Shin always prepared with facts

Written by Writer on Monday, October 13th, 2008

Shin always prepared with facts

KOMSAN TORTERMVASANA

Shin Corporation has experienced several crises and is unconcerned by the prospect of struggling through another, says executive chairman Somprasong Boonyachai. He said Shin had responded to intense social and political pressure when the founding Shinawatra family sold out to Temasek Holdings of Singapore in January 2006.The approach at the time was to adhere to principles and facts.

”We will first assess all facts that the general public perceive about our company,” he said, adding that top decision-makers would then use this information to approach the issue through communications using ”effort, patience and timing”.

In reality, he said, a problem reflected a difference between mass perception and company facts. The priority was to hold meetings with people in the company to regain employees’ trust and confidence.

Once the staff had trust, he said, they acted as ambassadors disseminating information to outsiders. But he said that executives must go out and meet outsiders as well.

Next, he said, all information should be arranged according to the priorities of communication. When communication starts, it is necessary to monitor feedback and to accept any correctly identified errors without attempting to distort or deceive.

Mr Somprasong said that Shin spent more than a year following the Temasek deal tackling a negative perception by establishing a reputation for good corporate governance and for not being involved in politics.

”We worked on resolving the crisis … until July this year and this has now begun to bring clear positive returns, although we still could not say that we have resolved the problems 100%,” he said.

He said the company accepted that it could not live in isolation in society but had to interact with every part of society.

Bangkok Post