Why foreigners can't own more than 49% of a Thai Business.

I've been in Thailand now for nearly 8 years and almost daily I get reminded of how different eastern Asian business mind sets are so different from western business mindsets. It is by no accident that foreigners except for Americans are not allowed to own more than 49% of a Thai corporation as very few Thai corporations would survive competing against western business ideals of customer care and service.

Today we set about to find a solution to the limitations of 3G Air Card internet.  We started with the AIS basic package some 6 months ago and near two months ago we bumped our package to 4 GB from the basic 1GB which often failed to open gmail. After a short test of the 4GB it was obvious that was not enough GB to do the away from the school daily business needs of Chef LeeZ Thai Cooking School in Bangkok as it also was used up in no time so we upgraded to their maximum 3G at 12GB at near $45 US. This lasted longer but was also found to fail about half way through the month. AIS's solution was always to offer an upgrade and this time they offered an unlimited package for near $60 US a month.  This was a hefty increase from the $12 US basic package we purchased only a few months ago. The truly sad thing of AIr card internet is there is no way to know if you used the GB or the company just makes it up to up-sell you and when you understand Thai corporations have zero care to retain existing customers and they much prefer to consistently be entering new customers to rip off till the customer does what we did and that was cancel all accounts and check out the competition.

We then tripped down to True where we saw 3G offering 32 GB and 4G offering an additional  32 GB for a total of 64 GB for a cost of near $40 US. Now we are the True counter and we are told 32GB + 32GB = 64GB is only for smart phones not air cards and the air card is now limited to 5GB (what happened to the brochure promoted 32GB? NO Have Now! Typical, as false advertising is everywhere in Thailand.

This is where we prove Thai businesses prefer to be constantly setting up new customers. We had cancelled our AIS contract just 30 minutes earlier and were now in front of a different sales rep who was simply too pleased to tell us that the contract we cancelled  as of the next day would no longer have offered the 12GB and would have been reduced to 5GB ( collusion? same as True). But it just so happens they have a new customer promotion that continues to give the 12GB and we can sign up for it at a 25% reduction from what we were previously paying as an upgraded existing customer.

When doing business in Thailand it appears to be wise to cancel your contracts on expiry and set up knew ones so you can get the promotions as there is no appreciation of existing customers.

This is where Asian operated businesses would have zero chance competing against businesses operated in the western business way where showing appreciation to their existing customers by way of added value, packages, long term customer savings and keeping customers happy is always foremost on the mind of the western business operators. 

Can anyone tell me why a smartphone can have 4G and up to 64 GB and an air card can not? Is there a technical limitation to air cards that prevents it?

Muslim Ramadon Tam-boon is same same as Xmas but different.

What is Ramadon? How is it similar to Christmas?

Ramadan is a Muslim religious observance of fasting for near 30 days through the month of July ending when a specific moon is observed by a specified group of Muslim priests. Muslims participating in this fast do not eat or drink during daylight hours. Muslims with medical issues such as diabetes , hypoglycemia, pregnancy, or work requiring high energy levels are exempt from observance. Unfortunately many pregnant women still observe this religious requirement and unfortunately the result is a measurable increase in less developed minds of children whose mothers observed Ramadan during their pregnancies. Another downside of Ramadan is there is a significant increase in illness such a influenza as a result of improper nutrition and large evening eating gatherings.

In other-ways celebrations, in Thailand called tam-boons, held during Ramadan and there are many on different days by different families, but not necessarily by every family, resemble Christian Christmas without the commercialism of Christmas. The commercialism of Christmas has reduced Christmas to a “what did you get for Christmas” That gift sucked .. and has totally ruined Christmas. People spend upwards or in excess of 10% of their after tax income on Christmas and usually take all the next year to pay off their credit card Christmas related charges.

25% of super chain stores annual revenues come from Christmas related spending. It's my opinion that commercialism has ruined Christmas? That's my opinion. DO you agree or disagree? Take the poll and see what other readers have to say.

How is Ramadan similar to Christmas? You ask.

Well a Ramon tam-boon is an annual religious social gathering of family, relatives, friends and neighbors, invited guests and Muslim priests. There is a gift (usually money $5) given to each child by the host family. Family and friends start gathering early in the morning 7:30 am and more volunteers show up all through the day to make food preparations for the evening feast this activity takes pretty much all day.

 

The tam-boon in these photos prepares for 100 + persons including upwards of 30 priests. The priests bless the food and the family for their generosity in providing the food and sharing it the evening meal. It is in every sense of the word a feast. The host family also provides some cash money to each priest and student priest attending (perhaps $15 each or more depending on the financial status of the host).

Here's where Ramadan differs greatly from any Christmas dinner I've ever attended in that family and neighbors gather early in the morning and together prepare the food (all day) and stay in the evening after eating to help with the cleanup. Many of the same priests from a specific region attend each every tam-boon therefore different families will hold their tam-boons on different days. These are large gatherings with many of the same people attending each tam-boon while Christmas dinner is usually a single closely held family meal. There is no commercialized gift giving!

