ScandAsia Thailand - May 2017

MAY 2017

Suomi Finland 100 guests Bangkok International Book Fair BUSINESS

PEOPLE

COMMUNITY

LIFESTYLE

Eric Hallin, General Manager of Rembrandt Bangkok Hotel

Jan Mandrup, IBM, transforms businesses

Finnish Ambassador presented her credentials to Thai King

Agneta’s World of Hamburger Restaurants

17 MAY 20

Past Events

New Master Franchisee to Kvik Asia Text and photos: Nadja Dam Jensen

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n, Eric Halli of Rembrandt Manager Hotel Bangkok

PEOPLE ,

drup Jan Man forms IBM, trans s businesse

UNITY COMM assador

Finnish Amb d her presente ls to Thai King credentia

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Your FREE ScandAsia Magazine in Thailand ScandAsia is the only magazine that covers all the Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish residents in Thailand.

We also publish a ScandAsia magazine in China, Singapore and the rest of South East Asia.

Please sign up for your own FREE copy: www.scandasia.com Publisher : 211 Soi Prasert Manukitch 29 Prasert Manukitch Road Chorakae Bua, Lad Prao Bangkok 10230, Thailand Tel. +66 2 943 7166- , Fax: +66 2 943 7169 E-mail: news@scandasia.com Editor-in-Chief : Gregers A.W. Møller gregers@scandmedia.com Managing Editor: Joakim Persson Joakim@scandmedia.com Journalist: Nadja Dam Jensen Advertising : Finn Balslev finn@scandmedia.com Joakim Persson Joakim@scandmedia.com Piyanan Kalikanon piyanan@scandmedia.com Nattapat Maesang nattapat@scandmedia.com Graphic Designer : Peerapol Meesuwan Peerapol@scandmedia.com Printing : Inthanon Interprint Co., Ltd.

Daily news and features here: www.scandasia.com

A

s the month changed to April, Danish kitchen company Kvik also changed their Master Franchisee in Asia. On Friday 31 March 2017 Kvik threw a launch party at their Kvik Thonglor Store in Bangkok to welcome new Master Franchisee, Iain Flitcroft.

Having put together a new franchise strategy under the name Team Asia, Iain Flitcroft hopes to bring cool kitchens to everyone in Asia.

“What I hope to achieve is to grow the business, to sell more kitchens, because as we say; everyone deserves to have a cool kitchen. So that is the aim. Everyone should have a Kvik kitchen,” says Filtcroft.

Having worked for the UK based company, Manhattan Furniture, for 30 years, Iain Filtcroft has plenty of experience with the kitchen industry.

For the last 10 years, Flitcroft has also worked closely with Thailand, where he has had a back

office and have therefore been going back and forth a lot.

He is now looking forward to a future with Kvik and says he is absolutely confident that it will be a great success.

“The products are great, the quality is great, the designs are fantastic, so it is just really about making sure that alongside that the customer experience, the services, the journey we take the costumers on is second to none compared to the competition, and getting that message out as wide a possible,” he says.

As Iain Flitcroft spoke to the many people who filled the store at the launch party, he also impressed the crowd with doing par t of his speech in Thai. Afterwards he joined the famous Chef Chumpol, who was cooking delicious appetizers for the party attenders, and people were eagerly gathering around him to uncover some cooking secrets and taste the beautifully presented food.

The launch par ty seemed a success, and Flitcroft is hopeful that it will reflect to the future of Kvik in Asia.

“We want to consolidate the outlet we have now and support them to sell more. We will look strategically for where the next location should be. Thailand is our number one priority, so we will probably be looking to the north, certainly Chiang Mai, probably Udon Thani, but also thinking more strategically how we leverage metropolitan Bangkok.”

Finwa and SF100 networking event at Finnish Pavillion

By Nadja Dam Jensen

T

he Embassy of Finland in Thailand and Finnish Women Abroad, FINWA, cohosted a networking event at the Finland Pavilion of the Bangkok International Book Fair in Queen Sirikit National Convention Center on Tuesday 4 April 2017.

FINWA is a newly established organisation in Bangkok with a goal to promote gender equality, help and encourage women and kids for safer and better life in Thailand and neigboring countries.

Areas that the Embassy also hopes to improve, as well as guaranteeing good quality education and equal acess to it for all citizens. These were the main topics at the evenings event.

In her welcoming speech, Katarina Tapio, Deputy Head of the Finnish Embassy, highlighted the role of gender equality, education and fostering good reading skills in the development of Finland to the prosperous country it is today.

Afterwards Kati Häkkinen, founder and charwoman of FINWA, held a speech introducing FINWA and told about interesting plans that newly established FINWA has for the future.

Teacher from KIS Internatinal School, Tuovi Pahkasalo, also highlighted the importance of reading for both adults and kids amidst busy modern lives in her speech.

Bangkok, Thailand

May 2017

ScandAsia Community

Mr. Eric Hallin

13

6 Agneta’s World of Hamburgers 8 Order of Dannebrog to Thai diplomat 8 Swedish Alumni event in Bangkok

General Manager of Rembrandt Hotel Bangkok

10 Suomi Finland 100 at Bangkok book fair

ScandAsia Business

6 10

H.E. Satu Suikkari-Kleven

9 DanCham Thailand

New President and Vice-President appointed

Finland’s Ambassador celebrates Suomi Finland 100

9 iData Studio

Denmarks supports UNDP big data project

8

13 Rembrandt Hotel Bangkok

A Scandinavian oasis on Sukhumvit road

Mr. Jan Mandrup

16

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Agneta’s World Photographer: Daniel Herron

Hamburger restaurants

with ambience!

A selection of great choices in Bangkok Most of us know that you can get a decent hamburger meal at a decent price, but what if you want to enjoy a delicious quality hamburger in pleasant surroundings and not feel rushed or overwhelmed by noise?

We’d like to offer a few suggestions of extraordinary burger places in Bangkok.

Chunky’s Hamburger

T

he first one we visited was Chunky’s Hamburger on Sukhumvit Soi 23.

Daniel, the photographer, had been there once before and was delighted.

