วันอังคารที่ 9 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2552

THE OFFICE IS WHERE THE HEART IS

A Workplace with a difference

Published on June 10, 2009

SCT's bold departure from office tradition

Within the renovated Green Elephant Building inside the Siam Cement Group (SCG) compound there is a company headquarters where workers are truly treated as if they were at home. There are sofas, refrigerators and liquid-crystal-display television sets and Mama instant noodles or ice cream are ready to be served to staff. There is also a lounge for employees and their guests, with comfortable seating, a piano, a Boss home-theatre system - even a wine cellar.

The office with all the comforts of home houses the headquarters of SCT, the international trading arm of one of Thailand's biggest industrial conglomerates, SCG.

"Recently, there was a petition letter sent from SCG staff to the group's top executive, complaining about the difficulty of being recruited to work here," said SCT managing director Kalin Sarasin.

Kalin, who personally interviews every candidate, is clearly proud that his company has achieved its objective of becoming the "most desirable organisation for which to work".

SCT aims to become Asia's leading global trading company in the core areas of energy, recycling, construction materials and industrial supplies. In line with the SCG group's policy, SCT has geared itself to be an innovative workplace. The office has been redesigned to allow flexible seating and mobile working. Except for the top six executives, who have private offices, managers sit alongside their staff.

Phisanu Milintanush, SCT's manager for building and home products, said the company earlier had problems coping with growing staff numbers. However, the new mobile office design, which eliminates fixed seating, has allowed it to absorb more staff, thanks to the fact that most of them are sales people who work outside office and overseas.

At present, SCT employs about 500 people. About 150 of these are stationed overseas.

It is the only SCG subsidiary at which staff interviews are conducted in English.

More than half of SCT's staff are employees who have joined the firm in the past five years. Kalin said the company's move towards "a new innovative culture" had led some old workers to quit, because they "did not fit in" with the new set-up. The average age of SCT's employees is now 28.

The company has initiated many programmes to encourage innovation, including an idea committee, which is tasked with hearing new ideas and suggestions from the staff. Kalin is chairman of the committee and other members include staff from different ages and levels. There is also an "idea corner", a "show and share" forum, and what is called "the potato club" - a venue for young workers to conduct activities that they enjoy, such as painting, learning cooking and even a weight reduction contest.

"The objective is to create a work atmosphere which has friendship and is informal - and not simply a place where you come to earn a living. We're not keen on studious types," Kalin said.

He said SCT's goal was to introduce new business over the next five years that would successfully lift the volume of its existing business by at least 20 per cent. It is geared towards more value-added products and services.

"[When] there are new things coming up in the world, we want to be the first to implement them," Kalin said, speaking of SCT's aspirations.

The recent renovation of the Green Elephant Building has proven to be a showcase for these ambitions. At the same time as it implemented its mobile-office design, SCT overhauled and revamped the 34-year-old building to make it highly energy-efficient. It has become one of only two buildings in Thailand accorded the Energy Ministry's Gold Label award.

Building and home-products manager Phisanu said SCT was now considering offering its services as an energy-efficiency consultant.

SCT has an annual sales turnover between Bt60 billion and Bt70 billion. Of this, about 35 per cent comes from serving SCG. The rest comes from "outside" clients. This is a sharp contrast from 2001, when 80-90 per cent of SCT's turnover came from clients within the parent group.

SCT's products fall into 15 categories: construction materials, home improvement products, energy products, plastics and chemicals, aluminium, machinery and minerals, agribusiness, waste paper, steel scrap, paper and pulp, non-ferrous and plastic scrap and food and beverages.

pichaya@nationgroup.com

วันศุกร์ที่ 5 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2552

Lesson No 1: consumer is king

Published on May 25, 2009

Medhee Jarumaneeroj, a renowned marketer with consumer-product giant Procter & Gamble, offers some insights into how to ensure marketing activities succeed in an economic downturn. Pichaya Changsorn reports.

Speaking at the Good Morning Guru event held by the Thailand Management Association last week, Medhee Jarumaneeroj, senior marketing/corporate communications manager of Procter & Gamble Trading (Thailand), spoke of the many illusions created by marketing. One is the equating of business success with market share. Marketers rarely fail to meet their annual market-share targets, he said, as this goal can be achieved through giveaways, big promotion launches and many other tactics used to boost sales figures. Knowing this, it is important to re-evaluate your business goal: Are you giving more importance to market share than to your company's profitability?

Take the case of P&G. The consumer-goods giant has more than 300 brands, but only 23 or 24 generate sales of more than US$1 billion (Bt34.5 billion). Many of its brands do not perform very well. This is a familiar situation for many businesses. Often, management will push to expand sales of every product without evaluating whether the promotion costs are worthwhile.

"You must first find the 'big rock' of your businesses…the one that, when you throw it into the water, creates a strong ripple effect," he said.

In the case of P&G, the company's "big rock" is beauty products, and it has reduced the importance it once gave to the paper business, for which it foresees slower growth.

