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Published on September 28, 2007

 It's all very well being a successful business analyst and giving advice on risk management. But ask Meytha Chanchamcharat, and he's likely to tell you an analyst longs to taste his own medicine, to be out in the marketplace in a position of authority and able to measure the value of his own advice.

It was this kind of sentiment that led Meytha to quit a 15-year career in the financial sector to become part of the top management in a property-development firm.

Twenty years ago, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in accounting from Chulalongkorn University and stepped straight into a position with the Siam Cement Group. But it was a job he held for only three years before beginning studies for a master's degree in business administration at Indiana University.

Returning to Thailand, he took up a position with Thai credit-rating firm Thai Rating Information Services (Tris). Later, he moved to the local representative office of Belgium's Fortis Bank.

Meytha recalls that for 15 years in the financial sector, his experience was limited to analysing business risks and advising business operators how those risks should be managed. But he never managed risks himself.

"My job at Tris was to analyse risks and make suggestions on how they should be managed. I also analysed business risks before providing loans when I worked with the bank. But I never knew whether my suggestions helped people manage their businesses or not. I wanted to use my experience to run a business. That was my goal at that time," he says.

Then in 2002, Fortis Bank decided to suspend its Thai operations, and Meytha joined property firm Sansiri as vice president for investor relations. He was only 37.

Meytha says following the 1997 economic crisis, Sansiri faced a heavy debt burden and succeeded in restructuring it by taking on a new strategic partner, Natural Park. Even though Natural Park has since sold its stake in Sansiri, Meytha's job soon after joining the property developer was to disseminate information about the company's financial state and explain Sansiri's business to its investors.

"That was an easy job for me, and it allowed me to understand the business of the real-estate sector," he says.

Two years after joining Sansiri, Meytha was appointed managing director of a subsidiary firm, Plus Property, which had three business units, covering property management, brokerage and property advice.

One year later, in 2005, Meytha was appointed CEO of Plus Property, and at last he had the means with which to prove the value of his business models, to measure the risks in the property business and manage those risks according to his own reckoning.

At the time he became Plus Property CEO, the company had begun to expand its business from property-management, brokerage and property-advisory services into property development in its own right, by launching townhouse and condominium projects. Its goal was to become one of the top three brands for townhouse and condominium developments for the middle-income market, while parent company Sansiri remained focused on detached-housing projects and condominiums for the high-end market.

Meytha realised the property business had more uncontrollable risks than did other businesses, including constant changes in consumer behaviour, greater competition and the ease with which new ideas were copied by rivals. The challenge was running the business to survive the risks while at the same time turning it into a market leader.

"My question was how to make my business different," Meytha recalls.

His approach was not an obvious one. He set up a strategy that he believed would fix the company's brands in the minds of customers. This, he decided, was the "difference" he would set out to achieve.

"Housing designs may be created differently to match customers' demands, but it is easy to copy from other property firms in the market. My strategy was to create brand loyalty among our customers, so that when they decided to buy a house, they automatically thought of Plus Property. Building our brands was a way to create 'difference' for our business, and it followed our delivery of quality houses for our customers," Meytha says.

Over the past two years, Plus Property has succeeded in creating brand loyalty by concentrating on four brands. Two of them are for condominiums: Condo One for middle-income condominiums priced from Bt2 million to Bt3 million a unit; and My Condo for projects with units priced below Bt2 million. Then there is Plus City Park for townhouses costing Bt2 million to Bt3 million a unit; and Town Plus for townhouse projects with units costing less than Bt2 million.

Plus Property's annual revenue has spiralled from Bt700 million in 2004 to an estimated Bt4.3 billion this year.

"I cannot say this is the result of my work," Meytha says. "When I started to run the business, I was concerned about the team that would handle business, about following our business policy. I cannot do everything myself. I needed teamwork, including a construction team, a design team, a marketing team etc. The strong growth of the business is the result of my team's work."

He says that although he did not graduate in architecture or engineering, he believed that when he learned how to run the business and had trust in his team, he could drive the firm to achieve its goals.

"I cannot say, yet, that I have achieved my goals, but I have proven I can manage business risks when I analyse the kind of risks I face. And that answers the questions I kept asking myself as a younger man," he says.

Meytha says the next ambition he has in his working life is to foster trust for the property industry.

Most home-buyers don't trust property developers, and when they buy a house they fear that developers cannot deliver on time, or maybe they'll deliver a low-quality home, he says.

"I cannot change everything in the industry, but I believe if I can create a standard for my business, and home-buyers show their trust in my business, then other property firms will be driven to follow my business model. This is the newest goal for my professional life," he says.

 Somluck Srimalee

 The Nation