Discoveries from a CPO's Journey

The first day I visited the ThaiBev Expo in October 2014 where the Vision 2020 was announced was blurred by bright lights of the national convention center and the buzzes of a thousand crowds. There a vision statement was delivered by our leader, to be the stable and sustainable ASEAN leader in total beverage business.  The CEO later imparted a vivid purpose “we shall be like drops of water that make the difference to the land we pass through, making ripples that go beyond our home shores.” That offer started me on a journey as a stream, a river, into an ocean and precipitated back as new drops all over.

How can a drop of water create great value like the ocean? That was the thought that went through my mind on that first day.

When I looked externally, that was indeed a daunting visual. Subtly the world changed as I began to look inside.

 “In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.” remarked Kahlil Gibran Jr author of the classic book Prophet. This prophetic statement offered critical secrets to be discovered as I journeyed to lead the awaiting people missions.

The first secret: believe in the greatness of people

As the chief people officer or CPO of the group, I was asked for the vision for human capital management. “Dream big and make it happen,” I told the team. When the dream is big, the obstacle becomes small.”

I believe people have great potentials. In most cases, not more than 10 percent of our potentials have been utilized. Imagine the amazing possibilities that can unfold as we tap into the hidden greatness of each person. So, the top priority that I championed was to unleash the potentials of people across generations, from Gen X and Y upward to the Baby Boomers and towards the future with Gen Z.

As I looked inside for intrinsic motivation of team members, I discovered a strong common theme - growth. This is especially true for the younger generation who see a long path towards the future ahead of them. It is important to cultivate a culture of growth where time invested will lead to growth that cannot be achieved alone. The competitive advantage of an organization is then to enable people to grow faster than others elsewhere with the same amount of time.

The second secret: the bigger the challenge, the stronger you become.

Within a large and complex setting, the power of clarity is essential. It is like grooming of professional sports players. Without clear rules to the games, no matter how talented the person is, the development journeys are bound to be confusing and potentially counterproductive. It is then an essential role for my people team that we can contribute to provide challenges that not only can create value but also unleash the potentials of people to perform.

Each time a team member come to complain about how hard or how much the work is, I lit up with a mischievous grin. Upon a brief conversation, I offered to give the team member even more challenging tasks and further expand the scope. Magically, the original complaint from my team became easier and or smaller... comparatively. This is not a laughable myth, but rather an amazing discovery of greatness that is unleashed once people’s perception are made to expand.

The third secret: personal purpose as enduring source of energy

I believe in the potentials in greatness of people and learned to unleash them with challenges. To engage people with the journey, I often resort to personal inspirations to spark the move and give them motivations to take action. Above all, I found that if the person’s life purpose is clear and aligned to their actions, they are blessed with an enduring source of energy as well as a holistically satisfying journey.

It is certainly important to align personal purpose to the organization goals. In my experience, it can be done by using an analogy of the Olympic Games. Employees have the opportunity to grow and represent the organization in the arena of business competition. An important role of the leader is making the Olympic player have enjoyment in taking action on the court, exciting to watch and the team as a whole worthwhile cheering for.

The power of humble water drops

As I scanned the organization for people stories, one that struck me was a maid in our upcountry factory. She was asked whether she knows about our business vision and how to contribute. Her answer was humble yet so clear. She said she will work professionally to clean the factory such that each visitor will feel confident that we are a leading company. At home she would recommend the use of our products, and in the office she will help save water and electricity. The encounter with her became a story I told to peers and repeated in town halls. The fact that her story has traveled out of the factory floor and told beyond the limitation of space and time demonstrates the power of humble water drops. This tale of humility is yet another example that a person has limitless potentials to make the difference to the world.

Dream big and make it happen.

As I pondered over the same question how can a drop of water create great value like the ocean, I now know it is possible. I even more so believe in the greatness of people. No matter how daunting the external challenges seem, we can look inside to dream bigger than the original problems. No matter how tiring the journey is, we can look inside to find endurance from our life purpose. As the external world marches on, we can look inside to explore many more secrets that are waiting to be discovered and can influence the world for the better.

Dr.Agapol is Chief People Officer of Thai Beverage Group. A Thai translation has been published and is available at:

Translation ?????????????????????????????? CPO