Medhee said the growth strategy laid out by P&G chief executive AG Lafley focuses on core businesses, big markets (which means finding big markets for each brand and avoiding small markets), and top customers (such as major retailers, which can provide support and cooperation).

Choosing the right brands and markets can help companies grow faster, even in a downturn. Although the Thai economy is expected to shrink in the first quarter, sales of P&G's moisturiser products here increased by 6 per cent during the first three months of the year, Medhee said.

Worldwide, the growth strategy of focusing on leading brands and beauty-care products helped P&G grow by more than 60 per cent from US$51 billion (Bt1.7 trillion) in 2004 to $83 billion last year.

Often, managers think they are devising business strategies when in fact they are adopting "tactics", to which they become beholden, limiting their options.

"In this game, we have to make choices. Strategy is derived from the choices we make as to where we will play - and [this determines] how we will win," he said.

"But what often happens with management in Thailand is that they can't choose, or sometimes they think they are making a choice [when in fact they're not]."

focus on consumer

A purpose-driven and customer-centric culture is also very important, Medhee said. Everyone in the organisation - not only the marketing staff - must be clear on what he or she is doing, and must always remember that the consumer is the boss. P&G Thailand's decision to overhaul its pricing and packaging sizes to bring them more in line with consumers' preferences, Medhee said, was a result of the realisation by people in its manufacturing and financial departments that the customers were their true bosses.

Another case study demonstrating the truth of the "consumer is boss" maxim is P&G's 2005 purchase of Colgate-Palmolive's detergent business, bringing with it the Fab and Pek brands. Poor marketing had seen the market share of Fab, which once commanded a dominant place in the local detergent market, fall from 24 per cent to only 4 per cent in a 10-year period. Pek's share was only 0.6 per cent.

To rejuvenate the Fab brand, Medhee went all over the country, talking to consumers and observing how they washed their clothes.

"Ninety-nine per cent said they used Fab, but in fact everyone was using competitors' products. I asked why they didn't use Fab. [We found that] Thais did not seek [solely] the basic benefit of a detergent, which is to whiten the clothes; they looked for both whitening and a clean-smelling odour. The odour in Fab didn't last long," he said.

During the trip, Medhee had also found that northeastern Thais would store their clothes in a wardrobe with flowers such as jasmine or white jampaka. Taking this as a consumer insight, P&G developed a new Fab with a jasmine scent.

Thanks to this customer-centric approach, P&G quickly boosted Fab's market share to about 5 or 6 per cent, he said.

Under the current economic circumstances, marketers should always remind themselves that they are doing their marketing on the basis of consumers' needs, not because they want to take "revenge" on their competitors, he said.

"If we throw ourselves into head-to-head competition all the time, we as marketers are forgetting our roots," he said. In this regard, Medhee gives credit to P&G's competitor Unilever, which he said was also focused on consumers, which helped to expand market share, instead of engaging in eye-for-an eye competition that neither party can win. An example is the anti-dandruff shampoo market, in which Unilever, instead of launching a copycat product to compete with P&G's Head & Shoulders, "thought outside the box" and introduced Clinic Clear, which users found prevented dandruff in the same way as Head & Shoulders, but also had beauty-enhancement features.

Eno's case study

Medhee said marketers should know how to "create an 'opportunity to boost scale'." A case in point is Eno, which has long been known as an antacid and reliever of bloating. But consumers found it much easier to take tablets than to take Eno, which requires mixing with water. Thus in Singapore and Malaysia, Eno has been rebranded for use as a heat reliever, a product that has no competitor.

Innovation is another very important ingredient in a business' ability to escape economic volatility. Innovation is at the heart of P&G's business model, a primary tool for pleasing consumers, creating new business and to sustain existing business objectives. Medhee said he used to believe that innovation was only concerned with products, but a global conference call with chief executive Lafley changed his mind. Now, he says, he is fully aware that innovation must be adopted in every part of a business. And companies that can change their games fast, taking consumers as their core, will benefit, he said.

'Open up' culture

Marketing is not a pure science. There is not always a correct answer. Sometimes, a marketing idea is initiated by a gut feeling or from talking with consumers. Hence, it is crucial that firms create a culture of "openness" within the organisation. P&G designed a free-form office in which everyone, including the president, sits in the same room where they can see and hear each other.

Among the first things Lafley did when he assumed his leadership position at P&G in 2000 was to order every manager to go out to visit stores and talk with consumers. As related by Medhee, Lafley said the reason P&G had lost its status prior to 2000 was that, "We were out of touch with the consumers." Thus, P&G has encouraged openness, Medhee said, realising that conducting "focus-group" research does not ensure firms receive correct information, especially in Thailand where "krengjai" - often defined as "deference" - is a dominant culture.

"We also conduct home visits, or 'shop-alongs', following consumers while they're shopping, going with them as they push their carts, looking to see why they turn this way, not the other way; what they see, what they don't see," Medhee said.

"I even went into their bathrooms to see which shampoos they use. Now I know that some of the shampoos are not even used - they just keep them around because they like the packaging."

Another reason for P&G's decline prior to 2000, he said, was its neglect of organic growth.

