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Published on September 28, 2007

Published on Sep 11, 2007

Call centres have become a popular corporate strategy around the world for maintaining customer satisfaction, particularly in times of fierce competition.

Among the prominent names in the world call-centre business is that of a Thai company, Computer Telephony Asia (CT Asia), which has built a wide reputation as a provider of call-centre solutions.

Established in 1997 in the midst of the economic crisis, CT Asia came up with not only the concept of an international-standard call-centre solution, but introduced Thai-made software enabling local businesses to establish call centres to enhance their competitiveness and improve their efficiency.

Ten years later, CT Asia has made Thailand a leader in the multimedia call-centre business in Asia. It has more than 100 customers locally and in the United States, England, China and Japan, and all are using Thai-made software. Where necessary, the software has been translated into English, Chinese and Japanese.

The company has provided call-centre solutions for such major Thai companies as Bangkok Bank, GE Capital (Thailand), Toyota, the Siam Cement Group, the CP Group, Avon, AIS, Bank of Ayudhya and Cisco Systems.

Until 2005, CT Asia's pioneering work in call centres was largely unsung. But in that year, it won the communications technology category of the Asia-Pacific ICT Awards. More recently, it won the IT Princess Award 2006 from the Foundation for Research in Information Technology. The award was presented by HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.

CT Asia's success is a direct consequence of inspired leadership from its owner and chief executive, Chalermpon Punnotok. The 38-year-old entrepreneur set up his burgeoning empire with one main principle: "Start with the end in mind." Everything has therefore followed a path of careful planning and consideration.

Twenty years ago, when Chalermpon was a senior student in Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy, he was chosen to be a president of the Chulalongkorn Business Administration (CBU). The CBU generated revenue of Bt10 million in only two months, and Chalermpon won a prize from the Marketing Association of Thailand for his efforts. He also received an honour shield from the Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy, and at just 21 years old, was recruited by Unilever Thailand to become the youngest-ever assistant manager of its trade marketing department. He was immediately responsible for a staff of 220.

"I used my experience as president of the CU Cheerleading Club and the CBU to manage the company's 220 salespeople in department stores. Working there for two years gave me a lot of valuable experience, especially in real marketing," Chalermpon says.

Then, when he was 25, he was recruited by CP Group executive director Narong Chearavanont to become marketing manager of a team of 40 people formed to introduce the new retailing concept of Lotus Supercentres and their "Everyday Low Prices" to Thai consumers.

"Developing this marketing campaign required a lot of creativity with a limited budget. It was a new thing for Thais, but it was challenging for me," Chalermpon says.

He struck a marketing jackpot when he attracted a well-known TV programme called "Krob Chakawan" (Cover the Universe) with host Tanatsri Sawadiwadi to record a production in the Lotus Supercentre free of charge. That not only exposed the concept of Lotus Supercentre to its target customers, but it also saved the marketing budget.

Two years later, when he was 27, Chalermpon left for the US to study for a master's degree in international business management at the University of Southern California. The course was open for only 50 executives from around the world, and he was the youngest of them.

"I received much valuable experience and knowledge," Chalermpon recalls. "It helped broaden my marketing vision as I learned how international businessmen visualise their situations and how they think. During that course I realised how far Thailand had followed global trends and I was inspired by it, and felt I had to create some industry to help build Thailand's reputation. I began planning my own business in one of three sunrise industries: biotechnology, automobiles or information technology."

Even before graduating, he began looking for a job that would serve his ambitions. He realised he needed skills beyond marketing and international business knowledge. When he graduated, he had two job offers, one from Abbot Laboratories and the other from GE Capital. He opted to work for GE Capital as a project manager at its headquarters in Chicago, Illinois.

In this position he attended a Global Leadership Development Programme co-organised by Harvard University and undertook a special training course in international economics.

"This programme let me see the real world of global corporations; who runs global businesses and how they manage the whole world; how they set strategic plans for mergers and acquisitions, enter joint ventures and carry out takeovers. At that time, Thailand was such a little point on the global map, but that forced me to activate my dream to build up the country's recognition on the global business map," Chalermpon says.

Bearing in mind his plan to enter a sunrise industry, Chalermpon surprised his colleagues at GE Capital by grabbing up an assignment to develop a call-centre system to serve both inbound and outbound calls from millions of GE Capital's customers in the US, Canada and Mexico.

"My colleagues were surprised that I chose the call-centre project rather than a merger, an acquisition or some other financial project that followed a career path in the company. But I had the answer in my mind: I got what I wanted, and that was a business in a sunrise industry," Chalermpon says.

Fifteen years ago, call centres were a new kind of business, even in the global market, and the future chief executive saw their huge potential. Therefore, he set out to gather as much as knowledge and know-how as he could from the GE Capital project, so that he could then develop call-centre software made totally by Thais.

"I prepared everything about the company - even its name, CT Asia. I used the technology term 'computer telephony' and added Asia to show the company's location," he says.

While still working at GE Capital, Chalermpon prepared to set up his own business. Realising the company would need technical expertise as well as his marketing and management skills, he flew around the world seeking the best engineer. Eventually he met his co-founder, who took the technical role.

Then he made the move, throwing away not only a high corporate salary but also the career opportunities at a global corporation, to become the chief executive of a new company with capital of Bt1 million in Thailand.

"Everyone around me, family and friends, strongly disagreed with my decision to leave GE Capital. Developing its own software was an impossible task for a Thai company. But I really wanted to have my own business and I expected to create a reputation for my country. I believed in my vision and my decision."

Ten years later, Chalermpon's vision has grown stronger and has brought more and more solid recognition. He has not only dedicated his working life to developing his business and gaining a share of the global market, but he also dedicated his knowledge to encouraging Thailand's software industries as a whole. He realises, these days, that just one company cannot create as much recognition for Thailand as a lot of companies working together.

Lately, he has joined with partners in the software industry to establish the Thai Software Export Promotion Association, with the aim of building the recognition of Thai software and having it accepted as being of international standard in the global market.

For CT Asia itself, he has a goal of taking a market share of at least 20 per cent in each country that the company enters.

He wants to be a real business leader, rather than accepting the role of a follower, "like being country manager for a multinational company". He also wants CT Asia to become a multinational company with operations in countries around the world.

CT Asia is now spending 10 per cent of its income on research and development, to create innovative products and business models.

Chalermpon has set a goal of achieving annual revenue of Bt500 million within five years, with half of it coming from global markets and the rest from the domestic market. He also plans to list his company on a stock exchange "somewhere else in the Asian region" in the not too distant future.

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation