Q&A with Mr Daniel Whippy on the reasons for the surge in FBCL profit
May 16, 2008, 11:20

By Waqa Varea
Department of Public Enteprirses


FBCL achieved a significant net profit before tax of $80,000 in this year’s first quarter which equates to its total annual profit some years back. Company Chairman, Daniel Whippy speaks to Waqa Varea, Information Officer of Department of Public Enterprises on the reasons for the surge in these profits and its plans for the long term.


How much did you make profit for the first quarter this year?

Fiji Broadcasting Corporation generated about $80,000 in the first quarter of this year.

What can you attribute this to?

It was due to leadership changes. The new CEO, Mr Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has brought in a number of news ideas and all of them have developed into strong money making opportunities and also a new management culture which has created a lot of synergies. The team at FBCL accepted these changes resulting to increases in productivity, efficiency and profits.

Can you explain some of these new ideas?

Well, there were certainly more sponsored programmes and activities from various companies and customers. He has introduced a new corporate culture , created a new organisational structure to support the direction the company will operate going forward and where people have resigned ensured that their replacement had the capacity to achieve the objective of their roles. These things have certainly brought in positive results..

I believe the Company experienced high staff turnover for the first month which was quite high for any time. What have you done to replace staff who’ve left?

We advertised the positions and the feedback received has been overwhelming. The new recruits have slotted in quite well, brought in new ideas and their experience in the commercial world provides a stronger foundation about why we need to be profitable. We recently employed a News Director who has brought changes into the newsroom. Previously, news wasn’t being delivered on time, instead of 5 o’clock, it was delivered five minutes past five. And this was happening frequently. There was lack of management, discipline and accountability in the news room, and just poor management.

But, the CEO I understand is very strict. And his new ideas are bringing in new sales. For the first three months, we achieved a net profit before tax of $80,000 which equates to our total annual profit some years back. This is certainly an exceptional performance and the Board is very pleased.

Are you saying this in order to justify his new appointment?

Absolutely, not!!! I am every commercial as I also manage a large commercial company and fully aware of the changes one has to develop in order to be profitable. The Board is fully aware also of the things the CEO has to undertake and we certainly will not hide things to improve his image. No way, was the Board going to create something which is untrue. I mean, we have been very conservative in declaring those profits. In fact, we tuned it down a bit. April’s sales alone looks very good as they achived budget.

In order to achieve budgeted profits, it has to start from the top. The main person driving the company ,that is the CEO, has to be clear what the company wants to achieve, how its going to achieve it and when. He then has to basically drive everyone to that point to achieve the Company’s goal. And in Riyaz's case he reviewed the market, assessed our shortfalls, met with staff, customers , the Board and formulated a plan . He then put those plans into action and the results have been very positive. These achievements are a team result and it signifies many good things like acceptance, credibility, intelligence, creativity, productivity, accountability etc.

What are some of the long term plans for FBCL, are you still going into television like Australia’s ABC.

Our Company is in a stronger position to deliver efficiently a television service than other recent recipients because of two points. Firstly we have in place the human resource structure such as engineering, accounting, newsroom, management, accounting, credit control, sales and marketing etc. We believe that the bulk of the human resource requirement for a TV station can be adequately covered from existing resources . But where FBCL may lack should be out sourced or recruited. Secondly we have a substantial amount of transmitter sites and communications equipment and the shortfall to these can be supported through the acquisition of the Government's Fiji Television Unit and other means. So we certainly are in a strong position to operate a successful TV station and the synergies are going to be awesome. Introducing employment incentive programmes, training and development schemes and employee recognition for excellence plays a vital role in our long term plans and these are being driven at CEO and Board level.

Because of intense competition with other radio stations, did that profit come about with the new FM station that is now growing very popular?

There was a wide range of ideas that have created this surge in profit. They’ve certainly changed the music mix of the radio gold station, introduced new changes to programmes and music mix to other stations as well. So, there was a whole host of changes for eg the text competition of win a brand new Chery QQ vehicle is certainly achieving its goal. The CEO is also cautious about events management and understands the ramifications of poorly planned events. Of course there are some things one cannot plan such as the catastrophe in Dec 2006 when Bob Marley and the Whalers commenced their Fiji tour on the day of the coup. We lost a bit of money there which sort of smothered our December trading which is our key month of the entire finacncial year.

What have you done with the old equipments in order to be on par with other radio stations?

The goal is to increase branding of the stations, provide new music mix and create a wider listenership. To achieve this we must improve our broadcast signal and obviously this means investing in new equipment, and continuously upgrading. This is a continuous programme if we want to be competitive and profitable. In recent years we lost a bit of money due to outdated equipment and we have invested at least $2.5m over the past 4 years. .

How much are you going to invest on new equipments?

The Company has an allocated budget to purchase new gear and equipment and it will only be funded from within the company. There will not be any new borrowings. The Board is restricting it to profit and positive cash flow generation. So basically the company has to generate a positive cash flow every year. This year the company plans to purchase new links and upgrade transmitter sites for about $300k to $400k.


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