If you want to meet the love of your life look in the mirror, believe in yourself and your capabilities
Interview with
Ulaiwan Vleesch Dubois
Director and Owner – Dr. Pump & Engineering Ltd.
Hello Ulaiwan, Thank you for having the interview with us today, could you kindly introduce yourself?
Sawasdee Ka my name is Ulaiwan Vleesch Dubois, and I am born in That Phanom, a blessed small city in the North East of Thailand. I grew up in a big and warm family of 4 sisters and 3 brothers. I am the youngest one and the most beautiful 555 and got many lessons from all of them when I was young.
Before becoming Director of a company supplying water related equipment to buildings and getting into industrial work, how did you develop your career path?
I studied at the Faculty of Business Administration at Ramkhamhaeng University. After finishing my studies, I had several jobs throughout Thailand and Singapore before moving to Melbourne, Australia.
There I helped restructure a pump company with a turnover of USD 4 Mio and yearly losses into a profit-making company within 2 years by refocusing on more profitable market segments and services. To give all a new feeling of direction and culture, we moved into a brand-new building.
After 2 years, I returned to Thailand helping my husband who worked at a German based rotating equipment group to setup and reallocate offices in the Asian region including Taiwan, Korea and Malaysia. The most fun one was Taiwan as the new office was located next to a designer furniture shop where I became good friends with the owner.
For the Thai operations, I helped to establish the new factory in Amata City Chonburi including BOI promotions. This included a 5,000 sqm assembly plant, testing and welding area as well as paint booth.
Based upon all experiences gained I felt ready to start my own business.
What got you into the water and rotating equipment business, and what do you find interesting about working in this industry that many people might not know much about?
I was born in That Phanom near the riverbanks of the Mekong. In Thai beliefs, Nagas are considered the patrons of water. According to a popular legend, the Mekong River in north-eastern Thailand and Laos was said to be created by two Nāga kings slithering through the area, thus creating the Mekong River.
Hence, we believe in Nagas and I always had a strong feeling I want to be related to water and associated products and services. That’s why I started a company related to moving, cleaning and managing water which includes pumps, valves, water treatment, instruments, IoT and sprinklers and other related services like finding water leaks in pipes in short supply full solutions for water related applications.
As the products are essential and used in almost any industry and building, I am interested in learning about the different applications and processes. Without this equipment we can’t shower, have central air conditioning, have power, dewater areas after flooding and many other conveniences we take for granted.
As the industries are diverse and the buying process involves end users, contractors and consultants I can meet many different people daily, which energizes me as I am a people person.
How do you enhance business efficiency and support for your clients? Does AI play a role?
As we are a young startup, we are a lean organization focused on customer delight which goes before cost. I set up the organization around my key customers to assure us we can service them at any given time. A personal touch is key as we are selling solutions to understand the customers’ concerns and issues.
Currently AI plays a role in monitoring and optimizing performance and energy efficiency of installed products via smart sensors on pc tablet or phone.
Also, we use AI to find water leaks in pipes by enhanced algorithms as currently around 20% to 30% of all available drinking water worldwide leaks away.
As a successful businesswoman, what strengths do you think are important for women in business, and how do you use them to succeed?
Women have more connections going left and right across the two halves of the brain, which could give them an advantage in pulling together information from different sources and drawing conclusions. Women are also significantly more right-brained than men. The left half of the brain handles logical thinking, and the right is associated with intuition.
Hence, I believe training yourself using this nature given skill for your business is logical but also in a big way intuition as many of the world’s most successful companies and innovations are based upon the latter. Also, you need to have a clear reason why you want to do the business you are in and a clear vision of what you want to achieve with it. In my case I want to achieve happiness and wealth for myself as well as my staff and their families and the community in general to give all a better life prospect.
Another essential strengths are passion and perseverance to follow your vision without ever giving up. However, stay flexible following your intuition to stay on track.
Finally, I believe as I am born in the land of smiles that business needs to be conducted in a positive and happy atmosphere to create the energy from all within to work as a team.
Also assure good networking and knowledge sharing like DBWT and other as in Asia culture network and friends before doing business.
Please share with us some challenging experiences that you ever faced, and how did you master them?
My staff sold to a customer a dewatering system and they changed the specifications after the order was given. The material was bought without giving extra funds, and we were not able to return the purchased goods resulting in a potential big loss to us and a non-delighted customer as well as unhappy staff.
Using my network, calm and intuition, I was able to sell the materials for other projects enabling the purchase of modified materials to delight my customer and staff and avoid a big loss.
Furthermore, how would you empower women currently grappling with lack of confidence, whether in the workplace or on a personal level?
Confidence is the belief a person has in oneself and one’s abilities and ideas. If a woman has confidence, she generally understands and accepts herself as she is, and people with a lack of confidence are the opposite and may feel negatively about themselves and may not see themselves worthy of love, feeling good, or having a successful, happy life.
My advice is to surround yourself with confident respectful people in private or work environment to help, also sleep enough hours.
For women in business looking to build strong connections, what tips do you have?
Network anywhere, anytime, talk to all, never look down on anyone, and once connected maintain your connection sincere without expecting commercial transactions back.
Especially for the younger generation, what is your advice in a fast changing and highly competitive business world?
In a further evolving world where AI and being On-Line are a given and the world faces many challenges may it be geopolitical, climate or other, try to change to a more sustainable life style and your knowledge becomes less relevant than your intuition and beliefs which can strengthen by communicating on-line but most of all in person with others.
What keeps you motivated in your professional life?
Always remember the reason why you do this and what you will do with your achievements to create a better world for all.
Inspiring messages to a DBWT friends
“If you want to meet the love of your life look in the mirror, believe in yourself and your capabilities”
Where can people find you / your business online?
We are building a factory near Bangkok West Gate and redesigning our digital presence you can contact us via
