Striking the right balance

The governor of the central bank should neither be too optimistic nor too pessimistic, says chief of the Bank of Thailand, Prasarn Trairatvorakul, adding that what is needed is a fine balance and a leadership style that essentially “defines reality while inspiring hope”.

A central bank governor cannot always be optimistic because it can expose the country’s macro-economic system to “vulnerability”, while on the other hand, he cannot be pessimistic all the time because that attitude can potentially hinder advancement of the country’s financial system, Prasarn said during an exclusive interview with The Nation.

“We must take a fine balance. On one hand, we need to be realistic that problems can arise, while on the other hand, we have to inspire hope and keep reminding our staff that there are also prospects, creativity and dynamism out there.” 

 

Prasarn said the BOT has striven to blend its traditional role as a patriarch of the financial system – a role often seen as conservative – with the culture and dynamism of private businesses that are enriched with creativity and reasonable risk-taking.  

On the first day at work as the central bank’s governor in October 2010, Prasarn sent out a note to all the bank staff, reiterating the institution’s three core values: upright (yeun trong), foresight (mong klai), and pragmatic (tid din), and adding one more of his own – “outreach” (yeun meu).

Prasarn said the central bank has already found its strength with the first two core values although it has to work out more on the pragmatic and outreach values.

“Since my very first day, I told my staff if I have five years here and can be doing only these two things, it will be considerable,” he said.

“Outreaching” implies not only “action” but also the “mindset” to understand and think from the viewpoint of external stakeholders, not just from one own’s agenda.

“I have noticed progress because now when we have a meeting, our staff have made their judgements taking into account the views of the other side, not only our own agenda. This is a ‘soft culture’ that I would like it to sustain,” said the governor.

Asked about his “role model” for restructuring the Bank of Thailand, Prasarn said he had openly told the central bank’s staff that Kasikornbank, where he was a former president, was exemplary for the manner in which it put a great deal of importance on the human resource and information technology departments and deployed the most competent staff there.

“Many people think the most competent persons are the ones who ‘make deals’ such as those who are responsible for capital finance, lending or business relations, etc. But without good support from the [back-office] systems, they can’t be successful. 

 

“Similarly, don’t think that the most important people who run the Bank of Thailand always have to be the ones who are responsible for the financial policy; there are also other persons who are important,” he said.

Prasarn last December courted Nutavoot Pongsiri from Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production, a leading oil and gas company, and appointed him to the newly created post of assistant governor for human resources and organisation development, while upgrading the HR function to the higher commanding level. Nutavoot is currently working on an HR and organisation development master plan for the BOT. 

Prasarn has also started to install the Balance Scorecard and performance-based variable pay systems and increased non-financial reward programmes that are based on merit, rather than seniority or other criteria, soon after assuming the governorship. 

The Bank of Thailand is moving toward a mission to achieve an “organisation of choice” status, beginning with a goal to become a high-performance organisation (HPO) that will be benchmarked with other central banks, he said.

“Many of our works involve policy-making and taking actions in which there are both gainers and losers from our decision. Many of the things hinge on trust and part of the weightage depends on if they confide the quality of our organisation.

“I have to remind our staff all the time that we cannot stay in our comfort zone because if they [stakeholders] don’t trust us, the cost [of implementing a policy] will be exorbitant,” he said.

Prasarn said HR is an important agenda at the central bank, and would like to see its personnel possess all the four key aspects: “head, hands, heart, and happiness”. According to the BOT’s five-year strategic roadmap (2012-2016), these qualities include being a well-rounded professional, having skill-sets required to get work done effectively, and being satisfied and engaged with the organisational culture.

The BOT has also started to conduct “talent sourcing”, which means becoming more proactive in courting the right talent directly from top universities, in addition to traditional passive recruitment activities, as well as embarking on a “branding” campaign to win the trust of stakeholders. The central bank will appoint its “brand ambassadors” and will publicly launch the branding campaign in the second half of this year.  According to BOT officials, entertainment firm JSL is assisting the central bank on this branding project, not Kantana as incorrectly reported earlier. 

 

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