When most new entrepreneurs start their career, they tend to look for opportunities in markets that are familiar to them – and for most young people in particular, that means the type of consumer goods markets in which young people are prominent as models and salespeople as well as customers.
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Today was graduation ceremony at SIU out at the main campus in Pathum Thani and, particularly important from my perspective, it was the first time that we were able to graduate PhD candidates – it has been, in one way or another, quite a struggle to get to where we are today with many people involved.
This is a view of the preparations from the fourth level of our award-winning, energy-saving, accoustic-enhancing main building at the undergraduate building:
I have never claimed to be very good at taking photos and most of the ones I took seem to be blurred, perhaps from my hands shaking or some other reason - I stood in fronot of one hundred and fifty million different cameras today while wearing the fancy dress and every single photo will be better than what I have, obviously. This is the banner:
We had 37 graudates in all this time and of those eight were successful PhD candidates and six of those mine from the School of Management. Congratulations go to Dr Nittana Southiseng and Dr Makararavy Ty below, Dr William Wall, Dr Sittichai Anantarangsi, Dr Pawana Techavimol and Dr Thavorn Thithongkam.
PhD Candidates included people from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and the USA. Graduates for other degrees included (forgive me if I forget anyone) people from Thailand, Burma [Myanmar, if you must], Vietnam and South Korea. Chung Songsen Nim is pictured below.
Two honorary doctorates were also awarded and a good time was had by all – well, I hope so anyway, no doubt there are some with secret sorrows putting on a brave face. It is, nevertheless, gratifying to see that (despite some difficulties) we have continued working until this stage and that our efforts are being acknowledged by official bodies. No doubt more trials and tribulations will come but we are still in the ring and swinging.
University President (or Rector, as some say) Kittirat Na Ranong was in attendance – rumours continue that he will be called away to serve the nation and that we will begin once again the search for new leadership. Best wishes go with him if that is the case – much remains to be done to repair the image of Thailand in the world stage after the disastrous performance of the current incumbent and his green-shirted sponsors.
The Industrial Ladder is a term used to describe the way that most if not all economies develop through time. Initially, economies are based on agriculture, principally subsistence or hand-to-mouth agriculture with all active members of the labour force expected to participate in acquiring enough food for all the community to survive. In due course, productivity increases through better understanding of the environment and this means the community can afford to have a small number of people not devoted to agriculture. Such people can take up different kinds of work: priests, soldiers, kings and so forth.
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Adults learn in different ways from children, who seem almost naturally to absorb useful information and lessons. Adults, in general terms and skating over the theoretical arguments and considerations, tend to have to make deliberate efforts to learn things. Entrepreneurs need to learn certain things about how businesses work, how new technologies interact with each other and so forth – but entrepreneurs are also similar to Sherlock Holmes in the sense that there are many things which it is not necessary to know about and can be deliberately and safely ignored.
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Announcing: Walsh, John and Nittana Southiseng, “Challenges of Economic Stress on Chinese Entrepreneurs and Their Families in Laos,” Journal of Social and Development Sciences, Vol.2, No.1 (July, 2011), pp.31-7, available at: http://www.ifrnd.org/JSDS/Vol%202/2(1)%20Jul%202011/5.pdf.
Abstract: Chinese are increasing in number in Laos as new inter-governmental agreements permit labour migration for infrastructure development. Entrepreneurs have been accompanying migrants and establishing their own businesses, alongside the long-standing businesses established over the years by ethnic Chinese in the country. Many industrial sectors are involved. Problems that Chinese entrepreneurs might face include language issues and discrimination, as well as lack of business infrastructure and support services. Additionally, Lao consumers are primarily motivated by price alone and have little interest in exploring new brands or products. While these business management related issues are clear, what is not clear is the impact that conducting business on such a basis has on additional family members, who are also commonly employed within the business. Key informants were Chinese entrepreneurs and their family members in the capital city of Vientiane and they were interviewed personally with a view to understanding what stresses there may be on family members doing business in an environment which is not entirely friendly or welcoming, especially under conditions of global economic crisis. Competition is intensifying as increasing numbers of Thai and Vietnamese entrepreneurs are seeking to establish a foothold in the Lao market. Many Chinese entrepreneurs have, as a result of these changing conditions, been forced to offer better deals for customers, thereby restricting profits. This has had a follow-through effect on family members.
Keywords: Economic stress, Chinese entrepreneurs, Laos
Since entrepreneurs want above all to be making money, it necessarily follows that they do not wish to spend their time managing and particularly micro-managing a business venture they have opened. There are numerous other opportunities for them to investigate and new streams of revenue to secure. Yet leaving a new business venture without proper supervision can lead to the creation of problems or inability to spot those problems which might result in the failure of that firm.
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A little learning is a dangerous thing, according to Alexander Pope, who wrote at a time when the Netherlands was still establishing itself as a leading exponent of European finance capitalism, a proponent of imperialism and an upholder of the virtues of cultural Renaissance. On land largely recovered from the sea and at the mercy of technological failure at any moment, the Dutch polity overcame religious divisions and control of its land and resources by the Spanish aristocracy to fashion a modern state that is now widely admired for its tolerant nature, for the extraordinary extent to which its people can speak foreign languages (Dutch itself being a little tricky, apparently) and the Total Football tradition introduced by the genius Johann Cruyff, among other achievements.
Read the full review here.
I will be away for the next three days at the 11th Conference on Thai Studies, which is being held at the Siam City Hotel here in not so sunny Bangkok. I am going to give a paper on Industrial Estates in Thailand. This is the title and abstract:
The Industrial Estates of Thailand: Places, Processes and People
Abstract
The industrial estate, which distorts both place and market conditions, exists in various forms to promote desired economic activities in preferred locations. It is a target for inward investment and a goal for workers, especially factory workers, while also being a place that enacts state-mandated developmental goals in transforming the economy from an overly significant agricultural base. Within its borders, contestation has occurred between capital and labour, between stakeholders and polluters and between state and commerce. It is in the estates that Thailand’s transition and, perhaps, out of the East Asian Economic Model (import-substituting, export-oriented low labour-cost competitive manufacturing) has to a considerable extent taken place. Yet the nature and structure of the activities and practices taking place within the estates remains under-explored from a variety of academic approaches. In this paper, an attempt is made to remedy this lack to some extent by delineating the nature, extent and structure of industrial estates in the past and present and also suggests ways in which they might vary in the foreseeable future as Thailand seeks to exit the Middle Income Trap into which its manufacturing base has now brought it. Comparisons are made with the industrial estates of Europe and of China, which offer valuable data concerning the organization of labour and the means of converting manufacturing into higher value-adding activities. It is then possible to address the question of whether Thailand’s industrial estates are in any way unique.
Keywords: labour, industrial estates, economic geography, Thailand
Eight children, of varying ages and characteristics, interact with each other in the eponymous silent school, which appears to be a school without teachers or indeed external purpose. The children are free to do whatever they want and to develop themselves or not develop according to their own proclivities. They include Earth Din, Water Nam, Mountain Pukao, and Pond Bueng – or, in other words, the same meaning of a name in both English and Thai.
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The reason why the entrepreneur starts business ventures is in the hope that one will be successful and can be sold (‘harvested’ is the term used in the jargon of business) for a sufficient amount of money not just to make a profit on the one venture but also to cover losses made by all the other inevitably failed ventures.
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