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| Work takes shape, Phuket visit - Jan. 24, 2006 | | Date Created: Jan 24, 2006, 11:00 AM |
Monday, January 23
Things are beginning to take more shape here with the job, but the verdict is still out on how I'm going to accomplish everything they expect of me at a level that either they or I will be satisfied with. I met with my boss and the president of the university today, and that meeting gave me more direction. The president is basically interested in me establishing a PR machine where there never has been one. He said that he would view my time here as a success if after I leave, there's a system in place that will keep functioning and not simply fall apart because I'd been handling everything myself. From my standpoint, that idea meshes quite well with my philosophy that if you're stretched thin, the best thing you can do is organize to such a point that most day-to-day things are sort of on auto-pilot, and then when something important comes up, you have the time to give it consideration.
Trouble is, they want me to revamp the Web site, gearing the homepage to prospective students, potential governmental partners, interested media, and generally the entire Web-surfing public. My immediate thought was to post pornographic photos, which would likely generate the desired traffic, but I am not sure what it would do for the image of the university. So, I guess "The Girls of AIT" is out, and something or other about a computer program that helps medical students learn anatomy -- not that my idea would provide any less anatomy education -- is in.
I also came away with a list of about 20 target countries to focus on PR efforts. Plus I came away with a permanent staff of Thais. I have Bernie, the curious little Filippino, as my right-hand man. I also have Natipha, a Thai woman who appears very helpful. And I have Deng and Apichart, who are the two graphic designers. They both seem to like a lot of clip art and to make sure that very little white space takes away from their design. And then there are two photographers, but only one digital camera. When I presented the idea that it is ridiculous to pay for the film and developing of the film camera, it was pointed out to me that each photographer could not possibly be using the one camera all 7-1/2 hours of the work day and they could easily share. Oh, and then I have a staff of printers who seem to work for me as well, but they are in another building, I have not met them, their presses are noteworthy because they appear to be the very ones on which the second edition of the Guttenburg Bible was printed, and if we do any printing, we outsource it.
It has me scratching my head as well -- and not simply at the pronunciation of names.
On the bright side, I am told I can request my choice of computers, so if all goes well, I will be requisitioning a Macintosh, so at least it will be familiar to me and I can do some of the graphics and presentation stuff that is currently limited by the Windows computers.
I think also travel will be in the cards, but not now, as I gave up my passport for a month in order to get the proper visa from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
I waited until today to do that so I could fly to Phuket for the weekend. That was a fun trip, although a bit rushed and short. It was also a complete surprise for Prae, which was fun. I had just gotten off the plane in Phuket when she called and asked me what my plans were for the weekend. I told her I didn't know, that I was really tired. She said she thought I was going to Future Park, which is the huge mall about 10 miles from here. As I was in the taxi driving to her, I said, "I don't know. It just seems so far away right now."
Anyhow, I had the taxi drop me off next-door to Sea Dream. John and another Irish guy named John picked up Prae and wrestled her to the couch, playing like they were going to kiss her. While she struggled with them, I climbed on her and the Johns got off, and she belted me right in the face! Then she opened her eyes and saw who I was, and she belted me again for playing a trick on her. Then the joke was really on me, because I had told John to hold a room at Sea Dream for me, and he did, but since he couldn't say it was me, there was a mix-up and one of the other girls sold the last room. I told John he needed to teach the girls who work for him how to say "No loom! No loom!" when people walk by. At any rate, he booked me into a place two doors down, and I got the wholesale rate, which was OK.
It was fun to be back in Patong again and see some of the old familiar faces, but my time there was rather short, as my flight arrived late on Friday. Then my flight left late on Sunday, so I didn't get back home until after midnight on Sunday.
Tuesday, January 24
I've been blessed I think in entering into yet another workplace where the back-stabbers and biters are few. While there are quite a few things that seem rather screwy with this new job, the people seem genuinely nice and welcoming. Additionally, they are quite candid in talking with me. I sometimes wonder if that's simply human nature or if it has something to do with being a journalist for 10 years and subconsciously developing some technique for conversation and questioning that gets people to open up to me. I guess I'll never really know, but I'm flattered whatever the case.
