BBA Newsletter 1

Time flies......

We are now approaching theend of the year 2006 and startingthe New Year 2007.

There must have been a fewthings that you wanted to do butunfortunately undone.

There certainly was somethingthat you could have wanted to avoiddoing but failed.

Next year is just ten secondsaway.....

Do whatever you should, andavoid whatever you should not.

Happy New Year 2007

Kangwan YodwisitsakAssociate Director -Administration Affairs

Merry Christmas,

We wish you all happyholidays. Enjoy your breakout in the sunshine. Giventhe violence in the south ofThailand, we have placed littleblue donation boxes on theBBA counter. Please help theneedy. We will be sending outthe proceeds this Christmas.

Pantisa PavabutrAssociate Director - AcademicAffairs

Dear Colleagues, students and alumni,

This year has been a very busy and successful year for theBBA International Program. I wish you all the best and a joyfulholiday. Hope you all have good health, great wealth andhappiness always. Remember to get into the holiday spirit ofgoodwill too!

All the best,Kulpatra SirodomDirector

New Year Greetings

Party time!! A celebration of the NewYear is approaching. It is not only thefun time to look forward to but it is alsothe good time to look back what we havedone, left undone and turned our back on.Bad choices and decisions we have madeare of the valuable lessons to be learnt and,hopefully, not to be repeated in the NewYear and thereafter. Remember, we alwayshave a chance to create ourselves a ‘better’choice.

Wish you all the very best of luck andhealth throughout the year 2007.

Somboon KulvisaechanaAssociate Director - International Affairs

BBATHAMMASAT UNIVERSITY

NewsletterVol. 10 No. 1 January - March 2007

2 BBA Newsletter

Asst. Prof. Dr. Pantisa Pavabutr; Associate Director of Academic Affairs,has recently received Associate Professor position.

The 68th Anniversary of the Faculty ofCommerce and Accountancy

On November 23, 2006, the Facultyof Commerce and Accountancy, incooperation with the Alumni Association,held the 68th Anniversary Celebrationwith its faculty at 08:30 a.m. - 01:00 p.m. atthe meeting room, 5th Floor, Faculty ofCommerce and Accountancy, ThammasatUniversity, Rangsit Campus.

In this occasion, Asst. Prof. Dr.Ruangsak Songsathaporn and Mr. AndrewC. Stotz were selected to receive “TheFaculty Award”.

On Behalf of the BBA InternationalProgram, we would like to say “Thank youand Congratulations”.

Dr. Hugh Patrick O’Connell and Asst. Prof. Dr. Sarayut Nathaphan haverecently received their Doctoral Degrees from The University of South Australia,Australia and JDBA, Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy, ThammasatUniversity, respectively.

Congratulations!!!

BBA Newsletter 3

It was a day of celebration forBBA International Program - ThammasatUniversity, one filled with greatappreciation. On November 30, 2006,present and former BBA studentsgathered to celebrate the variousachievements of BBA students in thepast year at the Dusit Thani Hotel. Forthe BBA students, the dinner was onelast minute of fun before taking the finalexams. For the professors, it was a timeof joy to see that the lessons taught inclass have paid off in the real world.

Lastly for the parents of the students, it was time to sitback and watch with pride of what fine adults their childrenhave become.

There were several causes for celebration on thisevening. Numerous teams and individuals were recognizedfor their awards and accomplishments in variouscompetitions both local and international. BBA studentshave consistently done well in the competitions they’veentered and have contributed in bringing fame andrecognition of the program and the Thammasat BusinessSchool as a whole.

At this time, as a representative for all BBA students,I would like to take the opportunity to thank the BBA International Programfor what they’ve done. Yes, perhaps we did compete in a few competitionsand made others become more familiar with the name of ThammasatBusiness School, but our efforts could not have been possible withoutthe valuable lessons provided by the teachers, the organization done bythe BBA office ladies, the tuition from our parents, and the strategicplanning of the program by the administrators. A big Thank You goes out

to Assoc. Prof. Dr. KulpatraSirodom who is the driver of thisprogram for her magnificenteffort and contributions into theBBA program, and we owe allour accomplishments to her.

Congratulations & Thank you Party

By

Mr.

Tana

wat

Dam

nern

thon

g, B

BA

#12

4 BBA Newsletter

This year both BBA and BASinternational program jointly organized“OPEN HOUSE OPEN THE WORLD2007” on Saturday, November 18, 2006.The OPEN HOUSE was held at QueenSirikit National Convention Center likelast year. I could see many parents andstudents gathering at the registrationtables, before the event started. After theregistration and video presentation,Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pantisa Pavabutr gaveparents and students a warm welcomeand talked about “Why BBA InternationalProgram, Thammasat University? and theAdmission Process.” Then, Ajarn PiranyaBunnag from BAS Internatinal Programspoke about Why BAS InternationalProgram, Admission Process and BASExchange Program. Next, parents andstudents were informed about BBAExchange Program and PIM (Partnershipin International Management) by Dr.Somboon Kulvisaechana. Also, Assoc.Prof. Dr. Kaewta Rohitratana presentedinteresting information about studentactivities in BBA. Moreover, manyexperiences were shared by both BBAand BAS Alumni and current students.The event was finished with a questionsand answers session and delicioussnacks! We wish good luck to allapplicants.

BBA and BAS InternationalOpen House Open The World 2007

By

Mis

s R

uksa

waa

n Ya

nyon

gkas

emsu

k, B

BA

#13

BBA Newsletter 5By Miss Kulthida Mahathanaruk, BBA#12

On September 13, 2006, we visited KlongPrem Prison. This visit is a part of the Business Lawcourse that we are taking. When we arrived at KlongPrem Prison, the head office of the prison briefed usabout the prison’s background. All of the prisoners inthis prison are male. After that, the officers took uson a tour around the prison compound which includedprisoners with the good behavior record. They canspend their time or many activities depending ontheir interest. For example, there are some foreignprisoners who choose to sing or play the musicalinstrument, which include Thai musical instruments.Furthermore, some also have a chance to learn howto use a computer program to design posters andeven earn some money by working for companies.There are also some prisoners who have talent inplaying the musical instrument and choose to jointhe symphonic band and they received an awardfrom a competition. Next, we were shown the cellswhere prisoners live. Each of the cells are a verysmall square room with the bed and toilet. This tripwas an eye opener to us. We learnt that the life in jailis not that bad after all. It is not the end of life for theprisoners. They are given a second chance to learnnew things and improve themselves.

