Getting Rid Of Farang Management

[dgoz]

A lot of the large multinational companies have decided to do away with Foreign management and hire Thais at a fraction of the cost.

Do you think this is good for Thailand?

I'm trying to deal with UBC at the moment, and my answer to this question is an overwhelming no.

[kmart]

Don't see how it could be good for Thailand if their customers are also Western based?

[Barney_the_Dinosaur]

Try speaking to the UBC operator in Thai.

The person you're interacting with is unlikely to be senior management anyway,

[dgoz]

Try speaking to the UBC operator in Thai.

The person you're interacting with is unlikely to be senior management anyway,

I'm not directing this topic at UBC but rather business in Thailand in general.

But on the UBC debate, I asked a simple question of whether they were going to have the one-day cricket from Australia or not. The answer was "the management doesn't know yet". Considering it's 2 days from the tournament, I wonder when they will know.

[Dupont]

Try speaking to the UBC operator in Thai.

The person you're interacting with is unlikely to be senior management anyway,

I'm not directing this topic at UBC but rather business in Thailand in general.

But on the UBC debate, I asked a simple question of whether they were going to have the one-day cricket from Australia or not. The answer was "the management doesn't know yet". Considering it's 2 days from the tournament, I wonder when they will know.

Go cable mate.

The cricket on UBC is dreadful and total adverts between each over. Its pay per view as I reacall from the last test I watched in Bangkok at New Year. yet totally obsucured by adverts. I got rid of mine during the World Cup debacle and the office was full of falangs queueing to have it turned off.

Cable have Premiership football, championship football, spanish, italian all live. They show all the major Rugby, including 10's competitions, and they show the cricket (We had India SA live this week) with far fewer adverts than UBC. All for 300 baht a month.

Where are you? maybe somebody could recommend a good local provider.

Get shot.

Edited January 9, 2007 by Dupont

[dgoz]

Try speaking to the UBC operator in Thai.

The person you're interacting with is unlikely to be senior management anyway,

I'm not directing this topic at UBC but rather business in Thailand in general.

But on the UBC debate, I asked a simple question of whether they were going to have the one-day cricket from Australia or not. The answer was "the management doesn't know yet". Considering it's 2 days from the tournament, I wonder when they will know.

Go cable mate.

The cricket on UBC is dreadful and total adverts between each over. Its pay per view as I reacall from the last test I watched in Bangkok at New Year. yet totally obsucured by adverts. I got rid of mine during the World Cup debacle and the office was full of falangs queueing to have it turned off.

Cable have Premiership football, championship football, spanish, italian all live. They show all the major Rugby, including 10's competitions, and they show the cricket (We had India SA live this week) with far fewer adverts than UBC. All for 300 baht a month.

Where are you? maybe somebody could recommend a good local provider.

Get shot.

Im in Pattaya.

By cable what do you mean? Who's the company?

[andy1308]

If all the farangs (all four of us) left then the company (with 80+ employees) would cease within a week. That's not being big-headed - just stating a fact.

Ninety per cent of my own work involves dealing with overseas companies, and despite my best efforts none of the Thai staff show the slightest inclination of wanting to learn. They would not be able to survive and the overseas companies would cease to deal with us. They only deal with us now because we have foreign staff who understand the 'Western' ways of working and doing business.

If any Thai person shows ambition and a desire to learn more then they will make it to management for sure - but certainly in my company that's not happening at the moment.

[Aujuba]

It's not about nationalities. It's about saving money and still getting what you want. I think this goes worldwide.

[HarryHacker]

If all the farangs (all four of us) left then the company (with 80+ employees) would cease within a week. That's not being big-headed - just stating a fact.

Ninety per cent of my own work involves dealing with overseas companies, and despite my best efforts none of the Thai staff show the slightest inclination of wanting to learn. They would not be able to survive and the overseas companies would cease to deal with us. They only deal with us now because we have foreign staff who understand the 'Western' ways of working and doing business.

If any Thai person shows ambition and a desire to learn more then they will make it to management for sure - but certainly in my company that's not happening at the moment.

Spot on Andy.

[bendix]

Perhaps it's the inate arrogance of farangs who think they can manage Thai companies (with Thai staff and Thai customers) much better than . . ummm . . Thai managers, that makes them want to get rid of farang management. An arrogance which is summed up in this thread.

