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Money matters: US Liquidity Bubble - Will it get bigger or burst?
Graham Macdonald
MBMG International Ltd.
For some time now, we’ve been of the view that the
liquidity bubble in the US is unsustainable because it has created a whole
raft of artificial and unsustainable investment conditions. As we
highlighted recently some analysts are bullish on US corporates because
they see healthy balance sheets and lean operations - operating conditions
that might be expected to be positive.
However, most US business leaders seem reluctant to
commit capital and have even been doing record amounts of stock selling
and stock option exercising. What do they know that the talking heads on
CNBC don’t? Probably nothing, with absolute certainty. But they probably
do share our general unease at the gap between perceptions based on
artificial assumptions and the reality that looks like it’s going to
bite soon.
When you build on sand you don’t know when your
castle will topple over; you just know that sooner or later it will.
Belkin has continually, and with considerable justification, blamed
Greenspan and the Fed for pursuing policies over the last few years that
have had the effect of widening this reality gap when austerity measures
were need to bridge it. More and more articles seem to be coming out now
recognising that all is not well and that interest rates are a symptom of
whatever the disease may be. Jonathan Fuerbringer’s recent article in
the NYT “When Greenspan Is Stumped, Investors Should Play It Safe”
could be the first of many warning calls.
He starts by asking what is an investor to do when Alan
Greenspan says he cannot explain why longer-term interest rates are so
low. He then highlights a number of money managers who feel that the time
has now come to take cover, as they have the same problem as Mr.
Greenspan. They also cannot understand the decline of longer-term rates
despite six increases in short-term rates by Fed policy makers since June.
In mid-February, Mr. Greenspan said in testimony to
Congress, “This development contrasts with most experience, other things
being equal, increasing short-term interest rates are normally accompanied
by a rise in longer-term yields.”
Instead, the yield on the Treasury’s 10-year note has
fallen to 4.26 percent from 4.69 percent at the end of June 2004, despite
a climb of 1.5 percentage points in the central bank’s short-term rate
benchmark, to 2.5 percent.
While Mr. Greenspan cited many possible reasons for
this unusual happening, he ultimately concluded that “it remains a
conundrum.”
That’s enough to make Paul A. McCulley, portfolio
manager and economist at Pimco, cautious. “When the Fed chairman says
he’s scratching his dome, you should be scratching yours. You should
always be wary when the central bank says an asset price is aberrant.”
Thomas H. Atteberry, a manager of the New Income Fund
at First Pacific Advisors in Los Angeles, agrees, adding of Mr. Greenspan,
“He’s the guy who is supposed to have all the information and he is
telling me he doesn’t know why. Why commit capital to a long-term
investment when you don’t understand why it’s valued that way?”
Both McCulley and Atteberry believe longer-term rates
will rise. Pimco has reduced its exposure to the Treasury market, and Mr.
Atteberry said he was staying away from it. McCulley said Pimco had not
participated in a popular Treasury trade in which shorter-term securities
are sold and longer-term ones are bought. This is called a flattening
trade - a bet that the yield on longer-term securities will fall, or at
least rise more slowly, than the yield on shorter-term securities. It has
proved profitable with the unexpected decline in longer-term yields.
Atteberry has 40 percent of his money as far from
Treasuries as possible without stuffing it into a mattress. It is in money
market funds. Most of the rest is in mortgage and agency securities, which
he said would fare better than Treasury securities in a rising rate
environment. McCulley argues that longer-term rates will rise partly
because one factor now holding them down may soon vanish. Unlike other
explanations, including the buying of Treasuries by foreign central banks
and a general preference among investors worldwide for putting their
excess savings into American bonds, this one is obscure. But Wall Street
has not overlooked it.
Basically, this involves plans announced on Jan. 10 by
the Labour Department to shore up the Pension Benefit Guaranty
Corporation, the federal agency that insures pension funds. On Wall
Street, McCulley said, the announcement was viewed as a step toward
advocating that pension funds invest more in long-term notes and bonds.
