Vietnam Plus 3

Hi everyone. I know I promised you guys a day by day & play by play post and I've finally got it. Sorry for the delay.

To sum up, I meet some great people, went on some fantastic trips, expanded my world view, and had an awesome time. I can't wait to get back to vietnam someday. If anybody is ever going there in the future shoot me an email and I'll tell you everything I know. I might even be able to hook you up with a contact or two.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the read.

Best,
Dave

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Arrived at JFK International Airport at 7:00 a.m. for a 10:00 a.m. flight on Cathy Pacific.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Arrived at Ho Chi Minh Airport at 5:00 p.m. My first serious impressions of Vietnam actually began at the Hong Kong International Airport as I waited in the boarding area for my Cathy Pacific connecting flight to Ho Chi Minh City. I noticed that our plane was an Airbus A-330 which is capable of holding approximately 300 passengers. The waiting room and ultimately the plane were full. It surprised me that so many people were going to Vietnam on a daily basis.

Also surprising was that most of the Vietnam bound passengers appeared to be Vietnamese, not Westerners or business people from surrounding Asian countries. The ages of the passengers were varied, with no particular generation being dominant. I found myself sitting with a group of college-age individuals who appeared to be chaperoned.

My pass through customs was surprisingly quick, with no incidents whatsoever. The customs officer was as bored as any other customs officer that I have encountered in Europe or the U.S. After picking up my bag which was waiting for me on the carousel – unlike anything I have ever experienced at Philadelphia International Airport – I passed through one last bag check and made my way outside of the building where I was met by my roommate Andrew, who had arrived a day earlier.

I noticed the heat and humidity immediately. Also, for the relative lack of people inside the arrivals terminal, there was a tremendous amount of people waiting outside. In spite of the crowds, Andrew had no problem hailing a cab.

The cab ride to our hotel was only fifteen minutes, but during that short period I notice hundreds – probably thousands – of motorbikes, some carrying three or more people. It was such an amazing phenomenon that I focused almost exclusively on the traffic for the duration of the ride to the hotel. There were some cars on the road – mostly taxis – but everywhere you looked it was a sea of motorbikes. Traffic laws appeared to mere suggestions rather discernable rules. And yet, I saw no accidents.

Later that night I met up with Andrew and Dr. Berman in the hotel lobby. I also met Mr. Tin, who was going to be one of our guides during the trip. The four of us then headed back to the airport to meet-up with the rest of the Pitt crew. Everyone arrived safely and we all went to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

Monday, May 10, 2010

I woke up around 7:00 a.m. to prepare for my first full day in Vietnam. I was shocked: no jet lag.
Our group met for our first breakfast in the hotel. The meal was not typical Western fare, but there were plenty of choices that were not at all exotic to the American palate: chicken, beef, rice, breads, toast and fruits.

Monday is the beginning of the work week in Vietnam. We piled into a Ford van and made our way to the University of Economics and Finance (UEF) in Ho Chi Minh City. We passed so many, many motorbikes on the way during the forty-five minute drive.

Getting out of the van at UEF for the first time was a unique experience because the locals could obviously tell that we were visitors and couldn’t help staring at us. This was my first experience of how it feels to be in the proverbial fish bowl.

Our classroom was on the eighth floor of the building and because the elevators were not particularly reliable, we used the steps to reach our classroom (not just that day, as it turns out, but everyday thereafter).

We entered the classroom where we were greeted by a cheering group of Vietnamese students welcoming the Pitt students. It was kind of touching actually, but it got a little corny and migrated from touching to touchy-feely – at least for my tastes – when we started singing Michael Jackson’s Heal the World and other We-Are-The-World type songs.

Nevertheless, it was cool to finally start interacting with our Vietnamese counterparts. Their English was surprisingly good. We all seemed to be fielding a ton of questions about nearly every subject imaginable. My impression was that the Vietnamese students were relishing the opportunity to practice their English as much as the opportunity to learn more about us and American culture. It was a blast and I liked them all from the beginning.

