At Michelin, women can be assured that they will have an equal opportunity to men in their career growth
Interview with Segsarn Trai-Ukos
Managing Director at Société des Matières Premiéres Tropicales Pte Ltd. (SMPT)
Hi Segsarn, could you share with us about your background and childhood life? We heard that you grew up abroad, was it difficult for you to adapt yourself to different cultures at that time?
In the early 70s, my family did not plan to raise their kids in Europe before they flew out to Geneva, where my father took his first diplomatic mission. Switzerland, Germany, and France became my home countries for more than 24 years.
We must admit that wherever you live, whoever you speak with, whatever you eat – you are still a foreigner in these countries. Adapting is not knowing the cultural differences but being transparent in society whereas nobody asks where you are coming from, what is your religion, and/or what do you love to eat. Personally, I did not face challenges – when you are young it is much easier to be integrated into any society as long as you speak the local languages and play football.
In fact, it is through education, sports, and cultures that you adapt to any social environment. Sport and especially football brings everyone on the field where nobody cares who you are as long as you can run fast and know how to shoot a ball. The cultural aspect is about sharing the “same” ways of socializing, eating, and entertaining – hanging out at the same place, enjoying local food (don’t ask for chili if you are in a French or German restaurant), also watch the same movies – and capable to comment about it.
What are the lessons learned from living abroad that you would like to share with the younger generation in Thailand?
First, studying or working abroad should be planned. We, Thai nationals are facing different challenges when applying for studying or working on the “old” continent where difficulties might not be as obvious as when applying for North America or Australia.
Secondly, New and Younger generations must have two purposes before starting life abroad: acquiring knowledge in their field of study and learning the local culture [understanding their decision process, values, and logic] or just immigration. For the first purpose, any student must be blended into the University/School. Our ways of learning and logical thinking might not be adapted immediately to local students.
We need to spend more time on ‘catching up” the lecture (foreign language): set priority between recreation and studying, learn to work in Group, and select friends.
The key success is to find the right equilibrium between studying, extra-curriculum activities, and local integration. All this creates value for you to understand local values and behaviors that lead to understanding their thinking process.
What are the lessons learned from living abroad that you would like to share with the younger generation in Thailand?
I have been recently appointed as Managing-Director of Société des Matières Premiéres Tropicales Pte Ltd (SMPT), in Singapore. SMPT is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Michelin Group. It is a Michelin procurement hub for Natural rubber, Synthetic rubber (Asia), and Composite rubber.
SMPT is handling more than 40,000 containers per year, buying 800,000 Metric Ton of rubber from 170 rubber processing plants. Nonetheless, my challenge is to align stakeholders around Michelin’s vision of sustainable natural rubber. After my assignment in Singapore, I will definitively come back to Bangkok for my “retirement.”
Could you let us know if Michelin and Michelin Guide are related? If yes, what is the relation between the two?
Most people would not associate Michelin Guide or commonly call [in Thailand as] Michelin “Star” Restaurant, with Michelin tires.
Michelin believes that mobility plays an important part in human development. Back in the 1900s, when there were fewer than 3,000 cars all-around of France, traveling by car was an adventure. Michelin wanted to encourage mobility through traveling experience by creating an office to provide information about car journeys called Bureau des Itinéraires. Michelin published the first map, and then traveler guidebooks including Michelin Guide, which was later the start of restaurant rating by giving “Michelin Star.”
The MICHELIN Guide has become internationally well-known, and the Michelin Star has been the benchmark for fine dining. Michelin Guide is today present in more than 30 cites & countries including Thailand.
So, in summary, Michelin Guide is part of the Michelin Group, which purposes to enhance customers’ experience along their journeys.
How has 'Workforce Diversity' become one of the main factors for Michelin's success?
“Diversity” is part of our policy. In line with the Group’s values, the Board consistently endeavors to propose candidates from diverse backgrounds and cultures and with diverse experience so that the membership is balanced and aligned with the role and responsibilities. In our 2019 Supervisory Board, we have 45% of Women and 22% of non-French National. Michelin has deployed a clear program and tools to attenuate the risk of discrimination, make all positions accessible to women, and ensure gender wage parity.
What is the ratio of female employees at Michelin, including all positions and levels?
In 2020, Michelin Group’s objective is to increase 30% of women in management and supervision positions. As in February 2020, Michelin Group has recorded 28.55% of women in management and supervision positions, whereas Thailand has recorded 35%; the total percentage in Thailand is down to 18.8% as mostly blue-collar [working in our plants].
We noticed that Michelin aims to increase the number of women working in management up to 30 percent globally by the year 2020. How does Michelin do to support women for career development? Does your organization have a specific strategy for this?
As mentioned above, Thailand has recorded a high percentage of women in management and supervision positions, but we accept that we have room to improve, especially within our factories where there are only 17% of women. Our ergonomic teams are working to improve our equipment to facilitate women accessibility; a good illustration, we saw that women are particularly better forklift drivers than men; fewer accidents when women are sitting behind the steering wheel.
As Michelin provides an equal employment opportunity, what would be your advice for young women who are interested in being part of the Michelin Team?
Michelin has launched a certain number of initiatives to make all positions accessible for women and ensure gender wage parity. A specific action plan has been launched in each of the Group’s host regions to increase the number of women in management positions, with the objective of raising the proportion of women managers to 30% by 2020.
Michelin is, therefore, permanently looking for young talent; we are looking for motivated behaviors, positive attitude, and bright talent. At Michelin, women can be assured that they will have an equal opportunity to men in their career growth.
Could you briefly tell us about your current project of enhancing equality among Rubber Farming across ASEAN? What are the objectives and plans for this project?
With SMTP, I am discovering the importance of Michelin’s commitment to our sustainable natural rubber (NR) policy. Our mission is to support our upstream NR supply chain. Michelin, as a major buyer/consumer of natural rubber, we have the responsibility to support the supply chain. Knowing that natural rubber is represented by more than 6 million farmers, in which 85% of production was done by smallholders, employing 30 million jobs – most rubber plantations are in Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
What is our approach? We start to assess our value chain with the support of mapping digital tools [with Rubberway] and the CSR assessment tools/scoring process [with Ecovadis]. Based on our findings, we are developing and deploying field projects dedicated to the redevelopment of the natural environment. It sounds easy – on the contrary – the natural rubber supply chain is one of the most complex supply chains. Addressing the sustainable natural rubber challenge is to find the right ways on education development and training on farming practices, fair distribution of advantages and benefits, and assuring that farmers maintaining an acceptable level of income.
Who has inspired you in life, and why?
It’s actually a difficult question, I was inspired by many people across continents and times. If I must pick one person, it would be my father.
First, you must know that my father was not born to be a diplomate but as a child from a small farmer’s family. His career would be nothing else than a farmer from Ayutthaya. As farming was too tough and only a strong boy will survive under the sunlight and in the rice field; he decided to choose something else. Studying, acquiring knowledge and experiences, and then never refuse a job including competing at State exam at the Ministry of Commerce. Then, after a few years, his director asked him to take a post outside of Bangkok, he immediately accepted even though it was 10,000 km. from his home.
His diplomatic adventure lasts more than 25 years – he refuses any promotion back home as he only aims to make sure that his kids get the right education in Europe. You have here someone who believes that knowledge and hard work can transform a life – from “farmer to a diplomat.”
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