Biz Buzz

If yellow is the favourite colour in Thailand, it is red in Laos.That is what Teeranun Srihong, co-president of Kasikornbank, learned during the preparation for the opening of a new bank branch in Laos.
To promote brand awareness, it was planned that all tables would be covered with green tablecloths, as green is the colour of KBank’s logo. That was important, given that famous guests from the financial sector would be there, including the governor of the Laotian central bank.
On the eve of the opening, Teeranun ran a final check and was startled to see that all the tablecloths were red.
He asked the workers what had happened. They simply said that red was beautiful and they didn’t understand why the tablecloths should be green.
As a last-minute solution, officers from the Thai bank rushed across the border to Nong Khai province and bought green tablecloths.
The opening went smoothly.
“What can I say, but Lao people are honest. They are honest in their feelings,” Teeranun said.

The sake of a name change
After a decade of hard work, it is a good time to change or make something new.
Tassapon Bijleveld, CEO of Thai AirAsia, left office for a week to be ordained as a Buddhist monk at a temple in Chiang Rai last year.
That surprised many people who did not know that the half-Thai-half-Dutch man is a Buddhist.
But upon his return to office, the 48-year-old CEO couldn’t hide from tough work. The situation was tough given that 2014 was the first year that the company’s net profit contracted.
He thus decided to change the Thai spelling of his name, just for a change. With a different spelling, his name means the 10 dharma powers.
To foreign business partners and clients, Tassapon will remain Tassapon, as the English pronunciation of his name does not change.
However, reporters or any others who want to refer to him in writing will have to bear in mind that the spelling of his name in Thai has been changed.
“I have to be careful and think more in whatever I’m doing,” Tassapon said.
He said this before an AirAsia flight went missing. It’s hoped that after all the hardships of 2014, he will find this new year a better one.