Today was also the first of our Vietnamese language classes. It is inconceivable to me that anyone – including the Vietnamese – can figure out how to speak that language. The main focus of our first class was just getting down the vowels and the subtle change of tones that could be used to completely alter the meaning of a word.

After class we were served lunch at the school canteen. The food was well prepared and not too exotic.

Later that day we had a quick driving tour around some parts of the city with Mr. Tin pointing out famous buildings or landmarks. The one place we actually stopped at was the Ben Thanh Market, which is a famous bazaar style market that began during the French occupation of Saigon. (It reminded me a bit of the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia.) It sells everything from food to clothing to trinkets (some of which were war artifacts, such as an American GI’s cigarette lighter). All of the prices are based on the barter system, so the purchase of trinkets was the best place for me to start until I could get the hang of haggling with the vendors.

After our tour we arrived at the American consulate office in Ho Chi Minh City where we had a meeting with Charles Bennett, Chief of the Consular Section. We met in a board room, where he explained his duties and the functions of a consulate. I think that many of the Pitt students, myself included, gained a new interest in the Foreign Service department of the U.S. government.

The consulate sits on the grounds of the previous U.S. Embassy to South Vietnam. We were taken to see a modest memorial to the five U.S. soldiers who died defending the embassy during the Tet offensive. Just beyond the walls of the consulate, however, is a counter-memorial dedicated to the Vietcong soldiers who lost their lives attacking the embassy.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Up again at 7:00 a.m. and still no jet lag.

After another decent breakfast at the hotel we made our way back to UEF. Our first class of the day was a lecture discussing the urban planning and development of Ho Chi Minh City. One of the more interesting parts of the lecture occurred when the presenter went through the different stages of law reform in four key areas: land, investment, enterprise, and trade. Other interesting points that I took away from the presentation was the fact that Ho Chi Minh City has approximately 6% of the country’s labor force but accounts for about 22% of the country’s GDP, and that the GDP per capita in Ho Chi Minh City is approximately $2,200.

After lunch at the UEF canteen, our group and some of the UEF students piled into two vans. After about an hour’s drive of weaving through the city we arrived at the Phu My Hung corporation headquarters. Phu My Hung is building nothing less than an entire new city, which, appropriately enough, is going by the name of New City Center. The scope of this project is by anyone’s standard massive. It will be the ultimate in urban planning with schools, shops, parks and a hospital. I suspect that it will become popular with Westerners whose companies have relocated them to Vietnam.

In the evening the Pitt students were finally awake enough in the evening to consider spending a night on the town. We went to a nightclub with the ironic name Apocalypse Now. This was the first place that we ran into non-Vietnamese foreigners: a young women from Belgium (approximately 24 year old) and a couple of guys from Germany, clearly students our age, who were probably participating in a program similar to ours.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Once again, up at 7:00 a.m.

No UEF today. Instead we went to the Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park where we were given a standard, but nonetheless interesting presentation on the nature of the 216 companies that have set up operations in the park. One such company was II-VI (pronounced “two-six”), a Pittsburgh based firm that specializes in the manufacture of advanced plastics and optics. We met John Nguyen who is the director of II-VI’s Vietnam operation. John was originally a native of Vietnam. He eventually made his way to the United States where he gained his citizenship. He and his family now live in Allentown, Pennsylvania and his daughter attends Pitt.

John took us on a tour of II-VI’s manufacturing facility in the Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park. My perception was – admittedly to the untrained eye – that it was not a third world operation at all. Rather, it struck me as a high tech operation with modern, sophisticated equipment. The workers all seemed to have the adequate safety equipment for working with plastics. I don’t know if what they were wearing would have been up to OSHA standards, but my strong impression was that it seemed perfectly adequate for the job at hand.