Joining the FN461, AdvancedInternational Corporate Finance course,we’d took a field trip to Casalunar, a resortin Sriracha, Chonburi. Since we’d beenassigned to initiate one project on our own,this trip will surely be benefit to us.

At Casalunar, our professor, AjarnMontira Vareedee, asked the resort owner,who kindly let us call him P’Sey, to tell usabout his real estate project e.g.; how theproject was started and why, whom hecontacted, and his decision making on thelocation, etc. We have learned to developour ideas in the way of initiator, about howbig projects are prepared, how to logicallyand reasonably make critical decisions vitalto the possibility of a project’s survival. Wealso learned about processes and manycreative ways to deal with other relatedorganizations, such as, banks.

And so we would very much like tothank our lovely professor, Ajarn MontiraVareedee, and the BBA staff, especiallyP’Kung, for arranging this wonderful, fun trip,and giving us the chance to gain what wecannot learn in the classroom. Thank you.

BA 201 Field Trip at Klong Prem Prison

FN 461 Field Trip at Casalunar

By

Mis

s B

oony

anuc

h Tu

ntic

hatu

rapo

rn, B

BA

# 14

6 BBA Newsletter

By

Mis

s W

assa

Rim

chal

a, B

BA

#12

In the business world, what do you do if the product ismagnificent, marketing communication is all the rage, and theprice is just right for consumers, but the products areinaccessible? Distribution is one of the critical marketing mixelements, and playing an ever crucial role in today’s competitivemarkets. MK 324 Physical Distribution Management class, ledby Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ruth, Dr. Sathaporn and Ajarn Vouravis,has given us a memorable opportunity to explore the real worldexperience at the Eternity Grand Logistics Public CompanyLimited on Bangna Trad Road. We reached the company onone fine afternoon where we were greeted by lovely Eternityofficers Khun Kititep who prompted us with the superb introduction of the company. Wediscussed a lot of logistics problems with him, in which most of the questions andanswers reflect the knowledge we have learnt in class. I have seen this as a vitalpractice that a good business school should possess; the practice that encouragesstudents to apply theories to the real world actions. After then, the Eternity officerswalked us through its newly-built four-story facility, including the gigantic warehousewhere we have seen the total business practice of the company. On behalf of all thestudents in the class, I would like take this chance to thank you all visionary Ajarns,open-minded Eternity officersand cute-as-she-is P’Ray who,together, made this happened.By keeping this high level ofstandard, I believe that BBAwill forever be the number-oneinternational program inThailand. Go BBA!

MK 324 Field Trip at Eternity Grand Logistics

To have a good sense of entrepreneurialism, it is important toaccept new things and keep pace as the world moves. Our visitat National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) isa good practice for all of us, FN424 class members, to think abouta ways to grasp the market of newly developed products. It allowsus to consider how to make the impossible things possible byusing sophisticated virgin technologies including Biotech, Nanotechand so on so forth. With a warm welcome and interesting lecture

by Dr. Janekrishna Kanatharana, theDirector of Thailand Science Park andDr. Teerachai Pornsinsirirak, the DeputyDirector of National Nanotechnology Centeras well as our stop over at NationalNanotechnology Center, ISET (Solar EnergyTechnology Development), and NationalCenter for Genetic Engineering andBiotechnology, we came to understandthe new opportunities for the potentialmarkets of these unbelievable products.

For example, T-Coat, a spray which you put on any surface to make it water-resistant or embedded fragrantcapsule that would make a perfume stay longer on the shirt. Also, we learned how NSTDA finances its organizationand research centers. This was such a great experience. Moreover, it challenged us how we can incorporatebusiness concepts to commercialize these advanced technologies. Of course, this trip could not happen withoutthe main organizers. We would like to grant a full credit to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kulpatra Sirodom and P’Pam for theirkindness and administration of this exciting field trip at NSTDA.

FN424 Field Trip at NSTDAB

y M

iss

Kan

jana

pat S

rinan

dpho

l, B

BA

#12

BBA Newsletter 7

During the past three months,our team “Bond2Be” which consist ofMiss Puntip Anunta-unnop (La), Mr.Apichet Kiatworakun (Ong) and MissSireethorn Sucharittanuwat (Ja-Oe)BBA#12 were selected to participate in“BEX Competition 2006” arranged bythe Bond Electronic Exchange ofThailand. It was very challenging sincewe had to compete with other 70+ teamsfrom top universities. There were threerounds to pass. In the first round, wewere tested on the fundamentalknowledge about the financial marketespecially about the bond. The secondround, we had a chance to construct the

bond portfolio to match with specific needs of a certaininvestor. This allows us to apply the knowledge we havegained from BBA. Before that day, we worked almostall night to come up with the best solution. And wemade it! The final round was held at The Stock Exchange

of Thailand. We had prepared ourselves about a week to be ready forthat day. Out of ten teams in this round, four teams are from ThammasatUniversity. It was very fun and exciting, as there were three sessions.Firstly, we came up with a creative idea for “I wanna show” session.What we did was introduce the team by dancing like cheer leadersand ask for points from the well-know judges. In addition, we alsoexpressed our opinions about the competition. In the second session,each team sent one team member to the podium. We felt as if wewere in the game show. It was a very difficult part since we had topress the button quicker than the other nine persons do in order toanswer the question.

