Working hard and maintaining discipline are the key to the success of the young female chief executive officer at Standard Chartered Bank (Thai).

Mee Har Foo, 39, was appointed as SCBT's CEO in January 2006. This is her first top executive position at the global group since she joined the British-based bank 12 years ago. 

"I think the position came from my hard work and my discipline, which is my general working principle. There is no shortcut, no magic," Foo says. 

She thinks age or sex is not a factor when it comes to work but what counts is ability and expertise. In considering a candidate for a job, Foo says, picking a man or a woman is not important but what can this person do? And does he or she enjoy it? 

Before she was assigned to oversee the bank's business in Thailand, Foo was the country head for consumer banking at Standard Chartered Bank (China). She has also worked for the Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore and Malaysia and handled diverse assignments: offshore banking, international banking and human-resource management in the bank's core markets of Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Foo thinks Thailand is a resilient country that adjusted itself quite well after the financial crisis in 1997. She saw many changes in the Thai financial industry. Although the country faced large problems in 2004, including the tsunami disaster, and yet more risk factors this year with rising interest rates and oil prices, Thailand's economy still enjoys good prospects. SCBT forecasts that Thailand's gross domestic product growth rate will be 4 to 5 per cent this year.    

Supported by the country's strong economic fundamentals, Foo thinks Thailand's banking sector has changed and grown fast, improving services, branch networks and information-technology systems. Therefore, the banking business in Thailand has more opportunities to grow. 

After one year of working at SCBT, Foo noted that the bank has achieved its plans for both business operations and organisation development. Under the bank's slogan of "Leading the Way" and under its objective of "Be the Right Partner", she believes SCBT has met its goals.   

"The bank's one key partner is the customer," she says. "As finance is important for all people, we should make them trust in SCBT both in terms of business and organisation. Thus, the bank must understand the life cycle of each client to respond to his or her demands in the right way."      

With her experience in human-resource management, Foo pays core attention to the personal development of her staff. It is they who lead the company to all its achievements. 

She takes similar care of her customers. She always acts as if one day employees might become the bank's customers, while clients might become the bank's employees.

In paying attention mainly to people, Foo's working philosophy is also based on the concept of personal development.

"A good manager helps people achieve what they want to achieve, but a great manager helps people achieve what they never thought they could," she elaborates, adding that a boss should assist colleagues to succeed beyond their targets by realising their capability and assigning them suitable jobs.

Foo's current job is for a term of two years.

She came to her halfway mark at the end of 2006. The young lady CEO has learned many things by working at the Thailand branch - particularly about people.

 The Standard Chartered Bangkok Marathon 2006, for example, brought out 47,000 participants, the largest number in the Asia-Pacific region for the bank's global charity campaign.

 "Many of the bank's staff joined the run, arrayed in yellow [in allegiance to the King of Thailand]. This sight brought many to tears and made a huge impression on me," she says.  

Somruedi Banchongduang

The Nation