John’s colleague explained that at the start of II-VI’s operations in Vietnam the firm found itself suffering from high turnover rates which were particularly troublesome because of how long it took to train people on II-VI’s equipment. He explained that the turnover problem was related in part to the traditional Vietnamese pay structure which provides a worker with a bonus of one month’s salary just before the Tet holiday. Workers would collect their bonuses, go home to the rural Highlands for the holiday, and not return to II-VI. The company implemented some interesting solutions that included reserving part of the bonus until after the holiday, and paying for roundtrip bus tickets for all of its workers.

For lunch we went to a Vietnamese buffet style restaurant in the E-Town (Electronics Town) section in District 1. If you didn’t know that you were in Vietnam you might assume that District 1 was a section in Hong Kong or downtown Pittsburgh with modern skyscrapers and busy, high quality, efficient eateries to serve the lunchtime crowd. We found out later that District 1 receives the most consistent electric supply of any district in Ho Chi Minh City.

After lunch we walked across the street to Glass Egg Digital Media which is an outsourcing firm for the digital art used in video games. Unfortunately we were unable to meet with CEO Phil Tran and CFO Steve Reid as was originally planned. Nevertheless, a couple managers gave us a great overview of the company. They struck me as proud of the company’s achievements and optimistic about its future in the gaming industry.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

We went back to UEF for a lecture entitled “Rural Planning and Development: The Case of the Mekong Delta.” This was in anticipation of our upcoming trip the delta on Saturday. Frankly, I didn’t get as much as I had hoped from the presentation because the speaker was difficult to understand. The stats that he projected on the screen through Power Point slides indicated that the government had ambitious plans to continue to develop the delta as an agricultural and manufacturing region. I also picked up a strong sense of concern about how the Chinese were putting up too many dams upstream on the Mekong River thereby depriving Vietnam of fresh water.

After that we had our first of four classes dedicated to Vietnamese culture. This class addressed the ancient origins of the Vietnamese people.

After lunch we went to the U.S. Commercial Service branch of the U.S. Consulate which was located in a modern office tower called Saigon Centre located in District 1. In the lobby, Panasonic had a display of their new 3-D TV technology. There was a little bit of irony here because it was the first time I had a chance to actually watch a 3-D system and had to come all the way to Vietnam to experience it.

Jennifer Ludders and Dave Averne with the U.S. Consulate met us in boardroom and after a short introduction let us run the show by allowing us to ask any questions that came to mind. And our questions were varied: we discussed everything from their duties with the Vietnam Commercial Service office, their experience in the Foreign Service in general, what they thought of Vietnam and what they think is in the future for the country. I was probably not alone among my fellow students in that I was becoming interested in the Foreign Service and the internship program provided through Commercial Service as a way to maybe get back to Vietnam for an extended period, such as a semester.

After this meeting we were done for the day. Some of us decided to walk the few blocks to the Ben Thanh market to try our hand once more at bartering. We got caught in one of Vietnam’s torrential downpours that occur during or near typhoon season. What was interesting was that one of Vietnam’s problems became readily apparent: the inability of its infrastructure to efficiently drain the vast amount of rain water from its downtown streets.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Today’s visit was to Intel, which was a site visit that I had been looking forward to since I first saw it on the itinerary in Pittsburgh. Intel’s brand new facility in the Saigon High Tech Park was so brand new that it was still two days away from starting operations for mounting computer chips. It was a gleaming and modern plant – amazingly so. I freely admit that I did not expect to see anything so high tech in Vietnam given its current infrastructure and past history. I just didn’t think that there could be the critical mass of people in Vietnam with the right mix of technical skills and support services in order to make such an operation viable. Apparently Intel disagreed because they invested over a billion dollars in the venture.

Rick Howarth, General Manager of Intel’s new plant, did acknowledge that there are some support service challenges – for example, many of their support materials are going to come from Singapore and other nearby countries until Vietnam can get up to speed. Still, he had high expectations for the new plant. It amazed me that he took the time to talk to Pitt students when operations were to commence in two days at his billion-dollar plant owned by a multi-billion dollar company.

