The 40th Dutch Vietnam

Management Supporter

Do you ever look in

your rear view mirror?
Do you feel sometimes that your past is catching up with
your present? Like an unresolved problem you had
forgotten about? When you drive it is recommended to
frequently look in your rear view mirror. However, due to
the hustle & bustle of traffic in front, doing this is not
easy. So you miss that fast approaching truck or bus. Or
that reckless motorbike driver behind you, causing panic
& near-accidents. As soon as they catch up with you:
shock. Instant response: save my skin. Half a second later
you curse yourself for not looking in your rear view
mirror. Lesson learned? Sure, next time ...
And so it is with running a
business. Just apply those
lessons learned in the
present and, while focusing
on your mission, do what
needs to be done today.
Easily said. Yet, the
everyday mayhem we call
work often absorbs us. No time to look back. What do you
mean, prioritizing? Goals? Im just trying to survive
Not looking in the rear view mirror may be fatal. Almost
as fatal as assuming that the future will be like the past.
Some people tell me there is only now. No past, no
future, its all now. I disagree. What you do today does
have an impact. On tomorrow. On your family. On
Vietnam. On the world, 25 years from now.
Do you feel buried in unresolved problems of the past?
Does it keep you from dealing with the present? No idea
about the future? Contact me.
Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower
than you is an idiot, and that anyone driving faster is a
maniac? George Carlin

Prof. Loek Hopstaken

Email:
loek.hopstaken@gmail.
com
Cell: 090 888 9450

9th year, no. 6

December 2015
This magazine was first
published in March 2007. It is
digitally distributed among
my Vietnamese & Dutch
business & private associates.
Purpose: to keep you
informed about my activities
in Vietnam and overseas
This amazingly attractive and
energetic country has rapidly
conquered my soul. It is my
home away from home.
Loek Hopstaken

In this issue:
Your rear view mirror
My business partners

1
2

3
Developing Leadership skills
Uplift your HRM Dept. 4
5
Accountability
The Event for startups 6
& SMEs
7
The Vietnamese life
Clients, services &
contact information

9th year, no. 6

The 40th Dutch Vietnam

Management Supporter

Business partners: you never drive alone

Saigon, December 1, 2015

Completing the tailor made Allround

Manager Program at Control Union &
Eco2

Business is a constant, creative effort to successfully bridge the gap

between customers needs & suppliers offerings. Condition: win-win.
Dream: a 100% smooth ride. Sometimes this dream comes true. Reality: no pain, no gain. The investment in time & energy can be such
that you start doubting the real
meaning of profit. Doing business is
like driving a truck: before you arrive at your destination to deliver the goods, you have to face all kinds of traffic. Often you
feel like its all up to you: business can be lonely. Perhaps this is one reason why we have
business partners & associates: co-drivers. Im fortunate to have several. This month I have
been driving with Spectra for 7 years. My latest co-driver: TV Rheinland Vietnam. LH
After the Motivational Performance
Appraisal (public) course

When people seek to undermine your dreams, predict your

doom or criticize you, remember they are telling you their
story, not yours. Cynthia Occelli

9th year, no. 6

The 40th Dutch Vietnam

Management Supporter

2016: Time to develop leadership skills

Recently Navigos Search published a survey among their clients from Singapore, Thailand, Japan &
Vietnam. Lets look at what Mr. Hong Phuc wrote in the November 10 Saigon Times:
() Vietnamese managers have insufficient leadership skills. Only 9% of the respondents
said they are satisfied with leadership skills of Vietnamese middle and senior managers at foreign
firms. Vietnamse managers also lack creativity and loyalty to their employers. Disloyalty to
employers results from better renumeration by industry peers, a lack of career development
opportunities, employees feeling the need to change and inability to cooperate with line managers.
The biggest challenge for foreign companies in retaining managerial staff is to stay competitive in
terms of salaries and employment benefits, which is different from Japan where the three most
important incentives to attract and retain managers are a clear career path, a higher salary and
the employer having a strong brand name.
Vietnamese managers are also said to have low adaptability to change, insufficient
professional and technical skills, and low cultural fit. According to 41% of the respondents the
major difficulty in recruiting middle and senior positions () is that there are not enough qualified
candidates.
Training is regarded as an effective solution. Respondents from all four countries pick leadership
skills as the major content for upcoming training, with on-the-job training as the most
commonly applied form.
According to ms. Nguyen Thi Van Anh, managing director at Navigos Search, the lack of skilled and
middle and senior managers has long existed in Vietnam, which is a disadvantage when attracting
foreign investments and a barrier when AEC [Asean Economic Community] is set up later this year.
She said firms should continue to provide training in leadership, management,
professional and technical skills via different programs and approaches. Firms should
also ensure the quality and competence of managers as they have the most influence on
the quality of staff training.

