PERSONALITY
Tired of PR, Danai buries himself in books
Danai Chanchaochai will soon leave Bangkok PR firm MDK Consultants (Thailand) Ltd for the final time. And he is looking forward to focusing on a job he loves: reviewing and translating books for his own publishing firm, Direct Media Group (DMC Group).
A new management team, sent from London by MDK's parent company - the giant WPP Group - will take over responsibility for the Thai agency next week. Danai has spent almost three months transferring his work to the new team, and his resignation becomes effective on June 22. Danai resigned abruptly from the top position in March in an apparent show of disapproval of the parent company's decision to sack MDK's founder Michael De Kreter, who created the brand name in the Asian market 25 years ago. Danai worked with Kreter, an Australian, to build up awareness of the MDK name in Thailand for more than 15 years. It is now among the country's top public relations companies and has several major clients. "I haven't yet decided whether to set up my own PR agency or work for an in-house PR division of an established firm," Danai said, admitting he has been offered positions by many business organisations, from government agencies to private companies. "I would like to take my leave of MDK to focus on the job I love, which is DMC publishing," he said. Until now, while putting all his energy into the top job at MDK, he has regarded DMC as his hobby. "When working full time at MDK, I could spare only small periods of time before going to bed to review and translate books. I love reading books. It suits my personality," Danai said. "I would like to take several months to concentrate on my preferred publishing job before making any decision on whether to continue my PR career." Danai said this year has been a golden one for his DMC Group with the launch of five biographical books on His Majesty the King. It also brought together more than 100 books related to His Majesty's life and works from local publishing houses. These were on sale at DMC's 300-sq m stand at the "People for the King Expo" at Challenger Hall, Muang Thong Thai, which finished on Sunday. Danai said it was the largest temporary outlet for collectable books about His Majesty the King and he expected total sales for the 17-day fair to top 100,000.
Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn The Nation
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