He found this place by chance and convinced me, who is not a burger fan, to come along.

Believe me, I have until today, never even had a burger at McDonald’s or any fast food chain. Of course I have taken my daughter to McDonald’s, but only had a Coke.

I was pleasantly surprised at Chunky’s. The décor is modern, light and very comfor table.

Floor to ceiling windows face the street and there are nice seating areas outside, on the first floor or upper level.

6 ScandAsia.Thailand • May 2017

Chunky’s opened in September 2016. Behind the concept are nine young men/women who have known each other since childhood or school.

First the fellows were thinking of opening a Thai restaurant, but changed it to become a hamburger restaurant.

Three of them are the Chefs and the others do administration duties, etc. ‘The team’ – as they like to call themselves, are four young women and five young men. The head Chef is Khun Top, who has graduated from culinary school in Thailand.

He is a creative chef who tries to improve all the time. The bread/hamburger buns, are baked in the restaurant and often you can see them being made in the big, modern oven. The buns are a mixture of Brioche and white bread. I must admit, the bun I tried was delicious, fluffy and light.

From 11 am until 4 pm you can tr y the Brunch burgers. What about a ‘Holy Cheese Burger’? Brioche bread with Canadian ham, fried egg, mustard, lots of cheese, a fresh green salad with Balsamic dressing and pickled cucumber?

We had to try it and it tasted so fine.

You can also go for a ‘Benedict Burger’ with spinach Florentine, Canadian ham, poached eggs, sauce Hollandaise and salad or a ‘Wild mushroom with Truffle and poached egg’, just to mention a few.

Most of the Hamburgers cost around 300 to 500 baht. There are also the classic burgers and a choice of pasta and salads. In the future they will also offer Gluten free pasta. Chunky’s serves beer, but no wine. If you like, you are welcome to bring your own wine and there is no additional corkage.

The Chefs are continually trying to figure out new, healthy dishes, based on their motto: freshness and health.To give you an example, they only use soy oil for their fries and olive Oil for everything else. We can suggest you to also try the delicious Caesar chips, the Crispy onions and the Truffle chips: To die for!

If you are more into white meat, you just go for a chicken burger and if you are a vegan, you order the ‘Veggie burger’.

We asked which burger that seems to be the most popular and were told that the Japanese are huge fans of cheese, they order cheese burgers, western are more into beef. The beef comes from Australia and New Zealand. We would say there is a burger for every taste. But if you’re not into hamburgers they even have a nice selection of pastas!

When we visited three young women from the company ‘The Secret Farm’ (an online company) had their lunch and we couldn’t resist asking what they thought about the food. The answer was: ‘Yummy!’

Both Daniel and I can only say, “Chunky’s is just more than just a burger” it’s a pleasant experience to share with friends!

25 Degrees

I

f you are near Silom and feel for a burger, we recommend you to pay a visit to 25 Degrees at the Pullman Bangkok Hotel G. You might wonder about the name of this restaurant; it has to do with the precise temperature to properly cook the meat for a hamburger. I had no idea that a perfect burger must be prepared at a special degree, but made at a temperature of 25 degrees, you are supposed to taste the difference between a raw and well done burger.

This restaurant is not at all a traditional Hamburger place. Here you have funky music and trendy people. You can choose to sit inside or on the small terrace.

Bourbon Street

N

ext, and not all in one day mind you, we travel with the BTS to Ekamai for a visit to Bourbon Street. Bourbon Street restaurant and oyster bar opened in 1996 on Sukhumvit 22 years ago, and in January 2012 the venue moved to Ekamai soi 63. Here you’ll find much more than burgers, but we’ll start with hamburgers. The ‘Bourbon Street Burger’ is one of the most popular; with Australian Angus.The price for this burger is 220 Baht with fries

or chips. A huge, also very popular burger is the ‘Double burger’ priced at 350 Baht including French fries. Does a ‘Baja burger’ sound interesting? It’s made with guacamole and bacon. To all hamburgers you can chose extra toppings.

We asked the owner if his customers are mostly foreigners or Thai people. We were surprised to learn that about 70% are Thai. “We also have lots of Japanese,” he added. “To me it seems like the Japanese are huge fans of cheeseburgers.”

Bourbon Street opens at 7 am for breakfast.

They ser ve excellent Eggs Benedict for breakfast; if you feel like something more delicious than the usual toast and marmalade.

The owner also pointed out that his restaurant is known for its Oysters.

They are imported from France, Ireland and the USA. Many dishes are traditional New Orleans dishes, as well as some desserts. What about a traditional bread pudding?

I know many friends, who every year go to Bourbon Street to celebrate the American holiday Thanksgiving and they used to say the same thing every year: “OMG, it was delicious, but I had far too much”.

For drinks, go for a cold beer; choose between the American Budweiser, a dark or light Leffe (I had a dark Leffe, tasted so good) or an Asahi.

The bar is over 100 years old and the wood comes from old warehouses on the Chao Phraya riverside.

During this visit we met an American family from Lafayette, near New Orleans.They enjoyed a family lunch with stuffed shrimps, crawfish, red beans and rice. They felt happy and in their element, is if they were home In New Orleans.

Teddy’s

T

he last burger place we decided to try was Teddy’s at Gateway Shopping Mall, close to Ekamai BTS. This is a Hawaiian chain and opened in July 2015. Like most burger places they take the meat (Angus beef) from Australia.The French fries are imported from the US and the buns are made from potatoes, less fat than wheat. The oil, used to fry the fries, is changed every third day, which is very important the manager explained. He’s so right; you can get very sick from old oil. Here the manager also said that the most popular burger is the ‘Cheese burger’, followed by the ‘Volcano burger’. We shared a Volcano burger, which was juicy and tasty and the fries excellent.

Teddy’s will soon open a restaurant in Dubai!

After all these burgers we will have to live on vegetables and fatless food for a couple of days and frequently visit the gym…

Here’s our solution to eating hamburgers: Good quality, in moderation and with nice ambience!

May2017 • ScandAsia.Thailand 7

Community

Finnish Ambassador presented her credentials to the Thai King

A

mbassador Satu Suikkari-Kleven had the honor to present her letter of credentials from the President of the Republic of Finland Mr. Sauli Niinistö to His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun on 10 April 2017.

