Nikkei Asia - Group subscriptions - Chulalongkorn University customer story

ーThe School of Integrated Innovation is a new venture by the historical and prestigious university. As a faculty member since the inception of the School, tell us about the uniqueness of its objectives and curriculums, and what your focuses are.

I joined Chulalongkorn University in 2019, when the university opened this new School of Integrated Innovation (ScII), indeed as its very first professor and a full-time faculty member. I now also serve the School under the additional capacity of Deputy Executive Director (Industrial and Global Alliances). ScII is a part of a digital transformation strategy of Chulalongkorn University. The idea is for it to be a sandbox to introduce a new innovative program, and also to set an example of diversity -- in terms of internationality of both management and students. We emphasise collaboration with industries and multinational corporations, too.

We run a transdisciplinary program. We equip students with knowledge, skills and expertise in some core foundation areas, and we give them a broad overview. But in some areas, we want them to have specialised knowledge, as we don't want them to be generalists; we want them to build vertical knowledge and depth of foundation in some crucial disciplines.

Entrepreneurship and Core Business covers some six fundamental subjects in the management area. There is an additional foundation area, named core technology, which primarily refers to computer science and computer networking courses. Additionally, we offer start-up projects (mandatory for all students since the first year) and then liberal arts, critical thinking and social justice – all these courses constitute the essence of 21st century education.

After spending two years learning these to form a solid foundation, students can pick one strategic area to specialise, from four concentration areas. The first is applied digital intelligence which is related to digital economy, artificial intelligence and robotics. The second is smart city and inclusive community. The third is healthcare, which includes biotech, and the final one is sustainable development. It is possible to specialise in more than two areas by combining subjects from these strategic tracts. Overall, we are flexible in creating unique paths for our students.

We engage with corporate partners a lot for the coursework projects. One example is Singha Corp., one of the largest Thai food and beverage -- as well as real estate -- conglomerates, and another is Banpu PCL, also a major energy player in the country and across the Asia-Pacific region. The students work closely with the senior management of such firms, conduct market research, and analyse market trends and pain-points. Students have meetings every month and are coached by those business professionals.

This kind of actual business projects are usually done at business schools, and are rare for undergraduate students, but we believe the experience and exposure is valuable. The feedback from corporate partners has been positive, and I remember one director even jokingly told me that the students’ presentations were better than some of her firm’s internal presentations!

ーThe school has been providing all students the full access to Nikkei Asia for the past several years. How do you incorporate our publication into your teaching?

Every week in all my classes, we have a business news presentation session. A few teams present for 2-3 minutes each to share the most important business news of the week they selected. For this, I instruct students to use Nikkei Asia as a primary source of information. Whether the course is for marketing, entrepreneurship or business operations, I instruct (them) to do this (for them) to get deeper insights, to go beyond the superficial information posted on social media.

I was personally reading Nikkei Asia from before and decided that it would be a good supplemental material for the students to understand business, technology and innovation news related to Asia. Students are given unlimited access to Nikkei Asia on campus, or via our VPN.

The stories Nikkei Asia delivers are actionable. That is important for business news and what differentiates it from other news outlets.

For example, a story about infrastructure projects in Thailand contained precise information about who the players are, which companies are bidding and what the processes are like, with quality data. This kind of information is useful when we structure market research, and for business leaders to decide on their actions.

As tensions between the U.S. and China persist, most media focus more on geopolitics. But now what business people want to know is, “Okay, so what can I do and what exactly is risky to do? What are the options?” We at the School of Integration Innovation are much more practical, and I think Nikkei serves this interest well.

ーHow would you envision the future career paths for students at ScII?

We not only provide entrepreneurship courses, but we also provide a start-up incubation program from year one, where students can work on project seeds for four years. So our expectation is that some of our students will pursue their entrepreneurship career.

Another path is to be corporate innovators and digital transformation professionals. This is a big theme in Thailand and other countries. There are many digital transformation projects in large corporations and consulting firms. This is one of the big areas where our students should excel, because although they are not engineers, they have solid technology understanding to be engaged in these projects.

We expect some should also like to join social enterprises, international organisations and NGOs, to contribute to social transformation.

ーYou also have experience as a management consultant and have supported companies that are keen to expand their businesses into Asia. When foreign firms seek your advice, what are some aspects that they are often unaware of?

I co-founded a consulting company in 2016, and we help companies and investors trying to get into this region.

Small, medium size enterprises from Central and Southern Europe are less familiar with Asian markets, whose complexity can be daunting. They might have a simplified view and think it is easy to enter, but in reality, it requires targeted strategies.

If you want to enter the market, an export-led model probably doesn’t work anymore. Localization and having a local presence are important for several reasons.

For one, thanks to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, if you set up a production facility and more than 40% of the goods’ value originates from the region, it will give you access to all the member states.

Another reason is for a better understanding of the differences in technology levels. For example, e-commerce including live commerce is very powerful in China, it’s about 27% of all sales compared to only 8% in Thailand. In some areas, shipment and delivery of goods you order online are much faster than in some European countries, which suggests the sophistication of logistics, too.

Also, customer service is very important in Asia. Here in Thailand, one of the very first things customers and business partners ask is “So where is your office? Do you have someone I can talk to?”, which is like a preliminary screening on whether they can do business with you. So having a personal, direct touchpoint does still matter.

Lastly, there are of course some cultural and relationship factors. I did some management consulting projects in Myanmar related to construction and healthcare equipment, and went there once or twice a month between 2016 and 2019. In Myanmar, at every business meeting the unique business climate must be taken into consideration and foreign businesspeople should be extremely aware of Myanmar cultural norms. Once our meeting was abruptly cut short, when we started to talk about legalities and contractual agreements: it was not time yet!

In neighbouring Thailand, major companies have been part of the international supply chain for long time, thereby international business practices are common. However, people still value “face,” personal relationships, hierarchy and seniority, and we need to be mindful of such cultural norms.

In helping us have a clear understanding of these differences in business culture and their background, Nikkei Asia has been a good resource.

Posted March 2022

Dr. Pietro Borsano is the Deputy Executive Director (Industrial and Global Alliances) and the faculty member responsible for Entrepreneurship and Core Business at the newly-established School of Integrated Innovation, Chulalongkorn University (the oldest and No.1 University in Thailand, according to QS and Times Higher Education Impact rankings). His aim is to build an innovation ecosystem in line with SDG #9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) and groom Thai and international students to strive as the next generation of entrepreneurs and corporate innovators in Southeast Asia.

His professional experience spans academia, management advisory and law practice, in both Europe and Asia. Dr. Borsano is a professional coach with the Centre of Professional Development, Stanford University. In 2016, he co-founded a boutique management consultancy in Bangkok.

He is a fellow of the Innovative Teaching Scholars Program (Stanford University) and of ELI Asia | Entrepreneurial Leadership and Innovation Executive Development Program (Babson College). He holds a Master in European Business with merit from ESCP Europe and a Doctorate Degree in Law with honours from the University of Turin.

He is an adviser to the Global Entrepreneurship Network Thailand with regard to the entrepreneurial mindset education program Pitch@School.