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EYP Luncheon Talk – Digital Marketing with Ian Fenwick

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 08:01:58 +0000

The European Young Professionals will be holding a luncheon talk on Digital Marketing – without breaking the Bank.

The Talk will be held at Bar Su on Thursday September 9th from 12pm onwards, and features an interactive presentation led by Professor Ian Fenwick, who will give tips on how to maximise your digital marketing using his simple and proven formula.

The talk includes lunch and is only 600 Baht per person.

For full details as well as seat reservations click on the banner below:

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Talent Technologies :: Management Training Programmes in Thailand & South-East Asia

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The role of HRM in Thai Companies

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:45:13 +0000

Is our HR function adding value?

This is one question that is asked frequently in Thai companies, not in the least because less than half of HR professionals have any formal training in Human Resource Management.

So, in order to help allay the concerns HR managers may have whether they are fulfilling their role to the expectations of their peers, we have created four simple questions that HR can ask of its line managers to discover whether HR is performing its role effectively. The questions relate to the three key HR competencies of Strategy, System and Service:

Strategy

- In the last year, HR has helped my business unit achieve its chosen strategy

System

- HR gives me the tools that makes managing easy.

Service

- I enjoy working with the HR Department.

- HR is effective in its role.

Ideally, these questions would be asked using a Lickert scale with the categories ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’.

How to apply the findings

Once you have the feedback from the line managers, it’s useful to drill down in each of the areas to discover how HR can enhance its strategic role in the company.

It is also essential for line managers to clearly articulate their strategy to HR for the year, something that we find rarely happens in Asia, and especially in Thailand.

The advantage of using these four questions is that HR’s role – and the company’s expectations of the function – are clear, thus enabling Human Resources to act strategically.

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Talent Technologies :: Management Training in Thailand and Asia

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The Thai Personality decoded…

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:15:03 +0000

Personality is often a big talking point in Thailand. Perhaps not in ‘formal’ concepts but almost always in conversation and gossip, especially in the workplace.

So understanding some of the aspects of Thai personality is always useful, even if it does not cover all situations.

The best introduction to the Thai personality can, in our opinion, be found here. Father Niphon’s study is neatly categorised in nine domains including Ego Orientation, Grateful Relationship Orientation, Fun-Pleasure Orientation, and Achievement-Task Orientation, all of which are important to understand in the Thai workplace.

When ‘Personality’ can become ‘Problematic’

This is all well and good. However, there are many occasions when these aspects of ‘personality’ can lead to problems.

For example, if the Ego Orientation becomes hypersensitive and leads to poor emotional control issues in the workplace, this is clearly going to impact team performance. Employees may leave their managers, or team members may distance themselves from each other and ‘silos’ can develop.

Another typical problem is when the ‘Fun-Pleasure’ orientation leads to poor personal responsibility, a resistance to any actions that may be considered ‘unpopular’ (even if they are necessary from a business point of view), or a lack of professional care.

In these cases, change needs to take place, and it may be surprising to some that, following its latest World Bank study involving over 1,200 companies in Thailand and Malaysia, both employees and management ranked Thais’ ‘adaptability and flexibility’ half that of their Malaysian counterparts.

When it’s time for Change…

The good news is that the above traits are not hardwired in the way that, say, true personality characteristics are, such as whether a person is an Extrovert or an Introvert.

These are simply patterns of behaviour. But a change of behaviour can rarely be achieved by addressing the behaviours themselves. This is because behaviours are an effect, not the cause.

Emotional Intelligence makes the difference

Instead, understanding and managing emotions, and relating them to these behaviours, gives each person the possibility of exploring – and making – fresh choices.

The Emotional Intelligence programme offered by Talent Technologies, for examples, includes areas such as achievement, assertiveness, and stress tolerance, all areas which many Thai participants initially find challenging.

Mastering the above allows participants (for example) to:

» Maintain emotional control under pressure

» Achieve necessary tasks while motivating others

» Persist even in the face of initial resistance

Make the change with this programme

If you’re interested in finding out more how Emotional Intelligence can help manage personality issues in your company, you can find a summary here, or simply ask us for full programme details by following the link below.

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Click here for more details > > >

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Give your presentations impact using THIS technique

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:42:49 +0000

‘I want to make presentations like Steve Jobs’.

It may come as no great surprise that our participants like to model their presentation skills on one of the greatest business presenters today – but what are the secrets to his presentation success?

One of them is simplicity. The technique Jobs uses can be boiled down to a single rule: the 10-40 rule.

