"It's the first thing in the morning that I switch on to check important e-mails, especially the latest field reports from our sales forces or from the bank. After getting to the office around 7am, I'll get 20-30 mails every hour or about 200-300 per day, half of which are junk mail. The push mail feature makes it very convenient to communicate with the top management. Everyone has this kind of gadget. They let me know in advance on the HP if anything has gone wrong or why our sales target is not met before the actual figures come on line. This way, we may call it explanation (rather than excuses) if actual results are less than the budget. Often I've had bad days since I check the figures every working day and call a management meeting every week if our weekly sales targets are not met," says the CEO of Muang Thai Life Insurance.

The only son of Photipong Lamsam, a former CEO and currently an executive of the Democrat Party, Sara virtually grew up with his family's insurance business, which started 57 years ago.

"The original company was founded by my grandfather. My father was CEO for more than two decades. Then my uncle came over and was at the helm for nearly 10 years. After his retirement two years ago, I became the president.

I had wanted to be in investment banking, but I changed my mind after the bursting of the economic bubble in 1997," he says.

At the office, Sara is often seen by colleagues as a hyperactive CEO for the way he runs things super-fast around the company. With an ultra-competitive personality and determination to meet business targets, he admits he is often rather stressful.

Inside the company's head office on Ratchadaphisek Road, the 36-year-old CEO usually enjoys a daily massage on his hi-tech, fully reclining arm chair, which he says can relax virtually all the body muscles.

"It comes complete with an eye-muscle masseur. The whole set cost me more than Bt300,000, but it's worth it. I prefer electronic masseurs to human masseurs."

"I know I need to better balance my work and my life. I have two daughters, one aged 8 and the other aged 6. [For the past two years] I've been quite exhausted. It's a tough job. Business-wise, competition is very intense, so you need to be fully alert all the time. I try not to work on holidays as I want to give time to the kids and my wife."

"Yet I still lament the days when I had more free time for myself. Prior to taking up the CEO post, I loved extreme sports, country motorbiking and deep-sea diving. Harley Davidson big bikes are among my favourites. At home, I currently have two Harleys, one BMW and two Ducatis. I paid Bt1.4 million for the latest Harley, an Ultra Classic, which is powered by a twin-cam 1,400cc engine. Its top speed is 170 kilometres per hour, but this model is not really for high speed. It's the touring bike, good for long-distance mountain tours of the North or Northeast.

"This Ultra Classic also has a global positioning system so the driver knows where the filling stations, toilets, ATMs etc are located. At the moment, it's in the garage most of the time as I have no time off yet," Sara says, adding that he is looking forward to enjoying country motorbiking again during the upcoming year-end holidays.