theme words for Honda Malaysia's Tech
Challenge 2009 – held on 15 August 2009 at its Training Centre, located in Honda
Malaysia's Pegoh assembly plant in Malacca – are also the three qualities that
every Honda associate need when providing the ultimate in customer satisfaction.
04
TECH CHALLENGE is a standing
testimony to Honda Malaysia’s
continued efforts to boost customers’
satisfaction levels and live up to Honda’s
core purpose.
Aimed at creating joys by motivation,
the Tech Challenge competition hopes
to deliver greater
enjoyment to the
customer (The Joy of
Buying) and fill Honda
associates with the
pride and readiness to
by Motivation
serve customers with
high-quality sales and after-sales
service (The Joy of Selling). Armed
with this pride and readiness, Honda
Malaysia associates will then be
motivated to improve their skills and
knowledge further (The Joy of Creating).
As the joy in anything can only
be achieved with teamwork, Tech
Challenge is designed to inculcate
quality professionalism through passion
and the spirit of challenge. Contestants
who reach the finals, come together to
pit their skills and knowledge against
each other, and do so according to
Honda Malaysia’s standard guidelines.
The challenge was introduced in
2006 and since then, many lessons
have been learnt from this competitive
event. It aimed to improve the skills and
knowledge of Honda dealers' service
technicians, and has developed year
after year to include more categories.
In 2006, Tech Challenge began
with only Technician/Foreman. But in
2007, the competition grew to include
Service Advisor and Parts Controller
category, followed by the introduction
of Body & Paint Repair Technician
category a year later.
This year however, new challenges
were added to complete the customers’
total ownership experience at all
authorised Honda dealers. Categories
for Sales Advisor and Customer
Relations Executive were introduced for
the first time, while the Parts Controller
category was expanded to encompass
inventory control as well.
The contests are held in stages. The
first stage, in-house selection, involves
the conducting of tests by dealership
service and sales managers before
contestants are chosen to qualify for
the regional challenge. Virtually all
categories of the competition adopt
this criteria with the exception of the
Customer Relations Executive and
Parts Controller categories, where
participants are nominated by
Service Managers.
From the initial stage of over 1600
dealers’ personnel, only a handful of 36
are shortlisted to represent their
regions, namely North, South, Central,
East Coast and East Malaysia to
compete in the Final Contest held on 15
August 2009 at the Honda Malaysia
Training Centre in Malacca.
In the true spirit of challenge, all
finalists gathered as early as 7.30am
on the day of the finals to register and
receive a briefing from the chief judges
for each category. Following a quick
introduction, Honda Malaysia Managing
Director and Chief Executive Officer Mr.
Toru Takahashi proceeded to launch the
event. The look of anticipation could be
seen on the faces of all finalists. Those
new to the challenge were extremely
nervous while those who had competed
before, were brimming with determination
and confidence.