 

All the people visit and share and most remain there till after feast and after the clean-up end when all the work is done leave with left over take away. This is what Christmas of past used be like. Would Christmas disappear if the commercialism of gift giving were removed from it? Would the super stores survive without Christmas commercialism?

Take the poll and see what other readers have to say.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google Forms mail Merge AutoCrat or AutoCrap?

If you have attempted to merge data collected via a Google form then you will have heard of AutoCrat. 

After reading this blog please take the Poll at the bottom of the blog .. Should Google's merge app be named AutoCrat or AutoCrap?

To mail merge of Google docs form data to a letter requires creation of a template Google doc to  merge form date to and requires the installation and use of a Google add-on being AutoCrat. 

Chef LeeZ Thai Cooking Schools Bangkok built a Google form into which we manually entered the data to the various merge fields 



for a letter merge template.



We placed these in a folder where we expect to place the merged docs. 




 Chef LeeZ has attempted no fewer than 12 attempts and spent no less than 10 hours playing with AutoCrat and so far we have been unable to get a clean total merge.

The on line help with regards to merging Google form data to a Google letter doc and the related use of Autocrat were, as is so common with Google apps, not current, leaving mail merges and use of Autocrat up to trial and error on the users part. 

We even attempted, as suggested, a template version with <<$fieldName>>.  We identified and selected the correct fields from the specified data merge page. The <<$currDate>> input command repeatedly failed to fill so we had to manually enter the date.



Open the spreadsheet (form date) click on add-ons (as we previously installed autocrat from the list of add-on options) from drop down select "choose template" then click add template.. From the next window select the template the Google doc with merge fields, <<MergeFields>>. 



This allows you to select the template.

open the folder containing the template merge doc and click the merge file document which adds the merge fields to the select-able options. 

 Now you click "use template".  The next screen allows you to match up field names doc to list.



Now you need to select the sheet of your data spreadsheet containing the data to merge. It will default to the sheet you are on when opening AutoCrat. Click the right hand side field options and select the proper fields to use to fill the left side template fields and note how AutoCrat removed the $ sign from the insert fields. 



This is where the help offered fails. Why do I have to change my document to <<$fieldNames>>? We did it though. Next field is File Naming Convention is?  WHAT IS THIS?  We Input $currDate not knowing what should go here and every merged doc had  $currdate for a name.  We tried <<MergeFieldName>> and every merged doc was named MergeFieldName.

Select file type Google doc or pdf. We selected Google doc. 



and Save



Run preview before merge. 

View your one doc merged as a preview. Click on the new folder listed to view the test merge. The run Merge will create a separate doc for each merge and store them in this folder.  You have no say in where this folder is stored but it appears to attach to the date spreadsheet used as a separate folder. Click view in Google docs to see full list.

Click on the document to open and view it and AutoCrat or should we say AutoCrap as it has failed to merge any information to the test.

Try Run Merge, but remember for what ever reason, AutoCrap limits the number of merges you can do in a day. They don't say how many this is and you can expect to run out of merges for the day before you figure out how to use AutoCrap!

The run merge takes some time to perform its merges. Our guess this is relevant to the number of merges it creates (4+ minutes for 65 merges).

:Ooops! Looks like the cloud was running hot" message is received every attempt and as said earlier each attempt to complete or rerun adds files to the folder and to merged number.  AutoCrap! Click OK so screen disappears or click run merge to see if it continues to complete your merge.

Click the created merged document folder Which, this time, we found in the folder with the templates and the data sheet, where it should have been.

Open one of the docs to view and see if  AutoCrat worked!

Now let's try to merge the date again this time to a template doc without <<$SignfieldNames>> meaning we use the fields as they are in the date spreadsheet <<Contact Name>>. 

Now we need to visit our data sheet and remove columns at the end of the data sheet (in our case columns r - s) as they are added to spreadsheet on the first merge attempt and on every merge attempt.

As you can see below the merge fields now match up without adjusting the right column.

Save and this time we named it attempt 10 and save

We jumped right to Run Merge started 9:35am  finished 9:39 (4 minutes).

 There is now 125 files in the folder? Previous merges are still this file, but we deleted the previously created folder so why are yesterdays attempted merges in this folder? Our random selection shows us the completed merges are correct but every merged doc has the same name. Perhaps use <<contact Name>> as the description knowing who each letter is to.

Let's try it.  Start over with attempt 12.  <<Business Name>>

The Test merge works but it turned Chef LeeZ one page letter into two pages .. So its still not working AutoCrap! Have to now adjust the letter to allow for unforeseen stretch in the document. 

Well the merge worked with the typical Ooopps message and only merged 49 of 65 records. AutoCrap! I give up ... did I run out of merges already? AutoCrap!

In conclusion Chef LeeZ went to MS office word and copied and pasted our merge letter and the data spreadsheet created in Google docs form into respective word.doc and .xls documents.

When Chef LeeZ open the word doc and clicked on mail icon from the tools bar and followed the steps from left to right, inserted and replaced existing document fields with fields from data doc field list selection option and we were printing 65 properly merged letters in 30 minutes! 

AutoCrap! Don't waste your time with AutoCrat! 

Take the Poll .. What do you think Google Should have named their spreadsheet merge app AutoCrat or AutoCrap?