Attachment 5
APEC Seminar on Strategic Human Resource Management for SME
Winning in the Global Economy
September 24 and 25, 2012
Seoul, Korea
FEEDBACK FROM RESOURCE SPEAKERS
1. Data of the Participants
The total number of the participants was 10 (7: Male, 3 Female). *The participants from the
project organizing body are excluded.
Gender
Economy
Name
Designation
1
M
Canada
Dr. Charles M. Gastle
Founding Partner/Adjunct
Professor
2
M
Chinese
Taipei
Prof. Jin-Feng Uen
Professor
3
F
Indonesia
Dr. Putu Saroyeni Piartrini
Lecture of Faculty of Economics
4
F
Indonesia
Mrs. Ni Putu Sri Harta Mimba
5
M
Japan
Mr. Katsunori Nakajima
6
F
Korea
Dr. Jin Sil, Kim
7
M
New
Zealand
Dr. Antonio Díaz Andrade
8
M
Philippines
Prof. Buenaventura F. Canto
9
M
Thailand
Mr.
Boonrakcharoen
10
M
Viet Nam
Mr. Le Duy Binh
Lecturer, Department of
Accounting, Faculty of
Economics
Senior Expert, Management
Solution, Learning and Training
Business Unit
Director/Chief Researcher,
Future Strategy TF Team,
Management Planning Bureau
Somwang
Company/organization
Bennett Gastle,
Lawyers/Osgoode Hall Law
School
Institute of Human Resource
Management
National Sun Yat-Sen University
University of Udayana
University of Udayana
Japan Management Association
Human Resources
Development Service of Korea
Senior Lecturer,
Business Information Systems
Professor, Center for
Development Management and
Center for Teaching and
Learning
Deputy Director, Human
Resources and Production
Technology Development
Auckland University of
Technology
Economist and Policy Analyst
Economica Vietnam
Asian Institute of Management
Thai-German Institute
2. Overall Evaluation of the Seminar
(1)How would you evaluate the following components with respect to the seminar? (using the
scale of Excellent, Good, Average, Poor, Very Poor)
・Selection of Issues ・Case Materials
・Teaching Method ・Target Group(Participants)
Comments from the speakers:
Selection of Issues
The topic is highly relevant to all of the economies. Despite their different level of
development, HRD represent an important issue for the economies
The selected issues represent various problems and challenges faced by SMEs from
various economies.
The issues are much more nebulous and harder to define.
Case Materials
The case materials are clear and well written. They reflected the uniqueness of different
sectors in different economies in the APEC region.
The materials are good enough to provide information to the participants and to facilitate
their learning and discussions.
The case materials needs to specify pedagogical objectives such as the relationship of
global requirements and recruiting and retention of HR; the relationship of global
requirements and distinctive skill development etc., so that we can present more data and
information relevant to the case topic. We need to define the learning objective of the
case more specifically.
Teaching Method
We adopted the case method and participant-centered learning process which were very
interactive and interesting for the participants.
It would be nice if participants have more time for discussion. More than teaching, the
purpose of the seminar was to discuss diverse approaches related to HRD.
It would be better to emphasize more on HRM or HRD issues.
We need to present the underlying theoretical framework or concept as well as
assumption of the company policy which is implemented to meet the objectives or to
resolve the current problems.
Target Group
Participants were excellent. They were very active in the workshop and contribute a lot of
ideas.
The target group mainly included the SME owners and managers, and consultants who
were great in joining the discussions in the seminar. They also provided insightful
comments and opinions to one another.
Although the participants were knowledgeable, experienced and contributed a lot, it
would have been better if there were more SME owners-managers.
The audience was somewhat limited and not oriented to the kinds of issues that were
raised.
(2) What is your assessment of the overall effectiveness of the seminar?
The seminar was very effective for the audience in Korea, and also delivered very well to
provide information about using the cases to develop the capacity of SME owners and
managers in the APEC area.
Overall, the workshop was very good. The objectives set for the workshop was achieved.
It has been an excellent process for me as I could make some contribution and could
learn a lot from it. The content of the cases were good and highly relevant. It did facilitate
the exchange and learning from different economies. The logistics, organization and
support were excellent. Backstopping by IIST was very helpful to improve the quality and
relevance.
The seminar was relatively effective because it could stimulate two way discussions and
new perspectives relevant to sustaining and developing business activities in global
markets. We could learn that a different situation needs a different approach to meet the
seminar objectives.
I am not sure if the seminar fully met the expectation of the participants. The resource
speakers presented a variety of rich cases with real life issues and problems. The cases
were supposed to provoke reflection and prompt thinking of alternative approaches
depending on particular sectors (e.g., manufacturing, hospitality, information technology,
etc.) and economies (e.g. Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, etc.). They were not intended to
offer “the solution” to a wide range of unique challenges and opportunities. In my opinion,
some participants were expecting “the solution”.
(3)Was there any room for improving the seminar?
If so, how?
It could have been improved by having more participants from SMEs or entrepreneurs
who were currently setting up businesses.
I will suggest that the target group in the class should have more time to read the case.
The best way is to send the cases to them early. I thought the coordinator should have
done that but the audiences need to read the cases better in advance. The experts were
from difference professional fields of work, which is great for diversified discussion. They
may have possibly been a little more trained with case teaching method.
It might be better if we could balance the participants’ side (i.e. about the same numbers
between consultants and CEO of SMEs)
More focus should have been placed on HRM/HRD than on business development during
the discussion.
Several languages are spoken in the APEC region and language is still a major barrier to
have a dynamic group discussion. Although the interpreters did a great job with the
simultaneous translation, having the case materials translated in advance into the
language of the participants (in this case, into Korean) could have contributed to make
the seminar more interactive.
