Mingkwan Sangsuwan, who was recently appointed to a second term as president of MCOT Plc, said prioritising was the key to management success.

And his top priority when he first assumed the post four years ago was modernising MCOT's television business, Mingkwan told last week's seminar "The Winner Can Control the Game", hosted by Thai-language newspaper Prachachat Thurakij.

Besides inviting members of the company's labour union to participate in planning, in order to demonstrate the management's transparency, Mingkwan also initiated a new Channel 9 logo, featuring an purple symbol that resembled an eye.

"The second thing was the revamp of the television programming plan. When I convened with the programming directors, I asked them if they had ever dreamed of seeing good programmes before their retirement. That's the beginning of the change," he said.

But the really radical change is his promotion of combined educational and entertainment programmes on Channel 9 in promotion of a knowledge-based society, in contrast to the long-held perception that a hit channel is one that shows soap operas.

"Advertising agencies warned it would be hard to get advertising for 'edutainment' programmes, but I want to see companies advertise their products on the new programmes, regardless of ratings," he said.

"There are a lot of viewers in Thailand. How can you survey only a handful of people and say they represent all of the viewers in the country?"

Mingkwan predicts that MCOT's television revenues will exceed Bt3 billion this year.

After getting the television business in shape, he moved to the company's radio-broadcasting operations. Under his stint, MCOT has taken back all of the radio channels it granted to private operators.

"We now have six channels, of which the first three have generated a combined total of Bt10 million in revenues a month," he said.

MCOT will soon introduce "digital marketing", but Mingkwan declined to discuss the plan.

He is confident this year's radio revenues will exceed last year's Bt500 million, which was up from Bt146 million in 2004. First-half radio revenues this year totalled Bt208 million.

Hardships engendered by the 1997 financial crisis made True Corp Plc CEO Supachai Chearavanont consider rebranding and creating a synergy for the company's vast business empire.

TelecomAsia Corp Plc (TA), which was renamed True Corp in 2004, plunged into huge debt after the baht's crash on July 2 of that year, before Supachai assumed the top post in 2000.

Supachai could not contain his laughter when he said that according to a company survey on its image before rebranding, Thais compared TA to a "50-year-old housewife with a warm personality".

Before management made its decision to rename the company True Corp, some board directors feared it was risky to use that particular name, which could be easily tainted if the company did something wrong.

"But I told them that if we erred, we must have the courage to accept it and that it reflected the true value of our name," said Supachai, who was named Telecom Man of the Year 2006 by the Telecommunications Association of Thailand.

The rebranding also reflected the belief that "the true value of life comes from togetherness" - something it can share with customers as it tries to fulfil its vision to become a leader in converged telecom solutions.

"What we mean is we must gear ourselves towards the trend. We have to learn about the trend and be willing to take risks. It's great, because it makes us much more courageous. Without courage, we can't move forward," said Supachai.

True consists of five main businesses: Internet, cellular, pay-TV, interactive content and payment solutions.

Its cellular operator, True Move, has around 5 million subscribers, while True Internet has 2.8 million and pay-TV firm UBC True has around 500,000.

Supachai believes the winner is not the one that wins the competition, but rather the one that wins consumers' hearts. But before True can achieve its goal, it must be able to conquer itself first.

He said True's synergy policy had paid off by driving growth of the group's non-voice services to 34 per cent of total revenues in the first half of this year, up from 13 per cent in the same period last year.

A successful rebranding was the challenge facing Charlotte Dhonavanik, first senior executive vice president of Bank of Ayudhya (BAY), which was established more than 50 years ago.

"Rebranding must be done by everyone in the workforce of an organisation, not only the top executives or owners. However, it must receive support from the most powerful member. I'm just an executive, not the one with the ultimate right to make a decision. It's not an easy task, because I have to act as an intermediary between high- and lower-ranking employees," she said.

The entry of retail-oriented foreign banks following the financial crisis has been a driving force for Thai-owned banks to modernise themselves in a bid to survive.

"The stage before rebranding is research. My boss told us to lay down a marketing plan and sell, but we didn't know our position in customers' minds or how to start," said Charlotte.

"We hired an outside researcher,

and the conclusion was that the bank had an old-fashioned style and ageing employees, but we also had warmth and a sense of Thainess. In conclusion, our characteristics were likened to those of an auntie. We had to make ourselves younger."

The bank's rebranding began by changing its colour from brown to bright yellow, in a bid to modernise its image.

It then advertised and launched events to create brand awareness before tapping customers in every area and increasing the number of services, all of which was designed to fit with customers' specific lifestyles.

Charlotte said BAY also introduced the "entertainment banking" concept to woo teenage customers. For example, it joined hands with some entertainment firms to offer special privileges to youngsters.

Usanee Mongkolporn reports.