“This is where cross-cultural management presents significant value and opportunities, when managed properly,” Kiattichai says.

Over the years of his management experience in the logistics industry, he has learned that successful cross-cultural management broadly comes down to three things. The first one is about promoting open communication.

“Communication is key in managing people from different cultures. It all starts from having a clear vision of what an organisation strives to become and transparency on where we are and what we are doing as a team to deliver our aspirations,” Kiattichai says. “Promoting open communication at all levels provides an opportunity for management to stay close to what is going on in the organisation as well as in the market. I like to spend time with employees either in a casual one-on-one dialogue or in a small focus group as employees are in general more open in these settings.

“This helps us to understand the challenges of the employees on the ground and how we can improve in various aspects of our business. Open communication also fosters trust and closes the gap between management and employees while improving the engagement of people within the organisation. Fifty per cent of engagement challenges can be addressed by proper communication.” The second thing is to empower people.

“As the business is growing rapidly, it is important to empower the team on the ground that is closer to the market to make decisions in order to come up with ideas and solutions to the problems. Empowerment is a powerful way to get people involved and cultivate a sense of ownership,” Kiattichai says.

In a multicultural environment, empowering local people is the only way to harness the local knowledge and understanding, and use these assets to their fullest potential. In this aspect, the role of management is shifted towards a facilitating one as opposed to dictating what and how things have to be done, Kiattichai says.

The third one is to create and live the organisation culture.

“While capitalising on cross-cultural diversity, companies can be further strengthened by instilling a common corporate culture where certain sets of values are shared across the organisation,” Kiattichai says. “DHL has built a strong corporate culture and we stick to our company values and culture across every level of the organisation and in all the countries we operate in.

“For instance, the company believes in delivering ‘Result’ without compromising on ‘Respect’ and cultivating the mindset of continuous improvement as the way of working.

“Across different geographical markets, this has become the common guiding principle for everything we do, think and decide. The wealth of cultural diversity on a solid corporate cultural platform helps us differentiate ourselves from the others and stay ahead of the game.”

Kiattichai says that DHL is one of the most international companies in the world with more than 500,000 employees in over 220 countries and territories. Diversity is very important in DHL’s culture and it believes in leveraging diverse thoughts and cultures as its competitive advantage.

“At DHL, we practise “Head, Heart and Gut” leadership attributes. The concept advocates a balanced approach to leadership. Our people are our greatest asset and we believe in a diverse culture and a culture of ‘respect and results’ – i.e., we achieve results without compromising on respect,” he says.

“Logistics is essentially a service business and still fundamentally a people-based business despite significant developments made on the automation and digitalisation fronts. Managing logistics businesses successfully requires a cohesive plan that synchronises an organisation/people strategy with a business strategy.

“Southeast Asia in particular is a very large market with a very high degree of diversity, be it political, geographical, language, racial and cultural. We believe in diversity and inclusion as a competitive advantage. Countless studies support this statement, even directly linking organisational diversity and inclusion to higher profits.”

He adds that a Harvard Business School study found that multicultural networks encourage creativity of thought. As the Harvard Business Review points out, this kind of creativity is not only necessary in order to create a long-term competitive advantage but is also something that firms often struggle to achieve. Many other sources agree that innovation and creativity of thought are linked to competitive advantage as evidenced by increased profit, market share and sales.

DHL eCommerce is a division of Deutsche Post DHL Group (DPDHL), set up in 2014 in line with the growth of e-commerce. Thailand was the first new market entry for DHL eCommerce, where the company has built its own domestic delivery network with fully-owned operations.

Kiattichai started out in DHL as managing director of DHL eCommerce Thailand, building its domestic delivery network in Thailand to become the highly successful business it is today.

“Now, this has become a great case study for DPDHL Group as we have expanded into more markets. When we’ve expanded into Malaysia and Vietnam, I was asked to bring the same success to these new markets and became the MD for Southeast Asia,” he says.

He adds that today’s business is changing at a much faster pace than ever before. In this digital era, retail businesses are being reconfigured with the emergence of e-commerce, enabled by Internet adoption and changes in consumer behaviour.

He says that logistics is a crucial element in the ecosystem and an integral part of e-commerce. As the new and exciting e-commerce market and the e-commerce logistics market are both in a high-growth stage, these markets are very open and competition is intense. This is increasingly driven by consumer expectations that have changed dramatically over the past decade.

“In the past, where the expected speed of delivery could be one to two weeks, this is now one to two days or even same day – which is why we launched our same-day delivery service recently to meet the consumer expectations for our customers. I believe it is important to stay close to our customers, understand their changing needs and to be agile and quick to respond to the needs of the market,” Kiattichai says.

As for the challenges in managing a logistic business, he says: “The e-commerce logistics industry today is more exciting rather than challenging. The most exciting part is how quickly the market changes and how the company remains agile and focused on achieving the best customer experience for customer’s customers.

“We do this by being extremely customer-centric and ensuring we provide a great delivery experience with greater choice, control and convenience for the end consumer.

“We are very upbeat about the growth prospects for e-commerce in Southeast Asia. 2018 has been an excellent year for us and we have seen very positive and encouraging growth in our volumes and customers.”

He adds that innovation is another area in which DHL is making a big push globally as the company leverages technology and digitisation to stay the market leader. This includes “small” innovation initiatives for productivity gains (e.g. automation and robotics) and “big” innovation ideas such as new business models.