After our Intel visit, we went to the headquarters of the SUCCESS Alliance in preparation for our visit to the Mekong Delta tomorrow. We learned about their efforts bring public and private partners together – such as US AID, USDA, ACDI/VOCA (private non-profit), WCF (World Cocoa Foundation), and Mars Inc. – to help create a sustainable cocoa industry in Vietnam. I believe that everyone’s favorite part of the presentation was receiving a free Vinacacao chocolate bar. (In general, Pitt students are an easy crowd to please.) Vinacacao is one of Vietnam’s first chocolate producing companies.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

We left hotel and spent a little over an hour driving to the Ben Tre province in the Mekong Delta. Our first site visit was to a warehouse owned by Vinacacao. At this facility we were able to observe the process of how the company prepares cacao plants for shipment to Malaysia where they will be manufactured into a Vinacacao brand chocolate bar. We were told, however, that it is the ultimate goal of Vinacacao to eventually manufacture their brand in Vietnam.

Many of us sampled a slimy, unprocessed cacao bean at the request and amusement of our hosts. The taste was odd and bitter. To be honest I could not discern anything resembling the taste of chocolate.

After the warehouse we made our way over to Vinacacao’s bean and taste testing facility. We saw a demonstration of the quality control process that they used to test such things as the moisture level of the dried beans before processing. We were also given the opportunity to become “taste testers” for a day. We were given random samples of a chocolate paste-like substance and asked to evaluate it characteristics based on categories such as bitterness and texture.

We broke for lunch at what can be best described as a resort-like restaurant on the Mekong River. Before the meal, the guys did some exploring. Dr. Berman identified many of the naturally growing fruits and Mr. Tin took us across a monkey bridge (literally a tree trunk that had fallen across a creek or river). After the meal, many of us choose to sack out on hammocks found throughout the restaurant facility.

Our last stop in the Mekong Delta was to an actual cacao farm. I had expected to see the cacao plants arranged in orderly rows – something along the line of a vineyard – but was surprised to see that the farm looked more like a jungle. At the farm we tried fresh fruits from the delta including watermelon and a couple of fruits that I was not familiar with.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Today was our big trip to the beaches of the Vung Tau province. We caught a hydrofoil in Ho Chi Minh City for an hour’s trip down the Saigon River. Before hitting the beaches we had site visit to the Christ of Vung Tau. It is a 105-foot statue that sits high atop a hill on the site of a former French fort. Interestingly, construction of the statue did not begin until 1974 and was not complete until 1993. Unfortunately, after our long and arduous trek up the mountainside we were not permitted to climb the last 105 feet to view the city from Christ’s shoulders. The view from the base, however, was still spectacular.

Back in the town, the group split into two. Some of us went to the beach while I and the others went to a Buddhist Temple. My friend Phuong from UEF showed us how to offer a prayer, which included lighting incense sticks and placing them in front of different gods around the temple. Also, for good luck we bought birds from a vendor and released them.

After the temple, we met up with the students at the beach. A bunch the guys got into a friendly game of soccer with some of the locals. Soccer is big stuff in Vietnam so it was a good challenge playing against them.

After a good round of soccer I went to cool off in the “East Sea” as it is known in Vietnam (Most American’s would probably know it as the South China Sea, but this name is not appreciated in Vietnam). It was a unique experience for a kid who spends his days at the beach in the cold Atlantic Ocean to enter water that was so warm; it was incredibly relaxing.

Once everyone had had their fun and the sun had worn us all out, we returned to Ho Chi Minh on the hydrofoil. About halfway back the hydrofoil was forced to pull over and have a diver clear the propellers of debris that we had apparently picked up from a fallen coconut tree I believe. So we had a little extra time to play some card games with our Vietnamese student hosts. It was a pretty cool sight coming down the river after sunset and seeing all the gleaming lights of the city. It was a great way to end a great day.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Monday was back to business. We had our second culture and history class at UEF where we wrapped up our discussion of ancient Vietnamese history and moved into the Sinocizing period. We learned about many of the distinctions between Vietnam and other regional cultures such as the Chinese and Koreans. We also introduced to the Ying-Yang philosophy found in some Asian cultures. History class was followed by a Vietnamese language class. I still struggled tremendously to get down the right pronunciations, but I do think that I’m starting to understand and remember some key phrases.

