The Nation ~ June 12, 2003
Sent to MD1995 by Tukta Kamolnaree

For Patarin Sosothikul, 26, business runs in the family.

Her grandfather founded the Nanyang footwear factory and the Thai Churos monosodium glutamate factory more than 40 years ago, and her father was a co-founder of Seacon Square, the Kingdom's largest shopping complex.

Now she's taking her own turn at the helm as owner and managing director of a retail property service.

Renova Co Ltd will open its first retail project - Season Trendy Mall - on a 5,000 square metre retail space at Seacon Square on July 1. The move will bring together more than 400 retail outlets that Patarin says will be unique in terms of product presentation, decor and marketing.

Despite the fact her father, Kroekjai, founded Seacon Square with his brothers, Phiensak and Kobchai, in 1994, rather than taking a business degree, she did a degree in architecture at Chulalongkorn University.

Patarin says she thinks her architectural background, along with her marketing experience at Seacon Square - where she has worked as a project manager for five years - give her a unique business perspective and will allow her to develop projects unlike any others on the market.

"I chose architecture because I thought that it would teach me to have creative but structured ideas," says Patarin, who calls architecture "a combination of creativity, art and structure".

She started at Seacon Square after graduation, overseeing the establishment of its IT centre, a health and beauty centre, and Tutor Square.

"Marketing is essential and cannot be absent from any business, whether it be retail or housing," says Patarin.

Keeping a step ahead of the competition is all about marketing, she says, adding that everyone from salespeople to architects have to have their own understanding of and outlook on the subject.

Patarin, who also writes a real estate column for Krungthep Turakij, has even gone so far as to develop her own management model called "2 SET Goal", where "S" stands for "strategic" and "systematic", "E" stands for "efficient" and "enjoyable", and "T" stands for "teamwork'" and "timing".

She says she wants to use the system to develop interesting and unusual projects by combining creativity and good management.

And she doesn't plan to restrict herself to the retail sector.

"We will be developing other projects, such as housing, in the future, that will offer consumers a new experience," she says.

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