How the 10-40 rule helps you connect with your audience

The 10-40 rule says this: let your presentation help you connect with your audience by making sure your first 10 slides in your powerpoint do not contain more than 40 words.

This is important because research has discovered that the human brain interprets every letter as a picture. So, as the saying goes, a picture really is worth 10,000 words.

So, after you have analysed your audience and worked out you key message, your plan may look like this:

1. Title slide (6 words)

2. Quote (17 words)

3. Video clip

4. Image and text (3 words)

5. Image

6. One sentence (3 words)

7. Photograph and text (1 word)

8. Image

9. Video clip

10. Photograph and text (7 words)

Presentation Talent! shows you how…

This a similar technique to the one used by Steve Jobs in his Apple presentations, and few will doubt that it is effective.

It’s one our participants use on Presentation Talent! to help them make their presentations stand out.

Why not give it a try with your presentations, or, better still, why not enrol in Presentation Talent! (Details here) or for a full programme outline contact us using the link below:

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Click here for more details > > >

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Talent Technologies :: Management Training in Thailand and Asia

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Two New Management Courses

admin — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 03:49:07 +0000

Two new Management Courses for Q3

We’re delighted to announce that Talent Technologies has introduced two new management courses in Thailand.

Here’s a brief intro to these courses that focus on improving communication skills in the critical areas of presentation and business writing skills.

Presentation Talent!

Presentation Talent! is a two day programme that uses the latest techniques to make presentations engaging, easy-to-follow and, above all, effective.

Through our research we’ve discovered that Thai professionals have shared these three challenges as being the biggest obstacles to delivering presentations. We also show how Presentation Talent! addresses these obstacles:

1. Fear. They lack confidence in speaking in front of peers, especially when doing so in English.

» Presentation Talent! gives participants plenty of opportunities for practising their new-found skills, especially in the often stressful area of Q&A, built around real situations

2. Managing Expectations. Even when they may have mastered their subject-matter, participants are not sure what their audience may expect of them.

» Presentation Talent! includes a TalentPlanner, with a step-by-step approach for audience analysis – and deliver information in the way they expect

3. Making it Interesting. Feedback shows that participants feel they are not able to make what they are talking about interesting, and dread the boredom this may create among their audience.

» Presentation Talent! shows participants some of the key techniques and phrases to keep their presentations a) concise and b) engaging, meaning they do not have to fear ‘the big yawn’ any more!

More details of the programme can be found here >>

Business Writing Talent!

Writing reports and proposals in English is one of the biggest drains of professional time in Thailand. In fact, our research has found that it takes some managers over an hour just to write a single email!

This is why we decided to introduce Business Writing Talent! Delivered over two days, this high-impact course simplifies the business writing process so that participants can spend less time writing – and more time managing.

Participants learn how to get to the point with their writing, integrating evidence and their arguments into a coherent whole. They learn the twenty most useful phrases that help them fast-track their reports and proposals to completion.

With a lively, interactive format, incoporporating writing games and activities, participants acquire the skills of effective writing in an enjoyable, hands-on way.

Developed by the team that trained The Nation Business Writing desk, this programme is a must-have for any professional equired to write reports and correspondence in English.

Details of the course can be found here >>

It’s about Management Effectiveness…

Sharpening skills in the two key areas of business writing and presentations is essential for the modern manager for whom communicating has never been as important as today.

Taking part in these two management course is a great step for Thai professionals to take if they want to make their lives easier – and become more effective in their roles and careers at work!

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Click here for more details > > >

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Talent Technologies :: Management Courses in Thailand and Asia

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9 Ways to be more productive at work

admin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 07:45:16 +0000

Those of you familiar with the award-winning Thai ‘Peppermint Field’ series of adverts are aware that we cannot always be as alert -- or productive -- as we would like to be >>

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=91zYjK2nsow

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(to watch the video with English subtitles click the link to go to Youtube)

So what can you do if you don’t have any Peppermint Gel to hand? Here are 9 tips to help you with your productivity when the going gets tough…

Work on the graphics, special effects, or slide show timing of a Powerpoint presentation. Creative work that doesn’t require intense thought.
Hold one-on-one meetings with your staff or peers, ask them how you can improve, and really listen to what they have to say.
Let your mind wonder and brainstorm. When you’re conscious mind is tired, your subconscious sort of kicks in and takes up the slack. You’d be amazed at what you can tap into. I get some of my best ideas when I’m half asleep or not even thinking.
Walk around, talk to people, let your guard down, be yourself.
If you happen to be writing something, do an outline. The final product always turns out better that way and outlining is methodical work that doesn’t require a lot of brainpower.
Try a change of scenery, like working outside for a change.
Take your administrative assistant or favorite employee out for a long lunch and really get to know them.
Do your expense reports. Yes, my least favorite too, but it is more or less brainless work.
Tidy up your desk. You’ll feel such a sense of accomplishment when you’re done, it almost makes it worthwhile.

