Even though the temperatures outside are “frigid” by Bangkok standards - mornings are in the low 20s (Centigrade, low 70s F) - it’s hard to believe it’s almost Christmas, a problem made the more difficult since 25 December is just another working Monday here in the Land of Smiles.

Which is not to say that they don’t try to get into the spirit of things around here. Stores have decorations up, and there’s even a (fake) Christmas Tree with presents under it at the gym. At a number of shops, the staff are wearing Santa hats, which makes the Thais look like elves. They don’t give out candy canes though.

In any case, this is all just a round-about way of wishing everyone a merry Christmas, and a happy new year while I’m at it. Where-ever you’re spending this holiday season, I hope you enjoy yourself and your travels.

Yes, you read that headline correctly. Starting in February, you’ll be able to fly from Phuket to the Phi-Phi Islands, plus Krabi, Koh Lanta and other nearby destinations. All this is thanks to a new seaplane shuttle air service called Destination Air, which will be based at Phuket’s international airport. They plan to have 12 flights a day, with departures every two hours. Since they use seaplanes, they can take you right up to the beach at the major resorts all around Phuket.

The Destination Air fleet “includes Cessna 208 and 206 aircraft, which are rated as the safest aircraft in the world and flown by experienced international pilots individually selected for their many years of safe flight experience and friendly customer service capabilities.” According to a press release I received today. This new service now makes it possible to make a day trip from Phuket to Phi-Phi, something that wasn’t really possible before due to the length of the boat trip. Destination Air’s web site in fact offers a couple of day trip package options already.

Airfares have yet to be published on their web site, so I can’t tell you what this service will cost, but for those wishing to maximize their time in the sun, it will probably be worth it.

I’ve just received word that Phuket will be holding its first film festival. The event is scheduled for 29 September to 7 October 2007. That’s a bit ‘early’ for Phuket - September is the wettest month on average - but apparently that’s part of the idea. Seeing a movie is certainly good way to pass a rainy afternoon in Thailand, especially considering the relatively plush theaters on offer all around the kingdom.

The venue for the event will be the SF Cinema theaters at the new JungCeylon shopping center on Patong Beach. After years of delays due to legal and financial problems, the huge complex is scheduled to open in time for the Chinese New Year in early 2007.

Unlike other film festivals in Thailand, the Phuket festival will be privately funded in hopes of avoiding some of the political interference that has plagued other festivals. Plans call for showcases of Vietnamese, Malaysian, Singaporean, German and Scandinavian films. They also plan to have free screenings of Thai films on the beach.

Mark your calendars.

Samui seems to be attracting more than its fair share of upscale developments recently. The latest to join the fray goes by the rather curious name of The Library, which is set to open on 2 January 2007. The odd name aside, the specifications on the place look interesting: a modern minimalist design set on the beach amidst a stand of old trees, in-room computer with internet access and only 26 rooms in all - 13 suites and 13 “studios”. Of course, places this posh come at a price, especially on Samui. It looks like the best rate you can get is around US$300 a night.

With developments like this, perhaps it’s only a matter of time before a place on Samui makes the list of Asia’s best hotels or the top ten resorts list, where the competition is very intense.

You may not have known it as such, but you’ve probably heard some variation of the infinite monkey theorem. Although it takes many forms, the basic idea is that if you put a large number of monkeys in a room full of typewriters, they’ll eventually produce a script for Hamlet.

What does this have to do with life in Thailand? Well, believe it or not, over the years I’ve observed that a number of Thai companies (perhaps most of them in fact) apply the infinite monkey theorem to employee management. While they don’t employ monkeys, they do engage the nearest human equivalent.

You see, rather than hiring experienced and qualified people who can do the job, they tend to hire people with no experience or qualifications who work cheap. Part of the reasoning behind this is a rather common short-sighted approach to human resources. Since inexperienced people can be paid a lot less, their cost to the company is lower. Of course, that assumes that they can do the job, and do it as productively as someone with more experience, which is practically impossible. The ‘insurance’ Thai managers employ to eventually accomplish something is to hire several low paid people.

Now you’re probably wondering, “If they hire several low paid people instead of one better paid qualified person, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of hiring cheap labor?” Yes, it does. It’s one of the great mysteries of Thai business management, that they never really seem to consider the on-going costs of staff. One of the first lessons I learned when trying to sell software to Thai companies was that you could never justify the cost of an application based savings of staff costs, even if they were potentially significant. As far as virtually ever manager I ever met was concerned, their staff cost nothing. Cutting staff, or even reducing future expansion, would result in no savings, as far as these people were concerned.

There are other reasons for hiring more people than is really necessary to do a job. The commonly held view is that Thais like to work in teams, and do not like to have personal responsibility. That’s why jobs in the government and state owned enterprises are so popular. You don’t have to really do anything, you can’t get fired and if you stick around long enough you can get paid a lot of money.

Is this such a bad thing? After all, the world is full of clueless managers. Yes, I think it is a problem. Such practices make Thai companies terribly slow and inefficient. Thailand is slipping down the rankings of international competitiveness, and their blindness to staffing costs is probably one of the big reasons. Thais still consider their country to be a low cost manufacturing base, even though Cambodia, Vietnam, China and India are now far cheaper.