Finally, we were able to be in the last five teams!!! We were veryexcited because we had to answer the tough question from BEXexecutives. We believed that we did an excellent job. From our effort,teamwork, and supports, we won the competition! Yeah!!! Furthermore,

there is also a popular vote on thatcompetition day. Guess what! Wealso got that award.

At this point, we would liketo thank the BBA InternationalProgram and specifically Assoc.Prof. Dr. Kulpatra Sirodom for thesupport. As well, thanks for all thevotes na ja.

ActivitiesBond Electronic Exchange Competition 2006

By

Mis

s S

ireet

horn

Suc

harit

tanu

wat

& M

iss

Pun

thip

Anu

nta-

unno

p, B

BA

#12

8 BBA Newsletter

The Hitachi Young Leaders Initiative (HYLI) is an award-winningregional thought leadership and social responsibility program organizedby Hitachi, with the aim of helping Asia identify its future leadersby providing a platform for university students who demonstrateexcellent potential. At the initiative, four of the best selected universitystudents from each participating country meet and discuss currentregional and global issues. They will have an opportunity to exchangeviews with prominent speakers who are the Asian leaders of today,representing governments, business and academia.

Hitachi Young Leaders InitiativeThe initiative is a five-day program,

which comprises a two-day forum,closed-door student workshops andcommunity work activities. The theme andsub-theme for the 8th HYLI will be“Empowering Asia: an Increased Role anda Common Voice as a ResponsiblePlayer” with the following two sub-themes“What China and India’s DevelopmentCan Bring to Asia” and “Challenges forAsia in Water Management andSustainability.”

From the two sub-themes, I chosethe one related to China and India’sDevelopment, which I believe is morerelevant to my subjects of study. Theinitiative will be around January 22-26,2007 in Hanoi, Vietnam. It would also bea great opportunity for me to have achance to try Vietnamese food there!Those who have talked to me would knowthat I am a real eater.

Among many student competitions in the year 2006, AYSMContest is another program that aims to search for the best group offuture financial marketers. This contest was the successful result ofthe cooperation between Ayudhya Securities, the Stock Exchange ofThailand and BrangAge Magazine. It required students to form a groupof three. Altogether there were 300 teams registered at the end ofAugust. For the first round, each team must take the SET exam. Thefirst 90 teams with the highest score would be able to get into thenext round, which then provided a seminar course regarding the issueof being a financial planner. To pass into the final session, the teamswere asked to write a personal financial plan. This part would require

students to analyze the givenpersonal information and provideadvice for that person. Afterward,these last 10 teams were given aset of 3 customers, who exhibiteddifferent personalities andpreferences, which they had tocater and manage the portfoliosfor each individual. Those 6 teamswith the highest Net Asset Valueat the end of sixth week wouldthen have to present theirstrategies of portfolio managementto the judges. For the final result,

there a team from BBA InternationalProgram, Thammasat University won thesecond reward. This team consists ofMiss Poungtip Thampanichwong, MissPornthida Wongphatharakul and MissKanjanapat Srinandphol.

The third prize went to anotherteam composed, Mr. Apichet Kiatwora-kun, from BBA Thammasat and twoChulalongkorn students.

By

Mr.

Api

chet

Kia

twor

akun

, BB

A#1

2B

y M

iss

Pou

ngtip

Tha

mpa

nich

won

g, B

BA

#12

Award Young Securities Marketing 2006Student Contest

BBA Newsletter 9

The adventurous journey started in Suvarnabhu-mi Airport. We arrived there quite early to make surethat the new airport inefficiency wouldn’t get in our wayof completing the BBA mission. Our group consisted ofour respected coach, Ajarn James Paul Fitzpatrick, theGreat Mr. Bundit Praditsuktavorn, Miss PanthareeSukumpeeranont “the 2nd”, Little Prin (cess), and myself,Miss Pantira Chotchaisathit “the 1st”. One good thingabout the competed the case in Hong Kong was thatthe flight was so short that we didn’t get any jetlag.HKUST (Hong Kong University of Science andTechnology) located a half an hour from the airport.The campus was so beautiful. It is located right nextto the sea, which could be seen right out of our dormwindows. Since it was on the mountain, the universityhad to spend a lot of money to build great facilities ithas. Unfortunately, the students there didn’t have manychances to enjoy the great view, since HKUST is alsoknown as the Hong Kong University of Stress andTension.

Unlike in others and previous years competition,this one didn’t offer as many ice-breaking activities.It started out with the kick-off luncheon at the Citibankoffice building where we enjoyed great food, followedby the company visit where we found out the name ofthe case company. This year case, as Miss PanthareeSukumpeeranont predicted, was Café de Coral, thebiggest local Chinese fast food chain that wanted toexpand into other countries/regions. Therefore, thecompetition this year was a little different because each

school would have differentproblem statement of howthe company would expandinto each of the school’sregion. Another part of thecompany visit took us tothe factory where thecatered food was prepared.And once again we wereable to enjoy ourselveswith the costumes we hadto put on and the free foodsample they offered. Thenight ended joyfully withthe delicious dinner at oneof the Café de Coral’srestaurants.

Don’t get the ideathat all we did was eat(though that was kind of

true). The following day we received the case andworked hard on it for the next 25 hours. The result,however, was that we didn’t make the final. Althoughwe were unlucky to be the very last group to presentand were in the same division as the champion, TheUniversity of Western Ontario, Canada; however, wehad to admit that we did not perform our best. All thefinalist teams did exceptionally well and we had a lot tolearn and improve. Despite the disappointment, we didnot hold it against us and let it ruin the trip. We realizedthere was one more trophy to win. So we sent our bestto compete in this battle which was the national costumeaward. Miss Pantharee Sukumpeeranont did not let usdown. In her beautiful dress, she proudly representedboth Thammasat University and Thailand and won theaward for us! It was a memorable moment and everyonewent home with a smile on his or her face that evening.

Hong Kong case competition and the rest of thetrip was a valuable experience. The great friendshipwas developed while both academic and life lessonswere learned. However, this trip would not be possiblewithout Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kulpatra Sirodom, Ajarn JamesPaul Fitzpatrick, and the BBA staffs. Here, we wouldlike to express our gratitude to those people who gaveus such wonderful opportunity. Thank you!

