Prasarn wants BOT to pursue excellence through value system

“Like a toothpaste company, we have products and services that we need to defend. And our efforts are far more important. We need public trust and confidence as the lag time of our policies is as long as four quarters,” Bank of Thailand Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul said.
The rebranding campaign was kicked off recently, the first time in decades. Officials and employees have been reassigned, a new logo created, with more changes to be introduced at this month’s symposium and later on. This will coincide with the central bank’s 70th anniversary next year.
Prasarn, who took the helm late last year, sees the need for a change. By his own perception, BOT has the right principles and vision. Yet, it is considered isolated. The governor also wants to send the public a message that the BOT is ready to reach out to help.
His perception was confirmed by an in-depth study, covering 500 inside and 500 outside respondents.
Like corporations, for a clear brand story BOT needs a clear organisational DNA, to know what it has, how it should adjust, and how it is perceived by the public. Prasarn envisions a campaign involving four areas – products and services (which include monetary policies, website and reports); public experiences of its services; emblems like logos on its products; and communications.
Under the campaign, products are to be redesigned to fit the clients’ preferences. The complaint centre’s operations would be improved: there would be a clear operating formula – how many rings before a call is answered, and in how many days a complainant should receive an answer.
Experiences from the private sector will be applied to improve the weak points as shown up by the research.
“Dealing with the academic side is like a double-sided coin. If we’re too academic, we tend to be weak in terms of practicality,” he said.
A change became necessary following the 1997 financial crisis, when the Bank of Thailand lost the currency war. The Financial Institutions Development Fund spent as much as Bt1.4 trillion to recapitalise the banking system. This depleted the “social capital” built up over years.
To this end, Prasarn is pleased that the social capital has been restored to some extent, following the fast recovery of the Thai economy after the Hamburger crisis in 2008. It took only a year for Thailand to recover.
Unlike in the past under previous governors, BOT is not the first destination for job seekers. Now, private institutions are luring the best graduates. For a successful rebranding, human resource management strategies would be revised, whereby officials are trained for management skills with help from outsiders.
Unlike in the past, opinions on a particular issue are more varied and require more discussions. To gain public attention and support, the central bank needs strong “social capital”. For a good brand, Prasarn sees the need for continuity, consistency, complementarity and coherence.
“We’re a good organisation, but we want to be an excellent organisation through the value system. It’d be my achievement as a governor if this is accomplished,” he said.