Having seen examples of farang managers in Thailand (loud, uncouth, wearing shoddy suits and stinking of beer from last night's whoremongering), I don't blame them for getting rid of them.

This thread is a disgrace.

[Prudent_rabbit]

My own experience is that the Thais that are capable of Management will leave if not given the opportunity, no difference to any where else in the world. Its up to the farang management to have succession management in place that both sides can see. If you havent the staff that are capable of management, I would look at your Recruitment process first then look at your Training & Development programs (IMHO)

[jbowman1993]

Farangs will save the world one day! Or blow it to hel_l in a nuclear war, or pollute it to the point that the polar ice caps finally melt and we are all living on boats like that awful Costner movie Waterworld. Not sure which, but im sure one of them will come to pass!

[Heng]

A lot of the large multinational companies have decided to do away with Foreign management and hire Thais at a fraction of the cost.

Do you think this is good for Thailand?

Do you think this is good for these large multinational companies? If not, maybe you should let the various directors of these companies know.

[thaihome]

I believe the OP stated the Multi Nationals Corporations (MNC) were getting rid of farang management (I assume he was referring to the very large Japanese and Korean MNC present in Thailand as well) so we should limit the discussion to this and not get into Thai companies (which I believe UBC is).

First I would ask the OP for some specific examples as I don’t know of any myself. I will also add that in the 8 years or so I have been working for an MNC in 5 different countries I have heard this “we must go local” mantra the entire time, but guess what, we still have thousands of expats working in virtually every country all over the world (100 in Thailand) were we do actual work. There are a few places were the entire staff (of on average 4) is local, but these are places we have not had projects in several years and no prospects in the near/medium term.

So, anyone else actually work for an MNC and experience this? Sounds like the OP was a contract worker for an MNC and got run off under the polite guise of we are cutting back our western management.

TH

Edited January 9, 2007 by thaihome

[chuchok]

Perhaps it's the inate arrogance of farangs who think they can manage Thai companies (with Thai staff and Thai customers) much better than . . ummm . . Thai managers, that makes them want to get rid of farang management. An arrogance which is summed up in this thread.

Having seen examples of farang managers in Thailand (loud, uncouth, wearing shoddy suits and stinking of beer from last night's whoremongering), I don't blame them for getting rid of them.

This thread is a disgrace.

A nice generalisation.Your post is a disgrace I think.

[LifeConvo]

Most investors I know would never put money into a Thai run company unless it had farang management.

Do you want millions of dollars controlled by Thais with sub-standard education and a history of corruption? Would you take the chance?

Errrr NO.

[bkkandrew]

Perhaps it's the inate arrogance of farangs who think they can manage Thai companies (with Thai staff and Thai customers) much better than . . ummm . . Thai managers, that makes them want to get rid of farang management. An arrogance which is summed up in this thread.

Having seen examples of farang managers in Thailand (loud, uncouth, wearing shoddy suits and stinking of beer from last night's whoremongering), I don't blame them for getting rid of them.

This thread is a disgrace.

No.

You are a disgrace. Every post I have read of yours is too. God bless the person that cuts your internet conmnection...

[ColPyat]

The cricket on UBC is dreadful and total adverts between each over.

Cricket in general is dreadful.

I applaud every manager, be they Thai or Farang, who decides against showing cricket.

[chuchok]

The cricket on UBC is dreadful and total adverts between each over.

Cricket in general is dreadful.

I applaud every manager, be they Thai or Farang, who decides against showing cricket.

It's quite simple really,don't watch it.

[LinkPopularity]

NO !!

[cdnvic]

farang managers in Thailand (loud, uncouth, wearing shoddy suits and stinking of beer from last night's whoremongering)

Trade them for Thai managers wearing shoddy suits and stinking of whiskey from the previous night's whoremongering?

[The Philosopher]

Perhaps it's the inate arrogance of farangs who think they can manage Thai companies (with Thai staff and Thai customers) much better than . . ummm . . Thai managers, that makes them want to get rid of farang management. An arrogance which is summed up in this thread.

Having seen examples of farang managers in Thailand (loud, uncouth, wearing shoddy suits and stinking of beer from last night's whoremongering), I don't blame them for getting rid of them.

This thread is a disgrace.

Bendix _ I could not agree more farangs managers are generally only in Thailand to either escape something back home - or they could not get a job of similar status back home - or they just want an extended social life at the expense of the Thai company.

