| The hi-tech pioneer Pol.Lt.Col.Dr.Thaksin
and his wife Potjaman count the start of their business from 1983 with the decision to open
the limited partnership company ICSI, which was a dealer for IBM mainframe computers and
offered on-site maintenance to customers.
After establishing his computer
sales and dealership business, Pol.Lt.Col.Dr.Thaksin saw that economic volatility and
increasing competition meant he would have to expand into new business areas, and quickly.
While business was growing, Pol.Lt.Col.Dr.Thaksin expanded his network of relationships,
though in itself this was not a guarantee of success in every business he entered.
Two early businesses folded,
while the paging business that Pol.Lt.Col.Dr. Thaksin invested in with Pacific Telesis Company
Limited, called "Paclink", was having conflicts among theshareholders.
Pol.Lt.Col.Dr. Thaksin finally decided to sell his shareholding.
To Pol.Lt.Col.Dr.Thaksin, it was
a lesson learned and a sobering experience which led to a new opportunity. "Experience
teaches us. Nothing is lost if we learn from mistakes. Lost investments are not a complete
waste if we look at the experience as our profit."
He began a new paging project
called "Phonelink" which he felt could be a winner. In this he was correct and the
company has led the market up to the present. Inspired by the book "The Third Wave"
by Alvin Toffler, Pol.Lt.Col.Dr.Thaksin looked to businesses that would become inseparable
from society.
"I have been interested in
telecommunications since 1986 ... at that time, others in the company didn't like the idea
because they thought that the computer business was good enough ... but I thought that
computers were okay in terms of giving us a good reputation, but the profit wasn't high, so I
started to dip my fingers into telecommunications work ... now everybody's saying that it was
telecommunications that has really make us big and successful."
Changing the face of telecommunications
When the 900 MHz cellular phone
service business grew, it became very profitable and led to investment in other telecom
businesses, like the Thaicom satellite project operated by Shinawatra Satellite Service
Company, Shinawatra Datacom, Shinawatra Paging, and then overseas with Cambodia Shinawatra,
Lao Telecom, Isla Communications (Philippines) and Fascel (India). Other parts of the group
like the computer and cable TV businesses continued strongly under different management
styles.
Pol.Lt.Col.Dr.Thaksin
finally freed himself from day-to-day management after first overseeing the expansion of the
business, developing its human resources and putting into place a professional management
team.
"Pol.Lt.Col.Dr.Thaksin
rarely comes in to work these days. It's mainlyin the hands of the Group's executives,"
notes one of those executives. Undoubtedly, one of Pol.Lt.Col.Dr.Thaksin's strong pointshas
been choosing the right man for the right job. Many telecomprofessionals have been drawn from
other organizations because they wanted to work with Pol.Lt.Col.Dr.Thaksin. This includes Dr.
Paiboon Limpaphayom (former Director of the Telephone Organization of Thailand), Mr. Boonklee
Plangsiri (former Director of the International Telephony Division), Dr. Niyom Purakham
(former
Director of the National Statistics Bureau) and Mr. Niwat Boonsong (former IBM
Executive).
Their ability has been the key
to the Shinawatra Group's success and helped to maintain the Group's position as Thailand's
telecom leader.
Pol.Lt.Col.Dr.Thaksin's
ambitions have now turned from success in business to working for society. He hopes that he
will have the chance to use his ideas and vision to meet the nation's challenges in the
future. |