The CICC, Citigroup International CaseCompetition 2006, Hong Kong

By

Mis

s P

antir

a C

hotc

hais

athi

t, B

BA

#12

10 BBA Newsletter

International Business Challenge 2006, UMCACase Competition, USA

BBQ and cowboysare not the only thingshappening in Texas, duringthe fall semester, TheUniversity of Texas atAustin, USA holds theirannual “InternationalBusiness Challenge” thisyear inviting 20 leadingbusiness schools fromaround the world includingThammasat University. The team members wereMr. Tanawat Damnernthong, Miss Pajaree Kasemsant,Miss Bhurima Tienwuttinun, and Mr. Tanwa Chinnaphatogether with Professor Dr. Robert T. Green facultyadvisor who assisted us through out the competition.

Starting off early Monday morning with manyflights to catch the four of us passed through numerousgates, immigrations and bag check stations until wemade it safely to Dallas, Texas. At Dallas airport we hadonly one hour and a half to catch our last flight toAustin, our destination. Being the first port of entry tothe United States we must go through immigration,collect our luggage, go through the customs thenrecheck the bags and change departing terminal viatheir airport train to arrive at our departing flight. Toadd to the excitement, an officer decided to hold upone of our team member*, 5 minutes we waited, 10minutes we waited, until we didn’t have anymoretime, we went for our plane but those 10 minutes weretoo precious, we missed the flight! Nonetheless, onlyan hour late we made it to Austin, with the next plane.Prof. Dr. Green and Mr. Tanawat’s sister, met us at theairport together with our bags from the earlier flightwe missed. They took us to “Tex-Mex” for dinner thenback to the hotel where we went to sleep as soon asour head hits the pillow.

We have one day to adjust to the jet lag beforethe competition, which Prof. Dr. Green showed us aroundAustin, first with The University of Texas at Austin, the

McCombs School of Business, then we went for lunchat another “Tex-Mex” restaurant, after that we wentto mount Bonnell, where we can see the whole cityof Austin, which was filled with many beautiful

homes. Prof. Dr. Greenalso took us to a BBQrestaurant “CountyLine” for dinner whichhe claims that the ribsare the best! In myopinion it leaves evena non-meat eaterwanting more!

Next day, thecompetition kicked off with the opening dinner. Theteams were divided into 4 divisions; ThammasatUniversity was assigned to the third division togetherwith Babson College, University of California, Berkeley,Simon Fraser University and Georgetown University. Wewere given the case package right after dinner andbegan working on the case right away. This year’s casewas a company call “Netcast HD” a start up companytrying to distribute high definition video via the internetand are looking for ways to market its product topotential customers. On Thursday all teams had achance to meet with the co-founder of the company,John Pepe in a question and answer session where welearned more about this sophisticated technology. Wewent back, put our heads together and worked on thestrategies, recommendations and presentation.

Saturday came too quickly. We presented anddefended our strategies the best we could and waitedfor the announcement of the finalist teams. BabsonCollege from our division continues to the final roundtogether with The Chinese University of Hong Kong(CUHK), The University of North Carolina at ChapelHill (UNC) and The University of Washington. Thoughwe didn’t make it, we stayed to watch the finalteams’ presentations. Babson College and UNC cameout very strong, The University of Washington was veryfinancially oriented, and CUHK had their “Blue Ocean”Strategy.

At the closing dinner, the winner was announced.First place went to The Chinese University of HongKong. But no matter the final result, we definitely walkedout feeling we did all we could and we have learned alot from such a short period of time. This had been avery valuable experience for all of us. Thank you AjarnJames P. Fitzpatrick, Prof. Dr. Robert T. Green and Assoc.Prof. Dr. Kulpatra Sirodom for your continuous supportand believe in us that had pushed us to this far andfor this great opportunity. Kob Khun Kha : )

By

Mis

s B

hurim

a Ti

enw

uttin

un, B

BA

#12

BBA Newsletter 11

Exchange Program

On the 16th of November 2006, although a littleearly, the Faculty of Commerce and Accountancyspared no cost and efforts to invite its exchange studentsto come together for a Farewell Party. This party offeredus the opportunity to meet most of our fellow exchangestudents and the staff in a relaxed atmosphere. After allof us had completed the drive into the city centre, wesat down in the Sky Lounge Restaurant to enjoy a greatbuffet while watching all the pictures that documentedour several trips and meetings during the semester. Thebuffet was an excellent mixture between Asian and

Western food, providingus with all we needed fora nice evening. Shortlyafter everybody hadfinished their dinner,representatives from thestaff and the exchangestudents held their more(staffs) or less (students)well-prepared speeches,complimenting each

The Farewell Party

other rightly for their contributions to this mostinteresting, exciting and wonderful exchange semester.Afterwards, the staff tested our knowledge aboutThammasat University and Thailand with a short quizin which everybody with the right answer could winsouvenirs. The moderation combined with thesometimes funny, sometimes right answers led to a verynice, enjoyable but still competitive atmosphere sinceeverybody tried to get their hands on one of thesouvenirs. The crowd then kept on sharing a couple ofmoments, exchanging past and present experiences witheach other.

By Mr. Matthias Florian Konig:Exchange Student from University of St.Gallen, Switzerland

Incoming Exchange StudentsFor the second semester 2006, we will welcome

16 exchange students. They are 14 exchange studentsfrom Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy’s networkuniversities, and 2 exchange students from ISEPProgram & TU Agreement.

Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy’sexchange studentsThe University of North Carolina at ChapelHill, USA

Mr. William Patton BrughMr. Andrew Forbes NicollMr. Thomas Eugene KolarczykMiss Rebecca Spring Blackwell

McGill University, Canada

Mr. Philippe MeunierMr. Jerome Patrick Burke

University of Ottawa, Canada

Miss Samantha WightMr. Erik Michel L’AbbeMiss Heather Christine ClarksonMiss Andrea Darlene Gagnon

The University of South Australia, Australia

Miss Sarah Louise Rippin

European Business School, Germany

Mr. Fabian Hermann HuberMiss Djenna Wehenpohl

Wirtschaftuniversitat Wien, Austria

Mr. Livio Zanotelli

ISEP Program student & TU Agreemeent studentUniversity of Texas at Arlington, USA

Mr. Joseph Worcester

University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA

Miss Beth Ann Samudio

However, due to the staff’s imminent work duties,the students’ limited budget and a deep need for someelectrolytes, the party ended with farewell wishes foreverybody. I think, speaking for all the exchangestudents, we had a great evening during and after theFarewell Party. Thank you staff for your repeatedly highefforts to provide us with another experience in Thailandwhich everybody will remember for a long time.

12 BBA Newsletter

Although it was an early Monday morning and most of uswould have had no class that day, a lot of us came to join this greatopportunity of getting an insight in how our favorite beer here inThailand is produced.

At 8 o’clock the minibuses left from the university to the BoonRawd Brewery. Right after our arrival we, the exchange studentsand our buddies, were welcomed by one of the friendly managersand got the chance to see an interesting video about the history,the product line and the current success of the company. Afterwardsthe manager explained the production process, showed us the mainingredients, which are surprisingly mainly imported from Germany,and examples of their final products, like Singha Beer, Leo, Thai Beer,Kloster Beer, Singha soda water and drinking water and Moshi GreenTea. Most of us were quite surprised to learn that these brands are allproduced within the same facility as we expected the different beersto be rivals.

After this short introduction we started our tour through thefactory, where we witnessed the brewing, fermentation and packagingprocess. Here our buddies had the task to translate the explanationsinto English for us, which they performed very well!

Now knowing the way the beer has to take from the brewingprocess into the bottle, we were offered a glass of fresh brewedSingha. By the way, it was just 10 in the morning and it was a niceway to start into the day.

We are convinced that everybody enjoyed this trip very much,it was a great chance to get an overview of one of Thailand’s mostsuccessful breweries.

This visitation also strengthened our pleasure in drinking thisexcellent and reasonably priced beer!

Concluding we wish all the best for the company’s future plansand hope that sooner or later we will have the opportunity to enjoythis outstanding beer at our home countries and think back to ourmarvelous exchange semester at Thammasat University!

Field Trip Singha BreweryB

y M

iss

Urs

ula

Sch

mitz

berg

er &

Mis

s M

arle

ne P

ichl

er:

Exc

hang

e S

tude

nt fr

om W

irtsc

haft

univ

ersi

tat W

ien,

Aus

tria

BBA Newsletter 13

In strengthening the relationships betweenbusiness schools across frontiers, it is vital for the deansand exchange program executives from differentcountries to connect and re-connect alliances with oneanother. This year Dean Assoc. Prof. GasineeWitoonchart and Dr. Somboon Kulvisaechana (AssociateDirector of BBA Program) were the Thammasatrepresentatives to attend the annual conference of thePartnership in International Management (PIM) heldin Toronto (a.k.a. “Hollywood North”), Canada duringOct. 26-28, 2006. PIM is an exclusive organizationcomprising of 58 top-notch business schools aroundthe world, such as New York University, University ofChicago, York University, Copenhagen Business Schooland University of Melbourne.

Over these three-degree-below-freezing-point days, the conferencewas primarily planned out to literallyincrease the temperature of thevenue by maximizing the attendees’interactions through roundtablediscussions and workshops. Oneof the interesting discussionscentered around the bestpractices of a new breed ofcollaborations, under the mission- “one degree, four continents.”This actually goes beyond atraditional exchange activity basedon a symbiotic relationship amongthe business schools. Also, workshopswere heated up with diverse ideas onchallenges and opportunities toward how tomarket or promote ‘unpopular’ exchange destinationsto the students.

The attendees got down to a serious business of negotiatingand discussing ways in which exchange program schemes can beenriched and enhanced over years to come. The Thammasatrepresentatives hit it hard by promoting an internship program and anindependent study scheme as free electives for incoming exchangestudents. This initiative allows more flexibility and opens up‘unparalleled’ opportunities for the exchange students to expose toboth academic and corporate worlds in Thai context over just oneperiod of stay.

Moreover, negotiations to establish new prospective exchangeagreements for our students at schools are underway. Those includeYork University of Canada, Bocconi University of Italy and EmoryUniversity of the US. This effort reflects our strong commitment to

Thammasat Delegation Attends PIMConference 2006

By

Dr.

Som

boon

Kul

visa

echa

na

become truly international.Also, alternative forms of exchange(i.e., study tours and summer programs)are being explored.

Thammasat’s membership in PIMhas enabled our students to engage in awide array of international activities, likeexchange programs and business casecompetitions. Such an organic growth inthe institutional collaborations providesThammasat Business School a uniqueavenue to develop more internationalquality-driven initiatives in order to meetthe challenges of future educationalphenomena.

14 BBA Newsletter

Money Management Award 2006

By Wassa Rimchala, BBA#12

Last year, 2006, was a spectacular year for me,Poungtip Thampanichwong. The reason behind thisimpressive feeling was that I had a made a right decisionto participate in MM Award, 2006 Program. This is aprogram held with the coordination of many giantcorporations of Thailand, for example the Thailand StockExchange and PTT Corporation. It took almost a fullfour months for TSE to search for the best 15 MMAmbassadors among over 5000 participants, who willeventually be able to further distribute knowledge aboutthe financial sector and products to Thai citizens thatwish to find a better understanding of the scope of thefinancial markets in Thailand. As a reward for all mydetermination, I was chosen to be one of those 15 MMAmbassadors as well as the First Runner up Award ofMM Insurance Star. However, it is not only financialknowledge and presentation skill that I gained from thischallenging program, but I also gained pricelessexperience of friendship. As there are flows of studentsfrom various backgrounds around Thailand that joinedthe program, we got the chance to meet, spend timetogether and of course, exchange our point of view.

