B Grimm executive 'emotionalises' business
The executive vice president of the pioneering B Grimm Group, Heinz Landau, has always been a strong devotee of the "employees first, customers second" business mantra.
This was Landau's belief even when he was with his previous employer, Merck, before he joined the 132-year-old Thai conglomerate, and long before the book "Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down" was authored this year by Vineet Nayar, chief executive of India's HCL Technologies.
"I believe in 'emotionalising' business. One way to do that is through CSR [corporate social responsibility], because people [can think that they] are not working for a company that is only looking for profit," he said.
While "employees first, customers second" seems to reverse conventional business beliefs, Landau told The Nation that it was proven business dogma.
Instead of following up only on sales and profit figures - which are "lagging indicators" - Landau said Merck Thailand measured employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction every six months, because these were the "leading indicators" that indicated how the company would perform in the future.
"If you take good care of your employees, the employees will take good care of customers, who will generate profits for shareholders and the happy shareholders will return profits to society," he said.
Landau said he did some "unusual things" at Merck, including taking all 150 staff members, from directors to warehouse workers, on overseas trips as a reward for contributing to the firm's business success. Despite some expensive employee programmes, Merck Thailand achieved profitable double-digit sales growth in 13 out of the 16 years of Landau's leadership from 1993 to 2008. This stemmed mainly from organic growth.
"Soft issues are hard issues, because they decide whether you succeed or not," he said.
Leadership communication is also one of Landau's favourite topics. The title "chief executive" also means "chief story teller" because a chief executive must have a story with which to persuade his or her people to "buy-in", he said.
"Usually, I'm a fast-paced person. But with people, [I must always remind myself that] fast is slow, slow is fast," Landau said, quoting author Stephen Covey, who suggested that executives didn't spend enough time with their people.
After more than 30 years with Merck, Landau quit the German pharmaceutical and chemical giant in early 2009 and joined B Grimm at the invitation of the group's chairman and chief executive Harald Link, as a senior adviser. Link and Landau are not strangers, since B Grimm is a major shareholder of Merck Thailand. Landau took his current position as B Grimm Group's executive vice president for strategy and corporate development in January this year.
He has been given the task of defining the group's corporate purposes, its values and its vision, as well as developing corporate brand strategies. He will also take care of corporate social responsibility, human resources and strategies for the giant conglomerate, which has businesses ranging from energy and cooling to healthcare, transportation, lifestyle and real estate.
"A lot of companies are doing CSR because it is sexy. At B Grimm, we don't even use the term 'CSR.' We call it 'social engagement'.
"A founder of B Grimm, Herbert Link, began by bringing medicines to Thailand. [Later] it was air-conditioners, and [more recently] the Skytrains. The wife of the founder, Alma Link, was the first "farang khunying" in Thailand," Landau said.