Issue 15

The Managing Partner of Coach-Executives talks about her life in Thailand and work as Co-Chair of the Luxury & LifeStyle Committee, the French-Thai Chamber of Commerce.

What made you settle in the Kingdom?
I have a long love story with Thailand which started back in 2001 when I first came with my family for some holidays. We immediately fell in love with this beautiful country, its kind people, the culture. In 2011, after a long and rich international career spent in different countries, after our last child flew to Europe to pursue her studies, we decided it was time for us to start a new chapter of our lives in Thailand.

You are a Coach, what does that entail?
I am a certified Coach specialising in executive coaching, team coaching, and relocation/career transition coaching. I guide the persons or teams I coach to build a vision, discover and deploy their inner potential and competencies, elaborate wining strategies, move to action so to reach their personal and professional objectives. For about 10 years now, I have been serving international groups and institutions in a variety of industries including the luxury industry, hospitality and tourism sector, heavy industry and am proud to count among my clients a good number of the Fortune 500 and CAC 40 corporations.

Why did you join the FTCC?
I had the great opportunity to be elected as a counsellor at the FTCC Board in 2013 and based on the experience I have in the Luxury Industry, I came up with the idea of creating a committee dedicated to the support and development of the Luxury Brand Industry in Thailand and ASEAN.

Can you explain a bit about what the luxury and lifestyle committee does?
It aims at offering a forum for exchanges of experiences and best practices; establishing close ties between the main actors of the luxury sector in this region of the world. Our goal is to become a force for proposals and lobbying interacting with other entities in France, Thailand, Europe and with the local authorities so to contribute to the business growth for its members. Today the committee counts over 20 active members such as Chanel, L’Officiel, Hermes, Cartier Dior, Louis Vuitton, L’Oreal Luxury Brands and Burberry.

Can you provide some details of the work the committee does?
We had one event dedicated to exploring Thailand as a shopping destination during which we could make a kind of SWOT analysis to understand which future directions and developments to take into account. We also organised an event dedicated to digital marketing in the Luxury Industry to explore A Study on Social Media for Luxury Brands and better understand interactive digital marketing.

What do you think the French luxury and lifestyle sector can bring to Thailand?
I believe Luxury, LifeStyle, quality and beauty are intrinsically linked to France and some of its traditional values. I am convinced that French luxury and lifestyle can bring its sense of uniqueness, distinctiveness and authenticity to enrich and stimulate the Thai Luxury and LifeStyle.

What projects do you have lined up for 2015?
Two big projects are already in line for 2015. The first one is the launch of the Thailand Luxury Market Tracking Survey that we are doing in partnership with the Luxellence Center and Ipsos Group. The release of the results of the survey will be done at the beginning of January 2015. The second project is to facilitate, between the actors of the Luxury sector and the local authorities, the discussions around the import taxes on luxury products.

For information on how to join the FTCC, visit: http://www.francothaicc.com/en/