First to speak was FAM Deputy Dean for R&D and Postgraduate Programmes Dr Pok Wei Fong on “E-commerce Business Model in the Timber Industry”. Her presentation shed light on Malaysia’s timber and timber products industry, e-commerce connection, global e-commerce trends, barriers hindering the adoption of e-commerce, Malaysia’s network connection, and findings from her research.

She mentioned that Malaysia’s digital economy is booming and Malaysia’s e-commerce sales were largely boosted by domestic users, which suggest that is an immense potential for e-commerce in the international marketplace. There is also a positive correlation between ICT adoption and e-commerce adoption. However, it was noted that apart from the many challenges faced, the timber industry is also lacking a “digital push” e-platform.

She highlighted those organisations need to develop an e-commerce framework. “The framework will help organisations to clearly define their goals and measurable outcomes through a comprehensive categorisation of e-business applications that consider both upstream and downstream value chain activities. This includes mapping out existing and future e-business applications in the categorisation. E-business should also incorporate the functionality interaction that occurs when an e-business application is enabled by the functionality of other e-business applications within the framework. The set of e-business metrics chosen to measure success will depend on the overall strategic thrusts of the firm and industry,” explained Dr Pok.

As her presentation continued, her research revealed that almost all timber companies, especially in Peninsular Malaysia have adopted basic ICT devices and tools, and the adoption rate of computers and internet access has surpassed the average national adoption rate, but some timber and timer product companies do not fully utilise its web-based technologies to explore business opportunities, citing cost constraints and lack of technical expertise. Participants learnt that bigger companies have their own websites, but Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) use social media more frequently and yet are still lagging behind in terms of ICT knowledge and competencies due to reasons of inadequate investment in skills and high initial investment costs.

Despite the challenges, according to Dr Pok, the timber industry acknowledges the benefits of ICT adoption, which include enhancing customer service experience, productivity and process efficiency, saving costs, generating additional business or higher sales, shortening the lead time of delivery, and transforming business model. In fact, her research found that timber companies in Peninsular Malaysia have a better awareness of e-commerce being a critical tool to enhance their businesses in the near future, compared to East Malaysia.

Some of the factors that hinder the adoption of ICT, as listed by Dr Pok, were financial perspective, government perspective, technology perspective, operational perspective, management perspective, facility perspective, and environmental barriers.

“To build a successful digital transformation roadmap, it is crucial for the industry to understand and assess the needs and gaps, as well as implementing appropriate business strategies and solutions. One must know how to create differentiating ways of doing business to drive growth in new and existing markets. The outcome collective interviews with the respondents revealed an obvious existence of gaps of current state assessment in preparing the timber and timber products industry to become a fully digitised enterprise. The gaps can be identified from the broad perspective of people, process, technology and content,” explained Dr Pok.

She suggested some e-commerce business models suitable for the timber and timber products industry, such as flagship store, B2C e-platform, B2B e-platform, dropshipping and social commerce. On this note, Dr Pok mentioned that the industry players also expect the government to facilitate e-business strategy. She explained that government and relevant agencies need to collaborate to facilitate these aspects, namely knowledge deployment and skill set support; promote the availability of e-commerce solutions; strengthen protection of third-party payment platform; e-networking platform to facilitate effective inter-firm networking business matching; e-commerce application for timber finished products; the establishment of e-trading sites; and develop B2B customer relationship management. Other forms of support that the industry players required, as listed by Dr Pok, also include e-commerce funding options and the building of trust and security.

Towards the end of her presentation, Dr Pok pointed out some of her policy implications and recommendations, which include improving logistics connectivity; gathering experts on e-commerce in the timber industry; assessing digital transformation; training needs identification and assisting the industry in undergoing the journey of digital transformation. She then continued elaborating on the digital transformation roadmap before ending her presentation with an interactive Q&A session.

FAM’s Dr Omar Hamdan Mohammad Alkharabsheh shared about “Strategic Human Resource Management (HRM)”. “Strategic human resource management is the connection between a company's human resources and its strategies, objectives and goals. The aim of strategic human resource management is to 1) Advance flexibility, innovation, and competitive advantage, and 2) Develop a fit for purpose organisational culture,” defined Dr Omar.

He also explained, “The strategic view of human resources is acknowledging that employees are human assets which help to increase value to organisation and marketplace when investments of appropriate policies and programmes are applied. Effective organisations recognise that employees have value and they are a valuable source of sustainable competitive advantage.”

He further explained that HR analytic is the systematic collection, reporting and analysis of various metrics which are critical to effective performance. Analytics often involves the process of benchmarking where the organisation compares actual performance to goals and/or to the performance of a similar metric by competing organisations. For instance, Dr Omar mentioned that HR analytics can be used to understand relationships.

Participants were also told of the factors affecting HRM, which were sustainability, strategic management of diversity and ethics. “Sustainability (and social responsibility in general) take a more macro approach to managing an organisation’s relationship with its external environment. Organisations are increasingly being expected to consider the effects of their operation, decision and business on the social and natural environment. An example is General Electric who has developed a model programme related to sustainability and Gap, Inc. has set standards to offshore its manufacturing operations,” said Dr Omar.

