The Bangkok University Entrepreneurship program

After our visit to visit to the Ubon Ratchathani main campus we stopped at a coffee shop that was quite uniqu,e, a favorite among the college students and faculty. We lingered for about an hour and discussed our meeting with the IT group. The coffee shop was very enjoyable but we could not stay long (enough) as my colleagues had to drop me at a hotel and return to Mukdahan. The drive to Mukdahan takes about 2 hours and they were hoping to be clear of Ubon city center before rush hour traffic started to clog the streets -- and they still had to deliver me to my hotel. While they planned to return to Mukdahan, I was on my way to Bangkok to visit Bangkok University, a private institution that is home to a degree program in entrepreneurship. Bangkok University is home to the only such degree program in Thailand.

During my preparations to teach ICT enterprise in Mukdahan, I spent a lot of time researching entrepreneurial activity in Thailand. I drew information from two primary sources to collect information; a Thai government online warehouse of business statistics and the GEM Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. While I use GEM when I prepare to teach my ICT enterprise class in Florida, I did not pay much attention to who (in the US) authors the report.

While preparing my teaching materials, I decided to use the GEM reports to compare enterprise ecosystems (startup business environment) between different ASEAN countries. From my perspective, then (knowing the US report), I found the Thailand GEM report absolutely fascinating. The cultural differences, focus of business effort and reach of Thai businesses is quite different than what one might expect to find in the US. Interestingly, the startup environment in Thailand is quite far ahead of other ASEAN countries. While not surprising to find differences, the heavy focus for Thai startups in restaurant, hotel and food service industries (60% of all startups) and a scant 3% of new Thai businesses are ICT oriented. The challenges to develop an ICT enterprise program are structural (focus on localized economies) cultural (fear of failure, expectations to continue family businesses) and educational (the Thai educational system appears to be oriented toward knowing answers rather than thinking creatively or problem solving).

The GEM Thailand report provided so much useful information it occurred to me that while I am in Thailand I should try to meet with the authors. When I discovered that the research survey is produced and published by Bangkok University. After several tries I finally made contact through the Bangkok University Facebook page. Within a couple of days we confirmed a plan to meet on the BU campus with the director of the entrepreneurship program and the author of the Thailand GEM report. 

Bangkok University has quite an impressive campus. There are domestic and extensive international programs, summer institutes. Many international universities participating in teaching activities. One of the most impressive relationships that the BUSEM program has is their affiliation with Babson College, the #1 entrepreneurship program in the US.

After arriving on campus I met for about an hour in the BUSEM offices with the director of the entrepreneurship program and the author of the GEM Thailand report. We talked about many topics including my student outreach / ICT enterprise project, potential collaboration between Bangkok University and the Mukdahan campus. They were also very interested in collaborating with Florida State University, perhaps through a cooperative agreement that might include student and faculty exchanges.

During discussions they mentioned that BUSEM had previously developed a Startup Weekend event on campus -- and since I was one of the organizers of Startup Weekend Tallahassee we spent some time talking about startup events and the influence that they have on entrepreneurship programs. Their main interest, however, is in developing more ICT oriented businesses (that also have more international reach) through their programs and any resources that might help achieve that goal. The idea seems like a natural fit for the College of Communication and Information.

The Mukdahan curriculum proposal

Just before I left for Bangkok, the main campus in Ubon Ratchthani made a formal request for the Mukdahan campus to develop a curriculum and operate independently from the main campus. Currently, they share the same curriculum and evaluation metrics. When I related all of this information to the Mukdahan faculty, there was quite a bit of excitement over creating a new curriculum that is ICT enterprise oriented. We agreed to work together to create a curriculum framework that draws upon the courses that currently service their three majors (IT, Business management and Accounting) and follow up with Bangkok University to explore how we might work together.

The curriculum framework, the Learning Management System project (to support student development) and the ICT enterprise course seem to be progressing well. Hopefully, we can develop an entrepreneurship curriculum and enlist other universities as well as local partnerships (chamber of commerce, the local governor and entrepreneurs) before the end of the project term. While it will take some time for the parent campus and local oversight committees to approve a new curriculum, it's an important step for the Mukdahan campus.

While I was in Bangkok visiting the BU campus, I borrowed a car from An's family. Tony (an Arjan from the Mukdahan campus) flew down to Bangkok and drove back to Mukdahan with me -- all 8 hours. Tony is a good guy and proved to be quite a good travel companion. While the trip was long, it was worth the effort - the first day I had the car in Mukdahan it rained. It was also the first rainy day since I arrived in early January -- perfect timing!

Having a car also brings my motorcycle diary to an end. It's too crazy driving a motorcycle over here -- Anybody want to buy a used Fino?