When James Tan, Managing Director of MAPAL Thailand, looks out of his window, he sees the skyline of Singapore, the city where he was born. It is a beautiful sight, but he would prefer to see other skyscrapers, namely the ones of Bangkok. Unfortunately, the pandemic situation doesn´t allow him yet to go back there.
“Luckily, I know everything is running smoothly, the situation is stable and our business is operating as usual” James reports with a content smile. He knows he can absolutely rely on his 15 employees – and InterGest.
The qualified engineer has been working for 26 years with MAPAL, being employed in Singapore and all over the South East Asia region and Shanghai, before taking over the general management in Thailand in 2019. With his mother tongue being Chinese, he is also fluent in English and Bahasa Malay, and is now learning Thai.
“It is indeed a complex language to learn but I want to be able to communicate with Thais in their mother tongue. It is hard to find staff fluent in English, therefore we often have to overcome language challenges, especially when dealing with international clients and tasks.”
As good communication is obviously important to him, he was very happy to find InterGest as a matching partner when looking for a new service provider for accounting: “They were recommended to us by our headquarter in Germany and when I met Daniel Walentowski, General Manager InterGest Thailand, we immediately launched into an open, trustful relationship. I know that I can always pop into his office if I have something to discuss.”
Well working communication was also important when MAPAL and InterGest started to work together. It took some time and joint effort to get processes defined and to learn how to work best together.
Daniel recalls “In the beginning we were appointed as consultants to ensure that the headquarters’ accounting guidelines are properly implemented and to reconcile balances. As MAPALs’ CFO Dr. Herkenhoff had set very clear objectives right at the start we had a good briefing. We also had regular follow-up calls with him to ensure we meet the expectations of MAPAL headquarters. James and the local team were very supportive of this initial mission as well so that our scope has been extended to full-scope accounting and payroll services. Now, that all parties have worked their way into things, we can do really well what we´re hired for: take care of all administrative tasks so MAPAL Thailand can focus on their core business.”
To ensure precisely that, InterGest Thailand has accountant Tidarat Khamsue coming to the MAPAL office in Bangkok once a week to take care of accounting and reporting, always ready to also support in questions about legal matters or labour law.
“We feel she is part of our team,” says James “she is always up to date and aware of all necessary details. I can totally rely on her statements and numbers which helps our aim for high transparency.”
Tidarat confirms the good relationship: “I know the numbers, yes, but James also knows that sometimes I need his answer or approval very quickly. The Thai administration works fast, in some cases we need to be able to react in less than an hour. For example, last night I sent James an email at 10pm asking for his approval and he immediately responded. If such an exceptional situation occurs he will make sure he is able to respond, which really helps me a great deal to do my job!”
“We feel MAPAL is not only relying on our services but also on our opinion, and I highly appreciate that. It motivates me and my team to do the best we can to support them.” Daniel adds.
It is James` turn to complete the interview by looking into the future: “We are on a positive note today and planning to expand once the pandemic is over. We have always proven that we are an innovative company, always aiming for the improvement of our products. As we see a shift from standard engines to electric mobility, we are ready for the next chapter!”
About MAPAL:
MAPAL has a comprehensive portfolio of products and services. As such, individually designed custom tools and high-performance standard products are used to create machining solutions that optimally address the requirements for process reliability, precision and cost-effectiveness.
Supplemented by intelligent services, the customer receives a complete package for the machining process.