Our site visit in the afternoon was to the University of Agriculture and Forestry, about an hour’s drive from UEF. Some of the members of our group had done a presentation before our trip on the Catfish trade dispute between the United States and Vietnam. At the university we were given a few presentations that provided a more in depth look into the Catfish industry of Vietnam as well as the ramifications of the dispute. After the presentation we had the opportunity to see a catfish farm on campus as well as a new research facility.

That evening, Justin, Matt, Kyle and I went out to play some basketball with a few friends from UEF. It thought it was interesting to see that the basketball courts and entire outdoor recreation facility was packed and that you had to buy time to play on the courts. I suppose as a suburbanite I have the luxury being able to drive a few minutes in almost any direction and find a free, open court. Anyway, the Pitt team held up very well against our Vietnamese competition and everyone had a great time. It’s kind of cool when you realize that you are no longer just awkward acquaintances of Vietnamese students you met just seven or eight days ago, but are now being asked by them to join in a pickup basketball game.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The first trip of the day was a site visit to Viet Capital Securities Company in District 1 which can be best described as Vietnam’s version of the NYSE. It was modern operation with two large ticker boards and a bunch of attendants sitting ready behind multiple flat screens displaying a continuous stream of financial data. We got a mini behind-the-scenes tour by the one duty manager who showed us the work stations while giving us some quick facts about the growing Vietnam stock exchange. If I am remembering her correctly, I think she said that the exchange hosted over 2,000 companies.

After our visit to the stock exchange we had some down time. Some of us wanted to go shopping and our UEF friends recommended the nearby Saigon Tax Trade Center (which everyone seems to call simply, the Tax Center). It was a modern version of the Ben Thanh market that very much resembled an American shopping mall with air conditioning, fountains and escalators, with the exception that we still had to barter for an appropriate price. In this regard I had a lot of help from Phuong who was a delight to watch in action. (I learned that the “walk away” technique could be very effective at getting a lower price.)

Our last site visit of the day was to ASCENX which reengineers and repairs capital equipment systems. Basically, they are an engineering outsourcing firm. This turned out to be my favorite site visit to date. The Chairman/CEO of the company, Tung Bach, told us a fascinating and harrowing tale of how he came to leave Vietnam as one of the infamous Boat People, eventually making his way to California and ultimately becoming a U.S. citizen.

He was able to escape from Vietnam with his uncle, who was a former high-ranking officer in the South Vietnamese navy. When Tung Bach told his uncle of his plan to return to Vietnam in order to establish a company there, his uncle was not pleased and was worried for his safety. As it turns out, Tung Bach comes and goes as he pleases from Vietnam to California and back again.

Our visit with Tung Bach was so enjoyable and he was so gregarious, that he invited all down to the coffee shop in the lobby to continue the conversation. He was a great guy.

All of us capped off the evening by going to a local nightclub called Lush. The place was packed – even late into the night – with a predominantly Vietnamese crowd which I found surprising given how early the workday begins in Vietnam.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Today started with the third history class at UEF which focused on the Dai Viet dynasties, approximately the period from the 900s to the 1800s. We also covered Vietnamese cultural beliefs about life and death and the worshiping of ancestors.

History class was followed by language class. My UEF friend Phuong helped me create a “cheat sheet” to practice key phrases for use on the street and during initial greetings.

After class we attended a presentation at UEF’s administrative offices which were located near our hotel. Mark Oakley, a British attorney who is affiliated with the Philadelphia-based international law firm of Duane Morris, told us that he was generally upbeat about structuring major business deals in Vietnam but warned that dealing with the bureaucracy could still be a nightmare. He pointed out that four sectors of the economy had tremendous potential for growth: energy, infrastructure, private equity & mergers and acquisitions, and retail & distributions.

That night the Pitt students and “Tony” from UEF went to an American style restaurant for oversized hamburgers and large orders of fries. We needed it.