McCulley says he believes that hedge funds, eager to be
ahead of the game, have increased their purchases of longer-term
securities since the announcement. One sign of this could be the sharp
decline in the spread, or difference in the yields, of the Treasury’s
so-called 30-year bond, which matures in 2031, and the current 10-year
note. That spread was 0.38 percent on Friday, smaller than the 0.57
percent just before the announcement.
The change means that 30-year bonds have been in much greater demand
than 10-year notes. McCulley expects this run to exhaust itself as soon as
speculators see that the change for pension funds will come very slowly;
this reversal in demand should cause 30-year bond yields to rise, ending
what Alan Greenspan identified as “a short-term aberration.” In other
words, the normal upward tilt of longer-term rates could return. How long
the economy can stand these higher rates then becomes the very next
question.
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The above data and research was compiled from sources believed to be
reliable. However, neither MBMG International Ltd nor its officers can
accept any liability for any errors or omissions in the above article nor
bear any responsibility for any losses achieved as a result of any actions
taken or not taken as a consequence of reading the above article. For more
information please contact Graham Macdonald on [email protected]
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Snap Shots: Turn off your flash!
by Harry Flashman
 One
of the most usual reasons for washed out photographs is the all-pervading
use of electronic flash. As soon as the most popular types of cameras
arrived on the scene with built-in flash units, the world became pictured
as a stark white place with dark, sharp-edged shadows. Unfortunately for
the flash addicts, the world is actually a very colourful place with some
shadows showing graduations in form and texture. Your on-camera flash does
not know this. But you do!
Since photography is almost by definition, “Painting
with Light”, it stands to reason that the different light you use can
produce a different picture. The great celestial lighting technician that
supplies the sunlight is not the only form of illumination these days.
The weird thing about light sources is that they all
impart a different colour to your photographs. This colour shift or colour
bias is not necessarily obvious to the naked eye - but the film sees it
and records it. After all, the camera never lies, does it?
The first and most obvious difference is in the early
morning and late afternoon lighting. The morning light has a certain
“coldness” to it and imparts a blue tinge to the overall photograph.
The late afternoon we call a “warmer” light and gives a warm almost
“orange” glow to any item in the shot receiving the sun’s rays. This
why late afternoon shots are so pleasing.
Another very common light source is the standard house
type light bulb. This is again another very “warm” light and any
photographs taken under incandescent (tungsten) bulbs will have a warm
orange cast through them. This is particularly noticeable with colour
slide film. With the modern photo-processors, the machine attempts to
filter out the orange or green, but this is usually done at the expense of
human skin tones. So if you end up looking a little blue, that’s
probably the reason - the machine was trying to get rid of the red face
you had before!
Of course, you the photographer can try to filter out
the colour cast as well. You can either put a filter in front of the lens
like the 81A that I use on the front of all my lenses to slightly
“warm” the skin tones, all the way through to using blue gels in front
of incandescent bulbs to counteract the orange from the tungsten type
light source.
Another wild light source is Infra-red light. This
section of the normal sun’s rays can be split off by a special infra-red
sensitive film. This gives you a black and white print, but items that are
normally green will often turn out white and blue sky ends up dark grey or
black.
Unhappily, the photograph with this week’s column is
in black and white newsprint (but if you go to the web version of the
newspaper, you will get it in colour). Two different light sources were
used, and in the colour prints, there is no doubt about which is the
better. The upper shot was taken with no flash at night, just the ambient
lighting in the restaurant foyer. In the lower shot, the flash was used as
the light source.
In the upper one, there is that warm tungsten glow. The
banister is a warm red colour and the steps reflect a warm russet colour.
You can also see that the sweeping staircase actually goes somewhere. Now
look at the lower one - stark washed out white, with a dark hole above the
staircase. Even the steps are white. A bleak and uninviting shot. (If you
are having problems imagining this, then please go to the web version of
the paper.)
Of course, trial and error is one of the most important
parts of photography. Getting ‘record’ shots is not difficult these
days with auto-everything cameras, but great (or even just pleasing) shots
do take skill, initiative, practice and knowledge - which in turn just
comes from having tried it before.
