During the past four or five years of the Sufficiency Economy movement, our research has pointed to cases of many business practices that incorporate Sufficiency Economy concepts.
The first case is that of Siam Cement, one of the oldest and largest firms in Thailand. During the crisis, Siam Cement came under great pressure. As a consequence, the firm decided to adopt Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (moderation, reasonableness and self-immunity with knowledge and moral conditions) as its guiding principle. It restructured and refocused its activities on its core business, where it has strong competitiveness, and put more emphasis on risk management to build greater resiliency.
As a result, the firm was able to turn around to make a small profit in 2000 and was on the road to recovery in 2001. Moreover, Siam Cement now gives priority to its human resource development program to build a quality workforce that will provide the firm with greater immunity to future uncertainty; it also engages in a wide range of corporate social responsibility activities such as community development and environmental protection, as well as supporting other social causes.
The second case concerns companies that escaped bankruptcy. During the 1997 crisis, many firms went bankrupt and were taken over, but others such as Hana Electronics, Nippon Pack were able to withstand the crisis well. One of the reasons that enabled these firms to survive was that they had been building up their self-immunity by cautiously investing only if they had enough cash flow on their own, resisting the temptation to over-expand by excessive borrowing from external sources.