The role of women at work in corporations over the last several years has provided a glimpse of the leadership potential of women as line managers or senior executives. They can be part of determining the company’s direction and driving it towards its goals. Even though in the past, women had lesser roles in technology, nowadays, plenty of smart women have increasingly scaled the corporate tech ladder, ready to show their outstanding capabilities which are every bit the equal of their male colleagues. It underlines that the ingrained gender attitudes which previously limited women’s roles in industry have changed, and that any person of any gender has the chance to show equal ability.
AIS is one of Thailand’s leading technology companies with over 14,000 employees, who are from tech backgrounds as varied as Engineering, IT, Programmer or Data Scientist, and including many non-tech areas of expertise. In every department at present, the proportion of female employees and executives is over half. Meanwhile, the number of female employees in tech departments at AIS has been continually increasing. The company has put the emphasis firmly on competence, with gender being irrelevant.
At AIS there are a number of strong women executives or Women In Tech, who are very much part of steering the company in many key departments. P’ Jeab, Kantima Lerlertyuttitham, is in charge of Human Resources and transforming employees’ skill sets to cope with digital disruption. P’Ob, Nattiya Poapongsakorn, looks after sustainability strategy and development as well as communication with investors on business direction and operation. P’Aueng, Saichon Submakudom supervises the company’s public relations, which is building opportunities, understanding and digital skills for the Thai public. Finally P’Jiam, Rungtip Jarusiripipat is behind the creation of digital services, and innovating to promote the growth of digital ecosystems meeting lifestyle needs in the modern era.
The perspectives of all four executives on women’s empowerment, as leaders under the heavy burden of expectations from their teams and the company’s targets, are all part of a mission to drive digital literacy, lay the digital foundations for Thais to access new user experiences, reduce inequality, create opportunities and level up society to keep pace with the digital world.
Ms Kantima Lerlertyuttitham, Group Chief Human Resources Officer of AIS and Intouch, said, “At AIS we are committed to equality at work and essentially value people by their abilities. At a tech company like AIS, there is no limit to the opportunities available to you, whatever your gender. We have many women executives who have been given key work assignments and then promoted to important roles in setting policy or even implementing missions according to the company’s core goals. This requires building strength in digital tech to enhance learning, to create a society of fair competition with innovation and new digital platforms. Eventually, they have been recognized both internally and externally. Generally speaking, whatever gender you are, if you are given opportunities, you have the obligation to prove yourself and show your unlimited potential. This is what we call equality in our company.”
Nattiya Poapongsakorn, Head of Investor Relations and Compliance at AIS, commented, “In driving corporate sustainability direction, we have to work with a diverse group of stakeholders both internally and externally. It is critical to build common goal and understanding while ensuring a balance between the people doing the work and the company’s direction. Each aspect of the sustainability goals, whether developing innovations toward digital economy, supporting equal access to technology for society or pushing our actions on the climate issues, all depend on understanding of the contexts and perspectives of each stakeholder, which inevitably differ. Differing opinions is natural, but what should be done to create common goals? The most important thing is conversations with open attitudes, to understand differences and create clarity on mutual goals. This drives everyone to give their support, and enables us to achieve our sustainability aspiration”
Meanwhile, Saichon Submakudom, Head of Public Relations at AIS, at the helm of operations for society, community relations, and digital access opportunities for Thais added, “The role of women today is not different from men. Everyone can demonstrate distinctive individual performance. However, the challenge of working today is that if gender is not an issue, how must we assure every person has access to digital and can use it to maximal benefit? How we will we give Thai people the digital skills to keep ahead of different kinds of cyberthreat? This is proactive work to connect societies, communities and the public with government policy. This work has received the full support of every employee of every age and gender, as well as every member of management. This should lead to building digital skills for Thai users, which they can pass on to generate the required skills for efficient protection from cyber threats.”
As for Rungtip Jarusiripipat, Acting Managing Director-Entertainment and Content Partnership at AIS, she is behind the success of digital content and digital services, and gives another perspective: “AIS is an organization giving opportunities to employees of every gender and age group, to learn and try out new things equally. In particular, we are designing digital services to meet the constantly changing needs of consumers, and working with partners to promote ecosystem growth in every industry. For instance, sport and esports are currently growing trends and popular among young people. In executing this work, gender is never a condition. On the contrary, I have received excellent support, making me confident that delivering digital services to benefit growth in every sector, is an achievement enhancing the strength of the country’s digital economy.”
On the occasion of International Women’s Day on 8 March 2022, AIS teams want to be part of communicating the power of ideas and inspiration from the perspectives of these four female executives as Women in Tech. They have a role in promoting digital literacy under the company’s core goals which seek to deploy digital tech to upgrade the nation. This will empower “women” to be confident in their potential, and overcome limitations and biases. At the same time, they can be bold to demonstrate their clear abilities, to create positive change for themselves and society.
Source: AIS
