We want to form relationships with people to gather information about Thailand and strengthen our international network

Q.Why did your company decide to take on interns? What did you aim to achieve?

For 11 years since our inception, we have constantly striven to contribute to society through technology. Based on the philosophy that "business is people," we do not have management positions. Every staff member is a key player. All members treat each other as equals, and we value the approach of having each employee engage in work that he or she wants to focus on. At the same time, our employees are not excessively individualistic. And as such, we are proud to have earned the trust of our customers through teamwork among staff members who trust and respect each other. In our journey to do business abroad under this philosophy, we look forward to enhancing local information collection through our most important resource: "people," strengthening networks with foreign countries, and creating pipelines. This is our motivation behind applying to this program.

Using his strengths, the intern was very instrumental in marketing activity and local network development

Q.What kind of internship did you run? What difficulties did you face and how did you resolve them?

We decided to take in this intern after the office recommended him as someone who hails from Thammasat University, one of Thailand's top universities, has professional experience at a trading firm that handles Japanese products, and is fluent in Japanese. We gave him starting-point ideas geared towards his background and then encouraged him to develop his own work direction. The intern proposed and engaged in a wide scope of business including local surveys regarding branching out to Thailand (company launching and client / product needs), preparation of Thai language proposal documents, product resources, food product manufacturer oriented product specification considerations, and test score charts as well as Thai language lessons for Japanese staff members and interactive meetings with Thai foreign students in the local university area. Because the intern had a humanities background as opposed to the focus on science and engineering backgrounds among out staff members, his familiarity with technical issues was slightly low and document preparation was slow at times. However, the intern was exceptional at marketing skills. As such, he put his strengths to impressive use in activities like local area information gathering and network introductions. In addition, the intern highly valued his experience living in Japan. He spent time with everyone outside of work hours as well, forging strong human relationships.

Thanks to this intern, our Thailand expansion plans advanced steadily and we gained so much we will suffer when he leaves

Q.Comparing before and after the internship, what effects did it have on you, your employees, or your organization?

The most important product of this situation was the opportunity to forge a relationship with this intern. Thanks to this intern, we were able to thoroughly gather information related to Thailand. Also, through his personal network, we received introductions to companies in Thailand. And in terms of customer development, his personal network directly benefited our company. Also, in terms of the impact he had within the company, having this intern at the company led to an increase in communication among Japanese employees that included discussions about Thailand, and the workplace grew even more invigorating. We want to continue working with this intern as a trusted partner even after the internship concludes. This intern understands the way we think very well, and after he returns to Thailand, we have the feeling that we will be able to work with him again and expand our network of staff members and business partners through our ties with him.