Endeavors magazine: Back in business

Back in business

by Neil Caudle and Margarite Nathe

Students help Thailand recover

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For the past decade, students from UNC-Chapel Hill have flown to the other side of the world to work with the Thailand-based Kenan Institute Asia (K.I. Asia)—a not-for-profit organization affiliated with the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute for Private Enterprise. The students’ goal: help foster sustainable business practices that energize the economy, protect the environment, and respect local customs.

This summer, one of the students, Betsy Ronan Herzog from Cullowhee, N.C., a second-year student in the master’s in library science program, has been collaborating with K.I. Asia to redevelop the Phang-nga Tourist Association’s web site.

“Small businesses in Khao Lak have always relied on tourists just finding them through travel agents or by word of mouth,” Herzog says. “This changed after the tsunami, when people assumed that it was no longer a destination worth visiting. We can use the power of the web to help travelers learn about Khao Lak. It really is an amazing destination: beaches, jungles, elephant-riding, scuba diving, and phenomenal food. Businesses are open and the community is ready for visitors to return. The challenge is to convey that message to the world.”

Another student, Marisa Glassman, a second-year MBA student from Montclair, New Jersey, is conducting marketing research and putting together a workshop for the tourist association. She says that the internship in Khao Lak has given her a new appreciation for the social dimensions of business.

“I think the hands-on nature of our work and the community interaction it requires have made this a great cultural and interpersonal experience,” Glassman says. “The ‘softer’ skills of communicating and trying to cater to the needs of various stakeholders have been as important as the ‘harder’ research and analysis skills we’re refining.”

Christopher Norman, who graduated in May with one master’s in business administration and another in regional planning, is working with businesses in Phang-nga to develop a regional marketing plan.

“It’s one thing to hear about the enormous efforts to rebuild infrastructure and the economy after a disaster that large, but it is another thing entirely to see it first hand,” Norman says. “Given the scope of physical and human loss, I am amazed at how strong and resilient the community has remained.”

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Paul Wedel, K.I. Asia’s executive director, says that UNC students have made vital contributions to the tsunami-recovery effort, working with regional businesses, schools, governments, and communities to help people find better jobs and form independent businesses. Wedel lists several examples:

• Students from the Kenan-Flagler Business School are working with K.I. Asia’s small-business experts to help hotels and tourism companies fine-tune management and marketing strategies.
• Students from the School of Information and Library Science are helping businesses in Thailand’s Phang-nga province upgrade their web sites.
• Students from the business school and from the College of Arts and Sciences live for months in rural communities, where they help people develop tours and attract visitors. Some of these students also teach English to local high-school students.
• During the summer, Wedel advised a group of business students who conducted marketing research for Phang-nga’s tourism industry during the rainy season, when business normally trickles away. The students helped identify market segments right for the kind of tourism that harmonizes with local values, Wedel says. About 40 percent of the people in Phang-nga’s coastal villages are Muslim, so there are strong feelings against typical tourist developments such as bars and night clubs.
• Students from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication are preparing to build a multi-media web site highlighting the stories and ways of life along the coast of Thailand.
• Education students are in high demand for K.I. Asia projects, as well—both for improving science education and for teaching English as a foreign language.

Wedel says that over the past decade several dozen UNC students have worked with K.I. Asia, including students from the business school, the College of Arts and Sciences, the law school, the Carolina Environmental Program, and the School of Information and Library Science. Over the past several years, more than a dozen students from the School of Public Health have completed internships or conducted research on global-health topics in Thailand, including HIV/AIDS, cancer, nutrition, water and sanitation, malaria, and women’s health and empowerment.

UNC student volunteers will be welcome for next year’s projects, too, Wedel says. Students interested in participating can learn more at www.KIAsia.org.

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