Some tips from the top
The key to real estate development is not location, but access to transportation, said former transport minister Chadchart Sittipunt, who now serves as CEO of Quality House, according to an article in Matichon Weekly.
A building will always stay in the same place. Once a transportation project is extended and reaches new places, however, it can turn those places into new, appealing locations, Mr Chadchart said.
The key to success in running a state agency or private company is leading by example and reaching out to your customers, he said.
“Whatever I want my staff to do, I show them how to do it. When I was minister, I said I gave priority to people’s well-being, and I went out to take care of it. If I hadn’t done so, I wouldn’t have known what difficulties people were facing,” Mr Chadchart said.
Likewise, in his capacity as CEO of a homebuilding company, he has to go out and listen to what home buyers and his customers are thinking.
“It is quite simple. These two jobs [being a minister and CEO] do not differ much. They are both in the service industry,” he said.
He added that despite trying to revive the brand Quality House to appeal to a younger generation, it is important that he still care for employees in the way the company has always done.
“I think people do not work for the sake of the company,” Mr Chadchart said. “Employees have to take care of their families and themselves. I feel we have to take good care of them, then they will take care of the company in return,” said the former minister, who earned the nickname the Strongest Transport Minister in the Universe after a photo of him walking into a temple barefoot became a popular internet meme. The CEO also leads a simple lifestyle. “I go to sleep at 9pm. I wake up at 3.30am, then go run around Suan Lumpini for an hour. I start work at 7.30am and leave the company at 5 or 6.30pm. If I don’t leave work, other people will feel like they cannot get out too.”