If you liked these, then you’ll LOVE Productivity Factor, our Time & Productivity Management Training Programme that helps boost your professional performance -- in only one day!

Read the Programme Details here, or contact us for more details!

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Talent Technologies :: Management Training in Thailand and Asia

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THIS company with unlimited holidays just made new highs…

admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 06:45:14 +0000

Setting up your company for success

Winston Churchill once said that ‘If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.’

It’s interesting to see more and more companies heeding this advice and streamlining their rules, regulations and processes into simpler formats.

But when Netflix scrapped restrictions on holidays some people in the industry felt they weren’t streamlining but ‘dreamlining’. ‘This will end in anarchy,’ experts said.

Two years on, and the stock price has just posted new highs (see the chart below) and, far from creating anarchy, the unlimited holidays initiative is working a dream for the company.

The thinking behind the move (as covered in greater depth in this article here) is that employees who are trusted work more effectively. And results from key indicators so far are proving that right.

A Corporate Culture built on Trust

In this post published last year, we looked at some of the types of corporate culture as defined by Dov Seidman in his bestselling book How.

He identified 4 main types of corporate cultures: anarchy, blind obedience, informed acquiescence, and self-governance cultures.

It’s this fourth type of culture that Netflix has tried to create – and so far is succeeding remarkably well.

The company’s ‘culture DNA’ is a must read, not only for HR professionals but any managers who believe creating an engaging workplace is an essential part of corporate success.

Bear in mind this is from the company that has, through its commercial acumen, virtually bankrupted its prime competitor Blockbuster Video.

Buckets and Spades anyone?

Anyone who thinks that doing away with rules and regulations is a recipe for anarchy may want to consider the example not only of Netflix but also:

» Nordstrom, which has only one goal and one rule for its staff, that is ‘to provide outstanding customer service’ and ‘to use your good judgement in all situations’. Nordstrom has been the leader in its industry segment for over a decade.

» GE Durham (which manufactures jet engines). Employees have only one KPI – to meet delivery time. The company has no other requirements including holiday time and even work hours, and boasted a zero-defect record for all its parts in 2008 (last data point). The story is covered here.

» Richer Sounds, which has the highest per square foot sales in retail globally, and allows its employees similar flexibility.

In all the above examples, it’s remarkable how trusting employees (while defining behaviours and expectations clearly) leads to breakthrough performance.

Netflix’s culture DNA is, in our view, a manifesto for change than any company can learn from.

What you can do now

If you would like to find out how Talent Technologies can help you enhance your corporate culture through our Employee Engagement solution in Thailand and Asia, you can find out more here. Or follow the link below for more information!

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Click here for more details > > >

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Talent Technologies :: Employee Engagement in Thailand and Asia

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Intro to Emotional Intelligence

admin — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 05:36:44 +0000

Talent Technologies is featured in the August edition of the Big Chilli magazine.

The article is a brief intro to Emotional Intelligence (EI or EQ as it is also sometimes called).

We’re delighted to be able to post a reprint as a pdf. To download it, simply click here or on the image to the right!

And if you would like to find out more about our Emotional Intelligence training programme, the details are here

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Talent Technologies :: Management Training Programmes in Thailand and South-East Asia

A cautionary tale of costcutting

admin — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 02:23:09 +0000

Not all Profits are ‘Good’!

The US Second Quarter earnings season is nearly over and, for those of you who missed it, most companies reported increased profits.

Yet the market, as a whole, has been nonplussed. And a recent research report published by Goldman Sachs has shown that the stock market rewarded companies that reported higher sales more than those that reported higher profits. Why?

Things are not (always) as they seem

There’s a well-known saying in financial accounting that ‘turnover is vanity, profits are sanity, cash is reality’.

And reading it, this adage makes sense.

Until every company starts applying it. That’s when profits can be a form of insanity – and the markets – it seems, are beginning to agree.

The reason for this is that many of these companies have been able, for the last few quarters, to boost profits on the back of costcutting measures – like laying off staff, screwing down suppliers, and running down inventories.

