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Made It In Thailand offers a firsthand look at the trials and triumphs of entrepreneurs and business leaders in Thailand. Learn what it takes to succeed in the dynamic Thai market, from overcoming cultural barriers to seizing exciting opportunities in the land of smiles.
Brought to you by Fractiond, a business consultancy for SMEs in Thailand.
Visit: fractiond.io
Are you starting a business in
Thailand or maybe starting a job in
Thailand and new to the Thai culture?
Well, I can tell you there are a few
things that you really have to make
sure you understand when you are
working or doing business in Thailand.
Today I'm gonna share some of the mistakes
that I made and overcame, and ones that
I see a ton of expats make when they are
working or doing business in Thailand.
Now, the first tip that I have
for you is to respect hierarchy.
Hierarchy is very
important in Thai culture.
And so let's assume that you're
joining as an expat employee, either
in a Thai company or in a expat
owned company with Thai staff.
Well, when you come in, you're probably
gonna come in with a lot of ideas.
And you're gonna think, oh,
why are things done this way?
Why are things done that way?
Maybe we should change this.
Maybe we should change that.
And while you certainly can begin to make
an impact in the company that way, if you
do that, you're very likely going to be
frustrating the Thai staff that are maybe
a manager level or senior manager level.
If you are making all these moves without
their approval, without talking to them,
then they're gonna feel disrespected.
And it's gonna cause
problems down the road.
I'd highly encourage you to build trust
up with team members, get to know them
better, get to know managers, senior
managers, other staff, even if they're
the equivalent level of you, and just make
sure that they get you, they understand
you, and you're not just coming in like a
bulldozer, trying to make changes without
asking for permission, without asking for
approval from other people in the company.
The second tip and thing to understand
is personal relationships in Thailand.
I think in a lot of Western countries
we get very used to having the
separation of work and personal life.
And you finish your nine to five
job, you go back home and that's
where you can have your personal
time with your family or friends.
And while that certainly can be the case
here in Thailand too, you will find a lot
of companies that really blur that line
between personal and professional life.
Maybe the team members stay late after
work, but the idea is that they're
going to blur that line between
personal and professional relationships.
Now, that doesn't mean that you have
to fully adhere to that, but if you
can, go out with staff afterwards.
Have a nice dinner out after work.
Do what you can to actually get to see
the personal side of other people, because
when they like you on the personal level,
they're gonna treat you much differently
on the professional level at work as well.
Now, one mistake I've seen in this area
is, let's say that you own a business
and you're thinking about making things
fun for your staff, and you're saying,
Hey, we're gonna order some pizzas.
We're gonna have fun in the office.
That's fine.
And of course that's
very common here as well.
But if you can try to have a
separation where you're allowing that
personal side to come out more, which
is usually away from the office.
If you're gonna have pizza,
do that outside of the office
and don't talk about work.
Because especially owners, we
tend to always talk about work.
Always talk about ideas.
Always try to get ideas from
the staff and the people.
But I'd highly suggest instead
focusing on the personal side.
Talk to them about their family,
about their siblings, about
what's going on in their life.
And when they start to expose those
things to you and build up trust with
you, then they're gonna trust you much
more in the work environment as well.
Tip number three is to be aware of the
indirect communication in Thailand.
And what I mean by that is that
in Thailand, you're not gonna
speak very directly like you would
in like an American environment.
And so it means you have to be
a little more passive with your
language, or it means that your staff
or your Thai employees are gonna
be a little more passive with you.
Now, a way this can really hurt
you is if you believe that when
someone says yes, they mean yes.
Because in Thailand, yes,
does not always mean yes.
So let me explain this.
Let's imagine that you want
something completed on a certain
date or at a certain time.
Well, if you ask a very forceful
question like, are you gonna
have this to me by tomorrow?
Or is this gonna be done by this date?
That is a very forceful
question, where it's very
obvious the answer that you want.
But if you ask that question, chances are
a Thai staff member is going to say yes.
Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am.
Yes, of course.
But I've seen so many times that number
one, it's either not possible or they
don't believe it's possible to get it
done at that time, or even worse, they
don't even understand the request, but
because you have pushed something so
firmly and you know that you want the
answer of yes, they're going to hesitate
to push back at you because the momentum
is already going in that direction.
And so in Thailand, remember
yes, does not always mean yes.
So how do you combat this?
Well, the main thing that I'd recommend
doing is do not have forceful questions.
Instead, ask not leading questions,
but ask questions about their capacity.
Ask questions about how busy they are.
Ask questions about what
they're prioritizing right now.
