Enhancing effectiveness through digital tools and social media

Triana Newton, regional vice president for Asia-Pacific at Dale Carnegie & Associates, recently paid a visit to Bangkok to lead a workshop on “How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age” organised as part of its Leadership Series to celebrate the Dale Carnegie Institute’s 100th anniversary.
Newton said introducing digital-workplace training workshops would be one of the company’s major focuses for years to come.
“People have not changed much but the environment or the context [has]. Principles don’t change, it’s how we apply technologies to improve personal effectiveness,” she said.
Using herself as an example, overseeing the Asia-Pacific region from her headquarters in Vancouver, Newton said it was simply impossible for her to rely only on face-to-face communication, without leveraging on technologies to run the operation.
Renowned Thai forensic pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand told the workshop she used Line, a social-media application, as an effective communication tool at her Forensic Science Institute. With this app, Pornthip said, she now can reach staff at every level, bypassing middle management and free of documentation. Staff can, for instance, easily send photos from crime scenes to the office.
“Later, I found Voxer, which is even better. With this ‘walkie-talkie’ app, a staff member can record her voice and report to me, who can listen to it any time. They don’t have to wait in front of my room, queueing up for an appointment with me any more,” she said.
Another participant at the workshop said his firm used the “group chat” feature of Line to have a continuous dialogue allowing members of a team to discuss and share their ideas with one another anywhere and any time.
“Thus everyone already has an idea before they meet at the office the next morning,” he said.
A lecturer at Lampang Rajabhat University said that after realising his traditional classroom teaching failed to hold the attention of his students, he shifted to social media, including using Facebook to assign homework and give grades, and getting their feedback through YouTube video clips.
“I get their feedback very fast. I’ve found the new generation actually like to share their opinions,” he said.
“Now we have a Facebook group for PhD [students] only, on which sometimes at 1am some of them are still asking for opinions.”
In an exclusive interview with The Nation, Newton said Dale Carnegie, which delivers courses in 30 languages in 86 countries, was the world’s largest workplace-learning institute.
Dale Carnegie has been “time-tested”, and the descendants of Dale Carnegie, who founded this institute and its curriculum a century ago, are still its shareholders. The institute has grown consistently and enjoys a decent share of those markets in which it operates, she said.
One of its unique characteristics, Newton said, was its sole reliance on local business licensees based on a franchise system everywhere in the world that it operates. “We have found it’s better for customer intimacy. They [local licensees] have long-term interests and closeness with the local communities,” she said.
Asia is the highest growth region for Dale Carnegie, both in terms of franchises and revenue. The institute has doubled its revenue in Asia since 2005, Newton said.
The Asia-Pacific region recently became the second-largest market for Dale Carnegie and is targeted to succeed North America as the No 1 market for the firm in two or three years, she said. The company enjoyed 192-per-cent revenue growth in Thailand last year. “That does talk about the team here. We have recorded unprecedented growth, thanks to the active Thai team,” she said.
Preeyakorn Mimaphunt, managing director of Discover, which took over the local Dale Carnegie franchise, beginning by himself alone at a Starbucks coffee shop in Bangkok three years ago, said the firm had 20 trainers in Thailand, and 10 more would be added.
“We have to balance business growth with trainers’ development. It takes at least 10 months to train one new trainer,” he said. The company is expected to double its revenue for the current fiscal year ending this August, Preeyakorn said.
Over the next two years, Dale Carnegie will continue to focus on building its foundation with corporate clients in Thailand. There is still much room for the company to grow and catch up with the big players who have been in the Thai market for more than 10 years, he said.
After that the firm will expand to the youth and children’s market, in which it already has achieved substantial success in such markets as Taiwan and India, as there is not yet a specific institute pursuing this market, Preeyakorn said.
“Parents are still willing to pay for their children’s development. We are already in discussions with the Ministry of Education to approve our syllabus,” he said.

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