Toyobo (Thailand) Co. Ltd. is a trading company found under Toyobo Group Companies with over 60 years of history. The company specializes in trading Toyobo’s category leading products, such as Functional Polymer and Industrial and Packaging Films, as well as Hitachi household pumps. Besides trading, Toyobo (Thailand) also create new values to the society through co-developments of products with customers and manufacturers.
Due to the rapidly changing market and the world, Toyobo (Thailand) needs to ensure that their company remains strong and continues to develop. For that purpose, the company aims to build a strong company culture based on the Toyobo Group’s corporate philosophy (PVVs); to create a culture where employees are not afraid of challenging new things.
From June 2019 to January 2020, Asian Identity (AI) supported Toyobo (Thailand) on this endeavor through the initiation of the ‘PVVs Project 2019’ [Principle, Vision, Value].
The project is composed of 2 stages: Philosophy and Training. The goals were to spread the Toyobo Group’s PVVs to Toyobo (Thailand) and to align the employees’ behavior and mindset to the company’s values or known in another name as ‘Toyobo Spirit’.
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STAGE 1 – PHILOSOPHY
In the initial stage, AI assisted to translate the original Toyobo’s Group PVVs from Japanese into Thai language. We made sure to use wording that are appropriate and easily understood by Thai people while keeping the philosophy’s original meaning and intention. Combining this together with the pictograms of Toyobo Spirit prepared by Toyobo (Thailand), PVVs was ready to be imparted to the employees.
On 30th Aug 2019, PVVs Kick-off event was held where the Thai-translated PVVs was announced to Toyobo (Thailand)’s employees for the first time. All employees gathered at the event venue where the President and Director of Toyobo Group directly explained about the philosophy to everyone.
Through an engaging workshop facilitated by AI’s CEO, Nakamura Katsuhiro, participants learnt the importance of philosophy and could feel Toyobo Spirit closer to themselves. During the workshop, participants participated in short quizzes and activities where they had to come up with gestures representing each Toyobo Spirit.
STAGE 2 – TRAINING
Following the announcement of PVVs, AI conducted trainings for Toyobo (Thailand)’s managers and staff. For manager’s training, participants revisited the importance of PVVs mainly in the context of change management. From discussions and role-playing, participants reflected and learnt the way to efficiently communicate with their subordinates based on Toyobo Spirit. Moreover, through iD MAP participants objectively reflected on their management style and considered how they could improve it to answer their role as change leaders.
On the other hand, for staff training, the topic and activities revolve around getting the participants to understand each Toyobo Spirit correctly and understand how it is related to their work and can be improved upon. Through constructive discussions, participants shared about their perspectives on different work functions, problem faced, and the support needed; allowing them to work together with a collaborative mindset.
At the end of both manager and staff trainings, participants came up with ground-rules based on each Toyobo Spirit, which will serve as the reminder and a guide of expected behaviors to all Toyobo (Thailand) current and future employees.
Note: iD MAP is an online-based talent assessment tool; co-developed by Asian Identity and Human Science Plow Inc. in Japan.
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In summary, by introducing PVVs in an engaging way and expanding the concept in a more concrete way through reflection and trainings, Toyobo (Thailand) employees were able to develop a profound understanding about the company’s culture and improve their ways of working in preparation for new changes. PVVs will not only exist as words, but as a principle that all employees follow in their everyday conduct.
Asian Identity provides consulting about philosophy design and sharing, as well as management trainings as a part of our service.
For further inquiries or updates from our team, please drop your e-mail at info@a-identity.asia