So if you ask some of these questions
around what's going on in the work
environment and what's going on
in terms of capacity, then you
can start to formulate whether or
not something is possible or not.
And then rather than, yes, no questions of
do you understand, make sure that they're
repeating back to you what it is that you
want and whether or not it's feasible.
And you have to just, again, soften
the language up a little bit.
Doesn't mean not caring about deadlines.
It just means about how you're
presenting your requests or
presenting your questions.
Tip number four is to be delicate
with criticism because the concept
in Thailand, and honestly in a lot of
Asian cultures, is you don't want to
lose face, and that means you don't
want to look bad in front of others.
And so it's very important that you
do not criticize Thai staff publicly.
Now I know again, in Western culture,
you might think, Hey, we have a
team or a company culture of being
open about when we make mistakes and
always sharing when there's a problem.
'Cause after all, what's
the worst that can happen?
We wanna share the mistakes, we
wanna talk about them, and we
wanna overcome them together and
we can be better together, right?
That's the concept.
But here's the problem.
This is Thailand.
And in Thailand you do not
wanna criticize publicly.
And so as much as you might think
that you're not too harsh on
people when they make mistakes.
If you're pointing out the mistakes
they made in a public environment,
then they are very likely going
to lose face in that environment.
So how do you solve this?
Well, the first thing you do
is you criticize privately.
Now, I know this isn't much different
than other cultures as well.
Of course, this is the
nicer way to deal with it.
When you have criticism, take
someone off to the side, speak
to them privately about it.
But do not make them lose face in front
of their colleagues, in front of their
friends, in front of other people.
It's all needs to be private.
And to be honest, even
positive reinforcement when
someone does something well.
I know plenty of Thai staff that
don't want people to be speaking
highly of them in front of a group
if you're doing a team meeting.
So that's why even in those
situations, I would ask the person
ahead of time, is it okay if I bring
up that great thing that you did?
Just make sure that you have the
buy-in from them versus doing
something publicly without asking.
Now tip number five is
to adapt to Thailand.
I see far too many owners, far too
many business leaders, think that
Thailand's going to adapt to them.
And that is a recipe for disaster.
Because of course you don't
have to adapt fully to Thailand.
Of course, you are maybe not
trying to start a Thai company.
You're trying to start more of an
international company in Thailand.
Or you're trying to start some sort of a
hybrid company where it's a mix of Thai
culture and your home country's culture.
And while that's totally fair,
the idea is you still are going
to have to adapt yourself.
And instead of complaining about
all the way things are, oh my gosh,
my staff doesn't show up on time.
Oh my gosh.
People don't gimme the
real answers to questions.
I wish this.
I wish that.
None of it matters.
The only thing you can change is yourself.
Of course, you can adapt
tie staff over time.
You can adapt your team over
time so they're may be more
open to talking with you.
But just remember that it's up to you.
You are not going to
change a country yourself.
You're only gonna hurt yourself
if you think you're gonna do that.
And then you're gonna be a victim.
So I'd highly encourage you to accept
that you need to adapt to Thailand in
order to be successful in Thailand.
Now, one final tip that I have is to
also give gifts when it makes sense.
And what I mean by this is just like you
might bring your security staff a gift.
If you live in some sort of
a gated community or a condo.
You might give them a little
bit of food, things like that.
We'll do the same thing for
staff and for team members.
If you're going somewhere and you can
pick up some chocolates, bring chocolates.
If you have some great coffee
from your home country and
you're coming back, bring that.
So it could be very small gestures.
Now I'd also say gift giving can be
very good, even if it's a large gesture.
Let's say that you have a
staff member that actually is
maybe a partner in the company.
Maybe they're a tie
partner in your business.
Well, one great idea that I heard
recently was giving some gold.
Of course the price of gold and gold
bars has gone up quite a bit recently.
But if it's a very significant
contribution and you wanna give some sort
of year end bonus or things like that,
maybe consider giving a one baht gold bar.
Something like that really does say a lot.
It says that you're
appreciative of their work.
Especially if it's coming
from an owner or a founder.
'cause it just shows that you
care and you went through the
effort to get them something that
they probably really care about.
All right, well, I hope you got value
out of this if you did, all I ask is that
you like and subscribe to the videos.
I work with a ton of expat business
owners in Thailand and I always share
this advice, but I wanna share it more
publicly so everyone can learn together.
So again, if I missed anything,
if I was wrong about anything,
you can leave comments down below.
I hope you got value from this though,
and I'll catch you on the next one.
Bye for now.