He eventually settled on a new gig at Central Pattana Plc (CPN) - the owner of the Central department store chain and high-value properties.

His last position before moving to CPN was director and business strategist of Microsoft (Thailand) Ltd. Chanchai embarked on his new career path at CPN three months ago as executive vice president of marketing, overseeing marketing strategies and the company's retail image.

Shortly after joining, Chanchai created a stir in the company by setting up a five-year plan to overhaul CPN's marketing operations, which will be regrouped into six units.

The new marketing units will be named Central World, Central Plaza, Central Town, Central Festival, Corporate Marketing, and Marketing Service.

Chanchai said this was the best way to create a strong marketing foundation for the company in order to pave the way for CPN's next big step of development and also as a move towards international expansion.

CPN, he said, is already Thailand's number one retailer and real estate developer.

"The company has been doing a good job marketing at a certain level, but there is another 80 to 90 per cent of work, including long-term strategies and image management, that need to be looked into," he said.

He explained that CPN did not have any clearly defined operating units. People there worked based on their job descriptions, which made it difficult to have everybody going in the same direction.

"They have created an exciting and vivid atmosphere in the retail industry through various shopping events, advertisements and marketing and promotion activities, but all these things are just a small part of the word 'marketing'," he said.

A strong marketing foundation and human resources are a must for helping CPN achieve its goals both in terms of revenue and expansion domestically and internationally, he added.

Overhauling CPN's marketing operations will require hundreds of million of baht, which will mainly be used to recruit 50 per cent more staff, adding to the 200 to 300 people that already make up CPN's marketing squad.

CPN has already increased the marketing budget for the second half of this year but he declined to say how much it is.

Chanchai is a champ at convincing management to increase budgets for long-term marketing development, a task he performed with gusto in his previous executive marketing positions at IT companies.

Chanchai said he acquired Bt2.4 billion from Microsoft's headquarters to develop education in Thailand with the goal of developing and improving the country's IT industry. This benefited Microsoft in the long run, as well as stimulating the investment atmosphere.

Moving to CPN has been a big challenge for Chanchai as it has been a different atmosphere from the IT industry.

However, although the industries have different characters they ultimately share the same marketing foundation.

"I mostly entered companies to solve their problems and it's kind of give and take. I have value-added qualities as a person and have extensive marketing experience. At the same time, I have learned a lot at all of the companies I worked for," he said.

He said several local and international companies had approached him to offer him positions abroad.

But he said: "I'm Thai. Although I have worked for some multinational companies like Microsoft and Intel, I still worked in Thailand because I can manage them for the benefit of the Thai economy and society as well as help the companies perform well."

"Working at CPN, a Thai company, gives me a genuine opportunity to work purely for Thailand in all aspects and my expectation is to see CPN become a leader in the international market, not just in Thailand," Charnchai said.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation