Today’s global interconnectedness requires fast and reliable delivery of goods. DHL Thailand and Indochina Managing Director, Chananyarak Phetcharat, explains the global-reaching organization’s strategy to facilitate safe and dependable delivery of healthcare products, the organization’s unique ability to adapt to local policies and her ambitious vision for the development of DHL healthcare in Thailand and Indochina.
What have been your greatest challenges and opportunities over the last three years?
As leader of DHL Thailand since 2008, I have seen a great deal of logistical challenges occur throughout the years due to floods, political unrest and economic downturns, yet through it all Thailand has remained the epicenter of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) due to its strategic location and overall healthy business climate. According to a study by Bloomberg, Thailand is listed as the third most attractive emerging nation to invest in globally due to steady market growth and overall friendly business practices with foreigners. Consequently, the opportunity for companies to expand their business to Thailand has created a platform for DHL Thailand to provide services to our expanding network of clients shipping goods in and out of the country.
Since Thailand is geographically centered in Southeast Asia (SEA), which nations is the Thai affiliate working most in line with and what does DHL Thailand represent to the organization as a whole?
Currently, the majority of our exports and imports come from more developed nations, such as the U.S. and Japan, but there is a growing exchange between China and Thailand, as well as other developing and emerging markets in Asia. DHL plans to play a crucial role in the exchange of goods and services required of any region. Moreover, the Thai affiliate remains the organization’s headquarters in the Indochina region because of its airports, shipyards and land connectivity to surrounding nations.
How does the organization differentiate itself from its competitors?
DHL’s global network spans over 220 countries and territories, making it the most international company in the world. The organization is truly universal because it adapts itself via its staff to leverage the organization within any local market. DHL remains adaptable by instituting its own policies, such as its Certified International Specialist (CIS) program, which allows the company to revamp itself in any market, yet it maintains its organizational values and commitment in order to continue providing solutions for an almost infinite number of logistics needs required by our customers.
We also take it one step further by instituting a can-do attitude at the work place and ensuring that our employees do things correctly the first time around to minimize errors and keep customer satisfaction high. Our resilient employee attitudes ensure that we remain competitive even in the most chaotic of moments. For example, during the closing of our main airport in Bangkok, Suvarnabhumi Airport, we switched to another airport to continue the steady shipment of goods and during floods we have managed to organize routes that ensure our customer’s goods are delivered. Remaining savvy and innovative ensures the success of DHL Thailand continues on an upward spiral and sets us apart from our competitors.
Moreover, we are concerned with improving our processes via our service excellence campaign, which gives special attention to quality control and using technology and innovation to improve internal processes. Our focus on service excellence allows our employees to take an active role in making a difference in the way our customer’s needs are met. We believe that happy employees translate to better services for our customers and our success is apparent in our expanding network and high employee retention rate.
What led to the organization becoming more involved in healthcare and life sciences?
DHL Thailand recognizes that although the local economy has stagnated over the last few years, the healthcare industry has been on a continuous rise and as a logistics provider we want to play an active role in shaping the way Thailand interacts with other nations around the world. Moreover, despite certain political and economic challenges, Thailand continues to be a medical hub for many medical tourists coming to here in search of medical care. Consequently, our focus strategy of services has shifted to include the delivery of time definite products to accommodate the needs of international, as well as domestic patients.
Our unique approach includes the special transfer and delivery of biomedical shipments, such as time-sensitive medicines, clinical supplies and time-sensitive specimens. We understand that the life science industry require extra attention and clearance efficiency and that is why we confirm shipment delivery pre-noon on the next possible business day, and proactive location tracking by the DHL Quality Control Center network to ensure ambient, chilled or frozen shipments are constantly monitored through to their delivery. Becoming involved in the healthcare and life sciences sector has been a strategic shift for the organization and we expect to see tremendous growth in this sector in the coming years!
What role has DHL Thailand played in helping move local logistics policies forward?
As an international organization we believe we have a role to play in helping shift policy and provide solutions that benefit Thai society, as well as our surrounding office locations in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. We are working closely with strategic partners, associations and government to support the government in simplifying rules and regulations and harmonizing them with the prevailing standards in ASEAN. This is in order to further assist and support our customers’ business needs and support making Thailand an attracting place for trade and investment. Currently, DHL is the leading logistics provider in Thailand, and we are determined to stay ahead and be the quality leader in the industry.
Where would you like to see DHL Thailand’s healthcare portfolio in the coming years?
DHL is committed to providing quality of life in all segments we service, but this especially applies to the healthcare industry because we want prosperity, social responsibility and the well-being of the people we provide services for to be positively affected by our work. Moreover, we want to make a positive impact on medical tourists visiting the country by facilitating a streamline process for their medical needs to be met. We understand that many of the biological shipments we are shipping are time sensitive and temperature sensitive goods. We are continually advancing and updating our logistics technologies, products and services to serve our customers in the market.
