September 24, 2007

Bangkok Post - As part of the sixth Thailand Corporate Excellence Report for 2006 prepared by the Thailand Management Association (TMA), the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration of Chulalongkorn University and MarketWise Ltd, there was...

Q: What do you see as the key drivers for corporate excellence at Toyota Motor Thailand?

A: Toyota Motor around the world works under the same principles; we must have a high quality product, then we have to satisfy our customers, and we accomplish these two missions by focusing on personal development. The Toyota Production System or TPS is a famous platform that other companies have learned and adopted all over the world.

In Thailand, we emphasise corporate social responsibility. We established a foundation for this mission and have now been doing this for almost 30 years in Thailand. We do not treat this as a PR activity, but instead we value this as a real social contribution that benefits the community.

Q: You mentioned that people development is one of the drivers here. Could you elaborate further on this?

A: We do a lot of in-company and on-the-job training. We seldom use outside trainers or send our people for external training. Our training is not focused only on classroom training, instead we put learning into the work process and we want learning that can produce results. For example, we do a lot of continuous improvement programmes.

We emphasise that people need to have skills and knowledge to perform well in their work and also to come up with new ways to improve ongoing work performance. We believe that continuous improvement can be applied to both people and systems. It's an ongoing process and a philosophy here.

We use the mentoring system or poo-yai sorn dek (senior teaches junior) or pee sorn nong (big brother/sister teaching younger brother/sister). We learn and then we measure the results of learning on the job so the training is relevant. In sending our people for external training, there may not be as much relevance or connectivity.

Q: A friend of mine read Toyota Talent. He was amazed at how much training Toyota does. In Thailand, is the same approach adopted?

A: To be realistic, the results might not be exactly the same in every country because it depends on the people in each country. I see that Toyota's approach definitely works best in Japan because the Japanese are very committed and well-disciplined people.

With this approach, Thai people also do well. I saw in a survey in the Toyota network that Thai people are also recognised for their working standards. We have a great sense of responsibility, however, we might also have other aspects in terms of sanook (fun) and sabai (easy-goingness). So, I would say that the quality of Thai people is quite good; otherwise our product would not meet this global quality standard. When we have interns from South American countries they tease us, saying that they don't understand why the Thai staff work so hard or why Thai employees are so committed to the work.

On the other hand, we hear some Japanese say that Thai staff work hard, but at about 70 to 80% of the level of the Japanese. So it is funny to see how each nationality perceives each other.

Q: Could you elaborate more on the teamwork at Toyota Motor Thailand?

A: The Japanese are quite keen on working as a team because of their interdependent society. I notice this from how they live together in a small space with large population. So if you have to live together in harmony, then reliance on each other is crucial. This applies in life and work and so the value of the group is critical. It is built into the Japanese habit. They have to work together as a team.

For example, if we have 10 people on a team we always include all 10 members in any meeting. This may be slow and take longer for the meeting, however, it is quicker in terms of execution since most people then know what to do and also know what other people are doing.

On the other hand, in the Thai approach, we might invite only five members who are directly involved in the task. Then, we expect that those five people will communicate or share the information they know to others during the execution or that this information will filter down to others. But, in reality, we don't communicate well enough during the execution and so, instead of being productive, we might end up consuming more time.

We practise until it becomes habit. We have a room we can come to and brainstorm ideas. Everyday, in the morning, we have a morning brief to recap what happened yesterday and what the plan is for today. So it is a team effort.

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

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