Edited January 9, 2007 by The Philosopher

[Boon Mee]

If any Thai person shows ambition and a desire to learn more then they will make it to management for sure - but certainly in my company that's not happening at the moment.

Perhaps one of the reasons the SET Index is valued at 10 times estimated earnings, the lowest among 14 Asia-Pacific markets. Only the worst-performing - sliding 15%.

But, TIT...

[dgoz]

Sounds like the OP was a contract worker for an MNC and got run off under the polite guise of we are cutting back our western management.

TH

Your assumptions are incorrect. I've worked for myself since I was 24.

If there's one thing I can see it is bad management. It's like a referee in a football match ; if he's good you don't notice him, you only notice him if he's incompetent.

I was watching Sophon cable TV tonight. They have an advert for their station in between movies. The advert's in Thai and English. The English is laughable. Very embarrassing for what I think is a professional company. Is this the typists fault or the Thai marketing managers fault?

If I was advertising in Thai I'd certainly run it by a native speaking Thai first to make sure the spelling and grammar were correct. Would this be genius management or just common sense.

Just another example.

[Boon Mee]

Is this the typists fault or the Thai marketing managers fault?

If I was advertising in Thai I'd certainly run it by a native speaking Thai first to make sure the spelling and grammar were correct. Would this be genius management or just common sense.

Just another example.

Gather you haven't stepped your toes into the building trades in Thailand as yet?

Getting good help is real tough...

[Mic]

Perhaps it's the inate arrogance of farangs who think they can manage Thai companies (with Thai staff and Thai customers) much better than . . ummm . . Thai managers, that makes them want to get rid of farang management. An arrogance which is summed up in this thread.

Having seen examples of farang managers in Thailand (loud, uncouth, wearing shoddy suits and stinking of beer from last night's whoremongering), I don't blame them for getting rid of them.

This thread is a disgrace.

Some farangs are like that - some Thais are like that too.

This sounds to me that your boss is a farang and you want to retaliate.

Farangs are not allowed to own a business in TH anymore.

You can now buy the shares of your boss

regards

Mic

[LinkPopularity]

maybe we should keep a poll ... ???

who's running a company here and knows what (s)he is talking about and and who comes up with all the bullshit ???

there's only 1 reason why so many many farang are running those companies ... they are better !!

I'm running a company, not for my life I would give it into the hands of a Thai.

why? because I'm a racist, yeah right ! that's why I'm here, for sure ... no !!! because of the tale of the bee and the grasshopper ... the winter never came to Thailand !! They never had to learn, so they didn't, they are so lucky ... except of of course now they want what we have, but they never learned how to ....

They have an other mentality, I'm not saying it's bad or less, it's just not the right one to run a serious company.

[Jet Gorgon]

I've noticed that many of the profitable smaller Thai companies like travel agencies, bus/transport companies, resorts, etc are run by women and they don't take any guff. They don't, drink, smoke, or cavort, but then somebody starts a card game and three days later, the truck is gone...

Edited January 10, 2007 by Jet Gorgon

[womble]

One thing the majority of Farang managers are no good at is controlling the Thai staff. If they shout or lose their temper there will be serious problems, and unfortunatley they often end up shouting because Thai's don't like being told what to do by a farang.

In general Thai management are often shoddy, just take a look at most KFC, tesco's etc, he last three times I ordered a zinger burger they had run out, why doesn't the manager address this issue, who is doing the stock control? I have never seen a fast food place run out of anything anywhere else in the world.

In the hospitality industry there is a real shortage of decent Thai hotel management, this is made very obvious by all the farang hotel managers.

There are some Thai's that can do the job just as well as any of the farang, just not enough, and this goes for just about any industry.

I believe the reason is lack of education and alsomany people who are perfectly capable of the jobs are discriminated against from a young age slowing them down. Many will not reach management because they have dark skin or are not particulary attractive (how ridiculous).

The most worrying thing here to me is the general lack of ambition, so few have it and that is why we see such poor management in general accross the board. There are many senior managers who are only in the job because of who there family is or what they look like, I admit this is sometimes the case back in the west, but they must still have a certain level of comptenecy, here sometimes a child could do a better job.

[TLloyd]

To: Jet Gorgon

You go girl.........(sorry, couldn't help myself ) But you go anyway...

Edited January 10, 2007 by TLloyd