The Dutch Vietnam Management Supporter no. 28

7/28/2019 The Dutch Vietnam Management Supporter no. 28

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In this issue:

The 28th DutchVietnamManagement Supporter

This magazine was first

published in March 2007. It is

digitally distributed among

my Vietnamese and Dutch

business & private associates.

Purpose: to keep them

informed about my activities

in Vietnam and overseas

This amazingly attractive andenergetic country has rapidly

conquered my soul, and

become my home away

from home.

Loek Hopstaken

P r o f . L o e k H o p s t a k e n

E m a i l :

l o e k @ h o p s t a k e n . c o m

M o b i l e :

090 888 9450

June 21, 2013

7th year, no. 3

What is your image?Activities June-July

12

What comes before

PerformanceManagement

3

Corporate growth??Picture timeRestoration pays offStrategic HRM

4567

Contact informationClients

8

Have you ever out-

performed yourself?Early June the Dutch conductor Maestro Jan Stulen (see

also DVMS no. 25) returned to Saigon to work for a week

with the HBSO Symphony Orchestra. Purpose: to prepare

their concert on the stage of the Ho Chi Minh City OperaHouse. The program offered a variety of classical music

genres: songs by Dam Thanh, Bellini, Lehar & Mozart to

a complete Brahms symphony. The HBSO Symphony

Orchestra has few opportunities to perform, so this was

quite a unique event. Maestro Jan Stulen is a terrific or-

chestra coach. He has been conducting all over the world

for over 40 years and is familiar with a wide range of

musical genres. Yet, classical music is where he comes

from, and will always be at the core of his activities.

How does a Maestro coach an orchestra? By insisting eachindividual does better and better and then even better.

Rehearsing is very hard work: 3 hours of continuous re-

hearsing is hard for Vietnamese musicians who all have

jobs on the side to be able to live. But their love of making

music drives them to work hard, and to come to a new lev-

el of excellence: out-performing themselves. They played

Brahms 1st symphonyand got away with it. Coaching:

getting people to out-perform. The Maestro did it again.

You will never reach your

destination if you stop and

throw stones at

every dog that barks.

Winston Churchill


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27th year, no. 3

The 28th Dutch VietnamManagement Supporter

The best teachers show youwhere to look, but dont tell you

what to see. Alexandra K. Trenfor

Activities in June & July:

Ongoing: executive coaching

Public Course HR Strategy & Plan-

ning(at Royal Business School)

In-company Recruitment, Coaching

& Mentoring(via AIT)

In-company Management Develop-

ment Training(via PACE)

In-company Sales Management (via

SPECTRA)

In-companyPerformance Manage-

ment (via Vietstar)

Excellence is not a skill. Its an attitude. Ralph Marston

Being ignorant is not so mucha shame, as being unwilling

to learn. Benjamin Franklin

Maestro Jan Stulen

conducting The HBSO

Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Dao Nhat Quang (clarinet) and

Ms. Cho Hac Ryong performed Mozarts

Parto ma tu ben mio.

In May we spent

a holiday in The

Netherlands.

Of course a visit

to the Keukenhofwas part of our

program.

Our daughter

Lara enjoyed

tip-toeing

through the

tulips.


3/8


7th year, no. 3 3

Want to start Performance Management?

Without a solid foundation, it will fail.

This year in VietnamPerformance Management seems to be more popular than

ever. Why? The motives differ from CEO to CEO. Some want to have an objective HR-

instrument to know who is contributing and who isnt, and link this information to their

compensation & benefits system. Reward the producers, sanction the non-producers. Others

see Performance Management as a means to exert more control over their staff. Some say

you have to do it for external reasons, like compliance with the law. Or: Headquarters

demands we do it. Again others see it as a way to find out how to improve individual staffs

competencies through training & education. Its not difficult to guess which motive provides

a sound reason to start Performance Management. Yes: to enable growth and improvement.

But without a solid foundation even then it is doomed to fail. So what would be a solid

foundation?

