Page 55 - Masala E-magazine Vol 9 Issue 5 April - May 2018

What else are you currently working on?
“ I want to show girls I’m currently working on a case study, which I’m looking to
get published in a journal. One of the family properties is
that you can be as undergoing a brand change and I am discussing the challenges
of doing that.
stylish as you want I also just completed a project for Central Retail. They needed

and also be as some appraisal tools to determine who gets into their trainee
programmes, so I came up with many topics, along with the
hard-working as grading system for evaluation.

you want. “ You also recently completed a course in Harvard. Why did you

decide to pursue this?
I love to study while I’m teaching. It doesn’t matter how old
you get, it’s never too late to learn something new. I’m always
However, when my son got into kindergarten, I told my husband looking to expand my knowledge, so I did a short course, which
that I did not want to work for a while. I wanted to take care of was a seminar for educators to create better case studies.
my son, and pick him up and drop him home from school. But
after one year of fl oating around, my mother-in-law spoke to In January, I fi nished another course online from Emeritus for
me, saying: “you’re such a smart girl, why aren’t you working?” Digital Strategies for Business. That’s where I see the world
After a week, I met a friend of mine who was in the admin heading, so I wanted to learn more so I could share it with my
department for ABAC and I told him that I would be interested students. I also wanted to be able to give insightful inputs for
in coming in to teach. That’s how I ended up going for an developing curriculums in the future, if asked.
interview the following week.
Another course I recently did was for simulation training.
You devise your own case studies for your students, which not Nobody uses simulation training for undergrad at all, but I fi nd it
a lot of lecturers do. What inspired you to create them? very useful for my students to understand how a real company
Most of the cases available to lecturers are based on functions. I went for the training and then came back to teach
companies in the UK or Europe. There are very few cases it at Assumption University. The students pretend to run a
based in Asia and barely any for Thailand. When I’m teaching, company, and every week they are given a new set of problems
I want students to be able to identify with local businesses. to deal with. They then create strategies and I judge them
I wrote a variety of case studies; one on Nanyang, Jaspal, based on how well they dealt with the challenges.
Proton and CIMB. I want my students to understand that
although the textbook says one thing, it is not necessarily the
case in the real world.

I try to create new case studies every semester because I don’t
want them to get outdated. One of the strengths I have as an
instructor is my connections in the industry, as my family owns
a number of hotels. I always try to match the subject with the
right guest speaker, and get them to come in and share their
knowledge with the students.

You’re also a bit of a fashionista and love dressing up for your
classes. Any particular reason?
It’s mainly a strategy; I know that if I dress well, students are
more likely to pay attention to me in class. I also want to show
the female students that you can be as stylish as you want and
also be as hard-working as you want. I want to show them that
you don’t have to choose, you can be both!

How supportive is your family towards what you do?
I’m very lucky. My husband knows that I am passionate about
teaching and he gives me access to the contacts I can use to
facilitate my students’ learning. I’m also thankful to my in-laws
for being so supportive of me wanting to go back to work when
my son was still young.

55
www.masalathai.com