This weekend, be a little daring and try a different light source - but
do turn the flash off - it is pure “white” light and no fun at all!
Modern Medicine: Mischief down in the Carpal Tunnel
by Dr. Iain Corness, ConsultantDo
you get a feeling of numbness or tingling in your hands, especially at
night? Do you find that your grip is becoming clumsy or weaker? Have you
noticed that the flesh at the base of your thumb is becoming less? Maybe you
are getting the Carpal Tunnel syndrome.
The symptoms from this very common condition are caused
by pressure on the medial nerve, which runs into your hand, on the palm side
of the wrist. The median nerve goes through a “tunnel” at the wrist,
where the bottom and sides of the tunnel are formed by the wrist bones and
the palm side of the tunnel, the roof, is covered by a strong band of
ligamentous tissue.
This tunnel also contains the nine tendons that connect
the muscles in your forearms to your fingers, to curl your fingers and
thumb. These tendons are covered with a lubricating membrane called synovium
which may enlarge and swell under some circumstances. If the swelling is
sufficient, it may cause the median nerve to be pressed up against this
strong ligament on the roof of the tunnel, resulting in the numbness,
tingling in your hand, clumsiness or pain.
Some common causes and other conditions that can present
this way include: repetitive and forceful grasping with the hands,
repetitive bending of the wrist, broken or dislocated bones in the wrist
which produce swelling, arthritis especially the rheumatoid type, thyroid
gland imbalance, diabetes, hormonal changes associated with menopause and
even pregnancy itself.
Now that we know what can cause the symptoms, just how do
we go about securing the diagnosis? This is generally done by clinical
examination, particularly if the orthopaedic surgeon can produce the
symptoms by tapping over the course of the median nerve at the wrist, or by
holding your wrists in a bent down position for one minute. However, the
symptoms alone of decreased feeling in your thumb, index, and middle
fingers, an electric shock or tingling feelings, and it all being worse at
night almost clinches the diagnosis.
In some cases your doctor may recommend a special test
called a nerve conduction study. This test, done by a specialist, determines
the severity of the pressure on the median nerve and may aid your
orthopaedic surgeon in making the diagnosis and forming a treatment plan.
Treatment can be ‘conservative’ (no operation), such
as applying a brace or splint which is usually worn at night and keeps your
wrist from bending. Resting your wrist allows the swollen and inflamed
synovial membranes to shrink; relieving the pressure on the nerve. The usual
medications also include short courses of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory
drugs (NSAIDs).
In more severe cases, your doctor may advise a cortisone
injection into the carpal tunnel itself. This injection spreads around the
swollen synovial membranes, surrounding the tendons and shrinks them, and,
in turn, relieves the pressure on the median nerve.
Whether or not the conservative treatment works will
depend upon how quickly you seek help. Early diagnosis and treatment lessens
the chances of your needing operative intervention.
If surgery is necessary, the surgeon divides the roof of
the carpal tunnel to take the pressure off the median nerve. After surgery,
your symptoms may be relieved immediately or shortly after. Numbness may
remain for a period of time, particularly in older people or in more severe
cases that have been ignored. It may also be several weeks before the
patient can return to normal levels of physical activities, especially if
the patient is a manual labourer.
The best course of action is rapid diagnosis and
treatment.
Learn to Live to Learn: Journey’s End, Part II
“Parting is such sweet sorrow” Romeo & Juliet act 2, sc.4, 1
with Andrew Watson
Neli Ivanova and Anurag Garg, from Bulgaria and India
respectively, came to Thailand from vastly different cultural
backgrounds but discovered common ground in education. Neli and Anurag
seemed to speak for all the graduating class as they described the
Regent’s School as less a school, more a home from home. Thus, perhaps
predictably, they had mixed feelings on their impending graduation. 