“Our Innovation Centres in Singapore, Troisdorf in Germany and the upcoming one in Chicago in the US are fully focused on developing, testing and rolling out new innovations such as artificial intelligence and we will do this with customer input to ensure we always provide value to the customer,” he says.

Kiattichai says his most basic 101 logistics experience dates to the time he learnt about how to move cargo on containerised ships.

“Like many other shipping veterans, I subsequently ventured into a more complex logistics world with an excellent opportunity to develop a full suite of logistics set-up experience – including freight forwarding, warehousing and distribution, trucking, customs brokerage and supply chain management service, from scratch,” he says.

He adds that throughout his career, he has had opportunities to expose himself to the ways of running a business in an extremely mature, slow growth market as well as setting up a new business from the ground up.

This experience also encompasses entering a new market and managing the turnaround of a troubled business, along with managing businesses at different stages of the business life cycle. “All such challenges have proven to be a very valuable experience,” Kiattichai says.

The service offers information-based lending, together with a plan to provide other financial products in the future.

The collaboration is also aimed at providing consumers with useful knowledge for a better financial discipline, while Krungsri Consumer and Krungsri Auto are prepared for more cooperation to continuously strengthen their business partner network in the digital world.

Thakorn Piyapan, chairman of Krungsri Consumer, said: “The collaboration with Lalamove, Thailand’s leading on-demand delivery service application, adds a new dimension to the financial service sector in the digital world where technology plays an increasingly integral part.

“Aside from adjusting how we approve of loan applications – from taking into account all the financial documents only, to a new approach called the information-based lending – to increase a chance to gain access to financial services for those freelancers, the initiative is also the start of our ambition to create a strong digital business partner network by bonding with leaders in various business sectors to expand our scope of and our ability to provide consumers with financial and loan services to encompass all segments as well as to adjust the way we provide these services in line with current younger generation’s lifestyle. This is an important step forward which will create a truly great impact on the current financial service sector.”

Chanon Klahan, managing director at Lalamove Thailand, said: “As an on-demand delivery platform in Asia which delivers within an hour, Lalamove is committed to improving the quality of life in every aspect of our drivers. Partnering with a leading financial service provider like Krungsri Consumer and Krungsri Auto is a good start. This will provide the drivers in our network the opportunity to access quality financial services.

“This also marks the beginning of an important business partnership where we can also offer value-added services to cover our existing clients who are business owners”.

The three screens with 440 seats altogether aim to show quality international, award-winning and arts film.

It will have a direct link to the MRT Samyan station and new cinema technology with an investment budget of over Bt40 million. Customers can book online.

Pongnarin Ulis, one of the founders, said: “House Samyan Movie Theatre will bring solutions to diversified customers. Viewers want movies that offer knowledge and inspiration that can be apply to their self-improvement more than simply just for pleasure. The demand for watching films in a cinema is still apparent.”

Chomsajee Techaratanaprasert, another co-founder, said: “We expect that House Samyan Movie Theatre will become a leading theatre for the largest groups of moviegoers in Bangkok by 2022. We target for 40 per cent market share for our niche market. This market currently accounts for 800,000-1,000,000 viewers.

The cinema will open by the end of 2019, they said.

In their new role they will be co-responsible for driving company’s strategy and operation, the firm said. While Hasdin’s primary focus is on commercial excellence, Nitipanont will be driving world class creative products. They will report directly to Somkiat Larptanunchaiwong, CEO, and Suthisak Sucharittanonta, the creative chairman.

Hasdin brings more than 18 years of experience in advertising and client management. She was previously Chief Client Officer for BBDO Bangkok where she was responsible for expansion in Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Meanwhile, Nitipanont has more than 16 years of integrated advertising experience. Since joining BBDO Bangkok in 2012, he has been instrumental in setting the agency on its “New World Creative” direction, expanding creative and production capability as well as establishing new content creation department for emerging platforms, the firm said.

The announcement was made during the China International Import Expo held in Shanghai during November 5-10, 2018, the company said in a press release issued on Thursday.

As part of the “One Belt, One Road” initiative put forward by Chinese authorities, the MoU is named “The Belt and Road” Memorandum of Strategic Cooperation of Comprehensive Logistic Joint Work. Its main objective is to explore business opportunities in the areas of logistics and trade between Yunnan, Laos and Thailand.

WHA Corporation said it will cooperate with Yunnan Energy Investment Logistic (YEIL), a subsidiary of Yunnan Energy Investment Group (YEIG), to enhance interaction between the two partners’ logistics and industrial sectors.

Overall, the MoU covers cooperation in the areas of industrial properties, road and rail transportation, cold chain transportation, central Asia railway, the construction of an Asia-Pacific Model E-port network, car trading and others between China, Thailand and Asean countries, the company said.

“We are truly delighted to sign this Memorandum of Understanding with Yunnan Energy Investment Logistic (YEIL),” said Jareeporn Jarukornsakul, WHA Corporation PCL Chairman of the Board of Directors and Group Chief Executive Officer. “This creates a promising cooperation framework with our Chinese partner to connect Thailand’s EEC initiative with the ‘One Belt, One Road’ project implemented by the Chinese government, opening tremendous opportunities for our two companies and our respective countries.”

Yang Wan Hua, Vice President of Yunnan Energy Investment Group (YEIG), said: “This Memorandum of Understanding with WHA Corporation is based on huge potential synergy between our two companies.

“We are confident that our vision, combined with that of WHA Corporation, fits in perfectly with the spirit of the ‘One Belt, One Road’ project that is based on peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit.”