Some of us ended the evening by have a drink at the Garden Top Lounge of the famous and classy Rex Hotel. I felt very sophisticated as I enjoyed a scotch on the rocks while taking in the musical stylings of a three piece band doing the likes of Sinatra and the Beatles. By total chance they happened to play Sweet Caroline to the amusement of the crowd from Pitt who couldn’t resist joining in the chorus.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

I woke up this morning with the distinct sense that we were getting to the end of our trip. At the UEF, the English Exchange Club gave us a going away party. The Pitt students were assigned to one of four teams that included UEF students (Go Team Crazy Monkeys!!!) where we were given topics to discuss ranging from our experience in Vietnam to our favorite movies and bands from back home. Tony, who had become a friend to our whole group, serenaded us with karaoke songs. He was pretty good actually.

Then it became time to get down to some real business. We drove to a soccer field for a matchup between the Pitt Panthers (Vietnam Division) and the UEF students. (As an aside, I was questioned by a few of the UEF students about the panther on my Pitt shirt. I tried to explain that it is Pitt’s mascot but I got a bunch of blank stares. I suspect that the concept of a mascot is not one that is familiar to the Vietnamese.)

After the game we went back to the hotel to clean up and get ready for a trip to the War Remnants Museum which focuses on the Vietnam War during the time that the Americans were most involved. The museum has undergone a couple of name changes over the years – from the Museum of American War Crimes to the War Crimes Museum to its present name – as the Vietnamese government has moved in the direction of normalization of relations with the U.S.

I remember Tung Bach cautioning us to take the museum’s exhibits and the version of history they portray with a grain of salt. Still it was interesting to see how the “victors” got to write their history.

That night we ate at a Japanese style “conveyor belt” restaurant called Kichi Kichi in Ho Chi Minh City. We were joined by a bunch of students from the UEF who wanted to continue saying goodbye. There was some gift giving, hug getting and picture taking. It was all kind of bittersweet: I didn’t want to leave so soon, but I was still anxious and ready to get home. After dinner Mr. Tin took to one of his favorite clubs: Gossip.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Today we had our last history class at UEF where we discussed the Westernization and subsequent modernization of Vietnam. That was followed by our last language class. We were given a quiz which I am certain that I would have failed miserably had it not been for the gracious assistance of so many of my Vietnamese friends jumping in to help.

We had the rest of the day off. I used the time to go back to the Tax Center for last minute shopping. I recruited the help my friend Khuong from UEF to help me negotiate some better prices. After the Tax Center, Khuong and I met up with a few other kids from UEF and Pitt at a yogurt shop. Dr. Berman happened to stop by and we all spent about a half-hour there before returning to the hotel to prepare our farewell dinner.

We ate in one of the outdoor pavilions of the Bin Quoi Tourist Village, about a half-hour’s drive from our hotel. In attendance were all of the Pitt students, Dr. Berman and his daughter (who recently arrived from the States), Sarah, Mr. Tin, Ms. Tu, and our UEF language teacher, as well as a couple of other UEF school officials whom I was not familiar with.

The highlight of the meal turned out to be watching what was happening in the pavilion next to us. Our waitress told that a local company was having a dinner for its employees, which involved some of the employees performing funny sketches on a stage. While we could not view the performance directly, because our view of stage was from behind and obscured by an opaque backdrop, it was nevertheless made all the more enjoyable by watching the silhouettes of the male employee-performers dancing in what were obviously tutus to classical ballet music. As it appeared to us, Vietnamese office parties are every bit as crazy as American office parties, if not more so.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Never went to bed last night because I was busing packing and was scheduled to leave for the airport at 4:00 a.m. with the first wave of students. I figured that it made more sense to get my sleep on the plane, rather than trying to get just a couple of hours at the hotel.

We were very surprised to see our friend Khuong waiting to meet us at the airport. As it turned out, my flight left a couple hours after the first groups so Khuong and I spent some time in the food court shooting the bull and watching YouTube videos. But eventually the time came when I had to say goodbye. It was a little sad knowing that this was really the end of the trip and that it could be a long time before we see any of our new friends again. But at least we can stay in touch with e-mail and video chats.

