Did you know that Monosus also has an office in Thailand?
In this section, I, Miyagawa, who is currently working in Thailand, will be sharing information about the Monosus Thailand office and local information.
From Central World, the heart of Thailand, to downtown Phra Khanong
The current office in Bangkok Phra Khanong was just relocated in October. Where is Phra Khanong located? It is about 10 minutes by train from the city center, and is familiar to locals, but it is in an area that is not often visited by tourists. It is neither in the suburbs nor in the city, but right on the border.
Previously, we were located in a serviced office in a commercial facility called Central World in the city center. It was a beautiful, well-equipped office, similar to Roppongi Hills in Japan, but there were many foreign companies surrounding it, and the environment felt like we were in another country.
Previously occupied serviced office
The reason for the relocation was that the office had become too small due to an increase in staff, but as they looked at various properties, they began to have doubts: "If we moved to an office building in the city center that was similarly well-equipped, there would be no point in us establishing a base in Thailand." "Even though we were living and working in Thailand, it seemed like we were not being able to actively participate in the local Thai community."
I received a list of nearly a thousand properties from a local real estate agency (which meant I had to search for them myself...), and after searching through each one using the property name and area as clues, I found my current office.
What is a Monosus-like office? In search of a space that realizes "DIY" and "togetherness"
Naiipa Art Complex, 2 minutes walk from BTS Phra Khanong Station
When choosing the office, I was particularly conscious of the "Monosus-ness." That is, the spirit of DIY and togetherness. This property is located close to the center of Bangkok, but is surrounded by greenery. It was designed to make the most of the trees on the owner's property and coexist with nature as much as possible. I later heard from a Thai friend that the property was so popular that it was featured in a Thai art magazine.
The property has a private balcony. You can have a BBQ here, or you can put a table and chairs and work there. There is room for staff to think about how to use this shared space and take action. For example, there are few restaurants around this office, so choosing a place to have lunch is difficult. So why not have someone take turns to prepare lunch and serve it as a company cafeteria? That way, lunch can be enjoyed by everyone and become an event. For that reason, we installed a large dining table. It can also be used for meetings and seminars.
I would like to create more mechanisms like this that naturally generate communication and output within the surrounding community and among staff.
Lunch together at the large dining table
Pitfalls in an exciting DIY office? Days like a comedy sketch
But there were many pitfalls in this exciting office relocation. In order to embody Monosus' "DIY spirit," we decided to hire a local Thai designer and contractor to carry out the interior construction work. Although we were able to keep the cost to one-third of that of Japanese companies and major companies, the Thai contractors' lax work ethic was far beyond our expectations, and we were faced with days like a comedy sketch where deadlines, promises, and even blueprints were not kept. The story of our struggles with the interior construction work will be continued in the next issue.
I never expected that I would end up having to spend half a day every day for a month pointing out flaws in the construction and supervising the site. However, I realized that the quality standards that Japanese people have in mind are abnormal for foreigners.
Being born and raised in Japan, I have a culture that is familiar to me, and a sense of quality that has been cultivated over time. I learned that this is the strength of the Japanese people, and the role they should play when they go out into the world. I think this was a very valuable lesson.
In fact, the building itself was originally scheduled to be completed in February of this year, but it's already November and there's still no sign of the construction being finished (laughs). Even today, the sound of drills can be heard outside.
Thailand is such an amazing place, but Monosus Thailand's current staff consists of three Japanese people, two interpreter/admin staff, and six engineers. Japanese staff with the world's highest sense of quality are in charge of direction and quality control, and engineers with the highest level of science education in Thailand are creating websites with all their heart.
MIYAKAWA Takuya