Promotion systems and career development in Thailand: a case study of Siam Cement

This paper examines the promotion systems and career development of managers of Siam Cement Public Company Limited, the largest manufacturing conglomerate in Thailand. Since the 1980s, the company has grown into a full-blown conglomerate and is widely considered to be Thailand's most modernized corporation. In the aftermath of the 1997–8 Asian crisis, the meltdown forced the company and other debt-addicted business groups to streamline their debts and organization structures drastically. However, just five years later, the company had bounced back into profitability and first-class corporate governance, and stands firmly in the front rank. Undoubtedly, the company's successful recovery and its current strengths have been driven by the capability and dedication of its managers. This paper focuses on interviews with the company's personnel managers during 1999–2001, and on the personnel profiles of 128 managers (general manager level), in order to examine Siam Cement's human resource management policies and practices, and to draw from this its overall strategies for the development of managerial careers. The main finding was that well-planned recruitment, competitive promotion, concrete performance appraisal and wide-ranging training and development programmes, including job rotation and sending managers to study abroad, are all essential career development strategies.     

Family business groups in Thailand: coping with management critical points

Using insights drawn from business history and business group literature, we develop a model to analyze how family business groups in late industrializing countries cope with management resource limitations that plague them in their pursuit of growth and diversification. A field study was conducted analyzing 215 family business groups in Thailand. Results suggest that family business groups will survive, and even prosper, if they are able to adapt their strategies and modernize their management styles to overcome three management resource limitations (or “management critical points”)—fund raising, production technology, and human resources. There is a detailed discussion of the different strategies that help to extend these upper limits or management critical points. We then divide family business groups into four types, which are based on their diversification and management strategies. We argue that their performances vary and that the modernized single business type and the modernized conglomerate type will be the future forms of family business groups, which will ensure that they remain competitive in the new global economy. Using our model, we conclude that family business groups in Thailand are still disinclined to make the transition to managerial enterprises, according to the conventional Anglo-Saxon model.