An organization that has a complete & up-to-date organizational chart and dito job descrip-

tions (1), clear & agreed upon criteria to evaluate performance (2) and practical policy to

determine what to do with the results (3):

(1) Job Descriptions must contain, besides title & duties, the jobs purpose, its intended

results, Key Performance Indicators, required know-how & the jobs key competencies.

(2) Evaluation Criteria are standards to determine if a performance is satisfactory or

not. But most important: an objective performance evaluation isfact-based.

(3) Results should first be used to determine what further training & education is needed

to bring the staff member or manager to a higher performance level. And yes, if you

want to connect a monetary reward systembe my guest. But dont focus all your ef-

forts on this. We dont want staff that is totally money-motivated.

June 8: Managers of EVN NPC after completing their course in Hanoi.


4/8

47th year, no. 3


For many years the only acceptable goal for a commercial organization was:

growth. Supported and encouraged by economists, who kept on predicting growth. In a

country like Vietnam, growth has been the case for the past two decades. A growing popu-

lation leads to more demand. And when people have more money to spend, their demand

grows along. However, demand is a generic term. Demand for what? A growing popula-

tion means more food, clothes, houses, motorbikes. More money means more eating out,

more & more expensive clothes, bigger houses and fancier motorbikes and cars. And yes:

more holidays and study for the kids. So the economists are right? In generic terms, yes.

But they usually dont tell us how many people spend how much money in what industry.

Obviously some industries profit more from growth than others. There are a few compli-cating factors. Take inflation. It is better now, but for how long? Inflation means, you buy

less with your money than you could a year ago. The result: prices rise. This curtails our

spending behaviour. People are quite flexible in calibrating their demand. We dont like to

cut expenses where our food is concerned, but most of us get over it quickly when we can

spend less on luxury items. So how do you deal with all this as an entrepreneur?

If I were your consultant I would advise you to devote time to strategy. Develop 3, 4,

5 future scenarios, varying from positive to very negative. From growth to the need for

downsizing. The problem with strategy is, that these scenarios never really happen as you

imagine them. As time goes by, you need to readjust your scenarios, jump to another sce-

nario, or revise your whole strategy altogether. Ask any entrepreneur who was around in

2008. When you have experienced this you know that strategy is a dynamic concept. It is

not future prediction. Not wishful thinking. Done badly, its the result of willful igno-

rance. Like the entrepreneurs in 2008 who blindly followed the advise of the economists.

They couldnt imagine the economy going badas bad as it has been going, particularly in

the Western world. Done well, it works from plausible realities.

We live in a world where the better companies mobilize their talents to turn that competi-

tive advantage into a competitive edge. They grab the opportunity as they fundamentally

disagree with all the doom-talk about economic downturns.

There are two kinds of companies. The losers: those that save money by firing

staff. The winners: those that make a serious effort to improve their efficiency

and effectivity, and retain their stellar performers and their qualified staff.

Corporate Growth: the only way to go?

The Five Factors that characterize a High Performance Organization (HPO)

1. Management Quality

2. Openness & Action Orientation

3. Long Term Orientation

4. Continuous Improvement & Renewal5. Employee Quality

From What Makes a High Performance Organization? - Andr de Waal


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57th year, no. 3


(above) June 19: 1 company, 2 courses, 2 groups, 6 days: Recruitment & Interviewing

Skills, and Coaching & Mentoring Skills. Company: Ho Chi Minh City Finance & Invest-

ment Company (HFIC). Training organization: Asian Institute of Technology (AIT).

(below) June 20: University of Houston students at Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE).

Picture Time!

HFIC

Group 1


6/8


7th year, no. 3 6

Bruges: the roi of restoration

During my holiday in The Netherlands we made a trip to the Belgian city of Bruges. It has

grown into one of the major tourist attractions of the country. While the city was a famous

port in the 15th century, since then it lost more and more of its grandeur. I remember an ex-

cursion to Bruges in 1974, with fellow students. The city looked like it was at the end of its

life: due to pollution but mainly, age, it looked dark grey, and some buildings were falling

literally apart. Since then the Belgian government has focused its attention on restoring its

old cities, and Bruges was one of them. Today, decades later, the city shines as it must have

shined in

its hey-

day,when

ships

from all

over Eu-

rope

would

drop

their an-

chors in

its port.The mas-

sive ef-

fort and

invest-

ment is

now pay-

ing off.

