FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Philanthropy in the DNA at DT Group of Companies

Philanthropy in the DNA at DT Group of Companies

PROFITABLE BUSINESSES SUPPORT SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

  NAMING the company after the initials of her parents, Dhanin and Khunying Tawee Chearavanont, Tipaporn Ahriyavraromp established DT Group of Companies (DTGO) with a unique organisational structure and business philosophy to allow profitable businesses to support social enterprise under one umbrella.
Better known through its subsidiary Magnolia Quality Development Corp (MQDC), which is one of three partners in the Bt54-billion IconSiam mixed-use mega-development along the Chao Phraya River – the others being CP Group and Siam Piwat – DTGO has two major philanthropic arms.
The Buddharaksa Foundation is responsible for corporate social responsibility programmes in Thailand, while the DT Families Foundation in Hong Kong is responsible for DTGO’s international CSR activities.
Group president Raj Tanta-Nanta told The Nation in an exclusive interview that DTGO had tripled its revenue from Bt4 billion in 2013 to nearly Bt11.6 billion in 2015, and to Bt13 billion last year. 
Counting projects that will be completed this year alone, the group expects its revenue to increase to |more than Bt20 billion by the year’s end.
“We will shortly announce two or three major new projects,” he said, adding that DTGO’s revenue is expected to grow further to between Bt30 billion and Bt40 billion by the end of 2019. 
The group’s asset size currently totals about Bt100 billion.
Raj, a former vice president for corporate finance at Thai Airways International, joined DTGO in February last year, not long after the group was renamed from Thewasin Co. 
He said one of his primary targets was to enhance the group’s work process to become more efficient through developing and equipping its people and technology and to make them align to each other, as well as to launch a new “single touch point” template for ensuring “unsurpassed quality service” to customers.
A digital marketing team comprising staff with 12 nationalities has been set up to develop a backbone technology platform and business intelligence capability.
The group president said MQDC, which currently contributes about 60 per cent of DTGO’s revenue, would launch its third brand this year, after Magnolias and Whizdom.
The trading subsidiary dSupreme, which contributes nearly all of the remaining 40 per cent of the group’s revenue, will be transformed to conduct more business outside the group this year, as well as to expand into e-commerce, he explained. 
DiDESIGNS, its architecture arm, will also be expanded to provide services to outside customers.
As DTGO’s businesses grow, its corporate-philanthropy activities will also flourish, as the group sets a definitive annual budget commitment to spend 2 per cent of its revenues on CSR projects.
“Our objective is to do business for supporting society. Khun B is a true philanthropist,” he said, referring to the nickname of his boss, Tipaporn Ahriyavraromp.
DTGO banks on its “sustainnovation” concept with a commitment to generate well-being for society by understanding human behaviour and integrating living ecosystems, Raj said.
Besides the IconSiam project, MQDC is developing the Bt30-billion Whizdom 101 mixed-use project on Sukhumvit Soi 101 in Bangkok, which is slated for completion this year.
 

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