During the recent event I attended, “4 Views Drive: Organisation. Leader. Sustain”, one of the crucial capabilities participants agreed on was the ability to lead with flexibility, to be able to improvise and innovate, in order to build business sustainability. In many ways, it seems strange that this particular capability is needed. We all know that Thailand has a rich history of being innovative, of finding ways to get by with what we have available.
To elaborate, we can see a lot of modern examples. When the floods hit Thailand in 2011 the sheer number and variety of ingenious rafts and boats constructed with available materials was stunning. Or if you attend a contest where students compete with the rescue robots they have built, it is obvious that there is no shortage of innovative ability in Thailand.
However, many say that we do not show a lot of innovation in the workplace and that’s why it should be perceived as a pressing need for future leaders.
Partially this is because most Thai businesses have a traditionally strict hierarchical structure. Hierarchical decision-making gives the top of the hierarchy a lot of control. In a stable, predictable environment this can mean greater efficiency. However, it is not very flexible, and does not reward innovative ideas by those lower in the hierarchy — it actually discourages people from making innovative suggestions.
The truth is, change is happening at the fastest pace ever and it’s unstoppable; therefore, the ability to innovate and improvise will certainly become essential for any organisations and leaders to survive.
In fact, I’d say improvisation is a key to building the culture of innovation everyone is aspiring to. Suphachai Chearavanont, the president and CEO of True Corporation Plc, one of Asia's leading telecommunications groups, agrees. At the “4 Views Drive” event he reflected on his journey of change throughout his career and why he finds improvisation critical when change is the new normal.
We barely know what tomorrow of the future will bring us but what we can do is plan ahead, be ready and improvise in keeping with the real situation once it happens, he said. Luckily, we can also rely on a lot of big data to help us prepare for the future. Given the high technology of data analytics, we can turn this insight into innovation and that has also helped Mr Suphachai get his company where it is today.
He also mentioned the necessity of self-evolution as his secret recipe for success in innovation. He outlined four approaches.
First, it is critical for organisations that wish to innovate to listen to the voices of customers, particularly when those voices are getting louder and gaining prominence on social media. Firms can surely develop new products and services suitable for future demand as long as they know how to differentiate between the “noise” and the true “voice” of customers.
Second, it is important to listen to your competitors. Closely observe what they are doing and find the way to tap into it while using that as a source to drive yourself to innovate.
Third is transparency. It is about how you should be true and honest to yourself so you know where your position is and what gaps need to be filled in order to get to your goal.
The last one is continuous capability building and development. This should include not only people capability, but also processes. The reason is that no matter how much emphasis you put on innovation, the project will not become a reality unless you have people who are capable of executing as well as processes to support them.
The bottom line in building innovative culture is, however, to have to leaders who will reinforce everything. They need to be the role models who start changing and start innovating for their people to follow through.
Now, I’m sure that for our culture, some hierarchical control is needed as companies need direction, but a strictly hierarchical organisation is inherently inflexible, and in our rapidly changing world flexibility is a requirement for survival. Thus, I’d suggest that we find ways to both maintain control and have the flexibility to encourage and use innovative ideas to secure business sustainability.
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Arinya Talerngsri is Group Managing Director at APMGroup, Thailand's leading Organisation and People Development Consultancy. She can be reached by e-mail at arinya_t@apm.co.th or https://www.linkedin.com/pub/arinya-talerngsri/a/81a/53b
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