Naewna on February 10, 2018

Following King Rama IX’s Philosophy Path: From Ban Manik Community Phuket to Innovation 4.0 

I usually share the true stories. I am lucky to have opportunities to continuously develop people.

From the case study of Ban Manik Community in Phuket, after having been continuously working together for more than 2 years, this community can produce products from natural supply and admirable send it to the market.

First of all, I would like you to think of King Rama IX’s concept of thinking Macro and doing Micro. I always apply this principle to my works. I go from Macro to Micro especially in human capital works. I always study the big picture and go to the small scale like individual and organizational levels. We cannot only look at the Micro level like organization. The Micro level is positively and negatively influenced by the big picture.

I wrote this article on Wednesday. The audiences must follow the change of the global stock market led by the U.S. Last Monday, the stock index plunged to 1,200 points on the same day. The drastic change in the U.S. stock market affected the stock markets all over the world. This included Thailand.

Trump always says that he succeeds because of the rise of stock index. He says nothing after the stock index plunged. For human capital quality or competency, we need to understand the Macro level to learn about the Micro level. Learning from the big picture can help us prepare for the emerging danger and exploring the new opportunities to create success in the Micro level.

Dr. Theerakan Pokaew, my Ph.D. student who graduated several years invited me to work with the community 2 years ago. I would like to admire her for dedication to work for creating value added all the time. She loves applying Chira Way to work.

She works at Phuket Rajabhat University. She is a community development field lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences. She is responsible for taking care of communities. It should be a great pride that Phuket Rajabhat University has community development policy.

Finally, she found a community called “Ban Manik Community” in Phuket. Mr. Suparoj Songyos is the chairman of Sufficiency Economy Learning Center. He has a lot of experience. He spends his life after retirement with his native community to develop it to achieve quality.

2 years ago, Dr. Theerakan Pokaew called to invite me to organize a one-day program for the villagers to discover themselves and creating value from human capital and teamwork. I can well remember that more than 30 villagers and government officials came to listen to me. I am proud that such a small project at that time could energize the villagers to think of innovation and human capital quality.

During the lunch break, the chairman invited me to see how to grow Okra. He intended to grow more of Okra. Okra has a lot of medical qualities. It improves digestion. It can be material supply for several products. This area is very suitable to increase the production of Okra. The community members’ efforts and the cooperation from Dr. Theerakan Pokaew have been continuously developing the community to achieve the after receiving the knowledge from me 2years ago. Last week, I got good news that this community produced the soap from Okra. It was selected to be exhibited at the National Research Council of Thailand fair at BITEC. I was very glad that Mr. Suparoj Songyos, the chairman of Sufficiency Economy Learning Center of Ban Manik Community and Dr. Theerakan Pokaew came to meet me and showed me Okra soap.

The work in the next era must be done as process. I am pleased to inspire the villagers. Even though it was as short as 1 day, it impressed the villagers and stimulated them to produce this product to exhibit at the fair. The chairman told me that my team and I inspired them to have today’s success. The villagers still remember the learning environment. Dr. Theerakan Pokaew, a local university lecturer can work well. The villagers synergize to contribute to the society. The government officials of some organizations join them.

The point is that local wisdom (community) + university knowledge + my brand at the national together are admirable example.

This village or community started as a Sufficiency Economy center in which people learnt to be good leaders and worked with continuity. If there are several case studies like this, Thailand will have opportunities to create value added.

 “Congratulations!”

Please click this link for the print version.

https://cdn.gotoknow.org/assets/media/files/001/286/620/original_naewna_eng_10022018.pdf?1518760347

Source: Learning from Reality with Dr. Chira Column. Naewna.

             Saturday 10 February 2018, p.5