Danai
Leosawathipong can really claim to be a Chiang Mai boy, through
and through, despite his grandfather having migrated from China
to the Thailand north, almost one century ago. He was actually
born beside the Ping River, in the house in which the family
business was run, which has since been converted to The Gallery
Restaurant (still owned by the family, and run by his brother).
Having been born in the family business premises, it should come
as no surprise that Danai is a businessman!
He is the eldest of five children, and by the
time the children had gone to school, his mother was helping in
the family business too. Running businesses runs in the family!
In fact, his parents would sit down at the end of the day and
discuss the business with the children. A very Chinese concept
of bringing family and business together.
He went to the Prince Royal’s College, but
by the time he was finished his secondary schooling, he knew
that he would be going into business too. “I knew that
eventually I would run a business and a business management
background would be helpful.” With that in mind, he went to
Rajamongkol College for the next three years to graduate in
Business Studies.
Caution and careful examination of any
situation must have also been part of Danai’s upbringing,
because despite his completion of the Rajamongkol studies, he
did not feel that he was properly prepared. “My aunt lived in
the UK, and my parents felt it was a good opportunity to study
and to also learn English.”
So the young man from Chiang Mai went to the
UK. He had to go back to secondary school and do his “A”
levels, as he by this stage had set his mind on engineering as a
career. He completed his degree course at Leeds University,
coming out with an Honours degree in Mining Engineering, and
after being away for nine years, returned to his hometown.
At this time, his family was interested in
mining, and his father and his partners wanted to set up a
mineral analysis laboratory in Chiang Mai. The young man’s
skills could be called upon immediately. His advice was that
this would be a very expensive business and perhaps they should
look at something less capital intensive.
The late chairman of the group came up with
the idea of gold plating orchids. At the time, Hawaii was doing
leaves and Denmark was plating roses, but nobody was doing
orchids. The concept was to make these as souvenirs for
tourists, and as a spin-off, provide work for many young women
in Chiang Mai.
Now if you think that all you have to do is
dip an orchid in molten gold, think again. Danai thought it
would be easy too, making the flower conductive and
electroplating it with gold. “I went back to the lab at 3 in
the morning and found the flowers were dissolved!”
Work really began in earnest, but this was
longer than anyone wanted. There was three years of research and
development in front of them. Not just Danai, but his wife Ilkay
too, who also had a science background. After this time they
felt they had a marketable product, but they have not been
sitting on their hands since then. “We feel we haven’t
perfected the process. We have to make it more efficient and
improve all the time.”
Part of the development has been to also
include silver plating and now resin coating and gold tipping
the edges of the petals. Again it is still a ‘family’
business, with his wife handling factory production and his
partner’s wife handling the marketing. The product is now
international and well accepted in the US and Europe. I asked
Danai if they grew their own flowers but he said no. “That is
a specialized field,” said the man who has one of the most
specialized fields in jewellery production! A field in which he
is still constantly looking to improve his product and make the
production more efficient. “I am looking after the scientific
and engineering side of it.”
That quest for improvement has taken him all
over the world, looking at other processes, though he says that
the internet has made it much easier to research methods. “In
the beginning there was not so much information available and I
spent much time and effort just travelling.”
To relax from the business world, Danai
enjoys cycling and Tai Chi - Chi Kung. He also cooks for a
hobby, producing Thai/Chinese and Mediterranean dishes (with
lots of olive oil!).
But back to work. Families with a Chinese
heritage do seem to do well in business, and Danai accepts this
premise. However, he does not feel that it is merely family
instilled work ethic principles, and does believe there is a
genetic element as well. “Relatives in China, after years of
repression, have now become successful business people too.”
So Danai comes from a line of business
people, but has not been sitting waiting for the family silver
spoon to feed him either. Business principles instilled at a
very early age include those of hard work. Some of his personal
success he puts down to his international experience. “It
gives you a different vision and confidence,” he said.
There can be no doubting this man’s vision
and confidence. “We live in an international environment,”
he said, “it is good for our children to grow up this way.”
As part of that global concept, Danai and his wife have always
spoken English at home with their daughters, so they grew up
multilingual.
There can also be no doubting that Danai is
an international man. He has used his genetic inheritance of
hard work and business principles and could not help but be a
success. We can learn much from a man like Danai Leosawathipong.
I know I did, in just one hour. All I have to do now is apply
it!
