Human focus

"I have reduced my weight by 25kg because I could not sit in the economy class," Gan said at a seminar held by the National Innovation Agency last week.

Although he is 50, Gan is still a trend-setting consumer. He bought his second iPhone recently because the new one has 16GB memory instead of the previous 8GB. He is writing a book on strategic marketing and management for Oxford University Press.

Vudhigorn Suriyachant-ananont is another of Thailand's estimated 80,000 iPhone owners, even though the much-hyped gadget has not yet been officially introduced in the local market. The vice president of Toyota Motor Thailand is also a hi-fi lover whose home stereo system is more expensive than a Camry.

Fukujiro Yamabe, president of Mitsubishi Thailand, has recently been elected president of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce, Bangkok. The chamber's new executive board members include Izuru Kobayashi, Japan Overseas Development's representative for the Asia Pacific region; Yuhei Omi, chief representative of Japan Bank for International Corporation; Yo Jitsukata, president of Marubeni Thailand; Akio Yamamoto, president of Mitsui Thailand; Mitsuhiro Sonoda, president of Toyota Motor Thailand; Tetsuo Kasuya, general manager of The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi; and Yasuo Kuroda, president of Sumitomo Thailand.

U Hotel, a new bijoux deluxe hotel scheduled to open next month in Chiang Mai, has announced the appointment of Yothin Uthaphu as general manager.

Yothin has extensive experience in the hotel industry and sales in Thailand and Vietnam, where he was senior sales manager for New World Hotel Saigon. He then became key account director handling leisure business for Accor Asia Pacific in Thailand. Before this appointment he was hotel manager at Cha-Da Beach Resort and Spa for two years.

Thailand Productivity Institute will host a "Productivity Talk" on June 19 at the Bangkok Inter-national Trade and Exhibition Centre. Kampol Kitchara-bhumi will talk about the "Six Packs Core Tools" - advanced product quality planning, production part approval process, failure mode and effect analysis, statistical process control, measurement system analysis, and quality system assessment.