"Flying my personal plane is really like running my business," he said.

Boonsithi, 69, has racked up 1,200 hours in almost 20 years of flying his single-engine, six-seat Cessna 206.

"While flying my jet, I have to concentrate on the flight path. I have to know the limits of the jet. Once I have taken off, I have to make sure that I can make it land successfully," said Boonsithi, who takes to the helm of his small aircraft a couple of times a month.

"It's quite similar to doing business in the sense that a business-owner needs to look carefully at the business' direction and environment and whether it's appropriate to invest. You have to know your own capabilities and how to make the most of them," he said.

"Once you start your business, you have to make it succeed without faltering."

Boonsithi is chairman of the country's largest manufacturing and trading group, with some 300 companies in both trading and manufacturing under its wing.

After finishing a Chinese school named Peiing School in Yaowarat, Boonsithi was sent by his father Tiam, the founder of Saha Group, to Japan for almost six years to work with firms there and to continue his studies.

Boonsithi then came back to help his father manage Saha Group and make it into one of the largest enterprises in the Kingdom.

"Unlike driving a car, which lets you see the road in only one dimension, flying a small jet allows me to see my way in many dimensions. When I lead my organisation, I can look at my firms and any problem from many perspectives, which is a much larger scope than my competitors," he said.

Like doing business, riding a plane lets him experience many things he did not know before.

"However smart I am in my real world, I'm always dumb on the plane as there are many things for me to learn, and I need to fly more to get more experience," he said.

"I always panic flying in bad weather. However, it's up to me how fast I recover. Doing business is the same, as you have to pull your business through quickly when challenged by difficulties and uncontrollable factors."

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation