Mongkhol Nitakhot, Director of Digital Technology at Supalai (Public) Co., Ltd., talks to The Ortus Club about his 20-year journey from software engineer to IT director at a billion-dollar real estate giant. Mongkhol argues that digital transformation is never a copy-and-paste blueprint, but a highly contextual strategy built on clean data and cultural buy-in. He explains how compressing budget approvals from 20 days to 10 minutes requires shifting an entire organisation away from gut-driven habits. For Mongkhol, navigating the AI era means playing a big game where technology bridges physical infrastructure with digital customer value.
Executive Summary: Key Takeaways
- The Fallacy of the Copy-Paste Roadmap: Copying another firm’s digital strategy is a recipe for failure. Transformation must be custom-defined by a company’s unique internal operational context.
- The Power of Operational Speed: Moving from traditional paper workflows to electronic memos can compress systemic lag, such as corporate budget submissions, from 20 days down to 10 minutes.
- Bypassing the Hype for Real ROI: Successful AI deployment requires bypassing generic generative AI hype to focus on localised, practical use cases like automated internal technical data search.
- Data as the Bottleneck Killer: Data-driven communication removes corporate politics and emotional gridlock from decision-making. When data is clean, rooms debate facts, not opinions.
- The Big Game Mandate: Minor workflow fixes yield minor results. True corporate transformation requires high-level board alignment and widespread cultural buy-in to move 1,500+ employees simultaneously.
Mongkhol Nitakhot’s career was forged in the logic of engineering before he stepped into high-level technology leadership across e-commerce, manufacturing, and real estate. When he joined Supalai, one of Thailand’s premier property developers with revenues hovering around one billion US dollars, he found an enterprise reliant on traditional, paper-heavy workflows. Over the past few years, Mongkhol has systematically architected and executed roughly 40 major digital transformation projects. He believes that technology’s ultimate purpose is to make work processes better from the ground up, providing a clean data layer that readies the entire organisation to scale straight into the AI era.
How do you transition an enterprise from 20-Day Paperwork to 10-Minute Workflows?
Mongkhol details the structural changes required to overhaul legacy accounting setups across 1,500 employees.
“When I first joined Supalai, the primary challenge was that most workflows were completely traditional. The company is quite large, but they only had fundamental accounting systems. We had to write down a clear digital technology strategy on paper and present our strengths and weaknesses directly to the board of directors. Over the past few years, we have run around 40 major digital transformation projects. The most impactful shift was moving from manual paper processes to electronic memos. We successfully reduced the time it takes to submit and approve budgets from 20 days down to just 10 minutes across 1,500 employees. It proved that technology could instantly eliminate operational lag when applied to the core business.”
Why do 70% of global digital transformation projects fail?
Challenging the standard industry definitions of the S-Curve, Mongkhol explains why copying templates triggers systemic collapse.
“Many people think digital transformation is simply a universal answer to automatically find a new corporate S-curve. However, the true purpose depends entirely on the specific definition and existing situation of each individual company. If you simply copy another company, you are highly likely to fail. Our initial purpose was to make our working processes better through technology, rather than immediately seeking entirely new revenue streams. Why do 70% of transformation projects fail globally? It is because leadership teams fail to define exactly what transformation means for their unique context. You have to build a personalised roadmap from the first year to the second year, ensuring your baseline processes are stable before you try to jump into complex innovations.”
How does clean data protect an AI strategy from board-Level rejection?
Discussing Supalai’s practical AI use cases, Mongkhol highlights why coding assistants and internal chatbots require strict preparation.
“We cannot focus on generative AI alone; we need to target projects that deliver a real return on investment. Last year, we launched an internal pitch where each department presented ideas on how to leverage AI within their processes. This led to an automated AI chatbot that allows our engineers to instantly search for internal technical data without human help.
Furthermore, we are using AI assistants like Microsoft Copilot and Claude within our tech teams, where around 30% of our coding is already written by AI. Because this technology is changing so fast, I recently raised an issue to our board of directors, stating that we must re-evaluate our long-term corporate strategy. If you do not have proper, clean data and employees who are ready to adapt, you cannot build a successful AI use case that the board will actually back.”
