What do a chief executive officer, a soccer coach and Yoda, the Jedi Master from Star Wars, have in common? The answer: giving guidance.

The chief executive guides his staff, the soccer coach his players and Yoda guides Jedi - and ING Life Thailand's president and chief executive James Lowell Brown applies elements of all of them to his work. Guiding people is what he has always done, is still doing and plans to continue doing, and his working philosophy is simple: "You don't have to be the best. You just need to have the best people around you."

Gifted with a humble, calm and kindly personality, Brown grants his subordinates the freedom to develop their potential. And that, he claims, is how he can pick the right person for the right job, enabling ING Life to become the best performer among 12 new life insurers founded after the 1997 financial crisis, although its total premium figure is far behind giants like American International Assurance and Thai Life Insurance. ING Life currently ranks ninth out of Thailand's 24 total life insurers in terms of total premiums.

ING Life Thailand is a unit of the Dutch ING Group, named in the 2006 Forbes Global 2000 as the eleventh-largest company in the world. Sitting at the top of its Thai unit, Brown appreciates the value of teamwork. He describes his management strategy as a game of soccer, better known in Thailand simply as football. It is one of the sports he likes best.

Unlike most Americans, Brown not only likes soccer, but he also holds a US soccer coaching licence. Many years ago he coached soccer players, but that was before he found his career path in the life insurance business. Since then, over the past 36 years, his life has had only one direction: upwards. From an ordinary staff member, he became claims manager, underwriting manager, director, assistant vice president, then executive vice president. Surprisingly, all the positions were in only one company, the US-based Aetna Insurance.

ING Life set up in Thailand in 1998 by acquiring Aetna Osotsapa Life Assurance, an existing company. Brown took the top post in ING Life in 2001.

As chief executive, Brown wants ING Life to become the best life insurer for Thai people. To achieve that, he has placed his trust in senior executive vice president Somphot Keitkraivalsiri to take care of the agency force, and he says the decision was the right one.

The life insurance market in Thailand is unique, Brown says. Although a company's reputation is important, it is no more important than the trust policyholders have in its sales agents.

"Khun Somphot is the team's playmaker and the sales representatives are our players. Our goal is to score," Brown says, alluding to his long-ago experience with soccer.

"Pushing brand awareness and penetrating deeper into the market need different strategies. Both aims support each other. ING is a global brand. It makes people feel that we are a professional company with a stable background and a strong financial status. However, we need the sales force to take the role of making people trust us."

If life insurance is to be compared with soccer, then Brown is successful at his game. He is also lucky in love. His wife and two children have been very supportive since he started to travel from country to country, following his professional assignments.

"I'm so lucky that they understood and were very supportive. My children even tell me that I should have come to Asia sooner. They love Asia," he says.

Looking to the future, what remains to be achieved by a successful executive and family man?

"There are a lot of challenges lying ahead," he says. His ultimate goal is to see that Thai people regard ING Life as the best life insurer in the country. He also wants ING Life to be a good workplace that treats employees well and contributes to society.

And if he had not become the man he is today, whose shoes would he have been happy to fill?

"Yoda," he says with a grin, and explains that he is interested in an imaginary life at http://secondlife.com. However, he's too busy with his work to get serious about a second life.

In real life, it is clear that James Lowell Brown has always been happy with his role as a guide in matters of strategy. What's more, he will continue to be happy with it.

Piyarat Setthasiriphaiboon

The Nation