THE NEW GEN EXECUTIVES #2: HALFWAT PIT STOP

We are halfway through Season 2 of The New Gen Executives Program at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi!

While the multidisciplinary areas of study of Season 1 students allowed for exchanges and complementary skills, the homogenous engineering background of Season 2 students means they tend to have similar areas for growth and improvement. As soon as I knew ALL of my students in this season came from engineering programs, I redesigned the program to involve very specific soft skills that will not only lay a foundation for any career path in the business world, but also complement their hard skills as Thailand’s top engineers.
 
The skills I chose to focus on in this entrepreneurial leadership program therefore include persuasion, creativity, engagement, empowerment, business problem solving, and decision-making. Following an advertising campaign, a product innovation brief, a community-based research and innovation project, and a startup challenge that cultivated the aforthmentioned skills, the students got to meet and engage with Mr. Nah-Kran Loahavilai, Editor in Chief of Bangkok Post Public Limited Company. Here’s a list of 3 most important lessons students have learned so far through the weekly challenges, reinforced by the sharing of Mr. Loahavilai's personal and professional experiences:

1. On “Making connections” – One of the recurring messages in Mr. Loahavilai's talk that aligns with what the students have been doing in the program is to make creative connections across different fields and areas of interest. Mr. Loahavilai sees the value in how systematic thinking and complex problem solving learned in computer science can complement his work in journalism. To elaborate further, he referred to how calligraphy inspired and helped Steve Jobs as the MacIntosh was being developed. Although The New Gen Executives students are very hands-on, technical, and logical due to their science and technology background, they realized, through the weekly challenges, that they also really need to know how to communicate, how to sell, how to compromise, how to bargain, how to understand people's profound needs, how to help and support others, and so on. For these reasons, they can benefit so much from stepping out of their "comfort zone" once in a while to engage with and learn from different types of people and fields that they wouldn't otherwise be interested in. Above all else, Mr. Loahavilai recommended the students learn the basics of marketing - the field he believes will really complement their existing hard skills
2. On “Curiosity” – What I find entrepreneurs and journalists have in common are their undying curiosity and unshakable persistence. As Mr. Loahavilai mentioned, in such fields, 1+1 doesn’t always equal 2. I want to add that 2 is not always the sum of 1+1. Maybe 2 is 2-0, 4-2, 3-1, square root of 4, and so on. That our equations and our results can be so different makes our lives and our work so interesting! Sometimes entrepreneurs and engineers work backwards. They need to trace back to find an explanation for a specific outcome, an unpredictable change, or a behavior. Other times, entrepreneurs and journalists take a plunge and dive deep into the unknown to discover what’s out there, what’s possible, what’s been ignored, or what’s been hidden. In life, we are always doing a little bit of both. For instance, when the students tried to investigate student behavior in their university, they had to trace back to the causes and triggers of such behavior. However, when they proceeded to redesign what a university could be, they had to explore what was out there, what was possible, and what had not been done before. As traditional media is undergoing a major transformation, I am sure the people in the field are tracing back to the root cause of disruption, while also exploring new opportunities and navigating new directions
3. On “Success” – When I compiled the students’ questions for Mr. Loahavilai, I would say 3 out of every 5 students wanted to know his definition of success. Mr. Loahavilai recommended the students not define their “success” in the past. What’s done is done. We need to move on to the next thing and constantly redefine our vision of success as we go. Success to Mr. Loahavilai seems to also involve his ability to empower others to do well and unleash their fullest potential, as well as his ability to just “be” with or without work. While work has been a huge part of Mr. Loahavilai’s life for over 30 years, I could sense his strong sense of self. Mr. Loahavilai enjoys learning, reading, seeing, experiencing, and extending himself. I truly think these are such valuable traits, especially in this day and age where we seem to have a shortcut, a Google, or a Siri for everything in life. Especially in their startup challenge, where different students with different passions came together to bridge their passions to a shared single purpose, I encouraged the students to discover their unique calling in life. For Mr. Loahavilai, it may be through writing, through words, and through human connections. For me, it may be through coaching, inspiring, and engaging with people. For others, it may be through entertaining, providing solace, inventing, giving, curing, or partnering. The definition of success is certainly different for different people. I also believe that it changes with age, experience, and circumstances. No matter how we define success, I don’t think success is a destination. If the journey is enriching, meaningful, and fulfilling, we are already successful. We don’t have to become bestselling writers for us to be successful at writing. We don’t have to teach at Harvard to be successful as educators. As long as what we decide to do feels like us and means something to us (and hopefully to other people whose lives we touch through our work or our contribution), we are already successful