The solemn ceremony was held in the beautiful Ambara Villa, Dusit Palace in Bangkok.

The Ambassador discussed with His Majesty about cooperation between the two countries, and about the centenary of Finland’s independence.

Five other Ambassadors presented their credentials during the same evening and gathered afterwards for a discussion with H.E. Mr. Don Pramudwinai, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand.

Source: Embassy of Finland in Bangkok

Order of Dannebrog to former deputy Head of Mission at Thai Embassy

O

n 7 april Denmark’s Ambassador to Thailand Uffe Wolffhechel handed over the Order of Dannebrog from her Majesty the Queen Margrethe II to Ms. Morakot Janemathukorn, former deputy Head of Mission at the Thai Embassy in Copenhagen.

The embassy congratulated Ms. Morakot Janemathukorn on receiving the Order of Dannebrog.

Source: Embassy of Denmark, Bangkok

Alumni invited to Swedish residence in Bangkok

O

n 25 April 2017 the Embassy of Sweden, Bangkok held its annual Alumni event. Ambassador Staffan Herrström had the pleasure of inviting Swedish Alumni to an evening filled with creativity and innovation.

The evening featured small group discussions about creativity and innovation in Sweden and Thailand and how our two countries can cooperate and inspire each other. It was a successful evening with great ideas and networking, reported the embassy.

Source: Embassy of Sweden, Bangkok 8 ScandAsia.Thailand • May 2017

Business

DanCham Thailand appointed New President and Vice-President

T Finnish Thailand ambassador introduced education system

T

he interest for the Finnish education system remains high in Thailand, writes the Embassy of Finland in Bangkok.

Ambassador Satu Suikkari-Kleven presented the main cornerstones of Finnish education system for par ticipants of a Senior Executive Program for Nation-Building at King Mongut’s Institute of Technology on Wednesday, 19th April.

The cornerstones rest on the principle of providing equal oppor tunities for high-quality

education to everyone, and the idea of lifelong learning. Schools ensure a learning environment which enhances critical thinking and joy of learning, and there are no dead-ends preventing progression to higher levels of education. The ambassador also underlined the high standards of teacher training. The embassy also had great dialogue with the participants.

he New President and Vice-President has been appointed for the Danish – Thai Chamber of Commerce, At the first Board Meeting convened on 20 April 2017, after the recent Annual General Meeting, Mr. Joachim Schalck, Head of Service Thailand & Vietnam from Vestas Wind Technology Thailand Ltd. was elected as the President with Mr. Jesper Riis-Antonsen, Vice President - Procurement, PANDORA Production Co., Ltd. elected as the Vice-President for the Danish – Thai Chamber of Commerce.

By a recently established election procedure where the nominated candidates presented their view on the path forward for the Chamber, Joachim Schalck was unanimously elected as the President for the Chamber seconded by Jesper Riis-Antonsen as the Vice-President.

The Chamber Secretariat congratulates Joachim and Jesper with the new positions and is looking forward to be working with them both, writes Michael Andersen, Secretary-General at the Danish – Thai Chamber of Commerce.

Source: Embassy of Finland in Bangkok

Danish Ambassador spoke at UNDP’s regional iData Studio opening

Vice-President Mr. Jesper Riis-Antonsen, Vice President – Procurement, PANDORA Production Co., Ltd.

T

hrough DANIDA, the Danish Government is supporting innovation activities carried out by members of the UN family, including UNDP. On 29 March 2017 Ambassador Uffe Wolffhechel gave a key note speech at the opening of UNDP’s regional iData Studio in Bangkok.

Exploring opportunities for the beneficial use of (big) data projects, the Studio is an excellent example of a systematic approach to innovation which can make the UN’s work even more efficient to the benefit of even more countries and people – be it in the field of sustainable development or humanitarian assistance. The studio is a good vehicle for sharing innovative ideas and scaling initiatives among a large number of countries in the region, writes the Embassy of Denmark, Bangkok.

“For Denmark the support to the innovation facilities will continue to be a key priority both politically and financially. We encourage other donors to add their support to this important UN endeavour.Technology and innovation should be promoted through partnerships with local private sectors to boost results and secure local ownership.”

In this spring Denmark, together with the Danish Confederation of Industries, will host an innovation seminar at the UN City in Copenhagen focusing on how the UN work with innovation and how the private sector can contribute to this crucial work.

Source: Embassy of Denmark, Bangkok

The new President of the Danish-Thai Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Joachim Schalck Head of Service, Thailand & Vietnam, Vestas Wind Technology Thailand Ltd. May2017 • ScandAsia.Thailand 9

Business

Ambassador of Finland Satu Suikkari-Kleven; Leena Järvenpää, Editorial Director of Tammi; and Moomin

Suomi Finland 100 at the Bangkok International Book Fair In celebration of reading and Finnish education, design, literature and culture

D

Text and photos: Joakim Persson uring 29 March until 9 April 2017 Finland made its mark in Bangkok and Thailand, enjoying a lot of extra attention. This actually came about in connection to one of Team Finland’s biggest activities during the year of celebrating Finland’s 100 years of Independence anniversary. The Suomi Finland 100 flagship event for Thailand then took place, as Finland was ‘Guest of Honour’ at the Bangkok International Book Fair, paired with other fringe activities that were held in the Thai capital. And under this Finland branding the Moomin character was without doubt the strongest visible representative, and a chance for Finland to clearly mark the correct home country of these Moomins!

Ambassador of Finland Satu Suikkari-Kleven 10 ScandAsia.Thailand • May 2017

elaborates, as she reflects sometime after the event’s completion: “One of our interns wrote a nice blog article with the title: ‘Finally Marimekko and Moomin were brought back to Finland’.

Because here many people think that they are Japanese. So I think we got the message through that they are from Finland!”

Focus on education

The Finnish pavilion at the book fair (stating 1.7 million visitors!) was designed under the theme ‘The Joy of Reading – Key to lifelong learning’, highlighting what also gained a lot of attention, namely around Finnish education.