My flight home was a reverse of my flight to Vietnam: Two hours to Hong Kong, two hours in the terminal of Hong Kong International Airport, and then fifteen more hours, non-stop, to JFK to be met by my family. Felt good to be home.

Final Summary Journal Entry

Ethical Issues in My Profession

I had anticipated that a primary motivation for a U.S. company to set up a manufacturing/ factory operation in Vietnam would be to get around – not completely, but to some degree – the stringent and expensive safety regulations imposed by U.S. government agencies such as OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration). However, during our site visits in Vietnam I did not come across any companies that confirmed that suspicion.

The two manufacturing facilities that we toured – II-VI and Intel – produced products that were of such a nature that safety shortcuts (i.e. inadequate ventilation and/or waste management systems or improperly clothed and protected employees or deferred maintenance) would have a direct impact on the quality of their precision products.

I remember John Nguyen, the Director of II-VI, pointing out a shoe manufacturing facility on our short drive within Vietnam Singapore Industrial Part to get to II-VI’s plant. He informed us that it is likely that some of us had Nike or Addis brand shoes made there. It would have been interesting to visit a manufacturing facility of a more “dirty,” less high tech industry, such as that shoe plant, to see how health and safety issues were addressed.

All that being said, from my admittedly limited experience inside Vietnamese manufacturing facilities, I believe that companies in Vietnam, whether foreign or domestic, don’t take safety lightly. Also I did not perceive issues concerning diversity, such as gender bias or religious profiling. The industry practices in Vietnam that perhaps most differ from the United States are employee wages and environmental impact concerns.

Vietnam has much lower wage rates then the United States. As such, U.S. companies can increase profits by having manufacturing operations in Vietnam due to lower costs. (Assuming of course that new cost concerns such as product shipping costs and new taxes are taken into account and proven to still create a cost effective move.) This is not to say that foreign companies have unfair pay practices in Vietnam – in fact many of the U.S. based companies that we visited said that they paid at or above market value – it is just that the market price of labor is much cheaper in Vietnam.

The other issue that I touched on above was the environmental impact of industries in Vietnam. It does appear as though Vietnam has much more relaxed environmental protection policies then the United States and other developed countries. (In particular, I remember passing a small river on our drives to UEF that appeared black from pollution and had a large amounts of floating debris/waste.) This of course does reduce the waste management costs of companies and can increase profit, but it also leaves a lasting negative impact for the country and it’s people. It is an ethical issue that an American company will have to consider if they move some of the manufacturing operations to Vietnam. Do they help protect the environment by enforcing a more costly waste-management program or do they accept the Vietnamese standards?

Education Breadth in My Profession

Under this heading in our syllabus, the question was posed: “Are there enough differences between your country and the United States that you believe students should expand their classroom experience to include learning about different cultures?” My answer is, No. While I observed a lot of cultural differences between Vietnam and the U.S, they were never so extreme as to seriously impede my understanding of the country or my interactions with the UEF students. (Or to cause me to inadvertently create an international incident.) There is a lot a truth to the observation that people are pretty much the same the world over, if they operate within a relatively free society and/or are not under the grip of a fanatical political or religious system.

Essentially, I am saying that I don’t believe that the classroom is a place where a person can “learn” culture. The culture of a country or people will really only mean something through experiencing it.

If I was in the situation of a John Howarth, the General Manager of Intel Products Vietnam, and knew that I would be spending a number of years in Vietnam – and that my wife and children would be coming with me! – I have no doubt that I would have read up on the culture, history, religion, politics, food and quality of life (housing, schools, hospitals, and transportation) in Vietnam. I believe that I would have learned far more effectively about the environs of Vietnam and beyond through books, the Internet, fellow employees and expatriates who had gone before me, than through a survey course in the classroom. And then I would have much of that learning confirmed, and much of it contradicted, through the direct experience of living in the country.

