Life has its ups and downs, and Sanpat Sopon, managing director of Hewlett-Packard (Thailand), understands this all too well. Sanpat, 53, is a professional executive who's worked in the top positions of well-known IT companies. The former steward at Thai Airways International started his executive career on the administration staff at IBM Thailand before stepping up to become marketing manager. He was also a vice president at Samart Corporation, executive vice president and Group MD at Siam Media and Communications and managing director of Sun Microsystems (Thailand) before he joined HP in 2003.

Sanpat's life seems to be highly successful. But, behind the scenes, how many people know that he faced a low point that changed his life forever?

Thailand's 1997 economic crisis left him jobless.

"It was the worst time in my life," Sanpat recalls. "From having everything, I became someone with no job and no money."

Sanpat had enjoyed a luxurious life. He earned a large amount of money not only from his high salary as a top executive but also from stocks in which he invested. From a Bt3-million investment he reaped a Bt5-million profit in the next few days.

"Everything was going well," he says. "It was very easy to get money at that time. I enjoyed life and spent the money I earned and never thought the worst would happen to me."

Before the crisis, Sanpat worked at Siam Media and Communications, a subsidiary of Siam TV and Communications Group, which was a joint venture between Siam Commercial Bank and Saha-cinema, a company under the Crown Property Bureau. As a part of the executive team, he was assigned to take charge of the group's IT business, handling 11 companies.

"The firms all worked fine," he says. "We split the business to set up new companies until we had 11 in hand. Everything was really so good that I never thought it would be gone the next day. There was no sign at all."

As the country's economic crisis was related directly to financial institutions, Siam TV Group, of which Siam Commercial Bank was a major shareholder, was also hit. At that time, Sanpat says, the Bank of Thailand had come out with a regulation to eliminate non-performing-loan (NPL) problems, mandating that financial institutions had to make investments only in their core business. This made SCB decide to dissolve all businesses not related to banking.

"It was a sudden change, actually," Sanpat says. "From being a top executive, I became jobless the next day."

Having no job left Sanpat in severe financial trouble. He agonised about how to find the money to pay the instalments on his Bt30-million home loan. But there seemed no way out.

Faced with the responsibility to take care of his family, Sanpat was forced to sell all his assets.

"I'd collected a lot of gold, so I brought all of it to sell at a gold shop," he says. "You know, it really went against the grain, but I felt so desperate that it was something I had to do."

Sanpat never talked about his struggles to anyone, not even his family. He managed to solve all his problems by himself. He completely changed his lifestyle from that of a luxury-loving executive to become what he calls a "househusband" while saving every satang and never paying for anything unnecessary.

"I used to pay Bt40,000 just for a bottle of wine and felt nothing. But during the tough times, every baht was so precious that I knew that I'd never act like that again," he says.

Sanpat says he underwent a lot of stress and pressure but was never discouraged as he believed that life would go on and hope still lay ahead.

"I realised that all problems can be solved and when you pass through tough times you learn something invaluable for your life. And if you look back, you'll see that the problems were not as big as you thought and it was really not too hard to overcome them," he says.

During the 18 months of his economic difficulties, Sanpat learned a lot of things which his previous life had never taught him. He found that in life there is a high point and also a low point and what you should do is to accept that truth and gradually solve the problem.

The crisis made Sanpat more economical. He now understands the changes in life and consciously prepares for his future. He promised himself that he would never be in debt anymore.

Today, Sanpat is debt-free. He cleared every loan and lives a more stable life. He is now working hard to develop his latest company.

As the top executive at HP, Sanpat put a lot of effort into inculcating a culture of listening more. As HP passed through several mergers, it became necessary for all employees to have a sense of unity and listen to other colleagues.

"I believe that listening to each other is the way to leverage our organisation, because when we listen to others, new ideas will be shared and spread to arrive at the best solutions," he says.

In overseeing the overall organisation, Sanpat said the most important thing for a good executive was integrity and fairness.

"Handling people is the most difficult task, so you have to understand each staff member's nature and find a proper way to deal with each individual. In the meantime, you have to give them fairness, control your personal feelings and keep the company's benefit in mind," he says.

As a leader, Sanpat compares himself to a gardener. He said he had a duty to grow every plant in the garden equally by giving them equal fertiliser, water and light so that they could grow well and make a perfect garden.

After three years of working at HP, Sanpat says he's satisfied about what he's done for the organisation. He sees more unity among employees and what he wants to do next is develop more human resources at HP.

"I want to develop a new generation of managers who can assume the highest role in the organisation if I'm not here," he says. "I saw that in the past, when it came to finding a top executive at HP, most of them, including myself, were outsiders. I hope the next top executive at HP will come from inside."

Throughout the decades of his career, he has exercised management so much that he understands how to develop an organisation and deal with people. But what he's never done at all is to exercise his mind.

"It's what I promise myself to do before the end of my life. I learnt a lot from my working life, and next, I have to exercise my mind and learn more about dharma, which will give me a more perfect life," Sanpat says.

Pongpen Sutharoj

The Nation