Finland has been ranked to be the most innovative and educated country in the world and Team Finland in Thailand wished to share the

story on how Finland could reach that status. And this connects to the strong literary traditions of Finland and the importance of good reading skills to all types of learning.

“We want to re-open the world of books to today’s learners focused on technology – and to show how important a culture of reading is to build technological and other skills,” stated the Embassy of Finland, Bangkok.

“I‘m really happy how things went and that we had a chance to participate,” says Satu Suikkari-Kleven. “We had many goals and many expectations; to present Finland as a country of readers, and Finland as a tourist destination, Finnish design, the cultural way of living – to introduce Finland a little bit more for the Thais.

That is how we also designed the space; with

small corners where visitors could withdraw themselves from the busy book fair and take a moment to read Finnish books, play games, and also use as a gathering point. And I think we succeeded very well in this to bring people together.”

Finland’s Pavilion was described as a visual wonderland of Finnish literature and design.

The ambassador thinks there was lots of enthusiasm from Finnish stakeholders, book publishers and educators, and with great response from Thais for instance on the education events organised by Finland.

This included a Finnish school class for Thai children and all the classes were fully booked in advance.

“From the field of education, especially, we also invited authorities and universities to visit our pavilion and to an evening event where we had all the educators from Finland and they could network and discuss.”

Thailand’s Minister for Education also came by Finland at the book fair, reports the ambassador.

“On the education side there have been concrete follow-ups so already now we are quite convinced it will increase in concrete terms; both regarding education material but also other types of education cooperation in the field of teacher training and so forth.”

Finnish lessons

A very prominent speaker in the programme was Dr. Pasi Sahlberg, a Finnish education expert, educator, scholar, and the author of Finnish Lessons 2.0, which has been translated into, among many other languages, Thai (an initiative by Thammasat

University and Openworlds Publishing House).

Finnish Lessons 2.0 describes how Finland built a world-class education system during the past four decades.The author traces the evolution of Finnish education policies and highlights how they differ from the United States and much of the rest of the world. Finnish Lessons 2.0 demonstrates how systematically focusing on teacher and leader professionalism, building trust between the society and its schools, and investing in educational equity – rather than competition, choice, and other market-based reforms – make Finnish schools an international model of success.

Dr. Pasi Sahlberg gave a talk on his book and told the success story of Finnish education, showcasing how learning can occur in Finnishstyled environment.

The way of doing things together and having a clear vision for educational reform have been one of the critical success factors for our nation, stated the Embassy of Finland in Bangkok. Dr. Sahlberg received a lot of interesting questions at the book fair.

Educational excellence

Also, exper ts from EduCluster Finland (ECF) conducted a mock-up classroom. Elise Tarvainen (Director of Global Operations) and Tiina Malste (Lead Exper t in pedagogical resources) from ECF, an expert organization creating educational excellence, also gave an interview on the main stage.

ECF offers tailored solutions that designed and implemented in collaboration with partners and Finnish exper ts to enable competence building (professional development and teacher

training etc.). As recently as in February their experts held a 2-week training programme in Bangkok.

Pasi and Tiina also held a public talk at Thammasat University on March 30.

A number of universities in Finland have had a number of co-operations with universities in Thailand, informs ambassador Satu.

“Teacher training is the most popular form of cooperation at the moment. University students who studied to become teachers have co-operations with Finnish universities so they have pedagogy teachers in Finland to come and have courses here and the teacher students go some weeks to Finland. So it is a studentcentred approach, which is ver y interesting

May2017 • ScandAsia.Thailand 11

Business

Magdalena Lindberg, Otava to Thai par tners concerning the methods of teaching; how to engage students more, inspire them and to generate more motivation as well as interaction,” she says.

The concept of joy in learning

Finland’s new thematic-based learning she says has also received a lot of attention. This method means that every year for a period the students don’t learn the subjects separately but they learn various subjects through examination of one theme.

“It is then very much up to the students to find out things; not to be lectured. This hopes to improve the creativity and problem-solving skills.

And this is the latest reform in the Finnish school system.The idea behind it is that future working life demands new kinds of skills; one being complex problem solving, where only one path does not reach far enough anymore,” explains Satu.

“And another big interest is the early childhood education. The whole concept of joy in learning and that less is more. These are basic principles of Finnish education.”

And with this approach it has been proven that children learn better when they are not overloaded with information and having lessons all day.

A lot of educational material was on display in the pavilion, including primary easy-to-understand math books and English.

“They look like very nice books, the kind that children want to learn from as something they also like to read in their free time, with characters and adventures – much more fun!”

Finnish publishers wanted to introduce these to Thailand and their representatives had a lot of meeting with publishers in Thailand.

Popular Moomin

Then there was Moomin – also contributing to learning with an app that helps English learning.

The Moomins are the central characters in a series of books and a comic strip by Finnish illustrator and writer Tove Jansson. Seven Moomin 12 ScandAsia.Thailand • May 2017

books are so far translated into Thai.

“The Moomin corner with books and games, and the Moomin itself, were extremely popular,” relates the ambassador.

When it was time for the ‘Ambassador Satu’s story time’-reading in the Marimekko corner, Moomin walked around at the book fair and invited the audience to join.

“It was very nice; on one occasion mainly there were children, and on another there were also teenagers and adults. I introduced Finnish children’s books and read out one or two short stories. I enjoyed it very much,” she comments on the story-telling sessions.

Representing Moomin, Leena Jär venpää, Editorial Director of Tammi (one of the leading publishing houses in Finland) and an expert in children and young adult’s literature also visited Thailand and the pavilion.

And she brought with her greetings from Sophia Jansson (niece of Tove Jansson, is the Creative Director) and Roleff Kråkström (CEO) of the Moomin company. “I have been working with books of Tove Jansson, especially the Moomins, for over 20 years. And I am honoured to have been chosen as their representative. But they did not send me here alone; I came with my close colleagues; yes, the ones you all know – the Moomins!” Leena told the audience at the Embassy’s book fair reception.

“In 2014, we celebrated Tove Jansson’s 100 years anniversary. She was an author, artist and a Professor. Her stories are among the most loved classics in Finnish literature. So when we speak about Finland’s 100 years, we should also speak about Tove Jansson, whose cultural heritage is one of the best treasures we have in Finland,” she continued.

“Tove Jansson’s texts will never be old; they always feel fresh and timeless. She wrote her way into people’s hear ts by creating the Moomin characters, these humorous and bohemian inhabitants of the Moominvalley. Moomin books have been translated into more than 50 languages.

Their popularity can be explained by their sense

Author Salla Simukka of the Snow White trilogy of humanity and their life philosophy.”

Leena said that people of all ages can read the Moomin books, always with new eyes. She described the realm of them as being “somewhere between the world of children and of adults”.

Snow White and bears

Some other exciting books that were highlighted – described by the ambassador as “un-put-downable” – were two books by the author Salla Simukka from the ‘Snow White’ trilogy (also presented on the main stage).These very popular books (translated into more than 50 languages worldwide) were recently translated into Thai by lecturer, translator Kunthid Rungruengkiat from Thailand, who earlier went to Finland for studies.

Visually, photos by Päivi Arvonen presented Finland as a country of wonderful nature. She explained how she had managed to take closeups of bear and reindeer from hidings, and how this is possible for us all to experience through organised trips.

Also, the Finnish lifestyle and fashion brand Marimekko (now with several stores also in Thailand) also contributed visually, to quote the ambassador, in “creating a wonderful environment with lots of colours”.

“But, also, under the Finland Suomi 100 umbrella, Marimekko is a really interesting story about how to make a company succeed, when you have the courage and stamina to take it through, while that at first seems like a utopia.”

The brand was conceptualized more than 60 years ago.

Last thing: Coming from a countr y that is fanatic about books and reading, what is ambassador Satu’s impression of the Thais in this regard?

“I had heard beforehand that Thais are not big readers but my opinion changed totally after the book fair! It was really packed every day and in the main area where they sold the books it was so crowded with people buying many books and sitting for hours reading. So I got the impression that this is a nation of readers.”

Business

Swedish hotelier Eric Hallin at Bangkok’s Scandinavian oasis

ScandAsia talks to Mr Eric Hallin, General Manager of the four-star Rembrandt Hotel Bangkok, and also the newly elected President of the Thai Swedish Chamber of Commerce.

B

Text and photos: Joakim Persson earing the same prestigious name as the famous painter brings certain expectations and anticipation, which is immediately met in the grand lobby of this dowtown Bangkok hotel; bringing a sense of artistic style with its bright marble, cozy lobby, piano bar and discreet check-in desks, completed by the dramatic marble staircase with wall murals.

Eric Hallin is into his ninth year with the hotel, and only its second General Manager since it opened in 1993. During these years the hotel, just as the other players on the Bangkok tourism scene, has been put to test more than

once by Thailand’s political instability, paired with the recent global financial crisis. The hotel has however stayed strong, kept all its staff, even during the difficult periods with low occupancies, and is a hotel with a good reputation that makes a large number of guests keep on coming back.

Management by walking

There is almost no day when the Swedish general manager is not at the hotel. He is usually seen out and about greeting guests and granting anyone who wants to speak to him some of his time. Eric is a true people’s person who also wants to make sure that his staff are happy and that all sides of

the operation is always running smoothly. And being a Swede, his style of being out and about of course helps to get many Scandinavian guests.

Eric Hallin’s working day is usually 14-15 hours long. Not, he says, because he has to, but because he enjoys being and interacting in the hotel.

“Though today’s hotelier requires spending a lot of time in the office, I still spend a lot of time with guests and still believe management by walking is still as essential today as it was thirty years ago. After all, the guests pay our salaries,” comments Eric.

Consequently he has turned Rembrandt May2017 • ScandAsia.Thailand 13

Business

Hotel Bangkok into an even stronger Scandinavian hotel in terms of its guest clientele than it was even prior to him becoming its GM. “Flights crews from Scandinavian Airlines Systems used to stay at this hotel for over twenty years until when they stopped flying here, though even today many SAS employees stay here for leisure,” he explains. We, the Rembrandt team and the SAS crew (and staff), have a strong family bond, which is equally appreciated from both sides.

“Over 20% of our guests are Scandinavians and form the second largest base after the Brits.

We have several Scandinavian corporate guests as well as leisure guests.”

Eric Hallin is also ver y much personally involved in the sales and can draw from his extensive personal network of contacts and business relations in the Nordic countries.

“Our Director of Sales and Marketing and I go to Scandinavia yearly. Also we are active in the Scandinavian Chambers of Commerce as well as the Finnish chamber.”

Eric Hallin has since coming on board also introduced different Scandinavian traditions into the hotel premises such as the Semla.

As many foreign guests residents in Southeast Asia, including Bangkok, know and notice, the hotels, with their events facilities and dining and drinking outlets, are also very much part of the 14 ScandAsia.Thailand • May 2017

local social scene when it comes to preferred choices for one’s enter tainment and dining adventures. For instance, enjoying the lobby bar live music or a Premier League football game at an upscale hotel such as Rembrandt is not uncommon.

So for people from the Nordics residing in Bangkok, Rembrandt Hotel Bangkok has also become very popular.

“We have had and are having many Nordic events. This year, 2017, is also Finland’s 100th year anniversary. We had the Norwegian Chamber of Commerce’s Christmas dinner the last couple of years, Danish Ballut evenings, SWEA and Swedish School, Thai Swedish Chamber events as well as several SSS (Scandinavian Society Siam) events, such as their AGM and crayfish par ties. We also run our own events, such as the pea-soup Thursdays (often drawing over 40 Swedish gents), ‘semla’ season, and much more.”

The hotel has in addition also hosted ‘Simply Scandinavian’, ‘Orrefors’ and ‘Costa/Boda’ exhibitions and much more.

And when Eric himself is not around there is usually at least one other Swede on the premises.

“We have almost always a few Swedish people here other than me to assist. At the moment we have two Swedish interns; Louise Sandholmen och Ellinor Eriksson, but we have had both Danish and Finnish interns as well.”

