Hi. Today what I’m posting is to present you, in such a situation of domestic consumption slowdown, who are quite in despair with thought-provoking sentiment in order to be able to effectively deal with any of impediments laying ahead of in the coming year.

          Hereunder is the sampler story of young Thai business woman who had been weathered unperturbedly in the storm of economic crunch 10 years ago. The story is written by Khun Chadamas Chinmaneevong – Bangkok Post, Business Section dated on Tuesday November 20, 2007.  Let's begin.

          Determination to work, courage to take up challenges and an ability to capitalize on opportunities has helped Sanongnuch Charnvirakul transform herself from an employee to a successful entrepreneur.

          “If we want to grow, we must compete with ourselves and keep improving. We must work hard and even harder in times of crisis,” says the owner of the gift delivery firm Stacey.

          Ms Sanongnuch, 39, established Stacey with registered capital of nine million baht in 1993 after resigning from Coca-Cola (Thailand). “I learned a lot from Coca-Cola. Although it was a good job, I think being a business owner is better than an employee,” she said.

          A political science graduate of Thammasat University, she had worked for Coca-Cola for two years before a friend proposed the gift-delivery idea.

          In its first year, the company had only one major customer and generated revenue of only six million baht, but she didn’t lose heart. At the time, gift delivery was not popular but Ms Sanongnuch was confident her business would grow with changing urban lifestyles.

          She said that building customer confidence was the most important part of her business because customers do not see the gifts they order. “I give priority to credit because customer confidence can be easily ruined.”

          However, the road has not always been smooth. When the 1997 economic crisis erupted, Ms Sanongnuch had to act as the company’s salesperson. Business growth plunged from 15% to only 2% a year because most customers worked for finance companies.

          By 2000 the outlook was improving. However, personnel quality and lack of creativity were still problems. The company needs workers who have a good attitude and are ready to work hard. They should know how to make a gift impressive to a recipient.

          Today, the quality of Stacey’s gifts has made more than 20% of recipients into customers, she said. Ms Sanongnuch always discusses problems with her staff and explains to them that if they help solve problems, both the company and staff will enjoy better returns.

          She believes the creative gift idea market has room to grow because there are only two or three players in the market, so the company plans to expand through franchises in about three years, possibly in Chiang Mai, Chon Buri and Phuket. This year, she expects the company to generate revenue of 50 million baht, up from 40 million last year. 

***Any suggestion, please contact me (Pop) at itt@bkksiam.com

           High employee turnover in Thailand will cost the country in term of human resource development and reduce the nation’s global competitiveness, says Tayat Sriplung, managing director of Watson Wyatt (Thailand).

          The company conducted a survey that questioned 195 companies in Thailand and found that the average voluntary turnover rate for next year was projected at 11.75%.

          The highest rate of 18.21% was in the property sector and the lowest rate of 6.54% was in banking and finance. In the manufacturing sector, the survey shows that textiles would have the highest turnover rate of 19.73% and automobiles the lowest rate of 3.9%.

          The survey reveals that 1.03% of total respondents had more than 50% of employees resign – the main reason was the companies’ financial situation. Almost 20% of respondents had about 20% of employees resign due to job security issues as employees were hired on a contract basis, Mr. Tayat said.

          Thailand has seen more than a 10% average turnover rate for several years. The country lacks consistent human resource development practices to maintain knowledge capital, making it difficult for Thai companies to compete in regional or global markets.

          High turnover can either benefit or harm employers, depending on the quality of resigned employees.

          “If high performers resign, then companies will be the losers as they have invested in training. If bad performers resign, companies will be the winners and it indicates that they apply the right methodology in handling employees who do not meet expectation,” said Mr.Tayat.

          He said money was not the first priority for high performers as they tendered their resignations because the boss overlooked their work performance or were unhappy at work due to the corporate culture or colleagues. These employees may want to return if there are changes in the organization.   

        “Don’t recruit back employees who are willing to come back for money. These employees are only average performers, not high performers,” said Mr. Tayat.

           Watson Wyatt found that the petrochemical industry could retain employees, even though the salaries were not as high as in other industries, because companies in this industry usually have good financial performance, high investment in training and good welfare packages.

          Developed countries have an average turnover of about 5%. Bubphawadee Owararinth, Watson Wyatt’s business development director for Asean, said Asia Pacific countries had an average turnover of about 10% but India and China had a higher rate of 16.2% and 26% respectively.

          She said India was good at providing outsourcing to multinational companies for works such as call centers, translation, animation, medical analysis and research and development. Therefore, there is high demand for employees in this sector causing turnover of 40%, as of September of this year.

          Mr.Tayat said Watson Wyatt’s survey on salary increases showed an average increase of 6.06% at the end of this year with the property sector offering the highest pay rise of 7% followed by professional services at 6.89% and consumer products at 6.83%.

          The company found that the average payment for variable bonuses would be 2.25 months and 1.42 months for guaranteed bonuses.