Business DNA: The Trust Moat of Samart Corp
Why trust is the ultimate moat for three generations of the Vilailuck Family.
Welcome to Business DNA, a chance for us to delve into the essential make-up of business leaders and their organizations. Our focus is not on the short term but instead on understanding the driving forces behind business. Our guests today are Watchai and Ruttanun Vilailuck, Executive Vice Chairman and Senior Business Development Manager of Samart Corp. Samart’s subsidiary, Samart Telcoms PCL (SAMTEL), ranks 5th out of 250 Uncovered Thai Stocks as of 4Q25 financial results.
This post is a summary; click below to download the full interview as a PDF.
Leader DNA: Watchai and Ruttanun Vilailuck
Watchai Vilailuck took charge of the family business at 27 when his father, Cherdchai, a self-taught inventor who built a company from a small repair shop and homemade TV antennas, suffered a stroke. Within a few years, the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis hit, exposing dangerous overexpansion. Five painful years of restructuring forged the discipline that defines Samart today: recurring revenue, focus, and never risking the family name.
Ruttanun Vilailuck, the third generation, grew up at a dinner table where business was discussed like a strategy session. He now leads Samart’s push to invest its own capital in technology concessions for government, earning long-term revenue in return.
What Watchai and Ruttanun shared:
Focus on recurring revenue, not one-off projects: Samart evaluates every opportunity against whether it builds long-term, predictable income. SAP implementations include five-year service contracts, and the excise tax system earns revenue per bottle produced.
Find the blue ocean, own the monopoly: Rather than competing in crowded bidding wars, Samart identifies underserved government needs, proposes solutions, invests its own capital, and earns long-term concession revenue.
Trust is the ultimate moat: Anyone can bid on a government contract, but trust built across three generations is impossible to replicate. Technology changes; the relationships that win and retain contracts do not.
Reinvention is in the DNA: From TV antennas to satellite dishes, mobile phones, SAP implementations, and excise tax authentication, Samart has completely transformed itself multiple times
Succession is the next competitive advantage: With senior executives aged 55 to 67, Samart has built a formal succession plan with named successors for every key position and created a Culture Council of next-generation employees to drive renewal from within.
About Samart Corporation PCL (SAMART)
Samart Corporation Public Company Limited (SAMART) traces its origins to a small electronic repair shop founded in 1955 in Saraburi Province. Watchai Vilailuck assumed leadership in the late 1980s and listed the company on the Stock Exchange of Thailand in 1993. After restructuring through the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, Samart evolved into a technology conglomerate specializing in government IT infrastructure.
The company is a leading SAP implementer in Thailand, operates a tax-stamp tracking system for the Excise Department, and holds a 49-year concession for Cambodia’s air traffic control system. Today, Watchai serves as Executive Vice Chairman alongside his son Ruttanun, the third generation of the Vilailuck family.