Why is data the ultimate tool to remove internal bottlenecks?
Mongkhol shares his leadership philosophy on balancing hard technical metrics with communicative soft skills.
“When mentoring the next generation of digital leaders, I look closely at a balance of hard and soft skills. Hard skills include AI, data utilisation, and analytical thinking. For soft skills, the priority is always collaboration and communication. To build a clear corporate direction, you must master data-driven communication. If you discuss business problems using gut feelings, personal opinions, or corporate politics, the conversation moves in different, unproductive ways. If you have clean data, everyone discusses the data only. Data is the ultimate tool to remove bottlenecks and align diverse departments behind a single truth.”
How can digital applications extend the value of a physical property?
By utilising customer relationship management software, Mongkhol explains how real estate can scale past its physical boundaries.
“My philosophy is built on the belief that technology can change everything. We sell physical properties like condominiums and detached townhouses, but we use a specialised mobile application to continuously connect with our customers after the sale. We cannot easily build an additional physical room for a house once it is constructed, but we can constantly add value, lifestyle services, and real-time customer relationship management through the digital space. The app transforms a transactional purchase into an ongoing service ecosystem, matching modern customer expectations.”
What separates leaders who play a “Big Game” from those stuck in silos?
In a final thought, Mongkhol challenges technology executives to move past isolated agile teams and drive cultural overhaul.
“The essential question every leader must ask themselves is: ‘Am I playing a big game, and do I have the buy-in of the entire organisation?’ If you only improve a small workflow or change a minor process, you are playing a small game with a small effect. To transform an entire company, you must announce a clear direction so that all employees know they must move together to clear bottlenecks. A digital transformation leader cannot operate in a silo or rely solely on an isolated agile team. You must actively change the corporate culture and ensure the people surrounding you understand exactly why the change is necessary to survive.”
Join the Conversation: The Ortus Club’s Executive Network
Across Mongkhol’s insights on compressing legacy approval cycles, establishing contextual S-curves, and leveraging data to crush corporate bottlenecks, one pattern is clear: these operational challenges aren’t solved in isolation. They require a peer-level perspective and high-trust dialogue that transcends generic software deployments.
His vision of the “Big Game Leader” reflects a broader reality: today’s technology and digital directors cannot rely on isolated agile experiments to transform a legacy business. The most effective executives, especially those managing massive infrastructure portfolios in competitive regional markets, actively seek out peer dialogue as a strategic necessity to validate their data readiness and cross-examine real-world AI metrics.
At The Ortus Club, we host curated executive roundtables that bring together senior leaders facing these exact challenges. Step away from the siloed IT dashboards and engage in the kind of open, high-value conversations that align corporate culture with rapid technical execution.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How do electronic memos compress budget approval times so drastically?
A: By removing the physical routing, manual signatures, and paper hand-offs that define traditional accounting. Electronic systems instantly ping relevant stakeholders, provide automated compliance checks, and centralise documentation, reducing structural lag from weeks to minutes.
Q: What is a “Corporate S-Curve” in digital technology?
A: An S-curve represents the lifecycle of a business model or technology, characterised by slow initial growth, rapid acceleration as adoption peaks, and eventual maturation. Digital transformation is often leveraged to find the next S-curve before the legacy model plateaus.
Q: Why do standard generative AI projects fail to show real ROI?
A: Organisations frequently deploy them as superficial, off-the-shelf novelties without embedding them into specific operational workflows or backending them with structured, clean internal data sources.
Q: What is the difference between data-driven communication and opinion-based management?
A: Opinion-based management relies on historical gut feelings, hierarchy, and subjective interpretations, which often lead to political gridlock. Data-driven communication anchors discussions to objective, verified metrics, forcing teams to solve real operational bottlenecks.
Q: How does a property developer create an “Asset-Light” digital lifestyle ecosystem?
A: By building mobile platforms that offer post-sale services, such as maintenance scheduling, smart-home management, community marketplaces, and third-party utility integrations, adding continuous revenue and customer value without constructing physical spaces.
Are you ready to share your perspective with a global network of peers?
More Interviews
