Vietnam: Country Pulse – 2008

Hot topics in December 2008 – Christmas cheer?, Vietnam imposes new blogging restrictions and Vietnam’s first privately-owned airline takes off.

Christmas cheer? (December 2008)

Christmas has become popular in Vietnam in recent years, especially among youth. Many regard it as an opportunity to get together with friends and party. This year, rising inflation, falling stock prices and fewer job opportunities have meant that celebrations are more muted: “This year, I will meet up with my friends and have a small party but I will not spend much money on buying gifts for people as my salary is down, ” said Tam, a 22-year-old young woman. Many consumers have been visiting festively decorated department stores such as the Vincom Tower in Hanoi to marvel and take family photos without any intention of buying anything.

Vietnam: Country Pulse – 2007

US$1.3 billion Disney-style theme park to open in Vietnam (December 2007)

Vietnam will be opening its very first Disneyland-style theme park in Vung Tau City. The investment application was submitted last month by Good Choice Import-Export and Investment Inc. The Vung Tau World Theme Park project covers approximately 200 hectares of land in the coastal city which will house an 88-story office building, international conference centre, shopping malls, hotels, 3D Cinema and open-air stages alongside a “Wonder of the World” park. The “Wonder of the World” features replicas of monumental figures of the seven wonders like the Eiffel Tower, Golden Gate Bridge and the Egyptian Pyramids. It will be able to accommodate up to 100,000 visitors and aims to open to the public after 2010.

Vietnam: Country Pulse – 2006

Brand names decisive (Dec 2006)

According to a survey by the Club of Vietnam-made High-quality Products, brand names account for 56% of purchase decisions more than double the previous year (25%) with price the second most powerful influence (54.6%). Customers who live in the north are more cost oriented with some 63.5% of customers deciding to buy goods because they find the prices reasonable. Meanwhile, customers in the central and southern provinces tend to buy goods because of 1. brand name (58%) 2. price (49%) 3. design 4. distribution and marketing.

An interview with Rafiq Dossani

Rafiq Dossani is a senior research scholar at Shorenstein APARC, responsible for developing and directing the South Asia Initiative.

His research interests include South Asian security, and financial, technology, and energy-sector reform in India. He is currently undertaking projects on political reform, business process outsourcing, innovation and entrepreneurship in information technology in India, and security in the Indian subcontinent.

Visualizing Strategy

Imagine you are a senior manager of a large corporation, and are consistently flooded with reports full of data on the corporation, the market, and the products. From these piles of data, you are required to make strategic decisions that are important to the corporation.

One aspect of this is the need to create a strategy for future operations. How would you process the huge amount of collected data to enable you to do this? How would you cope with all the complexity? Moreover, how would you bring other managers into the process, to contribute and share ideas? How could you build a common picture of the corporation and its operation?

Innovation and growth

When it comes to innovation, there are few certainties. However, two factors that are increasingly accepted, are that innovation is vital for business growth, but that the innovation process in most companies is poor.

On this first issue, there is now increasing evidence that acquisition, a popular strategic growth policy, is far less effective than anticipated. A study by McKinsey which looked at deals made by 116 companies over an 11-year period, found that just 23 per cent of acquisitions earn back their cost of capital. Similarly, research recently highlighted by the 2002 R&D Scoreboard, which was produced by the UK Government’s Department of Trade and Industry, also found that growth by acquisition is frequently inferior to that achieved by “organic” investment in R&D and capital spending.

What to do when nothing's new: Five strategies for success

Look at that throng of people crowding the trade show floor. People come from all over the country to walk these aisles, eager eyes flitting from booth to booth, scanning the exhibits for…what, exactly?

Research shows that the vast majority – 76 per cent – come to trade shows to discover what’s new and exciting.  Maybe it’s a new product, or an innovative bit of technology, or a snazzy new application, or even an entire company that they were never aware of before. In an ideal world, every company would be constantly innovating, creating cutting edge products at phenomenal savings, guaranteed to meet the customers’ needs.

What to do when nothing's new: Five strategies for success

Look at that throng of people crowding the trade show floor. People come from all over the country to walk these aisles, eager eyes flitting from booth to booth, scanning the exhibits for…what, exactly?

Research shows that the vast majority – 76 per cent – come to trade shows to discover what’s new and exciting.  Maybe it’s a new product, or an innovative bit of technology, or a snazzy new application, or even an entire company that they were never aware of before. In an ideal world, every company would be constantly innovating, creating cutting edge products at phenomenal savings, guaranteed to meet the customers’ needs.

A vision for channel strategies

Whilst not matching their initial euphoric promise, customer relationship management (CRM) systems have borne fruit in the reduction and elimination of many of the paper-based, low-productivity systems in call centres.

However, most companies that invested in CRM have yet to achieve the customer delight they had hoped for. Many firms are still fighting a daily battle just to minimize the anger and frustration they encounter amongst their customers rather than attempting a more intimate and mutually beneficial relationship. As such, for consumer sales and service, the focus of attention has turned to optimizing the use of channels. How can they be the most cost-effective and revenue-efficient at the service levels that consumers want?

An excerpt from The Dynamics of Taking Charge by John Gabarro

John Gabarro is UPS Foundation Professor of Human Resources Management in Organizational Behaviour, Emeritus at the Harvard Business School. His research has focused on professional service organizations, managerial effectiveness and executive succession.

He is the author or co-author of eight books including Breaking Through which won the George Terry Prize, given by the Academy of Management for outstanding contribution to management theory and practice, and The Dynamics of Taking Charge, which won the New Perspectives in Leadership award and was named one of the best business books of the year by the Wall Street Journal.