What Meetings and Projects Should the CEO Attend? TAYA Group Chairman's Philosophy for Time Allocation【Manager today】
What Meetings and Projects Should the CEO Attend? TAYA Group Chairman's Philosophy for Time Allocation
2022/06/02
By Chien, Yu-Hsuan
While the photographer was busy taking pictures, Shen, Shang-Hung, Chairman of TAYA Group took the time to sign official company documents. When it comes to time management, I had assumed the conversation would involve discussions on the use of fragmented time and multi-tasking strategies, but Shen emphasized that "time needs to be used efficiently, not to do things fast, but to make sure that things are done right, and then we can talk about how to do the right things well.
For example, running a business is like rowing a boat with employees, the leader must make sure that everyone is rowing in the same direction. Otherwise, if someone is rowing east and someone is rowing west, even if the rowing is fast and the grip is firm, the boat will not move forward. Therefore, business managers must spend their time on establishing the direction of business development and align the goals of employees, so that the combined effort can lead to effective output.
On the other hand, if the direction is right, it may not be so important as to how you want to row, whether you hold it backhanded or right-handed.
Around 2010, Shen thought that TAYA Group should think more actively about the direction of its corporate transformation. Established in 1955, Ta Ya has been producing wire and cable products for a long time, from high voltage cables for transmission from power plants to homes, to electric scooters and headphone cables, but as Taiwan moves towards a developed country with mature infrastructure completed, the opportunities for development of the wire and cable industry are relatively limited.
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A Year’s Worth of Brainstorming Meetings, Exploring and Aligning the Direction of Corporate Transformation
In order to find the next growth curve, Shen has been holding brainstorming sessions with his senior executive team one day a month since 2010. For a year, over half the year was spent on building consensus through external courses and consulting, so that employees can recognize the value of corporate transformation and have the ability to think about the future development strategy of the company, instead of blindly following the Chairman's decision alone.
Shen invited Prof. Lee, Ji-Ren of National Taiwan University and the EMBA program of National Taiwan University to give lectures at the company, hoping to make executives realize the importance of corporate transformation and emphasize that growth momentum comes from the second and third curves. The focus of the course is to break through the conventional frameworks and think about the direction of transformation from the nature of business existence. For example, cosmetics is a chemical business, but the purpose of cosmetics is to "make people beautiful", so the business of making people beautiful can be included in the business scope.
Before the transformation course, Ta Ya had tried to develop different applications based on copper, a raw material for electric wires, such as copper powder for printed circuit boards, copper balls, or the production of metal mobile phone cases combined with craft design, but elevation of business ambition and vision was not big enough and the opportunities for business growth were limited.
After the course, it took another six months to figure out that "power cables are essentially energy transmission". It was possible to explore new business ventures from the perspective of energy transmission, such as towards the efficiency of energy use. Ta Ya then invested in Fukuta Motor to produce EV motor systems; with the aim of developing upstream and downstream industries of energy transmissions; upstream being energy generation and downstream being energy storage.
By Investing Time in the Right Things (Confirming the Direction) and Using the Right Approach (Sourcing Outside Experts), Business Transformation Will be Accelerated.
In 2014, Ta Ya Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd was established to venture into the solar energy industry. In 2015, the vision for the Group was set as becoming "leading brand in energy connections" and acquired 70 solar power plants through mergers and acquisitions. In less than 10 years, the results have been rewarding. Ta Ya's annual revenue was NT$27.45 billion in 2021, a new record high, with 15.75% of net profit coming from the solar energy business.
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Time Is a Valuable and Limited Resource, and It Should Only Be Spent on Doing Things That “Only I Can Do Well”.
Reviewing his schedule, Shen observed, "I don't have a clear schedule or time allocation, I don't cut what to do from what time to what time, which thing to do for 15 minutes, but follow some general principles. "
First, time will be divided into work and personal time, each period of time is limited, we must control needs and prioritize. "
How do you decide whether to participate in a project or host a meeting when you have limited working hours? The determining criteria is "this is only something I can do" and "I will do it better than others and have 5-10 times the effect". In other words, it is worthwhile to do things that will generate leverage, such as setting goals for the transformation of the company, the CEO should be fully committed, because employees will only be convinced and willing to follow when he or she does it.
The other consideration is on innovative projects. Shen noted for example, in 2020, Ta Ya set out a rebranding campaign for its 65th anniversary, and commissioned a corporate advert. The company had never done something like this before, and most employees did not think it was important. Therefore, he led the project and assumed the risk of failure. After completing the project, the external feedback was overall positive. Only then do employees believe that innovation and change are not blanket slogans, but opportunities to be realized.
"Don’t burn out!" is the final advice Shen gave to employees and senior executives at the company. He reminded that a lot of work is very intense and all-consuming, but inspiration is often inadvertent. Therefore, he spends 2 to 3 hours a day reading and absorbing information, as well as exercising for 2 hours, deliberately leaving time for solitude, and driving to the mountains and the sea on weekends to relax. Only when there is a work-life balance and spiritual contentment can the passion for work be sustained.
Article Source: Manager todayhttps://www.managertoday.com.tw/articles/view/65214