Dutch Vietnam Management Supporter no. 38

In this issue:

The 38th Dutch Vietnam

Management Supporter

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

Pr o f . L oe k H o ps t ak en

Em a i l :

l o ek . h o ps t ak en @ gm a i l .

c om

C e l l : 0 9 0 8 8 8 9 4 5 0

July, 2015

9th year, no. 4

Do you grok it?

Hopstaken@work

1

2

The Organic World

ONP Soft Skills

3

4

Soft Skills boosts ...

Before I forget Clients, services &

contact information

5

6

7

8

Do you grok it?

Its an invitation to think, not to believe. After his novel Stranger in a Strange Land was published, Robert Heinlein found many people didnt get it. They believed it was describing an ideal world. But all Heinlein had set

out to do was to shake up peoples fixed mores & opinions. He did succeed in making me think. An eye-opening

concept was to grok: the ultimate in understanding

something, or sympathizing with someone. I grok it: I get

the full picture, including all feelings connected with it. I

fully emphasize comes close.

We often ask others, Do you understand? Those who do,

will use their

logic to try &

make sense of it.

When it does, theyll say: Sure! But logic is only a section

of reality. Try to

make sense of

affection, taste,

art, cultural

phenomena, or

love. Logic seldom plays a role. Yet, we can grok it. And if

we dont, life will be devoid of some genuine & deep experiences & joys. In my work I aim at you grokking it.

It's better to understand something

than to memorize something.

Neil deGrasse Tyson



9th year, no. 4 2

7 years after its arrival in Vietnam, Dutch animal feed producer De Heus will soon open its

7th factory. Training continues. 18 office staff & managers learned 2-way communication &

motivation skills, team engineering & time management. Location: Binh Quoi 2, HCMC.

Control Union is a quality inspection & certification company, active all over Vietnam.

Since June 2014 its management team does a tailor made Management Development pro-

gram. Also participating are managers

of Eco2, a company selling & maintain-

ing fumigation solutions.

Part 5 of a 12-day program included de-

cision making skills, management by

objectives, and thinking skills.

Like De Heus, the location was a truly

green environment: Ana Mandara

Resort in Dalat.

Between workshops we cycled through

Dalats green valleys, and paid a visit to the Organik farmone of Control Unions clients. See next page.

Hopstaken@Work

The moment a person realizes that reality has many faces,

he/she takes the first step on the road to wisdom.

LH

3 9th year, no. 4 The 38th Dutch Vietnam


A picture may tell a 1,000 words. Sometimes

though, 100 words inspire an entire movie!

When you talk, you are only repeating what you already

know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.

Dalai Lama

We all agree: a true leader inspires his followers, or better: inspires leadership in others.

How? By sharing his dream (without PowerPoint). He uses words, fueling them with a

strong belief in the rightness of his vision. And when he speaks while showing you around

his company, his realized dream, he has the power to change your mind.

I confess: I was quite ignorant about organic farming. Even sceptic. Dr. Nguyen Ba Hung,

Founder & general Director of Organik, changed my mind. He took us around his farm in

Dalat, telling about his work, his experiments, answered our questions, and had us taste

whatever we liked to taste. I am now better informed, lost my scepticism and am convinced

that organicly grown vegetables & fruit can make a big difference in living a healthy life. It

has a great future. www.organik.vn provides (English) information about Organiks prod-ucts. In Ho Chi Minh City you can visit its shop at 8 Thao Dien Street, D.2.

Organic farming methods combine scientific knowledge of ecology and modern technology with

traditional farming practices based on naturally occurring biological processes. Organic farming

methods are studied in the field of agro-ecology. While conventional agriculture uses synthetic pesticides and

water-soluble synthetically purified fertilizers, organic farmers are restricted by regulations to using natural

pesticides and fertilizers. An example of a natural pesticide is pyrethrin, which is found naturally in the Chry-

santhemum flower. The principal methods of organic farming include crop rotation, green manures and com-

post, biological pest control, and mechanical cultivation. These measures use the natural environment to en-

hance agricultural productivity: legumes are planted to fix nitrogen into the soil, natural insect predators are

encouraged, crops are rotated to confuse pests and renew soil, and natural materials such as potassium bicar-

bonate and mulches are used to control disease and weeds. Hardier plants are generated through plant breed-

ing rather than genetic engineering. Source: Wikipedia

Dr. Hung with Control Union & Eco2

managers in an Organik greenhouse

Control Union GD Mr. Richard de Boer

listening to Dr. Nguyen Ba Hung



9th year, no. 4 4

A staff retreat is a good way to say: lets get away for a few days, look at ourselves & our company, and get ready for a fresh new start. Thats what ONP Vietnamsuccessful manufacturer of top quality furniture for the US marketdid for 3 consecutive days at Binh Quoi 2 (HCMC). We covered issues that had been selected as having the interest of most:

soft skills such as two-way communication, teamwork & time management, and personal

quality management. Minimum theory, maximum practice. To familiarize non-production

staff with Lean Manufacturing, CICCs Chairman Mr. Pham Thanh Dieu successfully ran a 2-hour simulation game. A week later Viet Nam News published an article about this (next

page).

In any given moment we have two options: to step

forward into growth, or to step back into safety.

Abraham Maslow

ONP Vietnam Staff expands their soft skills

ONP Vietnam management & senior staff.

At my right, Mr. Patrick McNeal, ONPs General Director.