It was one of the greatest experiences in my lifeafter I realized how many opportunities were given tome by being involved with MMA 2006. It is not only adeep financial knowledge and a chance to talk to variousThailand economic leaders, but also different aspectsof local intelligence, new and varied concepts on howthe corporation can survive as what we called “CSR”,and many great contacts that have the same interest.

This program has proved since the first day thateveryone can be a Money Management Ambassadoras long as you have a smart-investing mind and areready to be a financial consultant for anyone who isinterested in supplying capital to the market, for thepurpose of maximizing wealth and minimizing futureuncertainties under specific constraints. Personally, Iwould strongly recommend anyone, no matter whetherhe/she is in the financial field or not, to join the comingMMA 2007 program, a place where you can find apositive change and develop your potential. :)

By Poungtip Thampanichwong, BBA#12

BBA Newsletter 15

The final exam of the first semester has ended.Many of us had a plan to go traveling or to take a rest,but about 40 BBA students had a different project toachieve during the holiday. We were going to contributeto the society by joining the BBA voluntary camp!

This year, BBA#14 took care of carrying on ourseniors’ dream to strengthen friendship among BBA#12to BBA#15 by conducting a BBA voluntary camp onceagain. Our trip began on the 20th of December whenwe took a bus to Kokpowangkum, Loei, and arrivedthere in the morning of the 21st. The first thing we didwas to assign a group of 3-4 campers to stay with afamily, and then we started our work right away. Thework was separated into 5 divisions, constructing,gardening, teaching, cooking, and camper-villagerrelations. We were divided into 8 groups and every grouphad a chance to work at least once in every area.

Construction’s aim was to renovate the schoolcanteen, which will also be used by the villagers as aconvention centre. And since the students at schoolwere having a problem with their limited lunch budget,we decided to include gardening as one of the jobs weneeded to work on. For teaching, we learned a lot morefrom the children than we taught them. They showedus generosity and kindness that we can hardly find in

As suggested by its name, Money Management Award (MMAWARD) aims at selecting qualified Money Management Ambassadorswho are knowledgeable in personal financial management andinvestment and are able to represent the Stock Exchange of Thailandin these areas in the best possible manner. MM Award 2006 startedwith the first round competition in September and ended its finalround on Investor’s Day, December, 3rd.

I was eventually selected as one of the Super MM Ambassadorsof this year with the second runner up place and also one of the threeinsurance stars. Besides all the awards received, experiences,knowledge, friendship and network of people who share the commoninterests in financial managing and investing aspects are incrediblyinvaluable. I am now voluntarily responsible for assisting SET and thesponsoring companies in building awareness of Thai people, especiallythe younger generation in the significance of financial planning andmoney management.

Thank you BBA, Thammasat, for giving me a strong fundamentalbusiness and economic background. Special thanks to Aj. James forteaching me how importance of being focused and other BBAprofessors for all their useful advices.

By Thanitta Chaikhanarakkul, BBA#12

By Natjaree Leelathanapipat, BBA#14

SwitzerLOEI Voluntary Camp

a big city like Bangkok. I can recallone day when we needed to workovertime to finish mixing andspreading on cement, around 10children came to our constructionsite and helped with the assemblyline even though it was not theirduty. I was very impressed bytheir action.

Camper-villager relationssection had different tasks to doevery day. One day we went for Continued Page 16

16 BBA Newsletter

From Page 15

Experience (Incoming & Outgoing Exchange Students)

Experience in Australia

By Miss Mutarporn Lertsamritkarn, BBA#13: Exchangestudent at Australian National University, Australia

Meanwhile, it’s been approximately five months (1st semester 2006: August -December 2006) that the 16 incoming exchange students have spent their timein BBA International Program, Thammasat University and our 29outgoing exchange students spent their lives at our network universities.How are they doing and how do they feel about the exchange program?Follow us...

My name is Miss Mutarporn Lertsamritkarn, BBA#13. I wentto study at Australian National University as an exchange studentfor a semester and I had a great time here in Australia. AustralianNational University (ANU) is in Canberra, which is the capital city.Canberra is very peaceful city. Australian people are so nice andfriendly. Talking about the university, the system here-the way theytaught and the way the exam was held-was totally different fromThammasat University.

In first month, everything seemed strange to me and I had toadapt myself to a new cultural environment but everything wentfine when the time went by. For example, everything here in Canberrais closed at 5 p.m. which is unbelievable but it is real. Moreover,there were so many exchange students at ANU who came from everypart of the world. We had many activities together, such as foodfestival, BBQ, and so on, so that we could exchange culture withone another. I had many experiences here which were both goodand bad. These experiences made me grown up because I learnt bythe experience and I learnt so many new things, as well. The only

thing I could say is that my life here inAustralia was so wonderful.

Finally, I really enjoyed learningand living in Canberra. I was so glad thatonce in my life, I had a chance to cometo Australia and study at ANU. I have tosay thank you for Thammasat Universityfor giving me this chance. If anyone hasan opportunity to come to study at ANU,please grab your chance because I amsure that you will have a great experiencein Australia.

the village mapping, another day for ginger digging,broom making, orange orchard visiting, red beansdigging, mushroom-food making and many more. Themain purpose of this activity was to create a connectionbetween the campersand the villagers, to seehow they live, how theythink, and how theybehave. We learned thevalues which the villagershave but people inBangkok lack which iscaring for each other andthat money means so little when you are happy.

All campers had dinner with their own host familyevery evening so we had an opportunity to try manyunique dishes. After dinner, we returned to the meetingcentre for the night activity. These activities made uslearn more about each other, and helped us relax afterthe long working day.

On Dec 31st, we had organized a sport day forthe children, consisting of musical chairs, relay tag,eating competition, volleyball, and soccer. In the same

evening, we had a little farewell party where the villagersperformed Baaisee Sookwan ceremony and cooked forall of us. And trust me, the food was absolutely delicious!

