• BUSINESS

  Human resource wish-list for 2018

  Christopher Bruton, Published on 03/01/2018

  » Wouldn't it be wonderful if all our New Year wishes could be granted in the next twelve months? Actually the wishes expressed below could all become realities, or, at least, a start made on them, if government policy-makers have the determination to address these issues. Our New Year wishes for 2018 fall into three categories: some that would enhance the skills of young people entering the labour force; some that would benefit those already in the labour force; and finally some that would benefit those in the evening of their working lives or beyond.

• BUSINESS

  The World Cup Season Approaches: testing times for work/life balance

  Christopher Bruton, Published on 11/06/2018

  » Between 14 June and 15 July, the 2018 World Cup Season will take place at 12 stadium locations in Russia, with a total of 64 matches between 32 national teams. The series of matches will be watched by between 50,000 and 80,000 stadium attendees per match, depending on location capacity. But judging by past experience, total world-wide viewing could exceed 3 billion people, with over one billion viewers for the World Cup final match on 15 July in Moscow.

• BUSINESS

  Women in Business: Thailand Experience

  Christopher Bruton, Published on 18/04/2018

  » In March 2018, we published an analysis of the recent Grant Thornton report on "Women in Business", detailing the worldwide representation of women in the business community. Following on from this, we now recount the observations of three leading business women regarding the importance of women in the Thailand business community. These business leaders are Ms. Noel Ashpole, Partner at Grant Thornton, Ms. Heather Suksem, Deputy Chairperson of OCS ROH Ltd, and Ms. Tiziana Sucharitkul, Co-Managing Partner, Tilleke & Gibbins. The discussion was held at a Dataconsult Thailand Regional Forum dinner meeting, a regular series on significant business topics, on 27 March 2018.

• BUSINESS

  Training or enslavement? Making internship ethical

  Christopher Bruton, Published on 02/04/2018

  » "Unpaid, unadvertised, unfair" is how the UK's Sutton Trust described the situation of many intern workers in that country. Enough real slavery still exists in the world today (including both in Thailand and in the UK). There is certainly no need to introduce institutionalised enslavement into established workplaces. However, many of the characteristics of slavery are fully part of the conditions of modern-day internship: no pay, hard work, long hours. While torture is presumably absent, there is the mental torture of fearing that a negative employer's report may deny an intern a successful subsequent employment opportunity.

• BUSINESS

  School drop-outs cut GDP growth

  Christopher Bruton, Published on 26/02/2018

  » The best educated nations are invariably the most prosperous. Among developing nations, those that have the best chances of sustainable growth to economic maturity are those where young people take the opportunity to complete the education cycle and can thereby enter advanced productive employment.

• BUSINESS

  Manpower solutions for workforce challenges

  Christopher Bruton, Published on 05/02/2018

  » Sourcing competent, reliable and skilled workforce in a full employment situation is a major challenge for every employer, large-scale or small-scale. Offering ready-made and tested solutions is a role that has been provided for 70 years world-wide and 20 years in Thailand by the Manpower Group. Manpower operates worldwide through 3,500 offices in 80 countries, serving over 400,000 clients.

• BUSINESS

  Is English language proficiency the passport to business success?

  Christopher Bruton, Published on 04/09/2017

  » English language, mathematics and science have been defined as the essential basis for modern education. But for Thailand, recent comparative testing has indicated that these "must have" skills are often "don't have" skills holding back economic progress.

• BUSINESS

  Solving skill shortages

  Christopher Bruton, Published on 31/07/2017

  » With the emphasis on "Thailand 4.0" and the concentration on the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), there is much concern that the government's ambitious plans may be frustrated by the inadequacy of sufficiently highly-skilled workforce, especially of technological specialists. There is also concern that the emphasis on the EEC may draw skilled technicians away from other parts of Thailand, resulting in a "three nation" economy: the highly technical EEC, the sophisticated Bangkok business economy, and the rest of Thailand, deprived of technical and business skills and, therefore, also of prosperous economic activity.

• BUSINESS

  Women at Work: Asian trends

  Christopher Bruton, Published on 26/06/2017

  » According to Thai tradition, women are the hind legs of the elephant. The front legs provide leadership and direction, but strength and stability are at the hind legs. The elephant cannot move forward without support of both front and hind legs working in harmonious combination.

• BUSINESS

  Thailand's challenge: Rich in ambitions, poor in people skills?

  Christopher Bruton, Published on 22/05/2017

  » Announcement of visionary and ambitious plans has become almost routine. The year 2017 will apparently not be an election year (nothing new about that) but has begun with boom times in the planning sector. In January 2017, we were treated to announcements about "Thailand 4.0". These were soon followed by further revelations about the "Eastern Economic Corridor". These schemes are all part of government strategies to move Thailand into "Thriving in the 21st century: security, prosperity and sustainability". The 21st century has been going for quite a while now, but "better late than never", and "never" had become quite a routine in recent years.

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