In
a class of their own: Regents graduates 2005. AW:
This is the ‘IB’ slot. I’m an ‘IB person’ as you know, so
tell me, what’s so great about the course? Oh, please feel free to say
that there’s nothing great about it! AG:
It’s really challenging. It helps you develop a lot. There are certain
things which I haven’t found in courses students do in India and other
courses, like ‘A’ levels for instance. IB is far beyond what
everybody else does. TOK and CAS are components other courses just
don’t have. I really enjoyed it. It helps you think in a global
context. AW: You’re right! (enthused)
If TOK is delivered as it should be, then it should be the best part of
the course! NI: I think it prepares you
well for university, although in the beginning it was a bit difficult to
make the step from IGCSE. At times you feel like you want to give up,
but that makes you motivate yourself - to prove to yourself that you can
achieve something. With CAS, we’d probably do most of the activities
anyway but it makes you realise how much it means. How much it develops
our thinking. It’s for life. 
Handsome
young men in dangerously post-modern dress, hair frozen in gel. AW:
And when the going gets tough, it appears to me that you are very
lucky here at Regent’s, to have an incredibly supportive group of
teachers to make sure everything is going to be OK? AG:
Over the past five years, I think the teachers have been the best assets
of the school. They have been more like friends than teachers. In other
schools there has always been a gap between teachers and students. In
this school I haven’t seen that. Here, that gap is reduced to zero. If
we had any concerns, we felt we could approach any teacher and they
would help us out, often from their own time. 
Dazzlingly
beautiful young ladies, demonstrating an exquisite sense of occasion. NI:
I share Anurag’s opinion. I have realised that a teacher can make such
a big difference. For example, when I first came, I wasn’t very much
interested in literature but now four years later, it’s turned out to
be my most favourite and best subject. This is because of the teacher. AW:
What is graduation going to be like for you? AG:
It’s a time to celebrate all the times we’ve spent together, all the
memories. After this we will all be heading off in different directions.
I’m excited, looking forward to the next step of life and sad, because
we probably won’t see many of our friends again for a long time. NI:
When things have gone well, we need to make sure that they end well.
So I am sure that this evening will summarise all the good times we’ve
had, although I am sure it will mean more to some than to others. It
will be nice to have everybody come together and say a last
‘goodbye’. AW: Any parting message
for the Regent’s School? AG: It is a
great school. My five years have been great. I will miss you. NI:
It’s not just a good school. Being in Thailand has allowed us to gain
a lot from the country as well as from our community. The mixture of
local and international has really been very meaningful to us. It’s
been a school for life.
To Saturday evening and the Dusit. Excitement rippled
across the foyer as handsome young men in dangerously post-modern dress,
hair frozen in gel, button-less to the naval, were entirely outshone by
dazzlingly beautiful young ladies, demonstrating an exquisite sense of
occasion. Notwithstanding the doyens of de rigueur, Markku Palipee and
Stefan Savic, resplendent in white. Beyond Travolta, these young
stallions looked ready and willing to take the world by storm. Stefan
wore trainers with his suit. Oh, very chic, I’m sure and probably,
ideal. He’s on his way to Montreux, Switzerland, after all. How did he
feel? “I feel great! High school finished, university to go!”
And what, I wondered, did the students feel the
Regent’s experience had done for them? This year’s Head Girl, Liisa
Tompuu: “It’s widened our view on life, I’ve learned about other
people. I feel great tonight! I’ve been graduating for a week now,
since my exams finished!”
And what of sleepy Arman Kushniyan, newly presented
with a pair of pyjamas, a cheeky reminder of his apparently
indefatigable propensity for tardiness? “On the one hand, I feel
amazing. I really looked forward to this moment. But on the other hand,
I feel really sad and disturbed, that the four years I spent here are
finished, just like that. All the things that the teachers have helped
me achieve and become will always be in my memory and will always be a
part of my life.” Jim Jom added, “It’s good, it’s really good.
We’re having fun together for the last time.” The end of one road,
the beginning of another, I suggested? “Yes, I’ll keep looking
forward and sometimes look back. I’m going to university in
Australia.”
A beautiful feeling of oneness permeated the
proceedings. The evening had begun with gentle, understated words from
Mr Andrew Bennett, Vice Chair of Regent’s, been uplifted by the
whimsical intellectual humour of Mr Peter Casper and risen to a
crescendo with the often bawdy but utterly appropriate and hilarious
humour of Mr Martin O’Neill, who all but brought the house down with
his portraits of his graduating charges. This was the stuff of a
graduation ceremony.
