It was not easy for a woman aged 38 to take on the job of overseeing all local operations of the US-based high-technology company IBM Thailand. But Suphajee Suthamphan has proved that a woman full of passion and strong intentions can stand at the forefront of top executives in Thailand.

Suphajee, now 42, has been working with IBM for 17 years. Her first position was in the International Procurement Office, dealing with local suppliers to provide computer and electronics parts to IBM. But fortune brought her higher responsibility in various positions until she became IBM Thailand's managing director in 2003.

Suphajee put a lot of effort into her work. Before marriage, she used to work day and night, typically putting in four days of overtime, to complete her urgent job of restructuring IBM's pricing and billing system. Once married, she never tired of visiting IBM's business partners in 13 Asian countries, even while pregnant.

With a passion for work, Suphajee still looks fresh and energetic. No signs of fatigue or worry are on her face, even though a tonne of problems are waiting for her to solve.

Suphajee has her own way of managing problems: staying calm and thinking logically.

She says she has always practised meditation at bedtime. "Meditation really makes me think more logically and systematically, and this helps me a lot at work," she says.

Today, when Suphajee works, talks or does anything at all, she concentrates on every aspect of what she is doing. "I realise that if I lose my mind and panic, I will not be able to solve a problem properly," she says.

If Suphajee faces a problem and begins to feel frustrated and tense, instead of sinking deeper into the problem, she controls her mind, withdraws her consciousness and then steps back from the problem for a while before starting to tackle it again.

"This actually helps me find a solution consciously and see more points of view from other angles and understand the situation more," she says.

Apart from her meditation, Suphajee keeps Buddhist principles in mind as a leader handling a large international organisation with hundreds of employees.

"To be a good leader, it's necessary to have moral principles and sympathise with others. Many times you have to sacrifice yourself for your employees, listen and understand them more and stop being self-centred," she says.

Suphajee believes employees are the company's key resource, and that's why she is trying to make her staff work happily.

"I try to create an environment within the office to encourage my staff to work happily so that they will do their best to achieve the same goal," she says.

The right office climate is essential for executives to encourage workers, not discourage them, she adds.

However, encouraging employees to devote their whole life to work is not her goal. For Suphajee, employees have to achieve a good balance between their working and personal lives.

She has helped IBM staff to manage their working lives better with a programme offering a way to rest and recharge their batteries for further work.

"I set up a programme to stop them getting too tense at work. For example, we set last October as Work-life Month and sent the staff home at 3pm every Friday, fort the whole month. It gave them more time with family or for personal activities," she says.

In addition, the big boss of IBM Thailand, who is also a mother of boys aged 11 and five, has put the focus on family management as she believes that family is a key drive in work and life.

"Since family is important and working life cannot be separated from family life, what I want to do is pull family into employee's working life," she says.

During the long school vacation she will hold two open days for employees' children to tour IBM's office, see how their parents work and learn how to develop websites and other new technologies.

Not only does Suphajee handle local operations and take care of local staff, she also oversees the work-life management of IBM staff around the region as the chairwoman of IBM's Women's Council in Southeast Asia. Many projects have been initiated to make IBM staff work happily together in better physical and mental health.

"We, members in the council, come to sit and talk every quarter to initiate new programmes for our staff. We developed a portal called Worklife Essential as a place where staff can get access to various kinds of information to improve their lives. We have an old-folks programme to persuade staff to take better care of their parents as well as a children's programme to give tips to parents, and even a marriage-counselling programme," she says.

Despite having a lot of work to do both in and outside the country, Suphajee says she always has time to dedicate to her family.

"I always spend time with my children. I drive them school every morning and talk with them on the way, and this is my precious time."

On weekends, Suphajee leaves her executive position behind and turns herself into a complete housewife. She takes care of her husband, cooks, plays with her children and often takes her mother to a temple.

"It's necessary that you manage your time and balance both sides of your life, otherwise you will lose them both," she says.

Pongpen Sutharoj

The Nation