The right prescription for a culture of trust | Bangkok Post: business

EXECUTIVE BRIEFCASE

'My management style is to make people come to the office not only for the salary but with a willingness to work with passion. They should enjoy and believe that what they are doing is the right thing to do," says Rolf Ammelburg, the general manager of Roche Thailand.

Dr Ammelburg worked for six years as a scientist and lecturer at the University of Bremen where he received his PhD in neurophysiology. After spending 15 years with Roche in his native Germany, he came to Thailand in 2001. He went on to become the general manager of Roche Philippines for about a year before returning to Thailand to take up his current position in 2007. After a decade in Southeast Asia, he believes he has begun to understand some of the cultural adjustments that professionals such as himself have to make.

"The only mistake, as expatriates, we can make is to talk too much and not listen enough," he told me. "We need to understand the environment, which requires a lot of listening to understand what the local people think, their attitudes and the direction of their thinking. After that, we can start to talk and cooperate. We have to understand the culture by learning the language and the terms because culture is transported by language."