Next morning, things were packed, tears werelost, and memories were kept deep inside our hearts.The experience we have just tasted was overwhelmingand will never be forgotten. Finally, we headed backhome, saying goodbye to Kokpowangkum, a placewhere the weather was extremely cold but thepeople’s hearts were pleasantly warm.

“Calgary, Canada!!?? You must beinsane!!! There is nothing there and it is sofreezing cold that your ears can fall off”.This is the most frequent sentence we heardbefore we came here. We were almostconvinced by those people and thought thatwe made a wrong decision for beingexchange students here. At this moment,however, everything seems to be oppositeof that quote excepting for the coldness.

We are currently exchange studentsin the Haskayne School of Business at The Universityof Calgary. It is ranked in the top three of all businessschools in Canada. Over here, there is almost everythingyou can imagine for a perfect campus life: beautifulenvironment, fitness centre, swimming pool, ice-skating,racket centre and the best part is a pub located in themiddle of campus. All of these facilities are Olympicstandard because it hosted the winter Olympic event in

Guten Tag! It has been two months since wearrived in this beautiful city, Vienna. We guess we couldsay that we now have gotten used to the life here,comparing to our first week. Without the help of ourbuddies life would be more difficult with the unfamiliarlanguage and living system here. For example, theyguided us through grocery shopping (Believe us; you

can get salt instead of sugar since everything is inGerman only). And the two-week Orientation programtook us around Vienna and it also allowed us to knowmany other exchange students. We had a chance tovisit Schönbrunn Palace, the small towns near Vienna,the Parliament, and also learn about Austrian politicalsystem. (which was surely interesting...)

2002. Moreover, Calgary is one the most important citiesin Western Canada and located in the richest state inCanada, Alberta. Therefore, we are lucky to be here.

This opportunity lets us experience somethingbeyond the scope of being a student and Bangkok lifestyle. There are many factors that force us to adapt ourday to day life. Let’s say the weather for example, youcannot wear shorts or sandals anymore and we have to

Experience is Austria Vienna is known for classical music and duringour stay we went to experience an Opera by Mozart inperson. Moreover, there are also many other activities,such as Museum Night where you pay ten Euros toenter all museums around Vienna until midnight. Wewere also invited to a formal dinner at City Hall by theMayor, where all the exchange students in Viennagathered together. So far we had a very good impressionof Vienna!

Now let us share you our life in the dorm. Basically,our daily activity here is cooking and grocery shopping.We usually spend few hours in the kitchen and that’show we get to know other people in our dorm; some ofthem from France, Persian, Austrian etc.

Not only experiencing life in Austria, but we alsohad a chance to visit other countries around Austria.We three had wonderful backpack trips in Switzerland,Slovakia and Czech Republic. Thanks to our professors,Just-In-Time and Management could help us organizethe train and the trip effectively and efficiently.

These memorable experiences would neverhappen without the major support from BBA,TU. Thankyou very much and see you in eight months!!!

Shönen Tag! (Nice day!)

By

Mis

s S

irina

nt J

aiye

ndee

, Mis

s N

apor

n Ji

ntan

awan

& M

iss

Ric

ha T

antis

iriva

t,B

BA

#13:

Exc

hang

e st

uden

ts a

t Wirt

scha

ftun

iver

sita

t Wie

n, A

ustr

ia

By Mr. Harin Artamnuayvipas, Miss Siriorn Vichaiwatanapanich , Miss Thunyaporn Pawutiyapong andMiss Tanida Upathambhakul, BBA#13: Exchange students at University of Calgary, Canada

Continued Page 17

18 BBA Newsletter

By being a student atour school, most of usprobably think about being anexchange student. And finally Idid fulfill that dream, now Icurrently on exchange withTHE AUSTRALIAN NATIONALUNIVERSITY (ANU), Canberra(which is the national capital ofAustralia.)

To me, the system atANU and Thammasat University was completely different. Studentsneed to print the handout from the course website. Beside that interms of assignment, each course requires student to hand-inassignments ranging from one assignment to twenty assignments foreach semester. And in terms of lecture class, students are required toattend the lecture class once during the week. (It’s very big classapproximately 200-300 students in each class.) And then all studentsalso are required to attend class called Tutorial class. It’s a smallclass, which has only 10-15 students. Due to the small size of class,we are supposed to discuss about the topic with other classmates.Thus, I need to study consistently in order to discuss those relatedtopics with other classmates.

Good day mate!!!!

And in term of accommodation, Istrongly recommended any prospectiveexchange students (e.g. BBA#14, #15) tostay in the university dormitory. Stayingin the dorm will probably enhance yourEnglish capability and allow you to absorbthe unique values and perceptions fromyour friends.

And in terms of ANU’s reputation,due to The Times Higher EducationSupplement placed the ANU at 16th inthe world’s top 200 universities in itsrecent 2006 survey. Therefore, ANUbecomes the second highest rank ofuniversity in BBA’s exchange list. (Thehighest rank is University of California,Berkeley that ranked at 8th in the samesurvey.)

Finally, being an exchange studentis the best experience that I ever had.Thus, I strongly recommend everyonewho still has an opportunity to join thisprogram. And I guaranteed that by beingan exchange student, you will receivesomething more than a proficiencyin English. Then, JUST TRY IT BYYOURSELF!!!!.

By

Mr.

