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HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:
Bowin Power holds stone laying ceremony

New medical cover comes to Thailand

GSF to offer Salomon-Adidas

Deputy PM opens joint exhibition

Thought for the week

Bowin Power holds stone laying ceremony

Pridiyathorn Devakula (center), chairman of H-Power Co., Ltd., Sawasdi Horrungruang (5th left), chairman of the board of directors of Hemaraj Land and Development PLC, David Nardone (3rd right), president of Hemaraj Land and Development PLC, and Anut Chatikavanij (5th left, second row), managing director of Bowin Power Co., Ltd.

Bowin Power Co., Ltd. held the stone laying ceremony of its new power plant at Chonburi Industrial Estate (Bowin), developed by Hemaraj Land and Development PLC. Bowin Power is wholly owned by H - Power Co., Ltd., a joint venture between Tractebel S.A. from Belgium and Hemaraj Land and Development PLC., to develop a 741 MW natural gas-fired Alstom combined cycle power plant under EGAT’s Independent Power Producer (IPP) program, with a USD 400 million of investment.

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New medical cover comes to Thailand

More than 100 insurance brokers and agents attended the launch of QBE Insurance (Thailand) Limited’s new Worldwide Medical Cover.

Ron Sparks, director and general manager of QBE Insurance Thailand (6th from left), Vichai Phunthikaphadr, assistant general manager of QBE (2nd from left) and Peter Wong-Morrow, chairman and CEO of International Private Healthcare Limited in UK (4th from left).

The Worldwide Medical Expenses Protection Plan is available to anyone of any age and covers policyholders while traveling to anywhere in the world.

Ron Sparks, QBE’s general manager in Thailand, said the policy can be tailored to suit particular needs and includes in-patient and out-patient, emergency ward, road ambulance, dental treatment, nursing at home, repatriation of remains or local burial and even organ transplant.

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GSF to offer Salomon-Adidas

The German Sport & Fashion Company Limited (GSF), the exclusive franchise partner of Adidas in Thailand, now offers the exclusive adventure shoe collection of Salomon-Adidas in Thailand.

Salomon-Adidas, a sister company of Adidas Germany, is the world leader in inline-skating, trekking and ski sports equipment. GSF Adidas presented a range of high quality Salomon trekking and leisure shoes in October 2000, with attractive prices. The Adidas Spring/Summer collection 2001, with a large range of lifestyle and leisure products exclusively in Thailand, will also be available end of November 2000, including a large kid’s and swimwear collection. Prices are up to 60% cheaper than in Europe or USA.

GSF Adidas will launch the sales of the brand new Adidas sunglass collection 2001, Adidas watch collection 2001 and the new collection of Adidas golf shoes in November/December 2000.

The exclusive men’s and women’s underwear collection of Bruno Banani, Germany will also be available in December 2000, exclusively sold in all GSF Adidas shops.

Bruno Banani underwear Gmbh Chemnitz Germany, Europe’s market leader in exclusive designer underwear and swimwear for men & women, has appointed GSF Sport Company Limited (part of the German - Thai Group) as its sole distributor for Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

All products of the Bruno Banani collection are designed and manufactured in Germany.

GSF Sport Company Limited will launch the new Bruno Banani product line in Thailand in the first quarter of 2001. Selected retail partners such as Emporium Bangkok, Central Chidlom Department Store Bangkok, World Trade Center Bangkok, Sogo Erawan Bangkok, The Mall Bangkok and 20 special retailers in the provinces will be selling the exclusive brand in the first step. The launch of Bruno Banani products in Singapore and Malaysia will follow in the second quarter of 2001, and Indonesia and Brunei in the fourth quarter of 2001.

GSF Adidas currently operates 23 branches in Thailand from Samui, Phuket, Bangkok, Hat Yai, Suratthani, Pattaya, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. New outlets in Samui, Pattaya and Phi Phi Island will be opened at the end of the year.

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Deputy PM opens joint exhibition

His Excellency Korn Dabbaransi, deputy prime minister and minister of public health was the guest-of-honour at the joint opening of the International Food & Hospitality Show 2000 (12-15 October 2000) and Thailand’s 2nd Hospitality Industry Congress “Vision and Changes for Global Competitiveness” (12 - 14 October). Both events took place at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre and were organized by Bangkok Exhibition Services Ltd. and Thai Hotels Association respectively. Other guests included Dr. Adisai Potharamik, minister to the prime minister’s office, chairman of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Chanin Donavanik, president of Thai Hotels Association and Pattrapee Chinachoti, chairman of Bangkok Exhibition Services Ltd.

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Thought for the week

Why businesses fail - 4

More on poor sales performance leading to lousy cash flows! To continue from last week and back to the hotels…

A big danger… to much business from one customer. For hotels this seems to be constantly struggling with big time business introducers whose buying power is so great they are able to command the market at minimal profit whilst reserving large percentages of a hotels inventory. I think perhaps the evolution of the modern independent traveller using direct ordering through the Internet may soon put paid to this lot. In these conditions the senior management in the hospitality industry must be constantly scratching their heads and planning how to sell to the full market spectrum. Perhaps those selling across the 3, 4, 5 star and super deluxe properties might give us all the clue on how we all need to think about capturing different market segments and reducing our reliance on one or two major introducers. Now that’s looking after sales and cash flow and profit.

Sound business practice also means sales people must think ‘big picture’ and to make sure they/we are acting as a ‘company team’ and that we are putting the organization’s overall results ahead of our own ‘small area’ priorities. A friend in the event management business recently told me that he had two hotels in the same group arguing over his business and cutting each others prices and he was both amused and perplexed by this situation. He had decided that in future he was going to use another chain as although he had made a short term gain, the hotel sales teams’ behaviour made him nervous and question their professionalism and he felt uneasy about accommodating his customers in either hotel. Were the sales operators of these organizations acting as a team and looking at the big picture? Maybe not, and what damage was done to the long-term result for the organization and its prospect for future sales?

Company difficulties can also arise from insufficient understanding of the competition and not knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses in relation to those of our business rivals. This lack of knowledge will inevitably lead to us forfeiting our opportunities to gain a stronger market position. How much competitor analysis is undertaken by those businesses that fail? I suggest little or none. (Do we do competitor analysis on a regular basis? No huh?) Managers need to carefully look at their total market for new business opportunities rather than just trying to do the same old same old at 110%. We must beware of becoming blinded by our own perspective (or lack of perspective) on the market or of becoming too immersed in details thus losing sight of how the overall operation is progressing (a sin).

On a more light hearted note, maybe we also need to look at the ratio of sales staff to administration and production and perhaps sack two accountants, four engineers, fifty percent of the HR department and anyone we are carrying on the payroll out of some perverse sense of loyalty. Then spend the money we save to hire, train, encourage, cajole, push or even glorify the sales team. That’s where to money is - with their ‘best mates’ - “the customers”.

Again (the unknown guru was right): ‘the sales department is not the whole company but the whole company had better become the sales department.’

Thinking sales or would we rather play with the engineers and their gizmos?

To contact Ric mailto: [email protected]  

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