News and Events

Enterprise Resource Planning for Executives. Empowered by Natural Business Excellence.
BANGKOK — MARCH - APRIL, 2007
Robert van Geyn was a proud guest lecturer to the Executive-MBA class at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT). During a four-day lecture an executive overview of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) was given.
Through the application of Natural Business Excellence the lecture was very interactive. In a pleasant and structured manner Business Management, Quality Management, Business Organization, Business Strategy, the Value Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and the implementation of ERP were discussed and clarified. Ultimately the students got a good understanding of what ERP is all about and how it should be adopted by organizations. The lecture was highly appreciated by the students.

Align sponsors Hash Run in celebration of Dutch Queen's birthday
BANGKOK — APRIL 30, 2007
With a long history going back to an old English schoolboy game of “Hares and Hounds” which became an adult sport in the fall of 1867 with a group of London oarsman who wanted to keep fit during the winter, the Hash House Harriers (HHH) as we know it today was founded in Malaysia around 1938. Fellow expatriate businessmen formed a harrier group and would always meet in the Selangor Club in Kuala Lumpur.
In 1962 the HHH started to spread out in Asia. In 1982 Bangkok started to have its Harriers club on Monday. To date the Monday Hash House Harriers, known as BMH3, have run over 1000 runs, all in the surroundings of Bangkok. During each run sights and scenes are experienced that are not easily discovered otherwise. After each Hash Run the participants socialize, sharing the joy of the run. The Monday Hash House Harriers form a very informal fun group. It has over 475 members by now. Everybody is welcome to join. Please contact Christi Holleman if you are interested to join or would like further information.
The Hash Run on April 30th was in celebration of the Dutch Queen's birthday. Align proudly sponsored the run.

The next wave of Process Improvement. Natural Business Excellence, a beyond Six Sigma step
MANILA — APRIL 24, 2007
Align was a proud guest speaker on the 2nd Annual Manufacturing & Operational Excellence conference at the Edsa-Shangri-la, Manila, Philippines, organized by Marcus Evans, one of the world's leading producers of global summits, strategic business conferences, congresses and corporate marketing events.
After introducing the four ways of organizing a company (Organization, Process, Content, Infrastructure) and the positioning of Six Sigma within these four ways, Natural Business Excellence was introduced as an advanced quality management system that places "Process" central and the natural involvement of "People" within it.
During the following 1,5 hour talk an overview of Natural Business Excellence clarified to the attendees how Relationship Management, Process Management, Quality Management, Change Management and Knowledge Management can be all integrated, resulting in a common company-wide standardized communication in which people optimally work together (cooperate) and respectively work on business activities that naturally belong to them (coordination). Furthermore, it was clarified how a learning organization is subsequently created.
Align's talk was highly appreciated by the attendees. It was rated among the top 3 of the two-day conference.

Foremost Thailand Fully Aligned
BANGKOK — JANUARY 8, 2007
On January 8, 2007 Ian Gearing, Managing Director Friesland Foods Foremost Thailand announced “We are pleased to announce the successful go-live of the SAP model by FFFT. Our main consultant Align reports that this has been the most successful implementation they have ever experienced”. Robert van Geyn of Align commented “right from the start with the decision to put the best people on the task and the enthusiasm to succeed we had a strong feeling of success”. This all pays testament to the process, and to the commitment and dedication of all involved, including the directors, process owners, managers, chairs, key users and users, and of course Align and other consultants who have worked together as one cohesive team to attain this goal.”.

Friesland Foods Hong Kong successfully live in 99 days
HONG KONG — OCTOBER 6, 2006
As part of a regional ERP implementation project on September 1st, 2006 Friesland Foods Hong Kong (FFHK) went live on time, within budget and to the full satisfaction of the organization. This was confirmed through a successful September month-end closing. Besides sharing his pride and satisfaction, Frank van Amelsvoort, Managing Director FFHK, stated that “I was very impressed with the methodology that was used for the project. At any moment in time I was informed on status and progress, and was aware of critical issues as well as areas that required additional management attention. More importantly, it gave the team a feeling that things were running well and were under control. From the very start it made clear what the direction was and what needed to be done. It was also helpful in creating one team among FFHK staff and the consultant. My compliments !” . On Align, Kevin Yu, Change Manager, stated that “From the first day we started our project, we have learned from you the quality control methodologies and the way to tackle problems. It was indeed a great experience for the whole team to work with you.” Friesland Foods Hong Kong (FFHK), Foremost Thailand (FT), Dutch Lady Vietnam (DLV), Frisian Flag Indonesia (FFI), Dutch Lady Malaysia (DLMI) and Friesland Foods Singapore (FFS) are the regional Operating Companies/Subsidiaries of Friesland Foods.

