| |
Chompoo
|
I don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but I think a venture involving outsourced IT professionals from Thailand is very unlikely to be successful. I doubt you could seriously compete with similar firms in India or China.
First, the expected standard of living is higher in Thailand, so you will typically have to pay your workers more and thus couldn't compete in the long term.
Second, Thailand does not have the huge infrastructure of technical schools (and fundamentals in math and science) that India has and China is redeveloping. In general, the appropriate fundamental skills (math, logic, scientific method) for IT professionals are, IMO, lacking in Thailand.
Third, IMO any Thai with all these skills (including basic abilities in English) is probably not going to want to be an IT grunt and will look for some other, sexier, more powerful position.
Fourth, culturally, Thai people are not well suited for this kind of business. By that I mean, that an efficient IT org will be a meritocracy where the best and brightest will quickly rise to the top, where everyone can contribute by giving feedback to co-workers and management. This is an issue for native Chinese and Indian workers too, but I think it is as prevalent, if not more so, in Thailand.
Last, I don't think most Thai people have the work ethic for this. You will find it very hard to get Thai workers to stay in the office 60 to 80 hours a week. Indian and Chinese workers are much more highly motivated to not just knock off at 5pm. In America there are many companies where a consistent 9-5 effort is enough (assuming good management), but most successful companies have their engineers put in long hours especially during critical times, and to some extent the engineers are willing to do it to get ahead.
I think there are opportunities here, but I think you need very savvy management and good Thai contacts to get the right set of people and good contacts overseas to get yourself started. If I were a VC looking at your company I'd have to know what, in particular, makes you think you can succeed at this vs. everyone else who has this dream.
For Thailand, I think there are probably more opportunities for areas less technical and more towards design (e.g. web site design, graphics, ...).
|
Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 5:28 pm on Nov. 19, 2002
|
|
sandiegon
|
Chompo,
Thanks for the inside info.. How about opening up the techincal schools in LOS to train thai workers for future IT market? India, China, and Paksitan had a big success doing this..
|
Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 5:34 pm on Nov. 19, 2002
|
|
|
|
Chompoo
|
How about opening up the techincal schools in LOS to train thai workers for future IT market? India, China, and Paksitan had a big success doing this..
I think it's possible, but it's going to be a long process, IMO. I don't think Thai people have the thirst for knowledge and education that many other cultures have historically had. I think they need to see a concrete result from their efforts and the payoffs are usually too far off.
I think first the parents need to be convinced that the kids need to work hard in school (actually studying, not just making contacts) so that the kids will have a solid math and science foundation. Then the kids need to decide to follow the right career path. I don't think most teenagers in Thailand think engineers and technical people are very successful, they instead want to be businessmen, sales people, general management, .... They need to be shown that a technical career will make them much more likely to meet their financial goals and that their intelligence, skill and hard work will determine their success (if that is actually the reality in Thailand today).
All this applies mostly just to middle and upper middle class. I think Thailand could also do a better job of identifying gifted students in the lower class and giving them a better opportunity (especially the girls).
|
Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 6:07 pm on Nov. 19, 2002
|
|
Ady
|
Chompoo,
Not sure if we are thread jacking, but an interesting insight and one which rings true.
I have been in this industry for some years and the past 4 years with my own company, and I have found that a lot of business for the IT sector in Asia is done in BKK, but very little of it is for the LOS market.
I think the nightlife and entertaining possibilities help the contract negotiations.
I have also found generally the guys I have worked with in Asia are from India/Pakistan and are extremely professional and hard working more so than the average European and USA equivalent and competing with these guys who are willing to do more for less money is like pissing against the wind.
You have to have a product!
|
Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 6:13 pm on Nov. 19, 2002
|
|
sandiegon
|
Ady,
Don't worry about them, I am half Pakistani and I think if we plan it well, we could get some thing going in BKk as well
|
Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 6:38 pm on Nov. 19, 2002
|
|
Thai Traveler
|
If you guys come up with something and need another hand, keep me in mind.
My main background is IT infrastructure (networks, routers, firwalls, etc) but I'm also very familiar with all windows versions (+AD) and most things running on linux (apache, sendmail, bind, php....). I was on the original dev mailing list when LPI was developing their level 1 exam stuff.
|
Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:36 am on Dec. 31, 2002
|
|
| |
|
