BH: I believe I have had an entrepreneurial spirit since a very young age, but I also believe that leaders are made not born. I like to lead by example and by making sure to always hire people smarter than me! This has grown organically through the necessity of building a number of business from scratch, at the same time. That being said, entrepreneurship is an ever-evolving passion of mine. A few years ago, I published a book called The Entrepreneur, which has since been reprinted and translated into many languages, to share some insights into the key lessons I have learnt over the years.
RD: You are a man who wears many hats. Wearing your property developer hat, you’ ve built luxury residential projects such as The Estates Koh Samui, The Residences at Four Seasons Chiang Mai, The Residences by Anantara Layan Phuket and The Residences at St. Regis in Bangkok. Do you have any new luxury residential developments currently underway or planned and is building things something you enjoy doing?
BH: Absolutely. I’ m really excited about the three new projects we are currently working on in Phuket, Bangkok and Bali. One of which is our luxury residential project called“ Avadina Hills by Anantara” will be located on a 99 rai plot of land
adjacent to the existing Anantara Layan Phuket Resort and The Residences by Anantara, Layan. This will consist of 16 luxury villas for sale and the first phase will be ready in 2018. With a total value of over 9 billion THB these projects are an important factor in our commitment to the development of Phuket as the number one regional destination for discerning travellers.
RD: You were quoted in an interview saying,“ Being structured about my day, setting clear and realistic goals has definitely helped me to manage and develop the Minor Group from a small advertising agency and office cleaning company, to a public corporation that employs over 12,000 people”. That quote was obviously quite a while ago since you now employ over 64,000. Do you still feel the same way about setting goals and do you continue to do it daily?
BH: Great discipline is needed to extract the most out of each day, week, weekend and month. A good routine is a sound place to start. In terms of goals, the key is to look at things in the context of a very small idea. If it works, it’ s easier to expand and grow. But you must first be successful. To build a wall, you start with the first brick and then carefully add more bricks. Sometimes you can’ t visualize how big a wall you are building. If I had visualized the wall that is our group today, I wouldn’ t have known where to begin. I don’ t think too far ahead. I feel sometimes that if you think too far ahead then you get caught up in the planning rather than the doing.
RD: It’ s been reported that Warren Buffet reads five to six hours a day, everything from daily newspapers to annual reports. Is reading a significant part of your day and can you walk us thru what an average business day is like for you from start to finish?
BH: I wake every day at 7am and am in the car reading the Asian Wall Street Journal and two other local newspapers by 7:45am. I feel out of the loop if I don’ t know what’ s going on in Thailand, Asia and the world by the time I’ m at my desk each morning. I also read the Asian Financial Times and Time as well as numerous other trade publications to keep up to date about the market and any news which may impact my businesses. At work I may take up to 50 calls every day and send over 100 emails. By 7:30pm my driver will be taking me home for dinner with Kathy and I use that time to finish off any other projects. Email and using a Dictaphone have become crucial tools to ensure that everything gets seen to. I also make a point of speaking directly to each of my key executives at least once a day.
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