Fly on corporate wall

The Commerce Ministry’s Department of Export Promotion is changing its name to the Department of International Trade Promotion in a bid to, well, sound more international. Taxpayers will be pleased that officials declined to spend millions of baht on public hearings about the “re-branding”, even though some other changes are afoot besides the name.
But is this mostly about boosting the department’s profile overseas rather than, you know, actually improving the service? And is this the top priority when the world economy is tanking and floods have crippled Thai industry and exports?
The department’s chief mandate is to promote exports by bending elbows abroad, but while it requires its officials to be proficient in English or another foreign language, they aren’t necessarily experts on the countries where they’re posted.
Instead of a title change, the department really ought to be lifting its standards to the international level while ensuring the ability of staff to cope with rapidly changing technology and fostering adaptability amid shifting situations.

Volunteered!
Bangkok Insurance Plc chairman and chief executive Chai Sophonpanich moved a planned meeting forward a day this week, getting his staff in a tizzy on Tuesday. The best guess was that it must be about claims from clients affected by the flooding.
It was indeed about the flooding: Chai wanted everybody to help fill sandbags and put in some wet time at the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority. A lot of staff members were already busy outside the office settling claims, so it fell to the small group remaining to pull the volunteer shifts.
Well, they knew their boss was a devout Buddhist, so it shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise.

Never too wet
Asian Honda Motor – shut down by the inundation of the Rojana Industrial Estate in Ayutthaya – is nevertheless still generating generosity.
The Japan-based firm has donated Bt100 million to flood relief – despite the Thai disaster costing it more that the twin catastrophes in Japan back in March.