Seminar designed to 'create value'
Businessmen should learn to combine creativity and business management, in order to establish a "value creation" economy that would enhance Thailand's competitiveness and help the Kingdom generate consistent economic growth, instead of focusing on simply adding value, says the Thailand Creative and Design Centre (TCDC).
Managing director Chaiyong Ratana-angoon said yesterday that a value-creation economy was driven by businesses that used their national and cultural uniqueness to produce valuable products and services. He said Thais had long separated creativity from economic management, which led them to concentrate on building business growth without thinking of being creative. They seem, as a consequence, to rely on original-equipment manufacturing, offering various technical skills along with cheap labour costs or bringing product parts from abroad for assembly here, just to achieve a bit higher value. They should think of adapting creativity to add value to their products and services - creativity based on what Thailand already has, particularly the Thai culture - because other countries will never be able to copy that uniqueness. Moreover, products and services arising from cultural creativity also generate higher profits than those focusing simply on adding value. Profits generated by creativity can be as high as 25-30 per cent, while value-added products from assembling others' work generate only 5 per cent. Chaiyong said places like Japan, Scandinavia and members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development had applied the principle of value creation for a long time now. To stimulate more Thai businesses to adopt value creation, the TCDC, in cooperation with the Office of Knowledge Management and Development, will host "Creativities Unfold, Bangkok 2006-07 - Perspectives on Value Creation" at its offices on the sixth floor of The Emporium shopping complex from October 6-8. The event will involve six sessions with 16 international speakers. Entry fees are Bt600 per day or Bt1,200 for the three-day event. At the same time, there will be an exhibition entitled "Workers (with Money) Unite! China's Shopping Revolution". It will examine modern Chinese consumption patterns and is aimed at stimulating Thai designers and entrepreneurs to develop products catering to the Chinese market.
Nitida Asawanipont The Nation
|
