Sanet in Transition: A Conversation with Dr. Gunter Denk, Founder of the Sanet Group (Part 3)

Part 3 of 3

On artificial intelligence, clients, cultural ambassadors and the human software of business

On demanding clients, human software and cultural understanding in Thailand

The first two parts explored succession, leadership and the development of the Sanet Ecosystem. To conclude the series, we turn to what neither new structures nor artificial intelligence can replace: trust, cultural understanding, sustainable client relationships and the ability to read people accurately.

Sawita Iamkaew: We have spoken at length about changing employee expectations. Have clients not also become more demanding, more impatient and harder to satisfy than they used to be?

Gunter Denk: What changes most are the outward signs. The necessary and fascinating tension between consultant and client remains fundamentally the same.

Clients can research faster, compare more and rightly expect quicker answers. Yet the information they bring into a discussion is not automatically more reliable. Incomplete or only partly correct information often creates even greater uncertainty.

That is precisely why the value of a consultant increasingly lies not in merely supplying information.

What matters is putting that information into context, recognising the consequences and developing a workable solution together. One principle, however, has not changed for me: when you stop loving your clients, you should stop running a business.

We live for and with our clients. My colleagues sometimes wonder why I constantly say “we” when speaking about a client’s plans and development. But that is exactly how we understand consulting: we identify with the client and make part of their challenge our own.

Sawita Iamkaew: That almost sounds too good to be true. But honestly: is every client really king at the Sanet Group, even when they behave in anything but a royal manner?

Gunter Denk: If you want an honest answer, of course not. And, in a way, yes.

Every client deserves respect and, accordingly, respectful treatment.

That does not mean every prospect has to become a client. Successful cooperation requires mutual respect. If that is missing, they simply do not become our client.

Clients who believe from the outset that they know everything better than their consultant are just as problematic as consultants who believe they understand the client’s business better than the client does.

Neither is a sound basis for successful cooperation.

My colleagues are sometimes surprised when I tell a prospect that they probably need a different or better consulting firm than the one we can offer them. That is the polite way of saying that we are simply not a good match.

Yes, there are difficult clients and occasionally unfair business partners who try to take advantage of the other side. We should not waste our energy on such relationships. Our competitors need clients too, after all. They are welcome to them.

Sawita Iamkaew: So you really do turn down assignments, even though the Sanet Group could make money from them?

Gunter Denk: Of course. Not all revenue is good revenue.

An assignment that lacks trust and respect often consumes disproportionate energy, places a burden on employees, and still rarely ends well.

At the same time, we should not forget that we live and work in Thailand, a monarchy. That makes the old merchant’s saying particularly fitting: the customer is king.

But believe me: the overwhelming majority of our clients are demanding but fair, and over time many also become personally close to us. They know that the entire Sanet Group team will then gladly go the famous extra mile for them.

Sawita Iamkaew: Let me ask very directly: will artificial intelligence not make a large part of traditional consulting obsolete? Or is there something that remains indispensable even in the age of AI?

Gunter Denk: Of course AI will transform a large part of consulting as we know it and make some of it obsolete.

Traditional research, translation, information structuring, and analysis preparation already require far fewer human resources today.

But this is not a development we should fear. On the contrary, we must use AI consistently to work faster, more efficiently and at lower cost. Data, facts, and information can now be gathered, checked, and evaluated much faster with robust systems and a small number of qualified people.

Research teams will therefore certainly become smaller.

Sawita Iamkaew: Put provocatively, does that mean anyone who mainly gathers information and builds PowerPoint presentations for clients will soon no longer be needed?

Gunter Denk: That is exactly the point.

Consulting at the Sanet Group has never consisted merely of information, analysis and computer-generated presentations. What matters is not only what you know, but what that knowledge means for the entrepreneur and how it can be put to practical use for their success.

AI therefore forces us to place two qualities of the Sanet Group even more firmly at the centre of what we do.

First, we must never be satisfied with what we deliver today. The pace of change in the business world is accelerating rapidly. We must continuously improve our services, adapt them to new requirements and repeatedly ask what concrete value they create for our clients. Anyone who uses AI merely to deliver the same old services a little faster has not understood the real transformation.

