The In-Box
Katherine Ferguson, Tahreem Khalil, Grayson Minger, Mary Orbeta, Alyssa Wilson
College of Business, Lamar University
MGMT 5340, International Business
Dr. Komal Karani
October 10, 2021
Thailand also referred to as “the Land of Smile”, is known for its warm and welcoming
atmosphere within its culture and community. It has a strong foundation built on historical
traditions. The people of Thailand respectfully take into account other individuals’ “status”
among the community. One may find themselves being asked a series of personal questions by
another individual to ensure that they address the person correctly and behave in the appropriate
manner. When doing business in Thailand, it is important to save “face” when it comes to
emotions due to how they could be interpreted. Most, if not all, difficult conversations or final
decisions will be made by those of higher authority or “status quo” within Thai business culture.
It is stated that Thai business culture has a “strong sense of hierarchy in government and business
alike” (McFarlin & Sweeney, 2018, p.67). This would mean that overall, it is extremely
important to know one’s place within the business deal being made. Small gifts of appreciation
are a common gesture of the Thai community and business culture. When doing business in
Thailand, building relationships and business connections are just as important as what you know
or can bring to the table. Overall, when comparing business values between Thailand and the
U.S., both countries ground themselves on different common core beliefs. It is important when
creating business transactions that the appropriate research is done to provide open
communication and understanding between both parties.
Forty-year-old Richard Evans, the general manager of Siam Chemicals Company (SCC),
relocated from Europe to manage the Thia subsidiary for the Swiss-based group Chimique
Helvetiue Ltd. (CHL) (Butler & de Bettignies, 2021, p. 2). SCC has always performed well for
the past 30 years, however, recently CHL had to bring Mr. Evans to Thailand to help improve
SCC’s poor financial performance (Butler & de Bettignies, 2021, p.2). Mr. Evans’s office is
located just outside of Bangkok in which he arrived at the end of June 2018 (Butler & de
Bettignies, 2021, p.2). After three months into his new role in Thailand, Mr. Evans is now
understanding how challenging “the cultural complexities of living and managing in this quiet
foreign business environment” can be (Butler & de Bettignies, 2021, p.2). For the past two
weeks, he has been trying to familiarize himself with the CHL subsidiaries in the region (Butler
& de Bettignies, 2021, p.2). By doing so, Mr. Evans has had little time in his schedule. He has
been meeting with new colleagues, attending all-day meetings, and having dinner with new
clients and important contacts that have lasted late into the evening (Butler & de Bettignies,
2021, p.2). With such little time, he has been unable to speak with his secretary or tends to email
(Butler & de Bettignies, 2021, p.2). After two weeks of being gone, Mr. Evans is back in the
office and ready to tend the hundreds of emails in his inbox (Butler & de Bettignies, 2021, p.2).
Mr. Evans only had less than an hour to work on emails due to him having to fly to the CHL’s
headquarters in Basel to give his first quarterly report (Butler & de Bettignies, 2021, p.2).
Therefore, he had to skim through his emails, which were mostly from his management team and
put them in order of priority (Butler & de Bettignies, 2021, p.2). This is no easy task for Mr.
Evans because Thai business culture is quite different from what he is used to. If he were to put
off an email that would normally not be of importance in the European business culture but is
important in Thai business culture, it could cause a lot of issues within his new workplace.
“Richard knew he had to read each email very carefully in order to grasp the complex social
interactions and working structures behind the apparently simple statements and requests made
by his local managers (Butler & de Bettignies, 2021, p.2).”
After reviewing each of the emails in Mr. Evan’s inbox our group decided the order of
importance for each email. Our group determined that the email on page 5 from Mr. Wandee, the
plant’s maintenance manager, was the most important. This is because in this email Mr. Wandee
explains that there is considerable subsidence in the plant’s foundation. We believe as a group
that this would be the first problem to tackle due to risks to everyone working inside of the plant.
In any business health and safety should always be the priority.
The email on page 6 from Stephen Oei, the HR Manager, explains how an illegal lottery
is being run at the plant. Like health and safety, illegal activities at any workplace are very
serious matters. Therefore, we believe that this issue should be tackled next.
The emails on pages 9 and 12 from Sahashin Kaewdee, Director of HRD explains the current
vacancies at the plant. Including some very important roles such as safety manager and lab
technician. It is explained in the email that the plant has decided to upgrade some of the polymer
formulas, because of this hiring a lab technician is very important with the expansion of the
plan’s normal business. Additionally, as stated earlier Health and Safety of the plant should be
the number one priority at any workplace. Therefore, we believe these emails should be
responded to next.
The email on page 3 from Prachai Thani, Head of Staff Development, goes into detail
over some internal issues regarding employees at the plant. This includes a secretary who
believes that Mr. Evans is not happy with her work and a Financial Director who is not fit for the
job. Our group believes that this email should be responded to next as they refer to employees
who are currently employed at the plant. We believe it is better to resolve any conflict with
employees before moving on to other emails.
The email on page 8 from Anna- Katharina Meyer, Director Health, Safety, and
Environment is an email to all the General Managers of the company with regards to the
implementation of the CHL Safety Policy. The email also serves as an announcement of the
Silver Medal award from the Chemicals Industry Foundation. As a group, we believe that
Richard Evans should look at this email next in terms of order of importance.
Similarly, the email on page 13 from Chamlong Sri-krung, Deputy GM is a safety report of the
plant. The email states that the company has had an excellent safety record compared to other
local companies.
The email on page 7 from the Chairman of CHL goes into more detail on the Silver
Medal Award. This email was sent to everyone at CHL. Because of this, we believe Richard
Evans does not need to take immediate action on this email.
The last 2 emails we believe Richard Evans should look at are on pages 16 and 4. The
first email is an invitation to play badminton at the sports hall. The email on page 4 is an
invitation to an employee’s daughter’s wedding. Our group decided that Richard Evans should