The city

has become the number one tourist attraction, with millions of tourists visiting Bruges every

year. What happened to Bruges, has happened (or is happening) in many major cities in Eu-rope: major restorations. From Amsterdam to Dresden, from Berlin to Paris. In the case of

Ypres (Belgium), this entire medieval city had been bombed flat during WWI. Ypres has

been restored, and is a destination for anyone interested in Europes history, attracting lots

of tourists. A bit like Hoi An: the old traders have become touristsspending their money.

Leadership is not magnetic personality, that can just as well be a glib

tongue. It is not making friends and influencing people, that is flattery.

Leadership is lifting a persons vision to higher sights, the raising of a

persons performance to a higher standard, the building of a personalitybeyond its normal limitations.

Peter F. Drucker


7/8


7th year, no. 3 7

Tony Gaskins said that communication is to a

relationship like oxygen to life: without it, it dies.

Therefore we use our time to communicate with those that

matter to us. However, when work is demanding it happens

that those who need our communication come second place.

This is why we have (or should have) free time, weekends, and

holidays. Time to catch up with our family and friends. Indulge

in our hobbies. Spending free time is a form of regeneration: our

life-batteries are being charged, our motivational drives

restored, our inspiration renewed. We step out of our dailyroutines and do things we normally dont do, as they are always

second priority to work. Oxygen keeps us on our feet. Make sure

you get plenty of it. Make time to regenerate.

Strategic HRM requires far-sightedness

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to doand they will surprise you with their ingenuity.General George Patton

Oxygen

Strategy is not about predicting the future. It is

about being well equiped and more confident to face

whatever happens in the future.


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87th year, no. 3

In Vietnam: a.o. business field

Tan Thuan IPC (HCMC) Industrial development

HCMC University of Technology Master of BA program RMIT (HCMC campus) Communication progr.

Royal Business School (public courses) Courses & seminars

Vietnam Airlines (RBS; ISM) International airline

Vietnam Singapore I.P. (SPECTRA) Industrial park

Petronas Vung Tau (SPECTRA) Chemical factory

Nike (Tae Kwang Vina) (SPECTRA) Shoe factory

Le & Associates Training & consultancy

Training House Vietnam (Sacombank) 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

ERC Institute Vietnam Vocational training

Schoeller Bleckmann Vietnam Oilfield Equipment

De Heus Vietnam Animal food

Centre for Tropical MedicineOxford Uni. Clinical research

Khue Van Academy Courses & seminars

Training House Vietnam Courses & seminars

Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Business consultancy HCMC Finance & Investment Company Investments

Academy of Finance MBA (Un. of Gloucester)

In The Netherlands, a.o.

ING Bank Financial services

Philips Electronics

Heineken Brewery

Yamaha Musical instruments

Voerman International Intern. relocations

Damen Shipyards Ship repair wharfs

Wittenborg University of Applied Sc. IBABBA, MBA

Voortman Machinery CNC-contr. machinery Royal Van Zanten Pot plants, cut flowers

The 28th Dutch Vietnam Management Supporter

Loek Hopstakens Clients

Real

knowledge is

to know the

extent of ones

ignorance.

Master Kong

To know

that we know

what we know,

and to know

that we do notknow what we

do not know,

that is true

knowledge.Nicolaus

Copernicus

The true sign of

intelligence is

not knowledge

but

imagination.

Albert Einstein

The DVM Supporter is published by

Prof. Loek Hopstaken.

Email: [email protected] or

[email protected]

Mobile: 090 888 9450

Assistant: Ms. Vo Ngoc Lien HuongEmail: [email protected]: 090 888 9451

K-quotes

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The Dutch Vietnam Management Supporter no. 28