9th year, no. 4 5

June 30 daily newspaper Viet Nam News ran a story

about ONPs Staff Retreat (p.4). In this excerpt, ONP General Director Patrick McNeal reflects on the 3-day

soft skills improvement program:

Companies are always looking for a way to become more competitive. And, companies can go out and hire

professionals and hire people with college or university

degrees. They hire people that have many years of ex-

perience in different jobs and everybody is able to do

that. But, having people with good technical skills is

not enough. It is equally important that our employees

have strong soft skills. Employees that develop these

skills will be more professional, more positive, more

productive and more cooperative. We decided to invest in this training to help our employees

develop their skills and utilize them better, and the company will be more successful. A staff with good soft skills is able to listen, can do presentations, organize work, manage time and work in a team. Being co-operative, flexible, and being able to lead when the situa-

tion calls for a leader, or being able to follow when the situation calls for a follower, are im-

portant skills that will help our company to be more successful. As a young man he had worked for a company in the US that did a very good job of training

employees, he said. I always wanted to do this kind of job in Vietnam. The problem was I could not find somebody who knew these skills and could teach people. Most of the people attending the course ended up feeling excited in class after initially dis-

missing soft skills training as nothing new. Afterwards they said they learnt much more

than they had expected and the lessons were very pertinent to their jobs.

Along with theory, Hopstaken also gave them a chance to practice through role playing.

From that, they learnt how to communicate their ideas both orally and in writing, listen to

others and do presentations, organize their work better and take a systematic approach to

their tasks and manage their time so that assignments can be completed in time.

Ms. Nhun (Purchasing):Two-way communication skills was one of the three lessons she loved the most, she says. It taught her how to act and how to express her ideas in a concise

and effective way. Emotion will be the word that she remembers best after the course. I have learnt that I have to care about the partners emotion. I will utilize this lesson from now on and I am sure my job will be better for it. Source: Viet Nam News, June 30, 2015

Viet Nam News: Soft Skills training helps company boost competitiveness

6 9th year, no. 4 The 38th Dutch Vietnam


Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl.

An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old wom-

an she will become. A better artist can look at an old

woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be. But

a great artist a master and that is what Auguste Rodin was can look at an old woman, portray her exactly as she is . . . and force the viewer to see the

pretty girl she used to be . . . and more than that, he

can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo,

or even you, see that

this lovely young girl

is still alive, not old

and ugly at all, but

simply prisoned inside

her ruined body.

From: Stranger in a

Strange Land, by

Robert Heinlein

Below: Not everyday I see my face in a glossy magazine.

Dia Oc (real estate) interviewed me about recruitment in

the hospitality industry. The 3-page article is in Vietnamese.

If you like to read the English version, let me know.

Above: Prof. David Snyder (USA)

is a frequent visitor to Vietnam.

Over the years he taught & tutored

dozens of Vietnamese students. We

were occasional colleagues at Royal

Business School.

And at times Im his xe om.

Food for thought: Heinlein on art

Before I forget ...

7 9th year, no. 4

In Vietnam: a.o. business field

Tan Thuan IPC Industrial development HCMC University of Technology internat. MBA program RMIT (HCMC campus) Pro Comm faculty Royal Business School Courses & seminars Int. Business & Law Academy (IBLA) Training & consultancy Vietnam Airlines (RBS; ISM) International airline Vietnam Singapore I.P. (SPECTRA) Industrial park Petronas Vung Tau (SPECTRA) Chemical factory Petronas Carigali (PACE) Oil & gas Nike (Tae Kwang Vina) (SPECTRA) Shoe factory Le & Associates Training & consultancy Sacombank (Training House) Training & consultancy Ministry of L.I.S.A. (RBS) Civil Servants SONY Vietnam (RBS) Consumer electronics CapitaLand Vietnam (SPECTRA) Real estate Institute for Potential Leaders / PACE Courses & seminars Dalat Hasfarm (Agrivina) Pot plants, cut flowers Hoanggia Media Group Key to Success TV Show Fresh Green Earth Hi-tech agriculture Unique Design Interior Design/archit. ERC Institute Vietnam Business school Schoeller Bleckmann Vietnam Oilfield Equipment Robert Bosch Vietnam (PACE) Electronics De Heus Vietnam Animal food Control Union Vietnam (SPECTRA) Quality inspections Centre for Tropical Med.Oxford Uni. Clinical research Khue Van Academy Courses & seminars CARE Vietnam (AIT) NGO Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Training & consultancy HCMC Fin. & Invest. Company (AIT) Investments (s.o.c.) Academy of Finance MBA (Un. of Gloucester) ITEQ Vietnam Mono-parts/assemblies Vietnam Breweries Ltd (Heineken) Brewery ONP Vietnam Furniture factory Bonfiglioli Vietnam Gearboxes (factory) In The Netherlands, a.o.

ING Bank Financial services Philips Electronics Heineken Brewery

The 38th Dutch Vietnam Management Supporter

Loek Hopstakens Clients

To attain

knowledge, add

things everyday.

To attain wisdom,

remove things

everyday.

Lao Tse

The illiterate of the

future are not

those who cant read or write, but

those who cannot

learn, unlearn and

relearn.

Alvin Toffler

The DVM Supporter is published by

Prof. Loek Hopstaken

Email: [email protected]

Cell Vietnam: (84) 090 888 9450

Cell The Netherlands: 06 510 97328 Assistant: Ms. Vo Ngoc Lien Huong

Email: [email protected]

Cell: (84) 090 888 9451

Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/loekhopstaken

Wisdoms

If you can

change your

mind, you can

change your

life.

William James

Reality is merely

an illusion.

Albeit a very

persistent one.

Albert Einstein

Documents

Dutch Vietnam Management Supporter no. 38