Srettha Thavisin is President of Thailand’s largest real estate developer, Sansiri. The seasoned executive towers at over six feet tall, with a lithe build and chic, but smart, style. His voice is clear, his eyes are focused, he is well-presented but hardly uptight and his power is palpable even through his warm demeanor. Like any successful leader, he is interested in everything, and everyone, around him. He asks questions as equally as he speaks.
Thavisin has just led his company in the acquisition of major stakes in businesses that, from the outside, seem like a scattered portfolio of global assets.
There’s the American company known for its hotels, Standard International, and its hotel-booking app, One Night. There’s the UK-based media company, Monocle Magazine followed by the Brooklyn-based startup, Farmshelf, which brings farming indoors via a high-design hydroponic gardening system. There’s also London’s most acclaimed Airbnb management company, Hostmaker, and finally, the Singaporean equivalent of WeWork, JustCo.
While initially, the reasoning behind these investments into such niche, but influential, brands seems unclear. Upon closer inspection, though, the thread is evident: the publicly-traded Sansiri is building a global lifestyle conglomerate through the lenses of influence, change, and cool. A unique approach towards future-building, indeed.
All of these companies are shaping and creating culture in one way or the other, and are doing so through good design, experiences and style. Which makes Sansiri’s investments into them feel akin to influencer marketing, but for big business.
In this case, it’s trendsetting companies that are the influencers being used to inspire ideas towards new ways of living and doing business, but unlike working with actual influencers, Sansiri is rewarded with quantifiable ROI, while fully embracing the millennial mindset and as a pathway to growth.
“I’m buying into the people, not just the companies,” says Thavisin. “I’m buying into the designers, the creative directors, and the art directors—I’m buying into the platform that will help create something different, something exciting for the world.”
In a total investment of almost $83m across the 6 companies, with Standard International being the most significant investment at $58m, Thavisin’s eye is firmly fixed on using these culture-shaping businesses as springboards for expanding into the global playing field, but also towards defining the future of how people live and work.
“Experience creation within residential is way behind what we do in hospitality,” says Standard International’s CEO and Managing Partner, Amar Lalvani. “But we do see the principles of what we do being transported into other sectors with companies like JustCo, where offices are trying to create experiences similar to hotels. To me, looking at a Neuehouse or a WeWork, what they are doing is creating everything we do in a hotel lobby but with offices instead of rooms.”
For JustCo founder, Kong Wan Sing, he understood this shifting point of view from the start. “We were quick to see that small to mid-sized businesses require more than just a conducive environment to grow,” he says. “Space planning is crucial, offices have to be efficient and we understand how good design details can encourage vibrant vibes in the space. For every new co-working center, we work very closely with our interior designers to ensure that each space is differentiated and developed with the aim of sparking creativity and improving productivity."
Over the years, JustCo has also established long-term relationships with global partners like Dropbox, Salesforce, and PwC’s Venture Hub to provide important resources and support to help their clients.
The benefit of these investments, as one would expect, works both ways.
Standard International and Monocle will, with Sansiri’s help, have a strong entry point into the Asian landscape (residences designed with Monocle’s creative team are being discussed while potential new Standard Hotel locations in cities like Bangkok, Tokyo and Shanghai are in consideration). All the while, Sansiri will be able to tap into these company’s brand presence and business methodologies—specifically, their experiential points of view and cultural lenses—to take their own projects to the next level.
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Also, by investing in startups like Farmshelf, Hostmaker and JustCo, Sansiri is placing bets on growing trends like farm-to-table eating, the global home-sharing market as well as the growth of co-working culture around the world—all businesses which are on the front lines of shifts in society.
“You never stop searching or finding something new or different to offer your consumers,” enthuses Thavisin. “I think that is really the key."
But for the real estate maven, it’s more than just dollars and cents, he admits that for these next stages of Sansiri's growth, he needs help.
“We are the leading real estate company in Thailand. We are the trendsetters here, and I have gone as far as I can in terms of my knowledge, in terms of culture, in terms of the new things that I can use to lead the market, so I need my partners to help us move forward,” he says. “I can’t just stick to what I know here, I need some knowledge, I need people helping me as well. 25% of our clients are international, and I haven’t even touched Australia, Europe or America.”
Which is where a company like Monocle is helpful. Tyler Brulé, the magazine’s founder, says that Australia is Monocle’s third biggest market. With the help of Brulé’s team, Sansiri is able to, for example, tap into Australian trends to inform future projects for that region.
“They’re getting access to an international audience. We can help them grow outside the neighborhood and they can use Monocle as a marketing vehicle, of course," says Brulé. “I think the other thing is, that obviously, they will have access to the way our editors think. They can call us up and ask us, ‘Are there two extraordinary architects in Los Angeles we need to know?’ And we would be able to inform them.”
It has to be said, it’s hardly unusual for real estate companies to venture into other areas. For example, Chinese Dalian Wanda Group (the world’s largest private property developer) bought the AMC movie chain to add to their portfolio of assets.
But it’s the thinking behind these investments coupled with Thavisin’s keen understanding of the more intangible benefits these collaborators that is most interesting. He hand-picked these organizations for their points of view.
“We’re no longer asking old-fashioned questions, like 'What is the return on equity you are making?' To invest in something like these 6 companies, first and foremost, we ask, ‘Does it help your current business?’ If it does, then that is a return in itself. If we can use it now and help to take care of my clients, then that’s a return already, which I’m struggling to explain to my analysts here,” laughs Thavisin. “But, within six months it will show in the bottom line, not from returns from these investments, but from the help I will get from these 6 companies to help me sell more product.”