Proud of his people

Eric, who has been living and working on and off in Thailand for nearly forty years, was himself a dining customer at the hotel prior to becoming its GM. “I have been a client at the Mexicano (then the Senor Pico), The Rang Mahal and the Red Pepper Restaurants since they opened.”

As for guest feedback the general manager replied: “We often are complimented on our location as we are in a quiet lane just off the bustling Sukhumvit and very close to public transportation as well as shopping, restaurants etc.”

Indeed Sukhumvit Soi 18 is a quiet lane; one of the few ‘sois’ in the area with very little traffic paired with being green thanks to many old and very large trees.

The hotel’s location, he thinks, is definitely a key strongpoint with the calm, quiet tree-lined lane with several restaurants and massage places yet close to all shopping and entertainment that Sukhumvit has to offer. However, it is the people that really make the difference and I am proud of our staff.

“And our lobby is a bit like an oasis in the heat of Bangkok.”

And for the guest experience the famous ‘Thainess’ of course helps in giving a positive experience: “We have wonderful staff that really take pride in giving guests Thai hospitality.”

Popular executive lounge and dining attractions

The hotel’s club lounge is also very popular for those who want to upgrade their stay, similarly to the choices on offer when flying. “Our executive lounge is very well known with many repeat guests making up eighty per cent of our clients, with much of the balance from their friends that are recommended to stay with us. We therefore know most of our guests here, which creates a very special atmosphere. It is a mix of leisure and guests here for business, with many coming yearly or even monthly.”

When it comes to excursions in the city the hotel is also ver y helpful to its guests.

“Especially our ladies on the executive floor are ver y good at advising on sites to see, booking tickets or restaurants etc. Sometimes my deputy Niall Keddie and I help guests as well when we have time.”

And when it comes to dining, the hotel also have attractive choices in-house: “Our most famous outlets are the Rang Mahal and the Mexicano restaurants. Both offer not only chefs from these countries but real master chefs serving up some of the best native food from these countries. For fur ther authenticity we have an Indian Orchestra at the Rang Mahal and a real Latino orchestra at the Mexicano with Cuban and Mexican performers. Our Saturday Mexican brunch and our Sunday Indian brunches are well known for their food and value. The best kept secret is our Italian restaurant where Chef Vittorio and Chef Miew

cook up some fantastic food.”

“We also have an annual Champagne evening under the auspices of the Confrerie du Sabre d’Or which is very popular. Apart from this we usually have a few wine dinners with winemakers every year.”

In this regard it is also interesting to learn that Eric informs that they are working on a new loyalty card for the hotel.

Commenting on social media as tool marketing and outreach he comments: “It’s becoming more and more relevant for both hotels and restaur ants and often shape

decisions on where to stay and where to eat.”

Fierce competition in the city with an increasing number of rooms and dining choice also keeps Eric and his team on their toes. “Bangkok has some of the lowest hotel prices anywhere, partly due to a huge hotel room supply. Even though MasterCard has statistics that Bangkok is the world’s most visited city, we are building more room supply every day and this is not counting the room supply by the shared economy such as AirBnB, causing many hotels to sell their hotels too cheap. Bangkok hotels are less expensive than almost all large cities in Asia,” comments Eric.

How can you make your money work while you enjoy life?

Kim Osborg Nielsen kim.nielsen@nordea.sg www.nordeaprivatebanking.com Nordea Bank S.A, Singapore Branch is part of Nordea Group, the leading financial services group in the Nordic and Baltic Sea regions. Some products and services may, due to local regulations, not be available to individuals resident in certain countries and their availability may depend, among other things, on the investment risk profile of persons in receipt of this publication or on any legislation to which they are subject. Nothing in this publication should be construed as an offer, or the solicitation of an offer, to purchase, subscribe to or sell any investment or product, or to engage in any other transaction or provide any kind of financial or banking service in any jurisdiction where Nordea Bank S.A., Singapore Branch or any of its affiliates do not have the necessary license. Published by Nordea Bank S.A., R.C.S. Luxembourg No. B 14.157 on behalf of Nordea Bank S.A., Singapore Branch, 138 Market street Capita Green #09-03 Singapore 048946. www.nordeaprivatebanking.com subject to the supervision of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (www.mas.gov.sg).

May2017 • ScandAsia.Thailand 15

Business

Jan Mandrup, IBM: Transforming businesses across Asia

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Text and photos: Joakim Persson he Dane Jan Mandrup works as Senior Digital Program Manager with IBM Asia, where he is also involved in developing IBM’s Agile Project management competencies and cer tifying the company’s senior business project managers.

In today’s very dynamic, digital world that is transforming every sector, this combination creates curiosity about: what IBM offers these days (something else than the expensive hardware back in the early days) and what ‘agile business’ practices actually are.

Jan Mandrup is locally employed with IBM in Thailand and it is easy to see that one of life’s coincidences is what brought him to Asia.Though, he had indeed aimed for an international career by also studying at the International Business School in Copenhagen.

16 ScandAsia.Thailand • May 2017

His Asian adventure started back when we was working at Maersk Data in Copenhagen and IBM acquired this IT division back in 2004, including its overseas subsidiaries. Jan was then sent to Japan to transform the operation and integrated the office there into IBM. “After aligning all the ser vices, I stayed another year and did a couple of projects for Maersk in Korea and Japan. I was 3,5 years there and on my way back to cold Denmark I looked around in the region as I really had got to like Asia. An opportunity in Thailand came up; a two year contract for a large business transformation project for a shipping company where they needed a project manager who knew shipping.

It was a done deal.”

“I got to like Thailand and extended, and the two years have became over eight,” says Jan who also works on projects in the region,

overseeing multiyear projects with large millions of U.S. dollar budgets. Recently he was one of the IBM experts flown in to Vietnam for a twoyear project.

“I have worked for multiple large companies transforming their business processes and systems; both where manual processes are made digital and where existing digital processes and systems are to be optimized or redesigned to be more efficient.”

Usually his overall role is to ensure that major change initiatives are planned and executed smoothly and meet the strategic goals.