If each of us hires people who are bigger than us,

we shall become a company of giants.
David Ogilvy

9th year, no. 6

The 40th Dutch Vietnam

Management Supporter

Why to uplift your HRM department now?

In Supporter no. 39 you can find an overview of what I observe as the current tasks of the
average Vietnamese HR departments. For the near future, with AEC & TPP [Trans Pacific
Partnership] around the corner, you will need to uplift your HRM department. Why?
Companies will soon face an increasing demand for talented staff. It will become even harder
to retain talents. On top of that, managers will need to get better at capacity planning, at
engaging staff, at coaching & mentoring, and at increasing both production & quality.
Organizations need to become more cost-effective & deliver excellent customer service. If
they dont, their competitiveness will turn out to be insufficient, and they will be unable to
survive. The biggest barrier to uplift HRM however, is top management. In Vietnam HRM is
seen by too many as a necessity to arrange recruitment & labor contracts, and troubleshoot
the companys people problems. As most HR staff have their hands full with these
operational tasks, this only confirms top managers fixed ideas about HRM. What to do?

All change needs to be initiated & supported by the top.

All change needs to be initiated & supported by the top. As long as top managers continue to
focus on short-term profit & ignore long-term business success, they will always be
confronted with unexpected setbacks. Business is people. Customers & staff. When an
organization is money-focused, people come second (last?) place. Its an established fact:
people dont leave jobs, they leave their managers. Or: companies denying them growth or a
good workplace. Many top managers do not realize this, They see HRM as a cost factor,
sometimes even as a luxury. And with Vietnamese who find it difficult to communicate
upstream the situation remains unchanged. HRM has a mission; boosting business.
Uplifting HRM: develop your HRM staff & hire true pros. Start investing in your people.
Start today!
When top managers realize uplifting HRM is a corporate need, and both feel & share
the sense of urgency to prioritize fortification of HRM, the next step is facilitating further
education & training of their HRM staff. However, thats not enough. Its important to spot
& hire Vietnamese HRM talents. They exist. I have met several Vietnamese HRM
professionals over the years. They share the view that top managers often have fixed ideas
about HRM, lack a clear vision, rarely define HR policy, and only occasionally invest to
develop their staff. They see training as an incentive, not as a staff development action.
In 2016 I will focus on the development of a series of HRM training courses to help
Vietnamese HRM staff to be ready for the coming changes. No lets do another fun gameworkshops. No waste of time, empty shells, copy & paste jobs & recycling of outdated or
impractical models & tools. The general objective is to develop fully equipped HRM
managers & staff, who understand business, who know how to improve the organization
across the board, who promote both leadership development & effective communication, and
who know how to create & maintain a great workplace. Lets uplift your HRM now!

The bottleneck is always at the top.

Peter Drucker

9th year, no. 6

The 40th Dutch Vietnam

Management Supporter

Accountability vs. the Blame Game

Over the years I have witnessed several traffic accidents where
the obvious culprit went to great lengths to point fingers at the
weather, the system, the motorbike, the government, someone's
hormones or his DNA, the police orlast but not leastthe victim. Its not my fault, its his!
Not realizing that blaming others for own mistake means losing
face, many feel its better than admitting it, accepting responsibility for it, and repairing the
damage. In Vietnamese there is no word for accountability: the duty to take full responsibility for ones actions. Apparently preventing loss of face is senior to taking responsibility.
In business this creates a serious problem. Customers suffer when those in charge of Customer Service have a habit of pointing fingers. Team work suffers when team members
(sometimes a whole team!) blame others for their collective failure. Staff suffers when a mismanaging manager punishes them for inefficiencies caused by that same manager. Managers suffer when staff deny every responsibility for losing a client and blame the client.
In an organizational culture where this Blame Game is the norm, it requires exemplary
leadership & persistence to terminate this non-productive attitude.
The saying goes: you get what you measure. I recommend including accountability as a performance appraisal criterium. Reward staff taking full responsibility for own mistakes.
Stimulate learning from mistakes by asking for the lesson learned. Admit your own mistake, apply the lesson, and repair the damage. Perfection is a noble goal, but it cannot always be attained.

