Monday we had the opportunity to visit Grundfos Thailand. Grundfos is a Danish manufacturer of a 
wide range of centrifugal pumps and systems for water applications in industry, irrigation, heating and wastewater treatment with an annual turnover of app. 17 billion dkk. Business development manager Jens Ole Frederiksen and sales director Suthee Jongserechoke were kind enough to spend more than 2½ hours with us presenting the company as well as giving us a tour of the facilities.
As marketing students the corporate branding strategy of Grundfos was of particular interest, 
expressed by the three values: Be – Think – Innovate (Being responsible is our foudation, Thinking ahead makes it possible, Innovation makes it possible). It is clear from the presentation that Be-Think-Innovate is the core essence of the Grundfos brand and this is reflected in everything Grundfos does – from sales to HRM, production, product development etc. We also had a very interesting introduction to the Business Excellence Model used by the company, as well as an introduction to Grundfos sales strategy and challenges of doing business in Thailand as experienced by the sales director. We are very greatful to Grundfos for not only giving us the opportunity to visit the company but also for all the efforts they had put into our visit.
On Tuesday we had a lecture on international trade conditions with focus on trade system, tariff and non tariff barriers, free-trade agreements etc. by Dr. Wanno. The students had the possibility of acting as EU and Thai counterparts in the ongoing bilateral negotiations of a free trade agreement after the failure of such an agreement between ASEAN as a whole and EU. It is not to say who won the negotiation……
The final day of lectures was devoted to case studies of succesful multi-national firms in Thailand by Aj. Khomson. Companies such as 7-Eleven, McDonalds, Tesco and KFC was presented and interesting to the Danish students was the fact that Thai buying haviour and media consumption among young people is not that different from their own. Perhaps the Danish and the Thai students will keep in contact after the course on various social media platforms!
The remaining days the students will prepare and present a marketing plan for a Danish company entering Thailand. Presentations the teachers are looking very much forward to!