If we plan what to discuss in advance, the discussion would be more abundant.
3. New Insights, Ideas and Concepts
Tell us what new insights, ideas, or concepts, if any, you learned about HRM issues, systems
or practices as drivers of SME success from your session or discussion with the participants.
Despite the different level of development and the size of the economies at the workshop,
the challenge faced by SMEs are similar. However, SMEs in some countries are better
prepared to cope with such challenges or are better supported with the institutional
support of the Government or by other stakeholders in their respective economies. SMEs
have taken different approaches towards the problems that they are facing. Especially,
they have adopted such approaches as adoption of modern HR management practices,
being flexible in addressing with HRD constraints, etc.
It is important that HR system be in line with the market development strategy, technology
improvement plan… of SMEs. Constraints in HR might also require SMEs to change their
market strategy.
SME can never be free of HR problems. It is only important that SME owner take a
flexible, responsive attitude towards these challenges. Life-long learning, both to improve
the expertise and skills, at SMEs are important. Incentive systems of SMEs should also
be suitable to their own context. For small SMEs, full adoption of international best
practices or advanced HR management system might not work. They can be used as
reference. SMEs should develop HR systems of their own in order for them to really work
in their specific context.
All the participants agreed the HR isses are critical for the SMEs in APEC economies.
During the discussion in the seminar, I learned the limited resources for SMEs to recruit,
develop, and retain the talented employees. They need to leverage the resources from
outside, including the government and trade associations, etc. They also need to have
good sense in aligning the HR strategy and practices with the business strategies.
There must be a match between the strategic goals of the organization and the HRM
strategy. HRM must be organized in a manner to support the competitive advantage of
the organization in question.
Availability of company resources determines the strategy implemented by the company
to meet its objective or solve management problems.
Value creation process plays an important role in business success. We need to take it
into account when we need to sustain and develop our business. Identify on what skills
should be built to sustain the value creation activity. Where was required competence lay
on? At the owner or at the employee? We need different policy in the competence lay on
the key employees.
Indonesian government in general and more particular the CEO of SMEs should pay
more attention to improve the HRD. Having good HRD practices is a must to be success
in international markets. The biggest challenge may be in increasing the discipline of
regular workers in order to finish the products timely.
There are strength in production management, financial management, sales
management of APEC SMEs. However, there are weakness in human resource
management, strategy and R&D of them.
I learned some new ideas about the relationship between leadership and management.
I appreciate the diversity of the cases and how different small and medium enterprises
adopt human resource practices and strategies suited to their unique contexts. In addition,
learning about the human resource development policy implemented by the Korean
government to support small and medium enterprises was extremely beneficial.
Most of the cases face same challenges of HRM, recruitment, development and retention
of high skilled worker.
In my case, manufacturing SMEs in the mould and die field face a difficulty to recruit new
workers because they don’t know exactly what the mould and die industry is. They
thought it’s a 3Ds industry so they don’t want to join. In this case, SMEs have to improve
their recruitment PR to make them understand more about mould and die making that is
not dirty, difficult or dangerous as they thought. I have learnt many best practices from the
seminar and company visit, such as discipline, hospitality and imagination of participants,
S-OJT System that can be apply to my work, and how to organize an effective seminar
and discussion.
That rapid growth and increased complexity in managing SMEs entering or engaged in
the global value chain presents a great opportunity as well as grave threat for the SME. In
this situation, HRM systems are needed by SME owners to manage the tensions or
tradeoffs between GROWTH, QUALITY/UNIQUENESS, PROFITS, and FAMILY
CULTURE/CONTROL.
In most cases, the SME owner himself or herself is the company’s greatest obstacle to
growth. One of the most difficult but necessary things he or she has to do is to trust and
empower his people, especially the ones who deliver the unique customer value added of
the company, even knowing that most often these talents will move out of the company.
HR systems’ primary function is to elicit and focus people’s behaviors and energies
toward the attainment of the company’s strategic goals. This is why HR systems are
“culture-sensitive” and must be designed and managed with the national and
organizational cultures in mind.
3. Other Suggestions
This project cannot be viewed on its own. It must been integrated into a broader
framework, namely, the strategic use of intellectual assets and management of HRM.
These two projects could be taught together.
The seminar and the kick-off meeting were coordinated very well in the past months. I
think it's great to have the opportunity for me to join the project. I have also learned a lot in
the case development and discussion. I will suggest that the HRD work group can make
more funding in this kind of projects, like case writing and teaching etc. If we can have a
good case bank on APEC business and management, the instructors from the
universities consulting firms and other organizations may use it as a good development
resources of managerial development. It will be very important that utilize the cases
developed in the past effectively. The APEC may have better channels delivering them to
the related and potential users of them.
We need to define the learning objectives more specific and define what information
should be delivered to the participants and what learning experiences would like to be
created. If we define it more specific, we can provide more relevant data to satisfy
participant expectation.
It would be great if we could arrange a seminar or workshop in a certain circumstance
which makes the participants friendlier to the speakers’ topic by separating the
participants by industry (i.e. manufacture, service, etc).
I would like to see these cases-and previous ones-disseminated across the APEC region.
They contain rich material that could offer alternative ways of thinking.
The seminar and its activities (before and after) have proven to be very effective. This
should be replicated with other challenge which is facing SMEs in APEC member
countries.
The case studies developed and finalized after the workshop should be further shared
and disseminated, especially to business administration or business management
schools in member economies. Use of selected case study in real teaching environment,
e.g. in selected business schools, should be promoted.