But where Jan laid foundation for his project management career was studying Electronics combined with an internship at a Danish hospital, where he worked as a medico technician and became an expert in structure troubleshooting and isolating problems.

“Repairing complex electronic equipment is all about systematic and logic fault-finding.

This analytical mind-set is actually very useful in the field of project management because you cannot know all the skills of your team. But you need to be able to ask the right questions to drive them in the right direction. Through this you can easily get to the fact that they might not be able to see, because they are the experts sitting in the middle of the problem,” explains Jan. He also points to that there, despite language barriers, definitively is a role for Westerners like him here in Asia thanks to being a westerner in the people-driven hands-on work: “Successful projects is all about building the right team and project team culture so that people are actually not afraid to come and tell me when they have a problem. Normally that works and they actually appreciate that but they would likely not get that from an Asian project manager.”

The Dane thinks the most difficult thing here in Asia is that people are afraid of failure and consequently also of change. And mistakes do happen and must be allowed and, crucially, must be shared by all so they can find a way to fix it together. Nothing can lie unaddressed, sometimes for years, and pop up at the end. Jan’s way to get around it is to build a team culture of openness and it also helps to find someone in the team that is his trusted informant concerning all informal things going on in local language.

80 per cent of the time as a Program manager he spends dealing with people; including the team but also to manage various stakeholders and to remove road blocks for the specialists doing the technology side of things.

“And often you find yourself between the customer who just know what he wants to do, and the techies who are incapable of explaining something that the executive can understand so we need to bridge that gap.”

Clients are normally the large, international corporations that buy into IBM’s brand and the breadth of their skills. Rapidly expanding companies that are outgrowing technologies and require a complete system overhaul, or companies looking to digitise their manual processes to become more effective, is the typical scenario.

“For example, a company that has had growth or expanded or acquired and is now looking at streamlining the way they are doing business.The need is for modernizing and digitizing of their business processes to become more effective or get a competitive advantage, or they simply want to do it more consistently.”

Tr aditionally this would be done by implementing a ERP (Enterprise Resource Management) solution that can be customized to fit the specific business needs. The challenge in an ERP project is to get agreement and acceptance from all business stakeholders on one set of business processes and that is going to be the way to do things. This can be a BIG challenge especially in large organisation with multiple strong senior opinion makers.

“The area of large complex multiyear ERP projects is however getting more and more rare and instead many companies are adopting a

Successful projects is all about building the right team and project team culture so that people are actually not afraid to come and tell me when they have a problem.

Normally that works and they actually appreciate that but they would likely not get that from an Asian project manager.

more agile approach, implementing shorter agile projects that is solving specific problems instead, providing an end to end integrated process.”

Within IBM there is also a transformation going on from a traditional project approach to a agile culture. This is done through a network of agile ‘Agile Champions’ or Agile Project managers.

“To grow your career in IBM ever yone is expected to give back and help build and promote skills besides their day-to-day job as a manager or consultant etc., Such as promoting agile project management skills,” he explains.

“Today most projects are sold as agile projects which require me as the project or program manager to have the agile skillset but also be able to coach the team in becoming agile.”

“My experience is that only ver y few companies today are really agile. Most companies are still trying to get out from the traditional way of doing projects. Changing people’s mind is not easy. We are star ting to see more and more people adopting an agile mind-set and actually seeing and embracing the agile way. But it is a tough transformation.”

“Many people believe: ‘Now I’m doing agile, so I can change anything at any time!’ That is absolutely not the truth. Agile is a powerful and different way of delivering a project by breaking it down in smaller more manageable pieces, lego’s so to speak which can be delivered in a short period of time and which can be verified or even used immediately. This reduces the risk of spending multiple years on a project, which at the end does not provide the expected benefits, do not work or even becomes obsolete before it has ever been completed.”

“One common perception is that in agile projects you do not need documentation or planning. That could not be more wrong. You do need a plan and you do need documentation but you need to find a balance so you keep the focus on the outcome and the product and embraces change.”

Jan describes it primarily as a different mindset, and points out that it does not work for everything.

“To be successful in Agile you need to unlearn the traditional waterfall project approach where you have gone through a ver y rigid process of documenting your needs, with rigid large requirement documents which you will not see if works until the end of the project.”

The traditional project method entails the risk of an extremely costly failure if you spend two years doing a project that at the end does not provide the expected outcome.

“You need to get away from that thinking and ask: ‘What is it I want to do? What is my end state, and how do I get there?’ I don’t get there by taking one big step that takes me two years. I get there by smaller steps, which I can validate or even start using along the way. So, at least, after two years everything will not fail because I have had things that worked and were completed along the way.”

“The difficulty with this is that sometimes you cannot do it, because there are cer tain things that you cannot break down into pieces.

If you go with the mentioned end-to-end ERP solution it is very hard to go live with only a piece of the end of the chain – you need to have a workable end-to-end process; this is why ERP solutions have a reputation to be very complicated, costly and have high degree of risk.”

“Because of the risk in ERP systems, many companies are now looking at different ways of doing digital transformation where they do many smaller projects and connect the projects together instead of a large end-to-end ERP project.”

Digital transformation is unavoidable when por traying the ser vices of today’s IBM. “Our mission is to become the digital innovation partner and everything we do is linked to digital; it is either transforming something existing into a better way or to build something that doesn’t exist today, or to innovate and replace manual tasks using intelligent technology.”

“It is interesting to see how digital transformation in Europe is very much driven by cost-effectiveness as in the western countries labour is extremely expensive, while here in Asia I find that the motivator is not so much cost efficiencies as labour is much cheaper. Instead digitalisation is more driven by pressure from competitors doing it and companies are afraid of losing out. So it’s more profit-driven.”

Of course, in industries under pressure from external factors, for example the shipping industr y with failing freight rates, constantly need to find savings, so they must transform to survive.”

