Hi! Managers: Preparing for a 2010 recovery

The past five years have been relatively difficult ones for Thailand; every year has had its challenges. In order to be successful year after year, all businesses have had to adjust to become more efficient and more productive while remaining alert and prepared for the "unexpected". This year, which I think has been the most challenging year we have faced since 1997, I believe managers have had to do more than ever to support their businesses.

Although it is difficult to plan ahead when the present is so troubling, I believe managers need to be planning and preparing for 2010. Minor International, for example, is investing in assets and human capital while controlling costs and revisiting our long-term business plans.

As a developer, owner, investor and manager of hotels and resorts, we are renovating our properties so we will be ready for customers to return in large numbers in 2010. With hotel rooms unoccupied, we see the present as the perfect time to renovate them.

We are controlling costs and looking for increased efficiencies so we can maintain profitability. What we are able to do in 2009 will surely benefit us in 2010. We have encouraged staff that now have some time available to implement "process improvement programmes". We have accelerated the implementation of a global shared-services programme that allows various business units to share common administrative functions, such as information technology, accounting, human resources and payroll. We expect efficiencies and costs savings created in 2009 to be fully realised in 2010, with savings expected to be as high as 20 per cent of original costs.

We are continuing to invest in human capital. Despite the difficult times, we know that our best-performing employees continue to look for better opportunities at other companies. So we are focused on retaining our best people while hiring the additional talent we know we will need once conditions improve next year.

We have found benefits in re-assigning staff to new roles or pushing them to assume multiple roles. To our delight, we have found staff willing and eager to take on new career challenges. Ultimately, this has enhanced the capability of our staff.

Finally, with dramatic changes in global economic conditions, we have looked carefully at our long-term business plans and revised them to reflect the new realities. The assumptions we use to forecast growth are being updated, as are our expectations of returns on investment.

There is always a light at the end of the tunnel and we are drawn towards that light. In the darkness of 2009, we need to prepare for 2010, when there will be light.

Pratana Mongkolkul is group chief financial officer of Minor International. Follow her articles in Hi! Managers on the fourth Wednesday of each month.