"Any business that forgets its basic foundation - what led to its success in the first place - and focuses only on creating flashy new things [will fail]. It's important to get back to building sustainability in core businesses before going on to build incremental businesses."

A case in point is the One Tambon One Product scheme, when villagers followed a fad of producing sato (rice wine) and ceased to produce their villages' traditional fabrics and other products based on the heritage bequeathed to them by their ancestors, Medhee said.

pichaya@nationgroup.com
Source:http://www.nationmultimedia.com/worldhotnews/30103532/Lesson-No-1:-consumer-is-king

Focusing on one product doesn't always work

Published on June 5, 2009

Thai entrepreneur says flexibility and self-awareness the keys

Her grandmother was master chef in the mansion of one of His Majesty King Rama V's granddaughters, and her mother was raised in the palace, so Chatchanit Musigchai Mahaguna believes she had an edge over many other people when she started her entrepreneurial life in the food and catering businesses more than a decade ago.

Nevertheless, she has also stuck with one golden rule: never put all of your eggs in one basket.

So don't be surprised if you check out her website, www.thaigoods.com/annie's, and find her businesses range from catering and restaurants to delivery, flowers and decor, making custard, teaching, training, planning parties, organising events and hosting the "Love Language and Love Talk" radio programmes.

Not listed on the website is her real-estate business, which has now been operating for three or four years. In addition, Chatchanit is courting sponsors for a new television show she plans to host with her half-sister Netpreeya Musigchai Chumchaiyo, who is better known as English teacher Khru Kate, and Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration lecturer Kritika Kongsompong.

Chatchanit, who has taught business people and entrepreneurs at Mahidol University and the Commerce Ministry's Department of Export Promotion, among many other places, said while the "focus" strategy was widely favoured as a correct approach to conducting business, it might not be appropriate in the present economic conditions.

"In this downturn, you cannot stick to old strategies. If, for instance, you focus on only one thing, if it goes down because of economic fluctuations you have lost everything," she said.

Chatchanit, who is better known as Ann or Annie to her friends and customers, agrees companies and entrepreneurs should discover what they do best and about which they are passionate. But they should also be flexible enough to adjust themselves to new businesses when circumstances change.

"Actually, you should focus, or concentrate. If you have a factory, you choose which products you will manufacture. If, for example, you settle on swine, will your products be fresh, canned, or processed? At the same time, you can look at diversification - like CP [Charoen Pokphand Foods], which diversified into 7-Eleven convenience stores, through which they could sell their pork."

Besides having passion, Chatchanit said successful entrepreneurs should opt for "knowledge-based" businesses, relying on their knowledge of a particular businesses or profession, rather than following other people or fads in the market.

"In my case, my mom owns the recipes, and I have the knowledge in marketing and foods," she said.

When a person decides to launch a business, having sufficient capital is also very important in case things don't work out and there's a need to get back on their feet.

Chatchanit also believes everyone should nurture a capacity to be "self-aware", so they can periodically perform honest "reality checks" on where they are and what they have achieved, in both business and in life.

Offering her own case, she said she was bored with being spoiled at home, so she dropped out of school to become a flight attendant with Cathay Pacific when she was only 19.

"It was a lot of money at that age," she said. "But I had 'self-awareness' and realised it would not be good to hold onto that job for too long, so I quit and flew to study in Los Angeles, forgoing all income.

"It's important for a business person or entrepreneur to have self-awareness and to be self-motivated," she said.

After finishing bachelor's and master's degrees in international business in the United States, Chatchanit worked for a law office there for more than a year before moving back to Thailand to work for CP Intertrade.

She quit CP to teach at a university for four months until her old boss called and she returned to CP, but this time in its office in Washington. After spending more than two years there, Chatchanit said she became aware she was approaching 30 and that it was time for her to resume an entrepreneurial life, which she enjoyed more than being an employee. That marked the creation of her now-famous Annie's logo and the beginning of her gourmet caramel-custard delivery, as well as other businesses, both related and related.

She runs her businesses with "maximum decentralisation" and an extreme delegation of responsibility to her staff. Along the way, she has learnt some harsh lessons from her Annie's catering and delivery businesses, which have suffered from severe competition.

Normally, Chatchanit spends half of each Monday with Annie's delivery and catering, Tuesdays are for preparing and delivering lectures at Mahidol University and the remaining weekdays are taken up with training and other non-routine jobs - except for a few hours on Thursdays for her live radio programme.

At weekends, Chatchanit enjoys going upcountry with her husband Sitthichai Mahaguna, a senior executive at CIMB Thai Bank, to visit her properties and to look for new land with which to expand the holdings of her company M&M Property. The company now owns nearly 100 rai of land.

Her first resort project - at Wang Kata, near Khao Yai National Park - will be finished around the end of the year.

Chatchanit admits to at least one unfulfilled ambition: to have her own family.

pichaya@nationgroup.com
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/06/05/business/business_30104430.php

Southwest Airlines

"A company is stronger if it is bound by love rather than by fear."
-Herb Kelleher, Co-Founder of Southwest Airlines