Do you think it's easy to change the work habits of staff aged over 50? Probably not. But senior workers at Thai Stainless Steel are willing to accept cyber working to access knowledge worldwide to help drive the company's business, thanks to CEO Aroon Ruengcharungpong.

"The number of computers we have is higher than the number of our staff. This will encourage the company to reach its computer-based goal," says Aroon, adding that computers are now a part of the company's work environment, and it is no longer difficult to access the system.

Thai Stainless Steel has been able to reduce costs by millions of baht through its computerised systems. In addition, an intranet also allows all employees to communicate with each other very quickly and conveniently.

It was not easy to convince all the company's employees, particularly the older ones, to accept the digital system. However, implementation and explanation in a simple way has encouraged them to learn.

Aroon, 35, was a key man in drawing up the company's five-year restructuring plan, which ends in 2010. The plan focuses not only on its information-technology system, but also on managerial and operational changes.

This is the company's biggest operational change in its 35 years of operating the Seagull brand. The company also manages Kolours, a sub-brand offering kitchenware made of mixed materials.Since graduating with a master's degree in computer science from the New York Institute of Technology in 1997, Aroon has worked with various computer systems and was able to choose the most suitable one to fit the company's operations, particularly its financial system.

"We've significantly changed both in management and operations, to ensure a quick response to the rapidly changing market. In addition, the restructuring also allows us to focus more on top-selling products and immediately drop products when their life-cycle has expired," he said.

Begun two years ago, the restructuring has decentralised the company's traditional top-down management to a bottom-up one. Learning more about problems has allowed the company to tackle them immediately.

Before joining the company, Aroon worked with a website firm for six months, but it was forced to close during the 1997 economic crisis.

Working for Thai Stainless Steel since 1998, Aroon has rotated among several departments, including Management Information, Finance, Export and Marketing. The experience has served to strengthen Aroon's management of the company's weak points, thus ensuring competitiveness.

Managing a family business has challenged Aroon to achieve the best operational results. He has set the company a goal to grow 25 per cent annually to 2010.

The company grew 10 per cent to Bt500 million last year. It has focused on the domestic market, which accounts for 65 per cent of its sales. The rest is for export.

Thai Stainless Steel plans to revise its business plan within the next two years.

However, Aroon tries to combine a family style of management with modern management techniques. For instance, the company has set a longer-term business plan than it has in the past and is concentrating more on product design and modern trade channels.

"I will keep good old-style management, but I must adopt technology to catch up with market trends and demand," he says.

As a result, the company has focused not only on stainless-steel kitchenware, but also on microprocessor-controlled stainless-steel products and mixed plastic and stainless-steel kitchenware. Its latest product is a built-in stainless-steel kitchen aimed at modern families living in condominiums and town houses.

In addition, a "kitchen knock-down" business will be launched mid-year to encourage the company's business-to-business strategy. It wants to capture potential customers such as organisations, restaurants and hotels.

"We try to differentiate our products to serve all customer demand, which helps us boost sales," he says.

Aroon hopes to lead his family business into becoming a product brand that creates a cooking style instead of remaining simply a manufacturer of stainless-steel kitchenware, as well as becoming a consultant to help customers create a good food image and good taste.

He believes the company's strengths in technology, distribution and after-sales service will encourage this plan.

Aroon's business path has not been obstacle-free. He has managed to cope with a rising trend in stainless-steel prices. Last year, stainless steel increased from Bt100 per kilogram to Bt150 per kilogram within six months. At the same time, the company could not increase retail prices, but rather had to shoulder the extra costs itself.

Aroon must work harder this year, to cope with not only rising costs, but also the country's predicted economic slow-down, which will affect consumer spending.

Achara Pongvutitham

The Nation