“We will be spending about Bt500 million on school equipment, improvement of facilities and human resources,” the school’s chairman of founding team Sakorn Suksriwong said yesterday in an exclusive interview with The Nation.

The new international school will be a branch of King’s College School in Wimbledon, London. Last year, the school opened two branches in China, making the one in Thailand its third branch to open overseas. Sakorn noted that the school has in the past two years invested at least Bt1 billion in construction, teaching equipment and human resources.

“The construction is nearly completed, and all the buildings should be ready by the beginning of 2020,” Sakorn added.

“We have taken a 30-year lease on approximately 23 rai of land from ICC International Plc for the school campus,” he said, adding that involved parties have already informally agreed to extend the lease by another 30 years. Thai law only allows land to be leased for a maximum of 30 years at a time.

Sakorn did not disclose the funds required for the leasing.

Students at Kings College Wimbledon are known to excel in academics, sports and co-curricular activities, said Thomas Banyard, the founding head of King’s College International School Bangkok.

“In King’s College Wimbledon, up to 25 per cent of our graduates are accepted into either Oxford or Cambridge University,” he continued. “Here at King’s College International School Bangkok, we aim to emulate that kind of success, both in academic performances and in co-curricular activities.”

It is important to attract high-quality teachers to get high-quality performance from students, Sakorn said.

“Hence, King’s College Wimbledon will itself be selecting teachers for the Bangkok branch to ensure they are of an exceptional standard,” he said.

In its first year, the Bangkok branch will offer classes from pre-nursery to year five for students aged two to 10 years old, Sakorn said, adding that he expects some 150 to 200 students to be enrolled.

“In the second year, we will expand to years six to eight. The school aims to offer education from pre-nursery to year 13 in the next seven years,” he said. “Once all grades are opened, we expect to have approximately 1,500 students.”

Judging by the location and market situation, Sakorn expects 70 to 80 per cent of students to be Thais and the remaining 20 to 30 per cent to be foreigners.

He said the school fees will match those charged by top international schools in Thailand, though he did not reveal specific details.

King’s College International School Bangkok will place a strong emphasis on student’s well-being, striking a balance between allowing students individual freedom and instilling a strong sense of discipline, Banyard said.

The school will be governed under the policy of “pastoral care”, a system that aims to meet the academic, social and personal well-being and needs of students, he said.

“We will make our company go fully digital to improve our sales and service channels under the ‘TQM Digital’ strategy to be the leader in the online insurance market,” TQM president Unchalin Punnipa said at a press conference yesterday.

Under the strategy, eight projects will be launched: Big Data, product segmentation, life insurance platform, non-motor insurance platform, affiliate/strategic partner, use of technology to promote sales volume and cost reduction, financial broker and Line Chatbot/AI/Chat Centre.

TQM expects all the projects to be completed by this year, he added.

The firm has just launched Chat Centre, an inclusive platform where all the company’s online communication channels – website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram – are integrated to provide our clients 24 hours daily service, Unchalin said.

Through the Chat Centre, customers can buy all types of insurance products and make insurance claims.

The firm earlier introduced a real-time Chatbot feature through its Line official account “TQM Insurance Broker” for sales and after-sales, operational 24 hours a day. Unchalin said the move had been successful and currently there are 20 million users in Line’s official account.

Among the digital projects, Big Data is important, as it will help us to define customer needs, deliver targeted messages and boost business efficiency, TQM chief executive officer Napassanun Punnipa said.

“We use Chatbot engine to communicate with them and we are using Machine Learning for getting data and learning human language and behaviour better, she added.

“If we offer what the customers really need or exactly what they want, they will use our service because they will feel it’s worth the money,” said Napassanun.

Over the last four years, the company has invested Bt200 million in digital technology, including AI, Big Data and Cloud Server, Unchalin added.

The firm’s sales revenue amounted to Bt5 million when it started in 1996 but now total sales volume has risen to Bt11 billion with 1.5 million clients. Since the firm started to invest in digital in 2015, sales volume jumped from Bt8.9 billion to Bt11 billion, he said.

Napassanun said that in a mobile-first era, TQM needed to employ more technologies to boost its sales and services.

Employing more technologies can help TQM to manage their cost as well, she added.

Currently, the firm has around 4,000 staff working for customer services and it has no plan to hire more human workforce.

“We will use technologies to help drive sales volume to Bt15 billion without employing more people. This is what we call efficiency [in terms of management],” said Napassanun.

However, she said human beings were still needed, so the company will also arrange a stand-by workforce along with the Chatbot 24 hours as well.

“Technology is a tool to facilitate convenience. If we are worried that it could disrupt or make human workforce redundant, we will fail to catch up with trends,” said Unchalin.

So, we need to learn how to live with it and use it as a tool to help us to improve customer experiences, he added.

Founded as a family business 60 years ago, TQM Insurance Broker has become the market leader who offers car, life, personal-accident, health, travel and property insurance.

The aim is to expand its sales channels to cater to the growth and expansion of its products and services.

The first partner is media giant Thairath TV Channel 32. The companies in early March launched a new sales channel, T Shopping, to offer free delivery nationwide and a cash on delivery option. This marks the first time RS has utilised a media channel outside its own group.

This is the first year for RS to fully enter into commerce and retail business, said Surachai Chetchotisak, CEO of RS Plc. “Following our strategy to grow our business both vertically and horizontally, we have strengthened our Multi-platform commerce (MPC) business by joining forces with strategic partners to achieve maximum results in a shorter time with an aim to increase distribution channels vertically.

“Our products available on Channel 8 will be offered on other digital TV channels, starting with our partnership with Thairath TV Channel 32. We are introducing T Shopping, with free delivery anywhere, cash on delivery, to offer Life Star products and services.”

With its expertise in accurately analysing customer data as well as selecting products and services, and crafting attractive campaigns and marketing promotions, RS has succeeded in reaching its target.

On average, a customer spends Bt2,000 per transaction. It is expected that its MPC business will attract 40-per-cent new customers, thanks to products from skincare brand Magique, haircare brand Revive, food supplement brand SOM, as well as CMAX, Lingzhi mushrooms, ICARE, Time Capsule, and Lek Capp herbal extracts. The channel also offers lucky charms, as well as home appliances and healthy footwear.

Given Thairath TV’s strength in news and sports content, it holds a solid fan base aged above 35 nationwide, said the CEO.

“This partnership is a step in expanding our big database to reach out to new customers for our MPC business, adding some 300,000 viewers to our reach. Together with Thairath, we have estimated our revenue for 2019 to be around Bt350 million and Bt455 million in 2020.”

RS is also planning to expand vertically by partnering with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and original brand manufacturers (OBMs), with results expected in the third quarter of this year, predicted Surachai.

They also have plans to introduce another 15 exclusive products in 2019, to be sold through their LSbiz representatives in order to expand the customer base, he added.

After adjusting its MPC business model, MPC has become the biggest earner for RS with a fast-growing performance.

RS believes that joining with digital TV partners to expand its sales channels, using the same platform as Channel 8, will result in even bigger success and strengthen its business to reach its goal. Many digital TV channels have expressed their interest in joining with RS, which is banking on this new business model crating a new phenomenon that seamlessly connects digital TV with retail.