Mission of confidence and added value

It is like a homecoming for Mana Lohatepanont. He was one of three people who helped the Hay Group establish its Bangkok office in 1995 and, apart from the past five or six years, has always been in the consulting industry.

The past five or six years he has spent as human-resources director at True, Thailand's only fully integrated telecommunications solutions provider - a company with annual revenue of more than Bt60 billion and a workforce of about 13,000.

"This is like a returning to an old house for me," Mana said. "I'm coming back to help rebuild the company, enhance customers' confidence in using its services and make it the No-1 consulting firm in organisational and human-resource development in our country."

Mana said the Hay Group had an advantage as an early mover, with a strong customer base and track record.

"The major issue is the consulting business depends a lot on the people. In the past, there have been ups and downs [in the business], along with the turnover of our consultants. So, [the issue] is how we can keep it [the turnover rate] more stable and not [moving] up and down like it has been in the past."

First, the company must create confidence in its customers, that it can serve them consistently. New technologies and innovations the company has developed are available to help maintain good services, but the copyright to some of the Hay Group's tools has been violated by other local companies, Mana said.

Second, the company's consultants, who have been trained and developed by the Hay Group, remain the firm's key element.

"Customers can count on us," he said. "They don't have to start over again when our consultants leave."

Mana said he had traced back 10-15 years and found that many consultants who had left the Hay Group to set up their own consulting firms were "making their living" from the intellectual property of their former employer.

"Now we're rather serious. If there are companies that have taken our tools to use, and are violating the Hay Group's copyright, then we might have to pursue legal action," he said.

The Hay Group has already sent out warning letters to more than five local companies which it found using its proprietary tools, he said.

"Some customers are not aware they are using our tools, offered to them by local consultants who have violated the copyrights laws."

He said in some cases, local consultants had applied the tools incorrectly and customers had developed a poor perception of the tools, which they might know were invented by the Hay Group.

Mana said consulting was a high-stress job, so to address the high staff-turnover problem, the company would aim to create good working conditions where people could work well together. It would assist its employees to improve their work-life balance, and would offer them coaching.

Under Mana's leadership, the Hay Group will also have an important mission to assist its clients by moving one step further than offering what he calls "commoditised" consulting solutions of the kind offered by many other consultants. It will move towards providing value-added services, he said.

"For instance, mapping out a salary structure is a service many local firms can now offer. Moving one step further than that is assisting firms to enhance the efficiencies of their human capital, or motivating employees to work better," he said.

Mana brings with him more than 20 years of consulting and line experience. He began his consulting career with the Hay Group at its Philadelphia, Pennsylvania headquarters before relocating back to Thailand to help set up the Hay Bangkok office in 1995. His last role there was director of operations and strategic client relations. Prior to joining True, he was managing director of another major consulting company.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics and a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and master's and doctoral degrees in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

pichaya@nationgroup.com