But there is only so much costcutting that can be done before a company cuts into its own bone – and causes fatal damage.

The Curious Case of Connaught PLC

But there is only so much costcutting that a company can do before it starts to destroy the ‘deep value’ it has accrued over the company’s lifetime.

Last month, shares in UK quoted Connaught PLC slid by 80% as exactly this seemed to happen.

Over the years, management had been able to juice profits by, among other things, delaying payments to suppliers, taking over other businesses and squeezing them to the bone, and cutting costs right left and centre. Profits rose and shareholders were delighted.

Nothing wrong with that, you might say. Profits, after all, are sanity.

But not when the customers don’t go along with it. If you increase your profits to the detriment of your customer value proposition, often your sales fall (as they defect) and profits quickly become a form of delusion. That’s when a company often has to start from scratch all over again – think restructuring, boardroom dismissals, and change management programmes.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

The Change that needs to happen

We’re not saying that Connaught’s fate is going to befall all the companies in the market.

What we are saying, is that costcutting can only take you so far. Go beyond that point, and it can be harmful – it can lead to ‘bad profits’.

We’re certain that Connaught is not the only company that will see their long term business models suffer because of this approach. And, as per the Goldman Sach report, it seems the market is beginning to get wise to what’s going on. Now, ‘beating last month’s numbers’ is no longer good enough. The market seems to want to see both top-line and bottom-line growth.

This will require a change in mentality among entire boardrooms. One that goes from scarcity mentality and incrementalism, to abundance mentality and quantum change.

It’s about human capital

‘Too much intelligence and energy’ Warren Buffett wrote, ‘is being devoted to scraping the crumbs off the table of capitalism instead of preparing the meal.’

By rationalising supply chains, implementing technology, offshoring and outsourcing, companies have experiences a golden decade of ever-increasing profitability.

Yet… yet…

Unfortunately, this has not been matched by top-line growth. Yes, many multinationals have been able to expand in Asia, but many are also struggling to achieve the market share they think they should be getting.

Applying a hard-driving Western-style ‘scarcity mentality’ isn’t helping. And the dangerously-skewed obsession with ‘making numbers’ as opposed to ‘making and keeping customers’ (Drucker) is probably resulting in huge opportunity costs.

Many companies seem to be trying to produce more golden eggs by strangling the goose. It may work in the short term, but over the long term this can be catastrophic, with rocketing staff turnover and employee disengagement, customer disengagement and – lo and behold – declining sales.

Instead, companies need to look at building their capability, through their human capital, in order to boost long-term growth.

Take this approach

The change required is a simple one. Instead of focusing on tangible factors ‘inside-out’, companies need to focus more on the intangible factors outside-in.

Specifically, this means defining and enhancing a customer experience for long-term value creation. This means working on employee and customer engagement. And it means – vitally – focussing on metrics other than profits alone. Apple, for example, hasn’t simply focussed on profits. In fact, for years it has tried to deliver a decisive customer value proposition and customer experience and foregone some quarterly profits in the company’s efforts to do so.

It is now the world’s biggest IT company.

‘Business leaders have become master mechanics in siphoning out current earnings, but they fumble for the right wrench when it comes to gearing up for growth’

Frederick Reichheld, The Ultimate Question

Companies can enhance their growth easily by focussing on just three factors (in equal measure). They are:

Customer Say – Advocacy and Word of Mouth. Do you give your customers something to rave about?

Customer Stay – Loyalty. Do you deliberately evoke the researched emotions that will make the loyal?

Customer Spend – Do you know (and know how to create) the researched emotions that lead to higher customer spend?

Time to engage customers and employees alike!

If you would like to find out more about how Talent Technologies helps you achieve customer and employee engagement through boosting your human capital, simply complete this form here and we will send you an information pack.

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Talent Technologies :: Employee and Customer Engagement in Thailand and Asia

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Creating a profitable Talent Management Strategy

admin — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:04:47 +0000

Talent Technologies helps companies in Asia implement talent management strategies that add value. The key to our approach is to ensure they are simple (easy enough for frontliners to grasp), specific (to the person or role required) and strategic (delivering value to the customer and the company).

This post revisits a Talent Talk published in December 2007, and looks at how one manufacturing company created a talent management strategy achieving all three.

Critically, we look at how the strategy was linked to the company’s financials – and how much monetary value was achieved by the company’s effective talent management strategy.

The article is here.

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