August 27, 2007

Bangkok Post - The Thailand Management Association (TMA) and the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration of Chulalongkorn University (Sasin) recently hosted the sixth annual Thailand Corporate Excellence Awards on Aug 15. This year, the a...

1. Overall Corporate Excellence: Siam Cement Plc.
2. Financial Management Excellence: KasikornBank Plc and PTT Plc.
3. Commitment to Human Resource Management: Siam Cement Plc.
4. Commitment to Innovation: Siam Cement Plc.
5. Marketing Excellence: Total Access Communication Plc.
6. Commitment to Product Quality and Service Quality: Siam Cement Plc.
7. Commitment to Social and Environmental Issues: Siam Cement Plc.
8. Commitment to Energy Saving: PTT.
9. Visionary Leadership: PTT.

To celebrate six years of the Awards, we sought the wisdom of six great leaders. I joined Wanweera Rachdawong, the TMA's chief executive officer, for exclusive interviews with these inspiring people.

This year's Thailand Corporate Excellence Report includes a special section prepared by myself and Daranee Charoen-Rajapark, managing director of MarketWise, on the key insights from these six leaders. Today's column is the executive summary.

Anand Panyarachun: This legendary corporate, political and social leader describes the importance of corporate governance (CG) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) as the driving forces for corporate excellence. We learn why we need both practices and how the two are connected just ''like Siamese twins''. Anand encourages more networking and alliances to promote CG and CSR.

Apirak Kosayodhin: One of the founders of the Thailand Corporate Excellence Awards and now the governor of Bangkok, Khun Apirak reviews the background of the awards and looks into the event's future. As for companies hoping to make it into the rankings, he recommends they take a long-term view and have senior management who are committed to development. He also shares his leadership tips and how he copes with adversity and stays on track.

We also profile four leaders from four excellent companies:

Banthoon Lamsam of Kasikornbank talks about how clarity of thought and strategy, followed by clear and effective communication, are common traits of successful companies. He emphasises the critical role of innovation _ as well as plain old-fashioned luck.

Kan Trakulhoon of Siam Cement says that it all boils down to people. Value them, empower them, and success will follow. Innovation is also a key, not only to the success of Siam Cement but also to the country's development as well.

Pramon Sutivong focuses on people development and teamwork at Toyota. He does things the Toyota Way with Toyota Talent, which is so well echoed in the phrase ''we do not just build cars, we build people''.

Prasert Bunsumpun, the president of PTT, discusses the critical factors of learning and knowledge management, group synergy and human resources. We learn how at PTT the ''high-performance organisation'' concept drives the firm. We also see how important it is to stay alert in times of uncertainty and, above all, to continuously communicate with people to ensure they have the same goals and know how to achieve them.

In the interviews, these leaders openly share their views on corporate excellence and characteristics of successful firms. Interestingly, from these interviews, we can identify 12 best practices for achieving corporate excellence:

1. clarity of thought, strategy, communication and execution;
2. continued learning for all staff, including those at the top;
3. investing in the development of the organisation, its people, research and development, knowledge management and society;
4. having team players;
5. delivering on innovation;
6. building trust;
7. taking corporate social responsibility seriously;
8. practising good corporate governance;
9. visionary leadership;
10. adapting to change;
11. learning and leveraging from adversity;
12. lacking complacency about past or present success.

In the next six weeks, I will profile each of these six leaders, starting with Khun Anand Panyarachun.

Kriengsak Niratpattanasai provides executive coaching in leadership and diversity management under the brand TheCoach. He can be reached at coachkriengsak

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