Two Differences on Sustainable Brand

Philosophy of 4 Sustainable Values…Paving SCG to DJSI

When mentioning about a public organization like SCG, one image publicly recognized is a giant company under professional management, transparency according to the principles of corporate governance, and excellent operation results.

This image has never been trumped up, but SCG’s business ethics succeeded from one generation to another generation. It is the genuine “value” coupled with SCG brand.

Roongrote Rangsiyopash, President of The Siam Cement Group (SCG) affirms that the SCG’s philosophy of 4 sustainable values; namely, 1) Adherence to Fairness, 2) Dedication to Excellence, 3) Belief in the Value of the Individual, and 4) Concern for Social Responsibility, is an essential tool to arouse awareness in every working process and thought of all people in the organization in order that they always adhere to the public interest.

“This originates our concept of sustainable development. We start from mindset of people in our organization. With the same belief, we have operated our business on the basis of ethics and fairness to our customers and business partners, employees, and society. When this concept is activated, a great development process occurs, and it corresponds to the sustainable business operation.”

As the concept of sustainable business has been implemented and the actual achievements could be seen, SCG is the first Thai organization ranked by Dow Jones Sustainability Indices or DJSI as the Industry Leader in Construction Materials for 8 consecutive years and ranked highest level (Gold Class) for the 4^th consecutive year from 2008 to 2011. SCG was also ranked the Best Sector Leader in Building Materials and Fixtures.

SCG’s sustainable development goes together with certain international implementations covering economic, social, and environmental domains, and it is supervised by the excellent principles of corporate governance. The development guideline must involve 4 following steps.

“We start from being the green manufacturer. This means the operation of green industry with no impact to anyone, non-destructive exploitation and renewal of natural resources while the community and social development is undertaken along with the production and exploitation of natural resources for trade and investment.

Then, we turn to the supply chain. We ask our business partners to set up their mission in parallel to us in order to develop our merit-making process such as no employment of unlawful labor, tax evasion, fraud, and bribery, etc. It is pleasing that over 5,000 suppliers and business partners have been entering into this merit commitment with us.

SCG has also placed the product and service development process to correspond to the current social demands for the better quality of life of the world’s population such as products for the aging society. The last step is the network creation to expand this merit-making business project to the community, provincial, national, and regional levels”, Roongrote said.

“Previously, we may not have been concerned about how the society talked about us. But, today, we must have adaptation. We must know who talks and how we are mentioned, and share this to our people in the organization. We allow our employees to take part in the decision-making process as well.” The President of SCG stated and affirmed that adherence to the working philosophy was the heart to the development of sustainable brand.

(หัวข้อ) “People Ware” is more essential than “Software”, Sustainability in the Do-in-Thai Style

For few years ago, Suthas Rongrang was a university student paying attention to computer activities. One day, he got a bright idea that his life would have more value if he created “interest” for the society.

Suthas and his friends formed the group to perform many volunteer activities. They have gone to remote areas to teach children in any subjects they were skilled in, including computer programs and IT. The questions rising in his head were what the good developer should be and how.

“I want to be the outdoor developer who does not sit in the lab, but observes the local life. We are the development guided by our public mind. This gives me the answer for what I want to do.”

He established a small organization named “Do in Thai” as an on-line social network for Thai children. Today, this organization becomes a strong brand whose business is to conduct the research, design, and develop social innovations and other innovations for joint learning by people in this new era so that the problems of each local area with different origins and complications would be resolved.

“We are the network of people who want to do the development work. We find that new innovations given to communities, children or local people are sometimes impractical. We must think differently or we start from small. For example, when we find any problem, instead of solving it by our hardware or software, we use “people ware”, that is, we take ourselves to solve the problem; we do not put IT first.”

“My work inspirations are people and sustainability according to the King’s initiatives. For our present working, we use IT for 70% only, another 30% is the spirit and common sense. Our external look may be the innovation, but, internally, we believe in individuals’ potential.

For instance, we met the farmers and offered them to use the farming process monitoring application with free of charge. Every farmer felt eager to use it. But, when advising them to download this application in App Store, they denied it. This means that we set the target wrongly. The farmers need it, but they are not ready for it. So, we turn back to the starting point. We change the application to paper. We prepare a note book and ask the farmers to take note. Just a few minute, the farmers ask me whether my information can be uploaded on the web as it is quicker than taking note. Now, the farmers recognize the value because what we tell them is actually practical. Today, the farmers request for our application.” Suthas said.

All described above is a part of his work on the Do in Thai business, an on-line social network aiming at uplifting the quality of life of Thais and global population. Its thinking process is not different from other big brands on the basis of sustainability. Suthas’s belief is identical to SCG’s belief in the process of creating positive ideas for human resources.

“One we have discovered is the business model of sustainability. We cannot talk about it in 3 or 5 days. This business model takes 5-10 years before we recognize what sustainability is. I want to answer this as the company inventing innovations. Once we embed in people’s understanding, it’s the starting point of sustainability.”

Eventually, both brand and people will be moved forward securely and sustainably.

Come to meet over 60 global and Thai brand builders who will share their knowledge and experience under the concept of “Activating Purpose” in “Sustainable Brands 2016 Bangkok” on 11-12-13 October 2016. Please visit http://events.sustainables.com/sb16bkk/ for tickets.