Female Engineering – An Engineering Legacy

Rungrudee Anusatsiri, General Manager of KLINGER Thailand, is modest about her aptitude for engineering: “At 18 years old I had no idea what I would be in the future, but because of good luck I got the quota to get into engineering university.” Her logical and methodical nature is apparent as she carefully outlines her thought process, explaining the different tracks available in her degree field and why she chose her current path. It quickly becomes clear that an engineering mind runs in the family: her mother, despite having to drop out of school at a young age, is currently refurbishing the household water system by learning plumbing via YouTube videos. So far she has replaced the tanks, filter, and pump without help. “She’s very impressive,” Rungrudee says fondly. “I may get my engineering skill from her, I think.”

The art of the sale

Rungrudee began her career as a systems engineer in a measurement and control company and as a sales manager for a large petrochemical company, driving strategy through market research and competitive intelligence. Over the years, she moved into sales and took on larger roles in other international companies based in Switzerland and the U.S., where she was responsible for chemical, petrochemical, oil, and gas businesses with more team members and larger markets. In 2019, Rungrudee joined KLINGER Thailand as General Manager, assuming a large roster of initiatives to expand multiple business segments in a variety of sectors. Her team soon flourished, meeting and beating sales goals year after year as they expanded the business across the country and internationally. One ­specific metric that Rungrudee takes pride in is the team’s increase in turnover. Sales is a field notorious for high churn rates across all industries, so increased retention is a crucial way to measure both employee and customer satisfaction. “When we recruit, we train employees for their specific job and for growth within the company, so they always have a plan to follow,” she explains.

Skill stacking

As Rungrudee mentors her young team members, she sees a common pattern: those who excel are prone to skill stacking, or layering multiple talents on top of each other. A solid STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) foundation is only the beginning: sales members must know the product, know the research and development behind the product, and know the strengths and weaknesses of the product. Then, they must share that information with the customer, so he can make an informed choice. “You need to make yourself trustable,” she says.

As her team members build their careers over a long time frame, they gain more knowledge and become even more valuable assets to the customer, thus creating a feedback loop of value. Rungrudee encourages them to learn all aspects of the business, not only to increase their knowledge, but also to help other departments where needed: “In addition to having the skills required for your day-to-day job, you might sometimes need to work across departments. Our customer service team, for example, sometimes also performs purchasing tasks.”

Pitching in to help is a common theme in Rungrudee’s success, both in the job and at home. Despite her natural knack for STEM, Rungrudee knows that support from others is an important part of her career trajectory. When her first child was born and she considered leaving her job to raise him, her mother insisted that Rungrudee kept working, offering her own time to help fill in the gaps. When the family juggled obligations as a team, Rungrudee was able to rise through the ranks, building a solid career and providing for her family as they had provided for her. This is what she values: regular people who make a practical difference for their loved ones. She muses, “I’m not inspired by famous people in the world, that is too far away from me. I just look to the people near me, and my mom is like a super woman. She takes care of everything.”