Larry S. Persons, PhD EVEN MORE CANDOR Decades ago, as a young boy I found myself being dragged to see a dentist. Anesthetic gels and injections weren’t common back in the day. In the waiting room I heard the awful, high-pitched whine of the dentist’s drill in the...
Larry S. Persons, PhD If you want to build strategic relationships with Thais, respect the importance of social hierarchy. Here’s part two of EXPLAINING THAI CULTURE TO FOREIGNERS. (Special thanks to David Norcross and his Lexicon team. A highly recommended digital...
Larry S. Persons, PhD VALUING TALENT With no hesitation and not an ounce of shame, I am going to restate my argument. The national dream of ‘Thailand 4.0’ will become a disappointing reality unless scores and scores of courageous young Thais choose to challenge some...
Larry S. Persons, PhD REMOVING CONTROLS Is your company desperate to become more innovative? By desperate I mean like a man whose car just stalled over railroad tracks and a freight train is barreling towards him just meters away. That kind of desperate. Is there a...
Larry S. Persons, PhD Candor The unique thing about durian (the fruit) is not its hard shell that looks like the back of an ankylosaurus, or its weird pods of yellow custard that taste like nothing else on the planet. THE thing about durian is that you either love it...
Larry S. Persons, PhD Talent Density Here’s the first lesson Thai organizations can learn from Netflix: to become truly innovative you must pursue the highest levels of ‘talent density’ possible. If you’re not familiar with that term, it’s okay. It simply...
Larry S. Persons, PhD What’s Your ‘North Star?’ To embark on any journey, it’s a good idea to know where you are trying to go. Here’s our direction: “How can we contextualize Netflix culture to Thai culture in such a way that it fuels unbounded creativity and...
Larry S. Persons, PhD The concept of 'krengjai' can be foggy and frustrating to many foreigners. This short video helps unpack its meaning. (Special thanks to David Norcross and his Lexicon team. A highly recommended digital agency and video production agency in...
Larry S. Persons, PhD Why Innovation Is So Difficult Stay tuned for more of blogs that guide expat business leaders in Thailand to confront their biases and work smarter—culturally smarter. But that’s not the only thing I do. Today I pivot to address a different...
Larry S. Persons, PhD A Delicate Balance: Giving Performance Feedback to Thais This is Part 2 of our series on How to Be a Good Ex-pat Leader in Thailand. To read Part 1, where we focus on establishing a foundation of trust,...