Tevin Vongvanich, the new president and chief executive of PTT Plc, has vowed to make the national oil and gas firm a key player in improving Thailand's competitiveness.
"We drove our economy without creating any innovation or productivity improvement for a long time, while other emerging countries improved their competitiveness substantially," said PTT's new boss.
The economic slowdown now in its third year sprang from weak global conditions and Thailand's lack of competitiveness, he said. And with the country in peril of succumbing to the "middle-income trap", he plans to manage PTT as a model of competitiveness for other firms to emulate.
"We have learned from several crises in the past, such as the oil shock of the 1970s, the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 subprime crisis."
Mr Tevin intends to add value to the company's energy-related products with innovations in biofuels, petrochemicals and biodegradable polymers.
As chairman of the Thailand Management Association's Center for Competitiveness, Mr Tevin has lobbied for more research and development (R&D) facilities and a skilled workforce.
PTT subsidiaries last year announced the allocation of 3% of net profit for R&D of high-value products.
For sustainable development, PTT developed the Kamnoetvidya Science Academy boarding school and the Vidyasirimedhi Institute for R&D in Rayong's Wangchan district. The project cost 5 billion baht and officially opened last month.
According to a report of the National Science and Technology Development Agency, Thailand has 11 researchers per 10,000 in population versus 100 in developed countries.
"We need to enhance research, human resources and research facilities to build a new economic era and free ourselves from the middle-income trap," Mr Tevin said.
He noted that Thailand's R&D budget was set at 0.2% of annual GDP for many years. The figure rose to 0.47% last year but was still low compared with the 2-4% set aside by Japan and South Korea.
Henceforth, PTT is styling itself as a technology-based firm that creates value.
Thailand has ranked 30th or 31st on the IMD World Competitiveness Scoreboard for many years, largely due to a lack of R&D and innovation. Mr Tevin has said his first order of business is to restructure PTT so that each unit of the group is more transparent and easier to manage.