Cross-case comparison

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professors from overseas to coach the project staffs; and 70% learning from project assignment or through sharing of knowledge and skill with colleagues, e.g., project-based development, Idea Time sessions, and cross-functional team among marketing and R&D teams.

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For the firm overview, as presented in Table 4.1, the GGC and SCG Chemicals are 100%

locally-owned firms. Thai Oil Group is a joint venture, with PTT as the main shareholder.

These three companies are considered as large firms. The proportion of R&D spending of Thai Oil and SCG Chemicals is 0.5% and 1.6%, respectively, whereas GGC does not have precise budgets for R&D expenditure. The number of patents is an indication for companies to set up their R&D budget. SCG Chemicals registered more than 500 patents, whereas Thai Oil registered only 9 patents. GGC engages in product and process innovation by collaborating with suppliers and customers to improve their product specification and promote new products.

In contrast, Thai Oil focuses mainly on process innovation because its products are already specified by the government. Dr. Pailin Chuchottaworn is the main mentor for promoting innovation in PTT Group and its subsidiaries, including GGC and Thai Oil. Mr. Kan Trakulhoon is the main mentor for promoting innovation in SCG Chemicals.

Large companies have good relationships with their partners, especially customers and suppliers, to benefit from research collaboration and technical knowledge transfer. These three firms have good HRM programs to improve their workforce capability. They consider HRM as investments, not costs. They are willing to send their employees to train at and learn from local and international partners. At their initial stages of development, companies used advanced technology and acquired technical knowledge from foreign suppliers via technology licensing. Once they developed knowledge and capabilities, the companies began to develop and improve their factories and production systems by themselves. The top executive is the main mentor for promoting innovation of the organisation. With top-management commitment and support, the employees work harder to generate new ideas for solving problems and promoting innovation.

Each company believes that human capital helps firms to drive competitiveness toward the companies’ vision and mission, so they make a huge investment to gain higher knowledge and competencies of their employees. These HRM practices could be categorised as recruitment and selection, training and development, and retention and compensation. Details are presented in Table 4.2.

Table 4.2: Comparison of HRM practices

GGC Thai Oil SCG Chemicals

Recruitment and Selection

• A systematic recruitment system and selection process.

• More selective and specific recruitment selection tools.

• Recruit ‘young and talented’

candidates

• Recruit ‘Smart, Good, Loyal’

candidates

• Recruit ‘competent and good’people

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For recruitment and selection, the GGC targets to recruit ‘young and talented’ candidates by adopting the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, and Result) evaluation principle for the interview process. Thai Oil targets to recruit ‘Smart, Good, and Loyal’ candidates by adopting the SPEED-up strategy (Source Expansion, Partnership, Employer Brand, Employee Referral, Driving Fast Recruitment). Thai Oil also introduces a sub-strategy, so-called 4B (Build, Buy, Borrow, Bring-in), to support in recruiting new employees. Similarly, SCG Chemicals targets to recruit ‘competent and good’ candidates by hiring committees including internal customers.

The SCG also recruits Ph.D. by allowing the candidates to do post-doctoral for one-year contracts. Even though each firm has different programs for recruitment and selection, they mainly use a systematic recruitment system and selection processes to recruit qualified candidates for the right position.

For training and development, each firm adopts the same principle, the so-called 10/20/70 principle. Employees gain knowledge and skill for 10% from training, 20% from supervisor/coach feedback and monitoring, and 70% from their application of knowledge and skill to assigned projects or through knowledge and skill sharing among colleagues. Companies have internal, external, and international training to increase their employees’ knowledge and skill. They also adopt cross-functional teams, e.g., marketing and R&D teams, to collect

• Adopt the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, and Result) evaluation principle for the interview process

• Adopt the SPEED-up strategy (Source Expansion, Partnership, Employer Brand, Employee Referral, Driving Fast Recruitment)

• Recruitment sub-strategy: 4B (Build, Buy, Borrow, Bring-in)

• Management potential affects hiring decision

• Hiring committee including internal customers

• Recruit Ph.D.through post

-

Training and Development

• 10/20/70 principle

• Internal, external, and international training

• Cross-functional team (marketing and R&D team)

• Emphasise the culture of innovation

• Project-based development

• Voluntary workforce and the Idol System

• One-year intensive training course for new recruitment

• PTTGC dispatch top executives to work at GGC

• Project Innovation 101 • Idea Time Sessions

• Lab head coaching by overseas professors

• Recruitment and R&D collaboration with world-class universities (providing research funding, scholarship, sending their researchers to local and overseas laboratories) Retention and Compensation

• Employee evaluation using KPI

• Recognition and reward system for problem-solving and innovation

• Career path development

• Employee orientation

• Provide master and Ph

.

.

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feedback and recommendations from customers. These three companies emphasise how critical innovation culture and encouragement are to change employee mindset toward innovation.

In terms of approaches and systems, GGC uses a voluntary workforce and the Idol System, where the manager acts as a role model for the voluntary transfer of knowledge to their employees. The company also provides one-year intensive training course for newly recruited employees. Since GGC is a subsidiary of PTTGC, PTTGC deputes top executives to work at GGC, the so-called secondment program. This approach allows highly experienced top executives to transfer knowledge and skill to the subsidiary company. Similarly, Thai Oil launches Project Innovation 101 to promote innovation by selecting highly qualified candidates and develop them to be an innovator. SCG Chemicals has Idea Time Sessions, where employees and managers can discuss and exchange ideas. The head of the R&D department is coached by overseas professors from partner universities. Thai Oil and SCG Chemicals have recruitment and R&D collaboration with world-class universities by providing research funding, scholarship, and sending their researchers to local and overseas laboratories.

For retention and compensation, these three companies use KPI for employee evaluation.

They also have a recognition and reward systems for employees who solve problems and promote innovation. Career path development is provided to employees to enhance their skill and capabilities continuously. Thai Oil and SCG Chemicals provide master and Ph.D.

scholarships for their employees to study in leading universities locally and internationally.