At first glance, it looks easy for an expatriate to set up a business in Thailand and succeed in it, said Laing, recalling his earlier experiences in Bangkok. Besides the slow development of the telecommunications industry, a real obstacle to a foreign investor here is knowledge of the local rules and people, he said.

Unlike in the Western world, Laing said, where people are more open to taking business risks, in Thailand no one buys your idea unless they know you well, regardless of how good the idea is and how great the plans you might have are.

"It's much harder to start with. The big thing in Thailand is to build a relationship. It's very important for people to trust you," he said.

Now Laing, a 31-year-old New Zealand-born man who grew up in London, believes doing business successfully in Thailand is no longer difficult. While retaining a directorship on Mobile Vision, the mobile communications company which a friend founded originally to develop mobile-phone catalogues, Laing moved 18 months ago to start MobyElite, which in his own terms is a "chamber of commerce".

"Our network is even larger than a chamber," he said. MobyElite is a customer-relationship-management (CRM) and loyalty agency. Laing said the firm had more than 350 business partners in its network. Though he declined to say how many clients MobyElite had at present, he said the firm was growing much faster than expected and capturing two new customers a month. Among its clients are Q-Bar, Lifestyle and Travel magazine, Advanced Info Service and Motorola, which MobyElite helped organise into a network of mobile-industry professionals which is known as the Mobile Monday forum.

"Clients will come to us and say: 'We want to know who our customers are and what to communicate to them.' Take the Q-Bar as an example: they have a lot of people come to their place every night, but they don't know exactly who they are. We have also created a membership programme for them. We make sure their customers receive e-mails, SMS reminders, birthday cards. We take care and ensure regular communications with their customers," he said.

Laing said the larger the MobyElite network became, the more strategic opportunities it could offer to clients, such as providing cross promotions.

"For example, Lifestyle & Travel magazine wants more subscribers in Bangkok. On the other hand, Q-Bar wants more customers from the regions. We send the magazine to the homes of Q-Bar members, and they are happy to receive it free," he said.

In implementing a CRM project, firms typically look to reap more profit from their loyal customers because it's cheaper to sell to existing ones than to new ones, said Laing. "However, it turns out that looking after existing clients is secondary to attracting new ones," he said.

Laing said MobyElite's network could help firms meet their usual prime objective, attracting new customers. Through its network, MobyElite can help its clients to partner with other clients and thus add value for both parties. "It's win-win for everyone involved," he said.

Laing said MobyElite's CRM scheme had yielded a 200-per-cent return on investment for Q-Bar.

"From a CRM perspective, it's very important to me to be able to show our clients they get the return on investment," he said.

To accelerate its expansion, MobyElite has franchised its business to three expatriates and is talking to a fourth individual who could be its first Thai franchisee.

"The idea is to become a regional player, maybe global one day," said Laing. MobyElite is setting up its first overseas branch in Singapore and looking for possibilities to expand to other countries including Hong Kong, Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand.

Pichaya Changsorn

The Nation