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collaborative, open-plan workspace that looks more like
an art gallery than an office. His own desk sits enclosed
in floor-to-ceiling windows and a large, colorful mural
by UK-born painter and filmmaker Sarah Morris. “This
is a company from 120 years ago,” he says. “Now, it looks
young, like me. I dress young, I feel young.”
Petch also divides his time between Osotspa and Bang-
kok University, which the Osathanugrah family founded in
the 1960s and, with 26,000 students, is Thailand’s largest
private university. Petch is president, a job that keeps him
there two days a week handling the administration.
Some in Bangkok’s business community say Petch’s
stardom and unconventional style overshadow his leader-
ship abilities. But Vararatana Jutimitta, managing director
of Bualuang Securities, which helped underwrite Osots-
pa’s IPO, warns not to be fooled by Petch’s style. “He’s a
smart guy, and has adapted to his role pretty well,” says
Vararatana. “He’s been transforming the company. The
key thing: He knows how to use personnel. He puts the
right people in the right place.”
When Petch started running Osotspa, he supplement-
ed a boardroom heavy on relatives (uncle Surin is chair-
man, brother Ratch is vice-chairman, cousin Tasharin sits
on the executive committee with two other cousins, as
does cousin Niti, who also heads the remuneration and
corporate governance committees) by enlisting industry
veterans such as former Siam Commercial Bank presi-
dent Kannikar Chalitaporn. In 2017, Osotspa recruited as
its president Wannipa Bhakdibutr, a 30 -year veteran of
consumer-products goliath Unilever. She was followed
by fellow Unilever alums Suthipa Panyamahasup as chief
marketing officer, Sarayut Jitcharungporn in sales, and
Apiwan Chatrapongporn in charge of trade marketing.
Petch sees his role as CEO largely as a strategist. “My
staff is great. They know much more than me about the
business,” he says. “So we talk to each other. I consult with
them and listen to them a lot. I’m good at strategy.” With
his new team in place, Petch began talking to bankers
about taking his family firm public. “We were preparing
for the listing for a long time,” says Petch. “It takes time.
There was a lot to do, in transforming this old family com-
pany to become a modern, public one. We were doing a lot
of restructuring, which is still going on.”
Petch launched an overhaul plan dubbed “Fitness First:”
Osotspa dropped more than 1,000 products, including more
than four-fifths of its personal care line, and laid off 1,000
employees, a quarter of its workforce. Slimming down has
been costly: revenues tumbled by nearly a quarter in 2017
and another 1.5% last year. But Osotspa also slashed expens-
es by more than a quarter in those two years, which helped
boost net profit margins to 12% from 8.5%. “We expect
profit margins to expand much more than last year,” saidCOMPANIES & PEOPLE
FORBES INDONESIA
OSOTSPAAN EYE FOR ART
Leading arts magazine ARTnews’ list of the world’s 200 top
art collectors last year included its first Thai, Petch Osathanu-
grah. How many pieces does Petch have? “Over 500, 600. I’ve
lost count,” says Petch, estimating his collection to be worth
as much as $80 million. Petch is planning to use roughly $70
million of his growing fortune to build a contemporary art
museum housing his collection and exhibitions from abroad.
He plans to buy land to build the museum, which he will call
DIB (“raw” in Thai) Bangkok, near the Chao Phraya River that
snakes through the Thai capital. He says construction will be-
gin next year, and that DIB Bangkok will likely open in 2022.