Written by Mekong Institute
The Mekong Institute (MI) was commissioned by Thailand International Development Cooperation Agency (TICA) to conduct a four-week annual international training course on Leadership in Competitive Enterprises from 22 June to 17 July 2009 for twenty-six government officials and private sector personnel from sixteen developing countries in Asia and Africa. The course aims to improve and increase participants knowledge and skills on leadership, enhance participants professional skills in proposal writing, project appraisal, and presentation of projects, and to promote communication, cooperation and trust among professionals across the GMS.
The training course was designed and delivered using modular training approach where participants went through three progressive stages : i) Learn to do training on concepts, techniques and tools to be employed; ii) Do to learn the participants are required to apply what they learn in their work assignments with proper coaching from assigned advisors; and iii) Share to learn the participants will have an opportunity to present their groups works / findings and share their learning experiences and lessons learned.
Five external resource persons and two in-house subject experts were invited to deliver lectures and facilitate discussions, and share experiences to the participants. Six field research visits in Khon Kaen, Nakhon Ratchasima and Bangkok were conducted to enhance the participants understanding of the program contents and to apply the principles, process, structure and stakeholders in planning and implementing business.
The training course is comprised of six inter-related modules. Program introduction allowed the facilitators and participants to introduce themselves and provided an overview of the learning program, methodology, and process. Module 1 Impact of Macro Environmental Factors in Leadership and Management introduced the participants to the broader context within which competitive enterprises operate and how the external environment influenced organizations. Module 2 Leadership versus Management presented concepts on leadership and management. Module 3 Performance Based Management covered the concepts of the Performance Management System (PMS). Module 4 Ethics, Social Responsibility and Governance in Leadership introduced the importance of ethics, social responsibility and governance in leadership. Module 5 Managing Competitive Enterprises included study visits to enhance the participants understanding of the program content through observation and interaction with enterprises management. Module 6 Business Proposal Development introduced structured hands-on training and practices in developing business proposal.
The results from a range of evaluation methods indicated high satisfaction, showing that the learning program is successful. However, recommendations for improvement were also suggested such as: providing feedback/comments for all assigned works, providing glossary and definitions commonly used in leadership and management field, more case studies from countries concerned, and organizing a discussion forum.