Leaving Body Shape for politics

Surapong Suebwong-lee, until recently chief executive officer of the Body Shape group, announced yesterday that he would phase out his business career in order to take up a full-time position in the new government.

The secretary-general of the People Power Party, whose MP candidates won 233 seats in the recent general election, said he had begun reshuffling his business interests at the end of last year in preparation for dedicating himself full-time to the new government.

This is the second time Body Shape founder Surapong has fully phased himself out of his sliming-centre business. The first was when he became a Thai Rak Thai Party member and joined the Thaksin Shinawatra government as deputy public health minister. He also served as minister of information and communications technology.

 "For me, involvement in politics is more challenging than normal business," said Surapong. "The difference from running a business, where you're your own boss, is that you need to engage with many people in political life - and then you have less time to be your own boss.

"Entering the political field is quite a difficult job for me, as there are many uncontrollable factors involved. We have to manage risks that occur in our political party as well as those related to the belief and faith of the people."

Business risks, however, can be more clearly predicted on the basis of factors such as economic and currency conditions, he added.

He said politics was a career requiring full dedication. Handling both business and political work at the same time is impossible.

 "We have reshuffled our Body Shape organisation by decentralising management power and decision-making to middle management. We have set a clear business plan and budget as well as a clear line of command in our organisation," said Surapong.

Under the new structure, his wife Pranee is now fully in charge of the Body Shape business as group CEO.

She is expanding Pranaree, the group's spa product business, by opening the first overseas office in Paris. The move will help to export its spa products into European markets, while opening Pranaree spa centres abroad will form a second expansion phase.

Thitaporn Naksri, who has worked at Body Shape for eight years, has been promoted to general manager and is now fully in charge the Kristie France slimming centres.

Body Shape, a slimming-centre chain focusing on upper-income customers, has 26 outlets, including its latest outlets opened at the end of last year in the Esplanade and Siam Paragon shopping complexes, as a well as in Hua Hin and Koh Samui.

Kristie France, the group's other slimming-centre brand focusing on medium to lower-income consumers, has 31 outlets in Bangkok and major cities mainly through a franchise system. It will open another four Kristie France centres by the end of next month, and a total of 60 are expected to be running by the end of the year.

The company also operates two Pranaree spa centres in the Kingdom.

"My daughter Nicha will be fully involved in the Body Shape business in the area of information-system management as well as sales and marketing," said Surapong, adding that Nicha, 24, has graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from Penn State University in Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, his oldest son Phupong, 22, is studying business administration at Indiana University. Surapong expects his son will work outside the Body Shape group to get more experience for two or three years, before becoming involved in the family business.

The youngest son, Theerapichya, 17, is studying in high school.

Turning to the subject of politics, Surapong said the new government would be fully established after January 15 and would have a short honeymoon period of no more than three months. They will have to make immediate economic improvements or their popularity will decline after the honeymoon period, he added.

All promised policies need to be implemented immediately, including the cancellation of the 30-per-cent capital reserve requirement, encouragement of foreign investors and boosting the confidence of consumers.

The new government should have a clear message of welcoming foreign investment as well as creating more income for the Thai people, he said.

 Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

 The Nation