This is the story of K. Patrick, the GM of Burger King (Thailand), who has a passion for the food business industry and investments in condos and watches. He thinks both assets increase in value over time. It encourages him to see things from new perspectives. However, in regards to his work life, he has faced a situation that made him feel stupid, resulting in emotional trips of frustration to the washroom. In the end, that situation brought him to the highest point that he had never thought of before.

His starting point for working in a restaurant was when he participated in the Work & Study Programme for restaurants in the USA. He found that he loved it and had a passion for the restaurant industry.

After starting work with Minor Food as an Operations Manager of Burger King, he developed his capabilities and was promoted to the Operations Director. At this time, he had strong confidence in himself. However, he resigned from Minor Food in order to gain another perspective, which made him see things truly.

“During those three years, I proved my capabilities and knowledge and shared with others, but I didn’t learn many new things.”

He said that during those three years, he didn’t learn many new things and wasn’t improving at all. As a result, he started thinking about returning to work at Minor Food. One day, the executives of Minor Food contacted to him and invited him to rejoin Minor Food.
 
“I felt so stupid. I asked myself why I had come back here”
 
This is the quote that explains his feelings when he joined the Executives’ meeting for the first time. He couldn’t answer the simple question and couldn’t even speak at the Executives’ level. It made the Executives question his capability.

“Patrick, you haven’t changed or improved at all during the past three years?”

The question from the Executives made him feel very low. He emotionally broke down and ran to the washroom to cry after finishing the meeting. He asked himself, “Why did I come back here?” At that time, he thought he had screwed up and felt ready to leave if any company would call to offer him a job, which he would accept right away. 

However, that feeling ended quickly when K. Patamawalai (CPO) wanted K. Kanya (CFO) to call to check if he was alright. Since that day, she has been his mentor. After that, he realized that any criticism from the Executives was meant to develop him to grow more in his career.

After that, he started to learn and develop himself again through empowerment from the Executive, to work like an entrepreneur in order to create new things and manage his own brand. Eventually, he wanted to launch Burger King Drive-thru in Thailand. Even though he was rejected by the Executives while presenting the project proposal for the first time, he never gave up. He then started working for one year on a new proposal, which he brought back to present to the Executives. This time, the proposal was approved in ten minutes.

“The most important thing in business is profitability”

Finally, he managed the Drive-thru business and delivered double business growth in sales for 2-3 consecutive years. This achievement led him to win the Tiger Award, the most prestigious award of Minor.

“The investment is condos, watches and people is similar”

He admitted that Minor has invested in his development during the past 13 years, the value of which is more than 10 million baht. He found that the development of people is similar to investing in people, which adds value to their lives and careers, much like condos and watches, which are value-added assets. People also add value to the company.