A Practice Built on Respect for What Families Build
Sornthep was founded in Chiang Mai with a single purpose: to sit alongside families as they consider what the future of their business looks like — and who will carry it forward.
Back to HomeFounded Around a Table in Chiang Mai
Sornthep grew out of a recognition shared by its founders: that the most difficult part of handing over a family business is rarely the paperwork. It is the conversations that have not yet happened — about who is ready, what the founders still want to hold on to, and what the next generation genuinely hopes for.
We established the practice in Chiang Mai because this city has a long tradition of family enterprise — in trade, hospitality, crafts, and services — and because we saw that those families had very few places to turn for this particular kind of support.
Our work is not structured around transactions. It is structured around people and their relationships. We bring an outside perspective, a careful ear, and a working method that respects both where the business has come from and where the family wants it to go.
Our Mission
"To make it a little easier for Thai family businesses to talk openly about succession — so that what has been built with care can be passed on with care."
Who You Work With
Our advisors bring backgrounds in organisational development, mediation, and Thai family business culture.
Khun Pimchanok
Lead Advisory FacilitatorPimchanok has spent over a decade facilitating succession conversations for family businesses across Northern Thailand. She holds a background in organisational mediation and speaks both Thai and English fluently.
Khun Wanchai
Business Transition AdvisorWanchai brings experience in family-owned enterprise across industries including hospitality, manufacturing, and retail. He focuses on the operational and generational aspects of leadership transition.
Khun Nattaya
Documentation & Planning SpecialistNattaya ensures that every engagement produces clear, well-structured written outputs. She prepares session summaries, planning documents, and milestone outlines that families can rely on long after our work together ends.
Standards We Hold Ourselves To
Complete Confidentiality
Nothing shared in our sessions is discussed outside of them. We treat the information families share with the same discretion we would want for our own.
Impartiality
We do not advocate for any family member's position. Our role is to help the whole family hear itself more clearly, not to guide it toward a particular outcome.
Written Clarity
Every engagement ends with a written document — whether a session summary or a succession plan — so that what was discussed is not lost over time.
Informed Consent
We explain our methods and the scope of each engagement before it begins. Families know what to expect and can shape the process as it develops.
Referral Where Appropriate
When a family's needs extend into legal, financial, or psychological territory, we say so clearly and suggest they engage the right professionals. We do not overreach our remit.
Cultural Sensitivity
We understand that Thai family dynamics carry specific cultural and relational layers. Our approach is shaped by that understanding, not despite it.
What We Understand About Family Businesses in Thailand
Family businesses in Thailand are a distinct kind of institution. They are shaped not only by market forces and commercial decisions but by relationships that go back long before the company existed — and that will continue long after it changes hands. The founder's sense of identity, the siblings' unspoken negotiations, the children's sense of obligation and aspiration: all of these live inside the business, whether or not anyone has named them out loud.
At Sornthep, we have spent years learning how to sit with that complexity without trying to simplify it prematurely. We understand that a succession conversation is rarely just a conversation about who gets which role. It is also a conversation about what the founders have built and what they need to feel respected as they step back. It is about whether the next generation's ideas for the business will be welcomed or resisted. It is about money, yes, but also about recognition, continuity, and belonging.
Our advisory practice is built on the conviction that when families can talk about these things openly — with support and without pressure — they almost always find a path that works. The role of an outside advisor is not to prescribe that path but to make the conversation safe enough for the family to find it themselves.
We are based in Chiang Mai, and much of our work is with businesses in the north of Thailand, though we support families from across the country. We work in English and can accommodate Thai-speaking family members throughout our process.
Ready to Begin?
We welcome a preliminary conversation before any commitment. Get in touch and we will find a time to talk.
Contact Sornthep