Rav

iroj T

avee

subp

aibo

on, B

BA

#13:

Exc

hang

e st

uden

t at A

ustr

alia

n N

atio

nal U

nive

rsity

, Aus

tral

ia

check the weather forecast every morning or every timewe are going out (We do mean it). Don’t be deceived bythe sunlight that seems to be warm. The tempera-ture can be minus 10 with a real good sunny day.But don’t worry there are tunnels and skywalksconnecting every single building in this campus exceptfor Mr. Harin Artamnuayvipas (Tong)’s residence hall (sobad for him). Another thing, we are forced to cook dueto the cost of food. Orn appears to be the one who isimpacted the most. She can develop her cooking skillsfrom-10 to be an expert in omelet. Miss ThunyapornPawutiyapong (Gib) and Miss Tanida Upathambhakul(Ae) also found their talents in the baking area. cookie,blue-berries muffins, brownie, and cinnamon rolls weretheir very successful projects so far. Consequently,we cannot control our weight at all. Miss SiriornVichaiwatanapanich (Orn) cannot even wear one of herjeans already but she arguably claimed that it shrunkbecause of the dryer machine. In academic area, must-discussed topic as P’Pam told, the most impressive

thing is that all of theassignments are virtuallyreal. We had opportunitiesto trade stocks andcurrencies in the simulativeonline trade, which willexecute based upon thereal market. Hence, ourknowledge and skillsneeded for our businesscareer lives are drasticallyenhanced throughout thesemester. Besides, as you know that exchange lifealways comes with traveling opportunity. Even thoughCalgary itself has nothing, there are many famous touristattractions nearby. We went to two of the most beautifullakes in Canada. It is so breathe-taking.

After all, we make the most out of time in Calgaryas it will be a memorable moment in our lives.

From Page 16

BBA Newsletter 19

Having arrived in Bangkok at the end of July the first thingwe noticed was the heat and the friendliness of the Thai people.According to the housing list of the BBA staff it was easy for us to finda suitable accommodation right on the next day. Living at JuladisRiver Mansion with a lot of other exchange students and an always-refreshing pool made our life here very convenient!

Right in the second week we participated in a perfectly organizedorientation at Thammasat University, which helped us to connect tothe other exchange students and to find our way around the campus.

To our pleasure we were invited to a two-day “GET TOGETHER”trip to the wonderful DUSIT RESORT and SPA in Hua Hin. This wasfinally the start for a perfect relationship with the other exchangestudents from all over the world and of course also with the friendlyand funny BBA staff.

Coming back our courses had already started and we werepart of the class from the beginning on. Also the teachers alwaysmade an effort to help us and to make us feel comfortable in this newand completely different environment.

After a few weeks our classmates were already real friends forus, they took us out for dinner or helped us to organize our living here.

Of course an exchange semester is not only studying: besidesgoing out with the other exchange students and having fun togetherwe also used our free time to travel around and explore more of thebeautiful landscape and to get in touch with the friendly localpopulation. Despite all our efforts it was hard for us to learn the Thailanguage but still we found it helpful to speak at least a few sentencesin Thai.

When I received the acceptance of Thammasat University tostudy for one semester in Bangkok, Thailand. I was very excited to goto Asia on the one hand, however on the other hand, I did not reallyknow what to expect from my stay on the other side of the world.

I chose Asia as the continent where I wanted to go for mysemester abroad, because I was seeking for the confrontation of aforeign culture, with a different value system and different mentality.

Fortunately I did an internship in Penang, Malaysia two monthsbefore I came to Thailand. Those two months already gave me theopportunity to get settled and used to certain Asian customs and theAsian environment in general.

Even though, having had those two months of adjustment, Iwas still overwhelmed by the beauty of Thailand and the friendlinessand hospitality of the Thai people towards “Farangs”, while I lived inBangkok.

The biggest challenge for me I guess was, to combine myacademic schedule, with my travelling plans and recreation activitiesI planned, before I came to Bangkok. Being in South East Asia foronly 4 months requires tight scheduling, when you have set certaingoals of activities you wanted to carry out, as well as places, youwant to see.

Being a Thammasat Student made me really proud throughoutmy stay in Thailand. Working together with other Thai students ongroup projects was much fun -, as well as a good learning experience

Our experience in Thailand

The weeks passed on very fast andsuddenly we were already invited to ourfarewell dinner at the Sky Lounge of theBaiyoke Tower. We got a CD with photosof all our shared experiences which willalways remind us of our wonderful timehere at Thammasat Business School.

Unfortunately our time is almostover and the remaining weeks will passon even faster as we have to study quitea lot for the final exams but still we areconvinced that there will be enough timeto say goodbye to all the friends we madehere.

Concluding we just wanted tothank the BBA staffs and all our teachersfor their efforts to make our stay aspleasant as it was!

We never regretted our choice forthis welcoming university and thisamazing country and will always keep itin our heart and mind.

By Mr. Florian Mathies Nikolas Jahns: Exchange Student from European Business School, Germany

for me to see, how students from othercountries work, think, solve problems andorganize themselves. I have to admit, thatI really look up to my Thai classmates,because of their motivation andcommitment to their university as well asto the career goals.

After all, I will definitely never forgetmy semester abroad in Thailand. It hasbeen an incredible time for me, fromwhich will surely profit from for the restof my life.

By Miss Ursula Schmitzberger & Miss Marlene Pichler : Exchange Students from Wirtschaftuniversitat Wien, Austria

BBA International ProgramFaculty of Commerce and AccountancyThammasat University2, Prachan Road, Bangkok 10200 THAILANDTel: 66 2225 2113Fax: 66 2225 2107E-mail: tu-bba@tu.ac.thHomepage: www.bba.bus.tu.ac.th

™”√–§à“Ω“° à߇ªìπ√“¬‡¥◊Õπ

„∫Õπÿ≠“µ∑’Ë 55/2529

ª∑Ω.Àπâ“æ√–≈“π

2nd semester (January 8 - May 20, 2007)

Second Semester Begins January 8, 2007

Period of Withdraw W/O Record January 8 - 19, 2007

Mid-Term Examination February 26 - March 4, 2007

Last Day of Withdraw with “W” March 23, 2007

Important Dates

BBA has recently launched its new website. We would like to invite all BBAalumni to register and update your profiles at www.bba.bus.tu.ac.th. Your giveninformation will be restricted in access only to the registered aulmni.

Coming Attraction:

“A decade and a half...History in the Making”Date & Venue: To be announcedInvitation letter will be delivered to those who share our success soon.