Align delivers Natural Business Excellence P10 training in Thai
BANGKOK — SEPTEMBER 8, 2006
Align delivered its first Thai P10 training. As part of Align's local business strategy an extensive internal training programme was executed during the previous months. As one of the outcomes Chaiyakrit Dhebhasit (Nok) gave Align's first P10 training in Thai on September 8, 2006. The training was given to the staff of Align's strategic partner Recreational Bangkok Biking (RBB). RBB places high importance on quality and accordingly invests in its people. The theme during P10 training was "the quality of RBB's Colours of Bangkok Tour"; all RBB staff learned how to structurally think of and communicate about quality in the same terminology.

Align's "Natural Business Excellence" formally recognized
BANGKOK — JUNE 7, 2006
On June 7th, 2006 during the 8th Annual Business Award Presentation, Align was presented an Award related to its overall achievements so far. For the Business Award Presentation the NTCC (Netherlands Thai Chamber of Commerce) and Beluthai (Belgian Thai Chamber of Commerce) teamed up to turn the prestigious event into a true Benelux Award Ceremony. Criteria for the Business Award included Innovation, Customer Satisfaction, Service Quality, Corporate Social Responsibility and HR development. On the picture Pieter J. Th. Marres, Dutch Ambassador to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, presents the Award to Robert van Geyn, Align's Founding Partner.

Natural Business Excellence presentation to YEO Singapore
SINGAPORE — JUNE 5, 2006
On June 5, 2006 Align delivered a Natural Business Excellence presentation to YEO Singapore. The presentation was internally YEO summarized as follows: EO Workshop - Natural Business Excellence with Robert van Geyn. Visiting guest speaker, Robert van Geyn, delivered an interactive presentation of his process - content theory of human personality classification within the context of working teams, personnel management, and company excellence. Robert also touched briefly on such subjects as project process management and LTR, and participants were given the opportunity to share their thoughts on the lively discussions that ensued.

Align delivers LTR & Natural Business Excellence Talks to Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) Dubai and Bahrain
DUBAI, BAHREIN — MAY 5, 2006
In April and May 2006 Align held talks on LTR and Natural Business Excellence in Dubai and Bahrain. The talks focused on Personal Awareness and Development, and Team and Organizational Effectiveness and Efficiency. Feedback on the talks included "I liked the different outlook to run a business using the natural human being aspects - different to all usual tools", "The event is an eye opener to a very basic ABC in communication. It also did help answer in my professional life" and "Interesting speaker - very good learning experience".

Align delivers LTR and Natural Business Excellence lecture to Multimedia University in Cyberjaya, Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR — APRIL 21, 2006
In April 2006 Align held a lecture on LTR and Natural Business Excellence to students and staff of the Multimedia University in Cyberjaya, Malaysia. The talks focused on Personal Awareness and Development to prepare the students for the Corporate World. Feedback on the lecture included “The principles of LTR, process and content brought out by Mr Robert are very relevant to all of us as human being.  These principles are related to natural processes faced by human beings and more importantly, he highlighted the LTR philosophy. These are the basic rules or ground that all human should embrace. With the modernization of our society and world, we need LTR as the foundation to build up our values and ingredients for ourselves. LTR is even more important for educational institution like MMU as we train human being to be more responsible and to be natural. Therefore, I strongly recommend this kind of talk to the students and staff. ” The success of the lecture is stressed by the fact that a next lecture has been scheduled for end 2006.

Align delivers an excellent LTR & Natural Business Excellence workshop to Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO)
KUALA LUMPUR — MARCH 20, 2006
During the month of March 2006 Align delivered an excellent four-day integrated LTR & Natural Business Excellence workshop to Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO). The agenda of the programme was (1) Interviews, (2) LTR, (3) Quality and (4) Management. The workshop was completed with a formal certification and evaluation. The overall evaluation score of the programme was 9.3 on a scale of 10. Nirmala Raj, Director Asia Pacific summarized it as “I've now gotten a complete new way to think and operate my team and I will now be operating at a higher level of efficiency”.

Align Sponsors MBA Programme University of the Philippines
MANILA — MARCH 10, 2006
In Align's continuous effort to encourage the pursuit of education, Align sponsored the 2006 MBA Programme of the University of the Philippines. In Robert van Geyn's view "LTR and education are the combined ways to a better individual future, and that of mankind".

Launch of Natural Business Excellence
BANGKOK — NOVEMBER 4, 2005
On November 4, 2005, Align celebrated its launch of Natural Business Excellence. Among the visitors were (from left to right) Bert Cesar, Executive Director of the Netherlands Thai Chamber of Commerce (NTCC), Robert van Geyn, Founding Partner Align Group, Pieter J. Th. Marres, Dutch Ambassador to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, Dr. Boonsong Srifuengfung, President Thai-Chinese Chamber of Commerce (TCCC), Chaiyakrit Dhebhasit, General Manager Align Thailand and Andre Breuer, Managing Director Recreational Bangkok Biking.

Align signs Strategic Partnership Agreement with RBB
BANGKOK — NOVEMBER 4, 2005
Robert van Geyn and Andre Breuer seal Align's and Recreational Bangkok Biking's strategic partnership. Ever since the signing Align and RBB have intensely worked together and to date continue to do so.