Facing the global market with a bottom-up mentality
The Asean community will open the opportunity for businesses with the expanded market of 600 million people and $1.8 trillion of GDP. Consequently, companies need to ascertain they are competitive in the international market environment.
Obviously many companies in Thailand are familiar with a top-down management approach, which does not encourage employee engagement as a key success factor. Today, organisational change can be considered an inevitable process within a company for long-term survival. Some companies choose to make a one-time big change, which can be a shock to many people. But a preferred choice could be the step-by-step improvement which is done on an ongoing basis. One of the popular concepts that promote the bottom-up mentality being used by most manufacturing companies is quality circle (QC) activity.
The concept of quality circle was developed and taught by Dr William Edwards Deming in the 1900s with the famous circle of PDCA - standing for plan, do, check and action. The QC concept has been developed into other best practices such as total quality management.
However, by applying the basic QC concept, companies can institute this internal improvement activity with proper modification that suits the culture, environment and scope of the practices. The benefits from such activities can be evident in terms of both financial and non-financial results. The following is a real case study of the successful modified QC.
A company decided to apply the modified QC concept for operational improvement in its logistics and warehouse department. The whole process took six months, which involved:
_ The project kick-off - In order to implement this project successfully, the support from top management is the key success factor. It can be done in several forms such as company-wide communication or announcement of the policy.
_ Training - It is crucial for everyone to understand the tools necessary for problem-solving process. Proper training was organised for everyone within the organisation for identification and solution-finding techniques' knowledge enhancement.
_ Facilitation - Employees who formed the small team of five to eight people were supported by facilitators in terms of technical knowledge and practical suggestions. The management also provided employees with allocated time and equipment necessary for 'brain-storming' sessions.
_ Presentation and recognition - Out of 30 teams, 26 were successful in delivering the complete projects. The company organised a contest day for every team to present and share results and experiences. Most employees were enthusiastic and cheerful. Apparently, their morale was increased with more satisfaction at the workplace.
_ The modification part of the original QC concept was on the shortened steps and the simple presentation developed by the company management, which made the activity more simple and easy to implement. The benefits obtained in financial terms were calculated and the non-financial benefit was obvious from interviews with employees.
Organisational development is concerned with people. It involves the planned changes that can be used as a strategy in the annual business planning process.
Apart from cost savings, the planned change should be cultivated as a required culture for successful business.
At present, many companies pay more attention to AEC preparation without a clear strategy on how to deal with it. The modified QC could be an alternative for consideration. With the increased importance of competitiveness enhancement, some educational institutions, such as the graduate school of business at Assumption University, provide a specific course on the subject of organisational development under the PhDOD program.
The necessity for change and self-development is also supported by what Andrew Grove, former CEO of Intel, said: "You are always in danger. You are in danger of competitors, you are in danger of new ways of doing things, but most importantly, you have a danger that the way you have conducted your business is going to lose relevance."
Yanyong Thammatucharee is senior vice-president for accounting and finance at Central Marketing Group. He can be reached at yanyong.thammatucharee@gmail.com