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Published on August 15, 2007

Adisak Sukumvitaya, founder and CEO of major mobile-phone retailer Jay Mart, has an uncanny indicator to gauge his organisation's performance.

"The more time I have to play golf, the more smoothly my organisation is running. Golf is my life," he says with a wry smile.

It seems he has lots of time for rounds of golf nowadays.

He said that after the interview, he would race to enter the finals for the team match-play tournament of one golf club. Last month while on a business trip to Dubai, he also found time to try to beat his handicap there.

"I also tell my staff that if you see me playing golf often, it means that our organisation has no problems and everyone is doing his job well," he said.

Adisak, 51, alludes to management as a round of golf - you have to produce a good game plan and be confident in every putt. He said he has never felt discouraged by the difficulties lying ahead, whether business obstacles or sand bunkers.

Hitting the links three days a week for four hours a day is not an addiction, but a vital factor in successfully managing his empire.

"I have to keep fit to keep running my business. If you fall sick, you can't do anything," he said.

Adisak picked up golf as a high school student in the US on an AFS scholarship. When he was an undergraduate and master's student at Kasetsart University, he played softball for the national team for eight years.

Adisak also shares his love of the sport with his son, Ekachai 17, who has taken instructions from professional coaches since he was nine. Now junior plays golf for his US high school.

Beside playing golf, Adisak and his wife occasionally vacation at the resort in Chiang Mai they bought many years ago. He said he operates the resort as his hobby.

However, he has no plan to buy a golf course, saying that if he owned one, he would have to play there, instead of having the chance to test his stroke wherever he likes.

Adisak was a marketing researcher at Tisco Securities from 1979-1981, before moving to Philips Thailand as marketing manager. After that he left to establish Jay Mart in 1988, which started selling only electronics products. It later turned to focusing solely on handset sales.

The name Jay Mart comes from the first letters of the names of his 21-year-old daughter, Juthamas, his own name, Adisak, and that of his wife Yuvadee. His son's nickname is also Jay.

Adisak said one of his business strategies is converting crisis into opportunity.

One example is the 1997 economic crisis, when many companies decided to slow down. Jay Mart still moved forward to expand its retail shop network.

"Another motto is you have to make dust, not eat dust," he said. It simply translates into Jay Mart must always take the lead in its field, instead of trailing behind the competition.

However, if Jay Mart sees that it's beyond its capacity to beat its rivals, then Adisak believes it is better to join with them in some areas to create a win-win situation.

Adisak has set two important goals in his life.

The first is to boost Jay Mart Group's value to Bt10 billion soon from around Bt6 billion at present.

Jay Mart aims to have 230 stores by the end of this year, up from 190 now. Adisak projects Jay Mart's net profit at more than Bt100 million for the full year, based on the Bt60 million the company earned in the first half. Last year, it made Bt40 million in net profit.

Adisak said he has given importance to the sales force. He has trained the sales staff at least three times by himself, which shows his determination. Jay Mart alone has 900 employees, of which 600 are in sales.

Jay Mart started diversifying into related fields in 1994 when it set up a debt collection firm, JMT Network Services, which Adisak plans to list on the Market for Alternative Investment soon.

Recently Jay Mart spearheaded IT "zone-management services" by managing the handset retail space in department stores as part of its plan to create group synergy.

It just launched the first Jvenue shopping mall in Pathum Thani's Navanakorn Industrial Estate. It has taken out a 12-year lease on a building for Bt300 million. It also supplies phones to the retailers in the 7,000-square-metre Jvenue mall.

Four more Jvenues will be opened next year, including one each in the Amata industrial estates of Chon Buri and Rayong. The company is looking for locations for the last two, which Adisak said did not have to be in industrial zones.

The Jvenues in the industrial zones will tap demand in the densely populated neighbourhoods, he added.

And what about the other goal?

"It's to play on famous golf courses around the world."

Sirivish Toomgum

The Nation