Dancing ensued and happiness abounded. Departing
convivial company, the evening slid into the memory. The Regent’s
School, regionally dominant but humble in her excellence, had once more
demonstrated unequivocally, through the brilliance of her students and
staff, why she has become the benchmark for others to follow.
My thanks and compliments to Celia Ellston for her
assistance in arranging the interviews and for the impeccable
arrangements at the Dusit resort.
[email protected]
Next week: The Prophet
 Heart to Heart with Hillary
Dear Hillary,
(This letter was in Thai and has been translated into English) My
English boyfriend has a bad body smell and I don’t know what to do. It
doesn’t make any difference what he eats, he just sweats a lot and it
is bad. I have asked him to shower every day but I am not sure that he
is doing this. Since you seem to understand the farangs can you tell me
what to do with him?
Lek
Dear Lek,
The sweating problem is common with farangs who are not used to our
climate. In the UK it is so cold the people do not sweat much, so some
European people only shower two times a week, which is something that
Thai people find very offensive indeed. What you have to do, my Petal,
is buy your boyfriend a large cake of soap and deodorant and explain to
him that you can’t get close to him because of the odour problem, and
do your best from there. If he still smells after that, then perhaps you
should change boyfriends rather than changing soaps.
Dear Hillary,
My Thai girlfriend is great, we have been together for three months, no
arguments or suchlike and she looks after me very well. One problem only
is that she is always going off to visit her mother in Buriram for a
couple of days. I believe this is normal with Thai families, but it
happens at least every month, and she takes up kid’s clothes to give
to her mother. I asked her about it and she said that her mother looks
after her sister’s baby, but I am not so sure this is right. I asked
her sister, who lives here too, if she had any kids and she said she
didn’t have any. Who do I believe, and what do I do if my girlfriend
does have a child up there?
Alf
Dear Anxious Alf,
You do nothing, Petal, nothing. If your girlfriend has a child in
Buriram which is being looked after by her mother, is this really any
business of yours? Do you contribute towards the child’s upkeep? Do
you think you are really in a long term relationship with this girl?
You’ve been together for three months - that’s ninety days, Alf. By
no stretch of the imagination could this be thought of as a lifetime
commitment. What she did before she met you is immaterial, what is
important is what the pair of you are going to do in the future. If you
are planning on a long term relationship, then you have to see just what
you are getting into, but give it a little longer.
Dear Hillary,
I am a great fan of yours. It is the first column I read when I open the
newspaper. Thank you so much for brightening up the weekend. I know how
difficult it must be some days to have to read through some of the
trashy letters and not get angry or cynical, but never worry, you’ve
got a long term fan here.
The Fan Club
Dear Fan Club,
My word! Hillary is blushing after such compliments. I’m glad you
don’t think that Hillary ever gets angry or cynical, but I do,
darling, I do. You can help by next time just sending chocolates,
that’s a good girl. Sugary praise does nothing for a girl’s real
carbohydrate needs! I wouldn’t refuse champagne either.
Dear Hillary,
I have been getting to know a new girl at the pub I go to when I’m
over here. I’ve been going there about every second night and she
seems to enjoy my company and sits with me till closing time. She does
not ask for “lady drinks”, but I buy her some because I understand
that is how she makes her money. The other night I dropped in early and
I found that she was sitting with an older chap and they were laughing
and chatting happily. I was shocked by this and left immediately. The
next night when I asked her about him she just said, “It doesn’t
matter” but to me it does. Do you think I should keep going with this
relationship?