Second, we must focus on what I call “human software”: cultural understanding, trust, relationships, judgement and the ability to assess people and their interests accurately.

Sawita Iamkaew: That is still too general for me. What exactly can AI not do, in your view?

Gunter Denk: Let me give you a few examples.

In Thailand and in many parts of Asia, “know-who” is often just as important as “know-how”.

That does not mean relationships can replace professional competence. Know-how remains the indispensable foundation. But know-who often determines whether that knowledge can have any practical effect at all.

In Thailand, the first question is often: can I and do I want to work with this person? To answer that, people have to get to know and understand one another. Only once that question has been answered positively does the conversation turn to the product, whether a service or a physical good. No AI can make that personal decision for the people involved.

That is why the ability to judge people, interests and situations matters more than simply collecting data: Which business partner truly suits the client? Which target group must the company reach? How should the organization be structured? Does a candidate fit not only professionally, but also personally and culturally?

The same questions arise in an investment: Does the German parent company understand its new role in relation to the Thai subsidiary? Does it recognize that German structures cannot simply be transferred one-to-one to Thailand?

Such questions increasingly determine success or failure. They cannot be answered by more data or AI alone. They require experienced consultants with judgement and cultural understanding.

AI is therefore a powerful tool, but it is not a substitute for good consulting. It helps us obtain reliable knowledge faster and at lower cost.

Our task remains to derive the right decision for a particular entrepreneur in a particular cultural and economic environment. As long as the Sanet Group continues to develop its services and keeps human software in view, one thing is clear:

"AI does not make us obsolete. It makes us better"

Sawita Iamkaew: If cultural understanding and the ability to read people are so important, from whom did you learn the most about them during your early years in Thailand?

Gunter Denk: Without question, from my wife. For many years, she was my most important cultural ambassador in Thailand as a German.

She explained my German leadership style to our Thai employees, occasionally corrected it and probably softened it from time to time. At the same time, she helped me understand reactions and behavior that I would initially have misread through a European lens.

She was also remarkably successful in business discussions. While I, as the boss, spoke with the boss of a prospective business partner, she spoke with his secretary or wife. Afterwards, she invariably knew more than I did and significantly influenced our decisions.

The Sanet Group would not be where it is today if my wife had not shaped our dealings with employees, clients and business partners so decisively over many years.

To borrow a restaurateur’s image: I brought in the guests, but she made sure they felt understood and well looked after.

Sawita Iamkaew: So the truly important information was not necessarily exchanged in the conference room?

Gunter Denk: Let us put it this way: a formal meeting provides facts. A personal conversation often reveals context, mood and interests as well. And those can determine whether a relationship will actually work.

That experience still shapes the Sanet Group today. We see ourselves as cultural ambassadors between Europe and Asia. That is why our team is international.

Our international employees often communicate directly with international clients, while our Thai team paves the way with authorities, employees and local business partners. Both sides must work together and learn from one another.

My son, who now plays an active role in management, embodies this connection in a particular way. He has both German and Thai roots and knows both cultures from personal experience. He therefore also symbolizes the Sanet Group’s future role as a cultural bridge between Europe and Asia.

Sawita Iamkaew: Many Europeans arrive in Thailand full of enthusiasm and eventually discover that the country remains something of a mystery to them. What was it like for you? After all these years, do you now understand Thailand?

Gunter Denk: At a wine evening with Lorelei songs in Bangkok, a former Thai ambassador to Germany once declared in front of many guests that, of all the foreigners he knew, I knew the most about Thailand.

Naturally, I felt flattered and, with a certain amount of vanity, asked what exactly he meant. His answer was.

“You are the only foreigner who knows exactly that he knows nothing at all about Thailand”.

That was probably one of the greatest compliments I have ever received here.

Today I am a permanent resident of Thailand, and I am certain that I will spend the final chapter of my life here. When I arrived, I may have believed, or at least hoped, that I could change something in Thailand in the spirit of German thinking.

Today I know: I did not change Thailand. But Thailand changed me profoundly. And for that I am glad and grateful.

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