“In the strategic management of diversity, it involves determining why diversity is important; articulating how diversity relates to mission and strategic objectives; defining diversity and determining how inclusive its efforts will be; making a decision as to whether special efforts should be extended to attract diverse workforce; assessing how existing employees, customers and other constituencies feel about diversity; and determining specific types of diversity initiatives that will be undertaken. As we speak about ethics, we know that many organisations and some industries have developed their own code of ethics. The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) has developed such a code for HR professionals.  This code presents core principles, intent and guidelines in a number of areas, including Professional Responsibility; Professional Development; Ethical Leadership; Fairness and Justice; Conflicts of Interest; and Use of Information,” explained Dr Omar.

He continued, “The strategic human resource management involves aligning initiatives involving how people are managed with organisational mission and objectives. Therefore, the strategic management process looks into determining what needs to be done to achieve corporate objectives over three to five years; examining the organisation and its competitive environment; establishing optimal fit between the organisation and its environment; and reviewing and revising strategic plan. The models of strategy that can be used are Industrial Organisation (I/O) Model and Resource-Based View (RBV). Meanwhile, the process of strategic management involves providing mission statement, environmental analysis, and organisational self-assessment; establishing goals and objectives as well as setting strategy.”

Dr Omar also spoke about strategic workforce planning, which is the first component of HRM strategy and all other functional HR activities are derived from and flow out of the HRP process. It is also the basis in considerations of future HR requirements in light of present HR capabilities and capacities, and requires proactiveness in anticipating and preparing flexible responses to the changing HR requirements, as well as, internal and external focus.

“Strategic workforce planning goes beyond simple hiring and firing, and it involves planning for deployment of human capital in line with organisation and/or business unit strategy. It may also involve, reassignment, training and development, outsourcing, using temporary help or outside contractors, and calls for the need to be as flexible as possible. Here are some types of planning, which are Aggregate Planning, which focuses on anticipating needs for groups of employees in specific, usually lower-level jobs and general skills employees will need to ensure to sustain high performance, while Succession Planning focuses on ensuring key critical management positions in the organisation remain filled with individuals who provide the best fit,” explained Dr Omar.

Participants were also enlightened on “Staffing”, which is the process of recruiting and selecting prospective employees, and it has a significant impact on an organisation’s bottom line. He also mentioned that the staffing process is strategically focused, and the staffing decisions need to ensure the employees fit the organisation’s culture. On the other hand, the recruitment and selection activities offer organisations numerous choices to find and select new employees. Some of the methods of recruitment listed by Dr Omar were, formally or informally, internally or externally, targeted advertising in selected media, recruiting on Internet, outsourcing to staffing agencies, Private Industry Councils (PICs), executive search firms, and on-campus recruiting.

Further into his presentation, participants also understood that Training and development represent ongoing investment in employees and realised employees are assets. “Training and development are important because they address issues of rapid technological changes that cause skill obsolescence, redesign of work that brings the need for new skills, mergers and acquisitions that have increased the need for integrating employees into different cultures, employees that are moving between employers more often, necessitating training, and finally globalisation of business that requires new knowledge and skills,” said Dr Omar.

The benefits of training and development to employees, as shared by Dr Omar, are the increase of employees’ marketability and employability security. To the organisation, Dr Omar explained that training and development improve its bottom line, efficiency and profitability; increase flexibility in employees who can assume different and varied responsibilities; reduce layers of management; and make employees more accountable for results.

“Training has a strong relation to performance management and compensation. Organisations need broad performance measures to ensure performance deficiencies are addressed in a timely manner through employee development programmes; employees’ behaviours are channelled in appropriate direction toward performance of specific objectives; and employees are provided with appropriate and specific feedback to assist with career development. Performance management system is also important to facilitate employees’ development, determine appropriate rewards and compensation, enhance employees’ motivation, facilitate legal compliance, and facilitate the HR planning process. Compensation, on the other hand, is also important because it impacts employer’s ability to attract and retain employees and ensure optimal levels of employee performance in meeting organisation’s strategic objectives,” said Dr Omar.

Before ending his presentation with an interactive Q&A session, participants had the opportunity to learn about union membership and the reasons for forming workers unions.

Also presenting at the summer course were Prof Shimada Yuzuru from Nagoya University Japan; Dr Chung-Ming Chang from Chang Gung University Taiwan; Azilah Anis from Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia; Dwi Winarsih from the Universite de La Rochelle, France; and Prof Dr Che Ruhana binti Isa and Assoc Prof Dr Ervina binti Alfan from the University of Malaya, Malaysia. IDHEP (Institut de Développement et des Hautes tudes de Paris) experts and researchers from Paris France also participated through four of its flagship personnel, namely Dr Kaouther Ben Jemaa, Prof Dr Faouzi Bensebaa, Prof Dr Michel Dimou, and Dr Elhem Hammami.