BizBuzz

M Academy, a human-resource training unit of McThai, the local franchisee of McDonald’s restaurants, has initiated “The Roundtable” forum, which is no ordinary series of seminars.

Besides hearing from successful business persons invited to share their managerial and entrepreneurial experiences at the seminars, participants are able to chit-chat with their favourite speakers, take photos, or ask questions of specific interest to them.

Last week’s first event had four CEOs as the speakers: Tan Passakornnatee of Ichitan Group, Vicha Poolvaraluck of Major Cineplex Group, Kesara Manchusree of the Stock Exchange of Thailand, and Chananyarak Phetcharat of DHL Express Thailand and Indochina.

Kritika Kongsompong, marketing lecturer at Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration, was the moderator.

After the talk session, the organisers held a break, where drinks and snacks were served. The four CEOs picked their favourite corners and waited for participants to come to talk and take photos with them.

A big surprise, however, was the moment during the seminar when Tan, at the request of McThai CEO Hester Chew, threw his hat into the audience to randomly pick out a lucky person to win an iPhone 6, which Apple was preparing to launch the following day.

But Tan had to toss his hat a second time before getting the winner, as the first catcher was a man.

“It’s a principle of mine,” he told the audience, explaining that he had to repeat the throw in order to find a female winner, because it was his personal rule to give away a prize only to a lady.

advice from an entrepreneur

Major Cineplex CEO Vicha Poolvaraluck recently conducted an informal survey within the group and found that 90 per cent of the staff he talked with all had the dream of becoming an entrepreneur.

“But I would never recommend [this path] to them, because the chances of success [in entrepreneurship] are very low,” he said.

Vicha, known as the “Cinema King”, said there were “tremendous things” a business owner like himself had to deal with every day, and much of the knowledge required for doing so was not easy to come by.

“Doing business is like climbing up a cliff – you never look down, otherwise you will become scared,” he added.

a love affair with Diamonds

Diamond lovers may have noticed that Jubilee Enterprise has been using “Imported from Belgium” as one of its key marketing messages more intensely of late.

The company’s chief financial officer, Unyarat Phonprakit, told the press last week that all of Jubilee’s diamonds were in fact sourced from the European country.

So it should be no surprise that Belgium’s ambassador to Thailand, Marc Michielsen, agreed to open his residence last Thursday for Jubilee to hold a press conference to announce that it had won a certified-retailer award from the HRD Antwerp Institute of Technology, a Belgian gemology institution.

The ambassador told the guests that diamonds formed a very important part of Thai-Belgian trade, as shown by the fact that diamonds and precious metals represent 30 per cent of the value of all Belgium’s exports to the Kingdom, while accounting for 16 per cent of Thailand’s exports to Belgium.

Michielsen revealed that he was born in Antwerp, the Belgian city renowned as the world capital of the diamond trade.

No information was provided, though, on how many diamonds the ambassador has in his possession.

Contributed by Pichaya Changsorn