Mobility key in SCG's drive for leadership

Siam Cement Group has been equipping its employees with "mobility profiles" as it prepares them to support SCG businesses in the group's drive to become an Asean sustainable business leader by 2015.

"The six mobility profiles are cross-cultural management and communication, managerial skills, adaptability, networking and interpersonal skills, international business, and change management," corporate human resources director Kiti Madiloggovit told reporters in a recent group interview.

"After we had sent employees to work abroad for about two years and collected information from them, we found that these qualifications are needed among those who are going to work outside Thailand," he said, adding that the six profiles are likely to be included as additional requirements for new employee recruitment.

The group currently runs businesses in eight of the other nine Asean member countries, the exception being Brunei. There are 9,800 SCG employees in those countries.

To ensure cross-cultural management and sustainability, SCG identifies employees with the potential to work outside Thailand and trains them in both English and the local everyday language used in the Asean country to which they will be posted. They then have to study the local language more deeply in regard to their specific area of work after arrivals .

Intensive training

In addition, SCG has got more high-level management people to take turns in two-month intensive training in an advanced management programme abroad, the aim being to give them a global mindset, he said.

They have to improve their managerial skills, learning how to work with people in other Asean countries who have different customs and working styles. The adaptability profile means they must learn to adapt to their new daily life and working environment.

Meanwhile, networking and interpersonal skills mean that the employees have to rely on themselves, as some countries do not have support teams, such as a corporate communications office. They therefore have to go out and meet people, such as the media and government officials, to create a network on their own.

The employees also have to learn about international business. For example, about the stock market and the laws governing the conduct of business in the country in question.

They also have to use change-management skills for dealing with people working for the companies that have been acquired by SCG, trying to get them to accept SCG's methods and goals without undue resistance, Kiti said. As many as 243 employees from Thailand, most of them in middle-level management, have been sent to support SCG's businesses in other countries, with 206 of them working in the group's operations in Asean.

These employees, and also any others working outside their motherland, are called "international staff", while people working in their homeland are called "SCG staff".

"In the coming years, we will be increasing the number of SCG staff in those Asean countries and reducing the number of those from Thailand who are working there now. We want proficient people there to progress in their careers with us," said Kiti.

He added that SCG was establishing a Country Business Support Office in each of the Asean countries to support its investment and take care of its staff there. The first office will commence operations in Indonesia soon.