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.)
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,...
Larry S. Persons, PhD It All Starts with Trust Think back. Remember your feelings the first time you saw the boundless horizon of an ocean? Moving abroad to work in an unfamiliar culture is a lot like standing on a virgin beach and gazing at a delightful expanse of...
Larry S. Persons, PhD If you’re a foreigner working with Thais, remember that you are as strange to your colleagues as they are to you. Symbols of this disconnect, like the language barrier, are as obvious as the nose on your face. But far more obtuse are the hidden...
People with ‘face’ in Thai society feel a deep sense of worth that woos them to expect special treatment. But Covid-19 doesn’t really care who you are. This nasty villain is upending social rules and changing the way we all live, including people with wealth, status, titles, talent, fame, and good looks.