MIT MBA students to lend SMEs a hand

SMALL BUSINESS

A number of Thai small and medium-sized enterprises will be able to consult MBA students from a well-known American university about business development for free during their internship.

The students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)'s Sloan School of Management are willing to give Thai SMEs consultancy, said Jonathan Lehrich, the project's main instructor.

Hundreds of master's of business administration students from MIT have been dispatched to emerging countries in Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America where they will be spending their international internship providing business consultancy services to SMEs.

Thailand has welcomed 20 of the students, who are grouped into five teams to work on business problems faced by a number of local companies.

The companies are Imed Laboratories, a manufacturer of disease test kits; Doi Kham, the producer of well-known health food and drinks from the Royal Projects; Sumipol, a maker of hand tools; Advanced Packaging, a producer of plastic, automotive and packaging products.

The students will also give advice to the Institute of Small and Medium Enterprises Development on carbon credits.

"Our students will be spending roughly four months at the ISMED to provide free consultancy services," he said.

The selection of eligible SMEs is done by the MIT Alumni Association in Thailand based on the challenges they are facing and the focus of the students.

"All expenses are subsidised by the MIT Alumni Association, the Thai government, Siam Cement Group and Bangkok Bank," he said.

Doi Kham, for instance, is seeking advice on how to successfully enter the United States to pave the way for its international market expansion. Imed is seeking IPO strategies and international market expansion, as well as ways to increase its presence at international trade shows while Sumipol is looking for reorganisation advice.

Advanced Packaging is aiming to diversify its products from tumbling automotive and electronics to more packaging products, especially bio-degradable ones, while Imed is looking for help to establish an entity that allows Thailand to trade carbon credits in the global market.

The students are scheduled to conclude and report their work to the companies by the end of the month.

Komkrit Sajjaanantakul, managing director of Imed Laboratories, said that even though the students were not professionals, their broad perspective and determination should allow the company to view strategies in new ways.

"I am pretty positive about taking up their advice. I asked them for advice on how best to introduce our white blood-cell testing kits in India and to raise capital to finance other innovative products we want to develop. They will come up with action plans and I can see that they are very enthusiastic. I even think their work is better than that of some experienced people in our company," he said.