Mr. Travel in Bangkok - they organize the in-county transport for the SummerU, doing a great job! It begins with the airport pickup on arrival day when participants arrive one by one over the whole day and get them to their hotel. In the morning from the hotel to the campus and in the afternoon back. Then, there are the trips to Ayutthaya, Chiang Mai, and Ko Samet, all organized by Mr. Travel.
Staff Spotlight: Ulrich Werner
Title:
Summer University OrganizerPhotos
After a management career in Germany and Switzerland, he came to Thailand 16 years ago to teach in international university programs. Since 2012, he organizes Graduate SummerU programs on 'business in Asia' and 'entrepreneurship in Asia' that bring participants to the wildly different regions of Thailand.
What is your favorite travel memory?
How have you changed/grown since working for your current company?
Well, at the age of 61, you won't change or grow that much anymore :)
Since this year's SummerU is organized in a first-time collaboration with Siam Technology College in Bangkok (before with Asian University and Bangkok University), I meet a lot of new people and learn about different administrative structures - that's always interesting.
What is the best story you've heard from a return student?
'This SummerU changed my life'. (Recommendation by a former Pakistani participant on the SummerU Facebook page 2019). I'm still today in touch with most of the participants of any former SummerU, which is a very good sign of their satisfaction to have joined the program. Accordingly, we don't need to advertise a lot - most participants come by word of mouth from former participants.
If you could go on any program that your company offers, which one would you choose and why?
Well, studying a fully-accredited U.S. Bachelor degree in Bangkok would have been my choice 40 years ago, but now I'd choose the SummerU - meeting people from all over the world with a shared interest in one topic. That's always great and causes long-lasting memories. Participants need to be enrolled at a university for at least 2 years and at least aged 20. So, that's not a kindergarten. It's a great setting.
What makes your company unique? When were you especially proud of your team?
I feel best in a team of people from different countries and cultures. In our team, the head is American, the team members are from Germany, the Philippines, India, and Thailand. That brings different ideas on the table resulting from different experiences and cultural backgrounds - a great way to develop a unique program.
What do you believe to be the biggest factor in being a successful company?
That's three things - customer orientation, customer orientation, and customer orientation. Understand what you customer wants, offer him something that meets his expectations, and when you deliver, make sure you deliver more positive experiences than the customer expected to get anyway. A common definition of 'quality' is 'meeting or exceeding customer expectations'.