Steve
Dear Steve,
It’s all bad news I’m afraid, my petal. Your local bar girl is
merely doing her job, and looks like she’s doing it well by all
accounts. She is correct when she says that it doesn’t matter - we are
not talking about a deep and meaningful relationship here, we are
talking about deep and meaningless relationship with a hostess in a bar
making young and old boys feel good. But be aware that hostesses in bars
can also make very young boys feel very insecure. I feel you may be of
the latter category. Find another bar, Poppet. In the (unfortunately
defunct) Bangkok Rules website a few years ago was one rule which ran,
“You never lose your girl. You only lose your turn.” Steve, you got
yourself out of turn, I’m afraid. If you want a long term
relationship, you shouldn’t start in the bar.
Psychological Perspectives: Female orgasms in the news
by Michael Catalanello,
Ph.D.
A surprising degree of variability exists
among women in their ability to achieve orgasm. Some women are able to
achieve orgasm with relative ease, both during sexual intercourse and
masturbation. Other women achieve orgasm only occasionally, or only in
response to specific forms of stimulation. Some women never achieve orgasm.
The reason for such variability in the female sexual response has remained
an open question among experts in the field of human sexuality ... until
now.
According to research published last week in the Royal
Society’s Biology Letters, a significant portion of the
variability in women’s ability to experience an orgasm is determined by
the human gene.
In reaching their conclusions, researchers in the UK
collected questionnaires from 683 pairs of female identical twins, and 714
pairs of fraternal twins. Subjects’ ages ranged from 19 to 83. Since
identical twins develop from a single fertilized egg, they share an
identical genetic make-up. In contrast, fraternal twins develop from
different egg cells. Thus, they are no more genetically alike than other
sibling pairs. Like identical twins, however, pairs of fraternal twins are
usually reared in similar environments. By comparing identical twins to
fraternal twins, investigators are able to determine to what degree
variation of a characteristic like ability to reach orgasm is attributable
to genetic factors versus environmental factors.
A mere 14% of women in the investigation reported always
experiencing orgasm during sexual intercourse. Thirty-two percent of the
women reported being able to achieve orgasm at least three quarters of the
time during intercourse. Twenty-one percent reported never or infrequently
achieving orgasm, even during masturbation. Sixteen percent of the women
reported never having experienced an orgasm, either during intercourse or
masturbation.
Using statistical methods, the researchers estimated
that genetic factors accounted for 34% of the variance in these women’s
ability to achieve an orgasm during intercourse. This figure rose to 45%
for the women’s ability to reach orgasm during masturbation, indicating a
strong contribution from genes. Rather than a sign of sexual dysfunction,
as some have suggested, the difficulty of some women to achieve orgasm
appears to be largely the result of a natural variation, genetically
programmed into the human species.
The female orgasm has long been a controversial issue
among sex theorists and researchers. During the early 20th
century, Viennese psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud promoted his belief that
there were two types of female orgasms. One, he believed, arose from
stimulation of the clitoris, the female phallus. The other resulted from
penetration and stimulation of the vagina.
Clitoral orgasms were considered by Freud as inferior, a
forerunner of the adult female sexual response. In his view, with
maturation, clitoral orgasms should be replaced by vaginal orgasms. The
failure of a woman to make this transition, in Freud’s view, was a sign
of neurosis, and a major cause of “frigidity” or female sexual
dysfunction.
Freud’s dogma was subsequently adopted and
disseminated by a largely male medical establishment that, evidently,
understood little about the female sexual response. In fact, some
professionals of that era erroneously defined frigidity as an inability to
have “vaginal” orgasms.
In 1953 the sex researcher, Alfred Kinsey corrected
Freud’s mistake when he published the results of the first comprehensive
investigation into female sexual behavior. Relying on 5,940 sexual history
questionnaires provided by White American women, Kinsey discovered what
most women already knew: Stimulation of the clitoris plays a central role
in generating the female orgasm. Vaginal penetration is not even necessary
for a woman to climax.
Like many studies, the present research raises more
questions than it answers. For instance, the specific way in which genetic
influences manifest themselves is not known. Genes could have such effects
through anatomical, hormonal, psychological, neurological or behavioral
factors, or various combinations of these. How genetic factors interact
with environmental factors such as education, family upbringing, and
cultural norms is also poorly understood. Researchers will, no doubt,
attempt to answer such questions in the coming months and years.