May2017 • ScandAsia.Thailand 17

มุมภาษาไทย l mum pha:să: thai l Thai Language Corner

By Klavs Johansen (thai@snakthai.dk)

T

here seems to be no way around it and over the years we have touched upon กีฬา / ki:la: / ~ sports in this place on several occasions without giving it center stage. Now, it is time to dedicate a whole column to the subject. Not into sports? Do take heart and hang in. One blessing of the Thai language, from the learner’s point of view, is the preference for creating new words by compounding existing words. Thus, within any specific field, you will find that the related terms more often than not can be split into components of shorter frequently used words with a general meaning. So also for sports. ฟุตบอล / fút bor:n / ~ football is probably the most popular sport in Thailand today. Previously limited to a few competing university teams, major towns now have their own football teams like ฉลามชล / chàlă:m chon / ~ The Sharks of Chonburi FC or สวาทแคท / sàwà:t kháet / ~ The Khorat Cats of Nakhon Ratchasima FC. The latter are also known as เจ้าแมวพิฆาต / jâo mae:o phíkhâ:t / ~ The Killer Cats, แมว / mae:o / of course being the Thai word for cat.

No doubt this development has taken place with a view to Europe due to the immense growth of interest in the European football leagues over the past decades. ผีแดง / phĭ: dae:ng / ~ The Red Devils, literally red ghosts in Thai, or simply แมน ยู / mae:n yu: / ~ Manchester United, and หงส์ แดง / hŏng dae:ng / ~ The Reds, literally the red swan, from the emblem of Liverpool, have become household names in Thailand! Several English Premier League clubs are owned, or have been owned, or sponsored by Thai billionaires.

As in Europe, the last Premier League game is always a well-received conversation topic between likeminded. Here are some words and expressions that will be useful: ทีมเหย้า / thi:m yâo / ~ home team (hosting team), 18 ScandAsia.Thailand • May 2017

ทีมเยือน / thi:m yuean / ~ away team (visiting team), ชนะ / cháná’ / ~ to win, แพ้ / pháe: / ~ to loose, ประตู / pràtu: / ~ goal, same word as for door, and we get

ทีมเหย้าชนะสองประตูต่อศูนย์ / thi:m yâo cháná’ sŏr:ng pràtu: tòr: sŭ:n / ~ the home team won 2-0.

Goal keeper is ผู้รักษาประตู / phû: ráksă: pràtu: / or just โกล / ko:n / ~ goalie and Kasper Schmeichel can be said to be โกลเหนียวที่สุดในโลก / ko:n nĭao thî: sùt nai lô:k / ~ the World’s best goal keeper, at least if you are Danish, where เหนียว / nĭao / ~ sticky, ที่สุด / thî: sùt / ~ most, and ในโลก / nai lô:k / ~ in the World.

เล่นบอล / lên bor:n / ~ เตะบอล / tè’ bor:n / ~ to play ball, where เล่น / lên / is to play and เตะ / tè’ / is to kick. เตะมุม / tè’ mum / ~ corner kick, กองหลัง / kor:ng lăng / ~ defense, กองกลาง / kor:ng kla:ng / ~ midfield, กองหน้า / kor:ng nâ: / ~ forward, ยิง / ying / ~ to shoot, ยิงลูกโทษ / ying lû:k thô:t / ~ (to take a) penalty kick, ล้ำ�หน้า / lám nâ: / ~ offside, where ล้ำ� / lám / is to exceed or infringe.

Finally, referee is กรรมการ / kammáka:n /, ใบ เหลือง / bai lŭeang / and ใบแดง / bai dae:ng /, yellow and red cards, respectively, and ทดเวลา / thót we:la: / is extra (injury) time.

กอล์ฟ / kórp / ~ golf is another favorite, as in the rest of Asia in particular in business circles.

Some golfing terms are: ตีกอล์ฟ / ti: kórp / ~ to play golf, where ตี / ti: / literally means to hit, ไม้ตีกอล์ฟ / má:i ti: kórp / ~ golf club, ไม้หัวเหล็ก / má:i hŭa lè:k / ~ an iron, ลูกกอล์ฟ / lû:k kórp / ~ golf ball,

ออกรอบ / òr:k rôr:p / ~ to tee off, สนามกอล์ฟ / sànă:m kórp / ~ golf course, สนามไดร์ / sànă:m drai / ~ driving range, บ่อทราย / bòr: sa:I / ~ bunker, and แต้มต่อ / tâe:m tòr: / ~ handicap.

Turning to traditional sports of Thailand, two spring first to mind: ตะกร้อ / tàkrôr: / ~ sepak takraw or kick volleyball, and มวยไทย / muai thai / ~ Thai boxing.

The former, where two teams kick a rattan ball across a net, probably hails from Malaysia and is popular in Southeast Asia. The latter is world famous and here is some useful boxing vocabulary:

ต่อยมวย / tòri muai / ~ ชกมวย / chók muai / ~ to box, where ต่อย / tòri / is to strike and ชก / chók / is to punch. คู่ชก / khû: chók / ~ (boxing) opponent, คู่ / khû: / actually meaning partner, ซ้อม / sór:m / ~ to practice, คู่ซ้อม / khû: sór:m / ~ sparring partner, ชกลม / chók lom / ~ to shadowbox, where ลม / lom / is air, ชกหมั ด เสยขึ้ น / chók màt sŏe:i khûen / ~ uppercut,

เหวี่ยงหมัด / wìang màt / ~ to throw a punch, น๊อค / nórk / ~ knockout, or ยกเดียวจอด / yók diao jòr:t / ~ knockout in first

round, where ยก / yók / ~ boxing round, เดียว / diao / ~ one single, and จอด / jòr.t / ~ to park!

We almost knocked ourselves out this time and there are many more sport terms to cover.

See some of them at the Thai Language Corner on Facebook or in a future column, and see you in the next issue!

From August 2017 our new Early Years learning spaces will further enhance the experience of our youngest students through: Even more time to inquire through play-based,

Even more opportunities for outdoor learning, creative role

Even more early years experts inspiring each

experiential learning with an extended school day

play and physical development in our inspiring new facilities

child’s learning

Scan the QR code or visit www.patana.ac.th/childcentred to find out more.

A not-for-profit, IB World School, accredited by CIS and NEASC

www.patana.ac.th admissions@patana.ac.th Tel: +66 (0) 2785 2200

May2017 • ScandAsia.Thailand 19