Thai Life Insurance CEO bags Executive of the Year at Asian Management Excellence Awards

The company believes that the most important thing for success is not what changed, but how it will become sustainable.

Chai Chaiyawan, CEO of leading insurance company Thai Life Insurance, took home the win in the Thailand Executive of the Year - Life Insurance category for placing greater importance on sustainability, delivering value to all stakeholders, as well as giving importance to the people involved in the business chain.

To meet this goal, Chai and the company modified the work process in every aspect, including brand creation, product and service development, changing the procedure for working to make it easier and faster, personnel development and social responsibility. The company has also been urged to become a data-driven organisation amidst the growing importance of technology in corporate operations.

Believing that people are resources and valuable assets of the organisation and are the driving force for the organisation to grow sustainably, Chai urges the company to give importance to human management and development. He believes that even if there is a capable leader, success is not going to happen if the people in the organisation lack knowledge, ability, commitment, or cooperation. He reinforces this through upskilling, reskilling, and cross-skilling.

Chai also positions himself as a strategist rather than an executive because he has an attitude that is ready to adapt to the changes. Being a strategist requires the skills of reasoning, understanding, and situational adaptation. It also requires leaders to dare to take a risk and see whether it results in good or bad, take lessons from the failure, and develop new work.

Meanwhile, his management approach blends Eastern and Western science, creating a unique Thai life insurance style by managing people in the Eastern style in the spiritual component, emphasising knowledge of people's emotions and sentiments.

The company management, on the other hand, is Western-style and employs a culture that focuses on business models by utilising key performance indicators and objectives & key results for evaluating performance, which is going to help employees know whether or not their work has met their goals.

“With Chai's vision reflected, Thai Life Insurance has grown continuously to become the number one life insurance company for Thai people today. At the same time, the Thai Life Insurance brand has become a well-known and admired brand not only in Thailand but also being well-known on a global level,” the company said.

Asian Management Excellence Awards celebrates the finest business leaders, innovators, and companies in Asia, and commends exceptional achievements in the various aspects of operations, including employee engagement programmes, diversity and inclusion projects, and health and wellness initiatives.

The Asian Management Excellence Awards is presented by Asian Business Review Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2025 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's employee engagements and management initiatives, please contact Jane Patiag at [email protected].