Perhaps most interesting are questions concerning the role of the female
orgasm in the evolution of our species. Biologists propose that
characteristics that are based in our genes may have conferred a biological
advantage to our ancestors, assisting them in some way with the problems of
survival and reproduction. How might the female orgasm have contributed to
the success of our species, and why would natural selection pressures
preserve such variability in women’s ability to achieve orgasm? For now,
we can only speculate, while we wait for research to provide answers to
these intriguing questions.
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Dr. Catalanello is a licensed psychologist in his home State of Louisiana, USA, and a member of the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Asian University,
Chonburi. You may address questions and comments to him at [email protected], or post on his weblog at
http://asianupsych.blogspot.com
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What’s Hot and What’s Not in F&B: Provide customers with an experience that compels them to return
Dylan
Counsel
F&B Manager,
Pattaya Marriott Resort and Spa
Hotel service is now getting smarter and smoother.
The five star experiences of old were pure theater. I can remember
visiting the Savoy Hotel in Melbourne and seeing the well-groomed
butlers perform guerdon service at the table. It was truly a show worth
paying for even without the meal. The wine waiter glided through the
restaurant, making recommendations, providing guests with tastes of rare
wines and bamboozling them with his infinite knowledge of wines and
foods to match. The restaurants were full, busy and happening with an
army of service staff discretely watching your every move as they
attended to their duties. Service was savvy, silent and slick! Customers
were numerous and came prepared to spend. Guests experienced a level of
friendly difference that truly made them feel like a VVVIP.
Our expectations have changed. High quality
restaurants and service are normal. Traveling guests to hotels and
restaurants look for efficiency, consistency, technologies and service
... service ... service. Local customers are looking for value for
money, fresh well presented food, knowledgeable staff and of course, a
clean and comfortable dining environment where they are made to feel
welcome on a regular basis.
As Pattaya City continues to progress, the food and
beverage (F&B) outlets and hotels that go the extra mile providing
service and products, second-guessing and surprising well traveled
business people, holiday makers and local residents, will succeed in a
competitive market. The good thing about competition is that it raises
the bar! There will always be leading food and beverage outlets in any
market that do it better than the competition. However, the effect of
having market leaders is that it forces the second tier of F&B
outlets to try to do it better resulting in increasing levels of
quality, service and food.
Bright, proactive staff who can anticipate guests’
needs and who adopt the work ethic of ‘I do more’, will be key to
the success of F&B in Pattaya. As major international companies,
hotel chains and other tourism and leisure based companies come to
Pattaya, the responsibility of making sure the local staff receive the
correct training and support will come through the design of innovative
and compelling workshop programs.
Effective action on constructive customer feedback
followed by the provision of savvy on the job training will also be
vital ingredients in the recipe of F&B success. To use the words of
Jeroen Bergmans, “The big players in the market will have to remember
there is a fine line between an army of automatons and staff with both
sense and sensibility.” He also went on to say, “Big companies can
over train staff with soulless, heavily branded manuals,” (Jeroen
Bergmans, Wallpaper Magazine 2005) resulting in a response to problems
with a large degree of inflexibility.
The call to arms starts now... Collectively, we want
our guests who visit Pattaya to come back! Ensuring our guests have an
outstanding F&B experience wherever they dine will go a long way to
generating positive word of mouth about our city. We all have a role to
play in the F&B industry. Local customers have a responsibility to
provide the food and beverage outlets in Pattaya with feedback for
improvement and for the restaurant operator, leisure facilitator or
hotel manager our collective aim is to simply provide the tourists,
families and business people with an experience that compels them to
return.
Moving forward, the purpose of this column is to
provide some information on what’s hot and what’s not, in F&B
throughout the world; trends, styles, food, beverage and service
standards. On one hand some of you simply may find it an interesting
read, on the other hand some of you who are involved in F&B in
Pattaya may like to check in with the column from time to time. It may
be a good source of ideas for your next function, next daily special on
your menu or for people that like to entertain in your home, the column
may provide some inspiration for your next private dinner party.
Good health, great food and best regards, Dylan.
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