You can make

mistakes, but you
arent a failure until
your start blaming
others for those
mistakes.
John Wooden

If you can face problems in life without putting the blame

on anything or anybody else, you have brilliant
perspectives of success.
Napoleon Hill

9th year, no. 6

The 40th Dutch Vietnam

Management Supporter

Pray as if God will take care of all; act as if all is up to you.

St. Ignatius of Loyola

9th year, no. 6

The 40th Dutch Vietnam

Management Supporter

Vietnamese LifeDutch Life

Tran Trong Van graduated from Dutch Delta

University in June 2006. It was wonderful to
see this fine guy at his wedding with his beautiful wife, Ngoc Thu.
Its also an opportunity to reunite with other
alumni, and catch up on their life & career.
Organizations should provide career management. But in the end it all comes down to the
fact that we are all our own career manager.
And so it goes with my alumni: there is seldom
a smooth ride to the top. Even when they have
a bachelors degree in international business
administration or an MBA, plus lots of experience. Most have chosen jobs, some entrepreneurship. Its great to see them doing well.

Twice a year I spend time in The Netherlands. To catch up with developments in

my professional field, and with friends &
family. Eating typical Dutch food. Drinking
Jopen beer: a top brand still unavailable in
Vietnam. The final two weeks of November
were everything one may expect from
Dutch Autumn turning into Winter. Strong,
icy windsthe kind that makes +5 C feel
like 5. Heavy rain. Only one sunny day.
Before the return flight I experienced the
new automatic baggage drop-off at Amsterdam Airport. Where max. 23 kg is max. 23
kg. In other words, 25 kg = 2 kg overweight.
No longer friendly airline staff who accept 2
kg overweight. Pay please. On top of that,
security is maximized. Officers open &
check every piece of cabin baggage. The
world after Paris, November 13, 2015.
My favorite bookstore Allert de Lange has turned
into a cheese shop for tourists.

9th year, no. 6

The 40th Dutch Vietnam Management Supporter

Loek Hopstakens Clients

In Vietnam: a.o.

Tan Thuan IPC

HCMC University of Technology

RMIT (HCMC campus)

Royal Business School

Int. Business & Law Academy (IBLA)

Vietnam Airlines (RBS; ISM)

Vietnam Singapore I.P. (SPECTRA)

Petronas (SPECTRA)

Petronas Carigali (PACE)

Nike (Tae Kwang Vina) (SPECTRA)

Le & Associates

Sacombank (Training House)

Ministry of L.I.S.A. (RBS)

SONY Vietnam (RBS)

CapitaLand Vietnam (SPECTRA)

Institute for Potential Leaders / PACE

Dalat Hasfarm (Agrivina)

Hoanggia Media Group

Fresh Green Earth

Unique Design

ERC Institute Vietnam

Schoeller Bleckmann Vietnam

Robert Bosch Vietnam (PACE)

De Heus Vietnam

Control Union Vietnam (SPECTRA)

Centre for Tropical Med.Oxford Uni.

Khue Van Academy

CARE Vietnam (AIT)

Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)

HCMC Fin. & Invest. Company (AIT)

Academy of Finance

ITEQ Vietnam

Vietnam Breweries Ltd (Heineken)

VietJet Air (ISM)

In The Netherlands, a.o.

ING Bank

Philips

Heineken

Yamaha

business field
Industrial development
intern. MBA program
Pro Comm faculty
Courses & seminars
Training & consultancy
International airline
Industrial park
Chemical factory
Oil & gas
Shoe factory
Training & consultancy
Training & consultancy
Civil Servants
Consumer electronics
Real estate
Courses & seminars
Pot plants, cut flowers
Key to Success TV Show
Hi-tech agriculture
Interior Design/archit.
Business school
Oilfield Equipment
Electronics
Animal food
Quality inspections
Clinical research
Courses & seminars
NGO
Training & consultancy
Investments
MBA (Un. of Gloucester)
Mono-parts/assemblies
Brewery
Airline
Financial services
Electronics
Brewery
Musical instruments

The DVM Supporter is published by

Prof. Loek Hopstaken
Email: loek.hopstaken@gmail.com
Cell Vietnam: (84) 090 888 9450
Cell The Netherlands: 06 510 97328
Assistant: Ms. Vo Ngoc Lien Huong
Email: jane.hopstaken@gmail.com
Cell: (84) 090 888 9451
Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/loekhopstaken

Wisecracks

The single
biggest problem
in communication is the illusion
that it has taken
place.
George B. Shaw
You cant stop
the arrival of
history, only
delay it.
History is
coming.
Slim Fairview
There are no
unintended
consequences.
Only unwanted
consequences.
Slim Fairview