Lifelong Learning, Continuing Education as Professional Development

I think that the lifelong learning picture in the Vietnam is currently a little all over the place. By this I mean that so much is changing so quickly in Vietnam that it could prove difficult to provide an education that adequately prepares a student for their career off the bat. For example, a tour guide of ours at II-VI, who was a manger, related that he has found that a student fresh out of college in Vietnam with an engineering degree probably only has the equivalent of an associate’s degree in the United States. He said that this is most likely due to a lack of equipment to practice on that would be standard in an American university, a lack of opportunities to intern at world class engineering firms, and a lack of professors trained to the high engineering standards of developed countries.

At the same time, Vietnam is quickly trying to become a center of high tech manufacturing and is continually importing high tech equipment and technologies that require very advanced training and education. With no base of older, experienced engineers to help in developing the new comers, and an apparent gap between the available education and the skills that are actually required, it could prove be very difficult to have an easy and orderly transition into the kind of future that the Vietnamese government envisions. Almost, certainly though, many Vietnamese will have to learn a lot on the job.

In light of the above, a question was posed in the syllabus to the effect does an education in Vietnam prepare a worker to do a job throughout his career or did he have to learn new things each year. I believe that there is no education in the world that would allow anyone to perform a job for an entire career. This point is no more pronounced then in the high-tech industry that could come to define Vietnam where advancements are made almost daily. A worker who hopes to survive in such an environment must change and expand his education continually.

The Social Environment of Professional Life

I got the impression that the business world of Vietnam operates more or less by the principles of a meritocracy. For instance, I suspect that a talented worker at Glass Egg Digital Media would not be overlooked for a promotion simply because he or she came from a particular region or social class.

But this brings up an interesting point. I know that Vietnam is still officially a communist state. Like a lot of communist countries, it is permitting – indeed, encouraging – market reforms that have the effect of moving Vietnam from a planned economy to a free market economy. Today is far different from the environment in April 1975 when the Communists seized control of the south. At that time your party membership would have dictated the services and positions available to you.

What I don’t know is what the effect of not being a member in good standing of the party will have on a person’s ability to rise within a business organization today. My interactions with the UEF students gave me no hint of an answer. In fact, looking back, any kind of discussion of politics and the government structure was noticeably absent, even when we visited the War Remnants Museum.

It is important to have knowledge of contemporary issue related to a country’s social life and economy (such as how the communist party in Vietnam might effect you business operations), and how it relates to the global economy when looking to invest. I would be extremely interested in seeing Intel research into these areas before they choose to invest $1 billion into their new factoring.

Functioning on Multi-Disciplinary Teams

During this trip of freshman business and engineering students, we didn’t really get a chance to put to the test our multi-disciplinary skills. I’ve been told that there can be some pretty impressive battles between the engineering and business factions of real-world projects, but fortunately no such hostilities existed between group of CBA and Swanson students.

Two questions where presented in this section. They basically asked, “What are some of the challenges involved in establishing and maintaining effective communication in a cross-functional team?” and “How do you work when you are a member of a cross functional team?”
The biggest challenge for a cross-functional team is just that they are from different organizational functions and have different backgrounds and goals and ideas on what needs to be done when and for how much. But, other challenges can include things such as communication barriers, (which could be the result of the use of actual different languages or just the misinterpretation by one party of the others party’s use of a simplified on the job language, such as acronyms) and distance barriers.

The way that you work on cross-functional teams is really to just keep an open and understanding mind. I think that cross-functional teams end up being all about creating compromises.

I think that at our current level of education, the engineering and business students in our group don’t really have enough experience or knowledge of our fields to be at odds with one another. But I know that someday the engineers will be shipping us lists of requirements, and the business students will send back the list with 15% cuts across the board to the cringe of the engineers. And at that point, we are going to have to come together, get our cross-functioning on, and work out an appropriate solution. That’s a day I’m looking forward to.

Vietnam Plus 3

Pages

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Followers

Blog Archive

About Me