Chirathivat daughter cuts out a niche of her own
Being part of the Chirathivat family's large Central Group empire doesn't keep Sansana from her quest to own a small business that she loves.
The third-generation member of the clan that runs the country’s largest retail conglomerate has opened the C’est Leb nail salon at 49 Terrace, a small community shopping centre in Sukhumvit Soi 49, with small ambitions, but big passion.
"I just want to have something small of my own," Sansana told The Nation at her graceful and sweet blue-and-pink shop.
Sansana and her partner Noppawan Charassinvichai hand-picked the furniture and crafted every detail of the shop, including a few pedicure chairs. Each of them is different in colour.
C’est Leb is Sansana’s first real trial in the world of entrepreneurship, besides Pasta de Waraku, a restaurant franchise that is taken care of by her brother Narattah, who is also working at Central Pattana (CPN) as assistant manager for business development. She owns only a minority stake in that venture.
Sansana, 34, is the first child of Suthichai Chirathivat, vice chairman and chief financial officer of Central Group. After graduating from Mahidol University International College’s business administration programme, she started her career with Central Restaurants Group before going to Australia to earn a master’s degree in communications. Upon her return to Bangkok, she joined telecom giant True Corp in marketing communications.
After more than two years with True, her father asked her to assist the family business, specifically CentralWorld, a mega shopping mall in Bangkok that had been open for not so long. Sansana did not hesitate much, since she would be working in marketing, an area of her interest.
After about three years, Sansana felt that marketing work had become less challenging. As CPN, the property-investment arm of Central Group that runs CentralWorld and other shopping complexes, had been expanding aggressively in Thailand and abroad, sales had become a much more important job. At that time, there were also only a few Chirathivats working in sales positions.
Nevertheless, when CPN president and chief executive officer Kobchai Chirathivat asked Sansana to transfer to the leasing department, she had to think hard about it.
"I took quite a long time to decide because I felt I was not a kind of talkative person. I was not so skilful in making persuasive conversations," she said.
As the manager of CPN’s leasing department, Sansana is responsible not only for selling shopping mall space, but also for searching, spotting and choosing brands and shops that match a mall’s concept and targets, plotting the shops’ locations within a mall, negotiating rents and renewals, and advising tenants on merchandising and the design of their shops.
Sansana learned the new job through following and observing her aunt Narttaya, CPN’s executive vice president for leasing, and senior staff, conversing and engaging with customers.
She has no plan to open other businesses of her own at the moment, since the family would like its members to concentrate first on Central Group’s businesses. Before opening the nail shop, she had also thought of running coffee and food restaurants.
"I had thought of many things ... coffee, foods, nail shops. But in doing business, you need to find a partner who likes to join in with you and in whom you can trust," she said. Sansana met her partner Noppawan during her one year of study in Australia.
Like many other people in her generation, Sansana believes in working the best she can, but not necessarily being "too serious". She aims for "a fine balance in life".
