Chadatip Chutrakul is often regarded as one of Thailand's top female achievers in upmarket retailing, along with Supaluck Umpuj of the Mall/Emporium group and Yuwadee Chirathiwat of the Central group.

At 46, Chadatip, the youngest of the trio, is CEO of Siam Paragon Co, owner of Bangkok's largest shopping complex, as well as managing director of Siam Piwat Co, owner of Siam Centre and Siam Discovery.

Siam Paragon, which will celebrate its first anniversary next month, represents an investment of Bt15 billion with prime land of 500,000 square metres, while the adjacent Siam Discovery and Siam Centre cover another 300,000 square metres of prime real estate in the heart of Bangkok.

Altogether, they form one of Asia's largest integrated shopping complexes with daily visitors said to have topped 300,000.

The sprawling Siam Paragon alone is said to have attracted nearly 200,000 visitors per day since its opening last December.

For Chadatip, the ultimate necessity is to ensure that the three do not compete against one another - and it's been so far so good. Siam Paragon, which she says is comparable to Singapore's Suntech City, Hong Kong's Pacific Place, London's Harrod's or New York's Saks on Fifth Avenue, is positioned as a world-class shopping paradise with foreign visitors accounting for 30-35 per cent of the clients.

After nearly a year in the business, she says Siam Paragon - a 50-50 joint venture between Siam Piwat and the Mall Group - is "100 per cent" on track.

"We're confident that we're doing the right thing in terms of being a world-class shopping centre. For example, many of the monarchs or their representatives who came to Thailand last June visited Siam Paragon.

"Another example is that we recently organised the largest watch and jewellery fair in Bangkok, with the combined value of goods on display worth in excess of Bt3 billion. We've also been busy welcoming many foreign delegations who want to visit our premises and observe our operation. Since the opening, we've already received delegates from some 40 countries.

"Media-wise, Siam Paragon has been publicised in more than 100 countries, including many publications in the Middle East. Even the Board of Trade of Singapore reportedly held a conference after we opened to discuss some counter-measures."

So, what has made Siam Paragon tick so far?

While key success factors may include a strong management team, a wide product range, unique architecture, state-of-the-art technology, a prime location as well as accessibility, Chadatip says the warm hearts and frequent smiles of thousands of service providers are no less important.

"In fact, Siam Piwat and The Mall Group are highly experienced in this business. I myself have been in re-tailing and hospitality for two decades, since the time we managed the former Siam Intercontinental Hotel.

"We had a lot of training for our staff prior to the opening. Now our training system is quite rigorous. We serve with hearts and smiles. In addition, we benefit from having all the three shopping centres together as we can integrate and synchronise their operations, especially the security. Recently, a Singaporean tourist was robbed on Rama I Road outside our premises but ran inside, so he was helped by our personnel. We alerted the police as well as the embassy on his behalf.

"Besides the customer relationship personnel for the general public, we have dozens of tourist assistants who can speak more than 20 languages to help foreign visitors, as well as lots of security guards and CCTVs for visitors' safety in all three shopping centres," she says.

In terms of marketing, Chadatip says the customer base of Siam Paragon is very wide as it aims to cover nearly all upmarket customer groups.

As for the 35-year-old renovated Siam Centre, the target groups are now aged from 12 to 25, whereas Siam Discovery's target groups are of working age. Siam Centre attracts about 100,000 visitors each day, while Siam Discovery has about 75,000.

"The International Council of Shopping Centres is interested in researching how we could have managed these three large shopping centres next to each other successfully," she adds.

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

The Nation