New 'Lateral Leader' takes helm at egat

New 'Lateral Leader' takes helm at egat

'Our research and development mainly focuses on improving energy usage to make it more effective. The more Thai people use electricity in an efficient way, the less fuel or other sources of power we will need to use," says Soonchai Kumnoonsate, the new governor of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand. "This kind of approach makes us different from private corporations that utilise R&D in order to increase revenue and profit.

"Egat has a clear policy on innovation and R&D in order to replace imports of electrical power technologies (including materials and equipment), contribute to peak cuts or improved energy efficiency and support social research for the quality development of community life around Egat's power plants," says the 35-year Egat veteran, who assumed the top spot at the state enterprise on July 31.

Innovation initiative: "As a public organisation, we have an obligation to serve Thai society. This year, we have various ongoing R&D projects valued at around 300 million baht. It is in our policy framework to set aside 3% of income before tax for R&D both by our own internal business unit and also external organisations, which are mainly universities and academic institutions. We are in the process of reviewing and completing our R&D roadmap at this moment."

Collaboration between business and academia is also crucial for national competitiveness in the view of Mr Soonchai, who trained as an electrical engineer. In any highly competitive country, links between educational institutions and the corporate sector are very strong. Business organisations can provide platforms for universities to share knowledge and conduct research in order to strengthen the real sector and the country in general.

"Our people are also great contributors to our innovation movement. We regularly stage recognition activities for them in order to make them proud of their contribution to Egat and Thai society, since they proactively conduct R&D activity from the heart and do not expect any financial return," says Mr Soonchai.

"Our innovation initiative doesn't aim to increase revenue but to promote effective consumption of electricity and less spending by the public. In this regard, one can clearly see that our R&D policy tends to contradict a typical organisation's purpose which is to increase revenue and expand business in the long term by introducing higher value-added products.

"As well, local researchers are one of the key factors to help us better understand community concerns. In our case, we get actively involved in research with local universities in order to assess the quality of air, fish, seagrass, and the natural environment."

Collaborative mindset: "The future of energy depends mainly on technology. We have'firm' fuels such as gas and agricultural waste, but some kinds of energy are 'non-firm', meaning they are not not consistently available all the time, such as wind and solar. For 'non-firm' sources, storage technology is the future of these kinds of energy. We have to find methodology and tools to predict and manage power as well."

Handling public concerns, although it is always a challenging task, is not new to Mr Soonchai since he has been involved professionally in power-plant development for many years.

"In order to ensure a proper supply of electricity, we must look into all possibilities when we construct a power plant," he explains. "One of many plants in the pipeline is Krabi project, which we aim to finish and commission by 2019.

"In this regard, we do have to take the concerns of the local community into account when considering the Krabi project. How do we manage logistics to transport coal from the mine to the plant? We have to be sure that it will not affect the daily lives of local people. It has been over two years already since we began doing front-end work with the local community."

Based on what he has shared with me, I think of Mr Soonchai as a unique example of the type of leader Roger Fisher and Alan Sharp define in their famous book, Lateral Leadership: Getting Things Done When You're Not the Boss. Such a leader will typically have a clear vision of what he wants to achieve. He will then enable his executives to achieve high-quality collaboration that produces high-quality results.

Lateral leadership: "Beginning with the end-result picture first, I try to imagine what things will look like after we implement the plan," says Mr Soonchai. "I then consider the processes and steps to achieve that goal. Who will be involved and in what roles? Are there any data and information required to complete the picture? What should be the proper methodology to handle the situation? Are there any options to be considered?"

Lateral leadership typically covers five qualities: clear purpose-setting; systematic thinking; action-based learning by integrating thinking with doing; engaging others, as they contribute, and also offering them a challenging role; and expressing appreciation, providing honest feedback and offering advice.

"Talking about leadership, I have always had the belief that the best approach to leading is to let followers do what they have the will to do by themselves, not by following leaders. This way, they will have the passion to overcome any obstacles," he says, and pauses to reflect.

"I normally treat my people as brothers and sisters not as a boss-subordinate relationship. Using strong words or expressions is certainly not an option for me. Since we are state enterprise, we are aiming to move in the same direction to serve our country by doing good things for society and also among ourselves."


Sorayuth Vathanavisuth, a former chief executive of the Thailand Management Association (TMA), teaches at Mahidol University's College of Management (CMMU). His areas of interest are Buddhist management, executive coaching and leadership development. He can be reached at sorayuth@sealeadership.com

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