Last night as I was writing this e-mail, my next-door neighbor, Krishna from Bhutan, knocked at my door to invite me to dinner with him and his friend, Prantik from India. We went to the Thai restaurant at the former golf course clubhouse and had a great time. It was as I'd hoped before coming here fascinating to hear life from the different perspectives of those from different cultures. Incidentally, I looked at the globe in my office to find Bhutan, and it's not in the Middle East as I'd first thought. It's actually between Nepal and Tibet. I don't know much more than that, except from the way Krishna talks, it's very male-dominated and they eat nothing but mutton -- he ordered pork and chicken at dinner. Both Krishna and Prantik received their MBAs from here and now work for the School of Management.
I have been somewhat surprised by some of the comments of the faculty at the business school that seem to underscore a very different philosophy of business than in the States.
The meeting was discussing whether to use Thai baht or US dollars as the official currency of AIT. Since its expenditures are in baht and its revenues in USD, it opens itself up to financial risk if the dollar goes down, which it has been doing and is predicted to do. So, the thought is to begin charging tuition in baht and approximate the price in dollars in school literature, rather than the opposite, which is now the case. With the falling dollar, some savvy students have been converting their money at the bank and paying in baht, through arbitrage getting a slight discount on their tuition. The point is, charging tuition in USD while paying everything in baht leaves the university open to risk if the dollar continues to fall. In the short-term, this could be a problem, but in the long term, it is rather ridiculous; it was, after all the devaluation of the Thai baht that created the 1997 Asian economic crisis.
While the dollar may be falling a bit now, it is clearly the long-term stable currency, and since 75 percent of AIT's students are from countries that have never even heard of the baht, it's silly in my mind to make the switch. Plus it shows that AIT's fiduciary staff -- and some of its business school faculty members -- are behind its students in basic skills of arbitrage to hedge a temporarily falling dollar.
This one professor in particular just couldn't get it through her head that it wasn't the actual notes the students paid their tuition in, it was the value of the currency itself. Being new here and having almost failed entry-level economics and perhaps still partially responsible for the collapse of the first bond market in Albania due to the report I wrote while at the Treasury Department, I kept my mouth shut and left the decision to the experts. But I am witnessing the strange and almost unreal democracy seen within the walls of academia. It is, as I thought while in college, a place where the people teaching could stand a few good years in the real world.
On the other hand, I'm enjoying the rampant intellectualism that leads to a continual state of ineffectiveness here. While frustrating, it is amusing to see how decisions come about -- all with the best intentions of not disrupting the multiculturalism, but in the end ineffectual to the point of gridlock. To wit, I spent the first half of my day attempting to requisition a new computer, printer and desk chair. We'll see if the bureaucracy moves quickly enough to get it all for me before my yearlong contract is up.
On the bright side of things, I had drinks and dinner with the dean of the extension service here -- that is the arm of the school that puts on conferences. He's a British guy and has a girlfriend from Uganda, who works in the alumni relations office. Her boss is the equivalent of the Thai chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who's an AIT alumnus. Anyway, this dean gave me more inside scoop about working at AIT and wants to go to bat for me to reduce the number of people meddling in my job so that I can do it more effectively.
I really get the feel that there are a lot of people rooting for what I'm going to be trying to do here, and that's a good feeling, even if it does little about all the cooks in my kitchen. Strangely enough, after my meeting with the president yesterday, I get the same impression, yet there are forces of Asian culture, the necessity of my skills in too many areas and the sheer pile of work to be done that I have going against me. My first step this weekend was to buy several books on doing business with Asians as a Westerner, and I've already learned a fair amount from the two that I was able to read so far.
In any case, it's all fascinating, even if I haven't dome more than an ounce or two of real work yet. I think it will continue to be a real learning experience if nothing else. |
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