SBC: April 2012

Apr 30, 2012

USA - Five reasons why iPad and iPhone are THE choices for BYOD

Widespread corporate product buy-in isn’t easy to accomplish. In fact, it’s almost impossible to do so unless you have excellent products. Apple does.

Nothing tells a story quite like numbers do. Especially if those numbers originate from a disinterested third party research firm such as Gartner’s, Barclays, Deloitte, Forbes or Goldman-Sachs. It’s really hard to argue with respected sources such as these. I, for one, am impressed by the numbers I’m seeing from them concerning Apple’s iGadget business product market share and corporate BYOD adoption.

For this reason, Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Mobile Application Management (MAM) software vendors must support any mobile device. But, Apple’s products are mandatory.

It isn’t enough to focus on Android phones alone. You have to support Windows devices, Android-based devices, Blackberry (at least temporarily) and Apple. The numbers just don’t lie. When half your market is Apple, you can’t ignore its existence to simply prove a point or to take a stand for open source operating systems. Either you’re in it (The MDM or MAM business) for your customers or you’re not.

Look at some numbers provided in a white paper from Apperian:

- 80% of Fortune 100 have adopted iPad.

- 88 of the Fortune 100 are deploying iPhones.

- 50% of FTSE 100 are using iPhones.

- 20% of Fortune 100 have 10K or more iPhones.

Can you afford to ignore those adoption rates?

Of course you can, if you want to push yourself out of the MDM/MAM market and then wonder, “What went wrong?”

Have a good time explaining that failure to your shareholders or stakeholders.

Ignore the numbers, if you want. I can’t.

Look at those numbers again in context. 88 out of 100 large companies deploy iPhones. What’s wrong with the other 12? Probably nothing except that they’re direct Apple competitors and that’s OK for them.

80 of the Fortune 100 have adopted iPads in their companies. The focus word here is “adopted.” That means that they’ve done the case studies, have tested and have adopted iPads as part of their business model. A full 20% of the Fortune 100 have more than 10,000 iPhones.

On the other side of the BYOD fence is you, the employee or contractor who works in an environment where you see BYOD as some sort of “control thing.” You oppose the idea of someone else managing a gadget that you own personally.

That would be a valid concern except that most BYOD environments do everything they need to do to your device in a single App. Deploy the App to your connected device to make sure it meets certain requirements and voila, that’s all that’s needed to integrate your device into the corporate network. No trouble, no reboots, no angst, no need for an Occupy movement to protest the BYOD overlords and best of all–no changes to your identity or your device.

If you separate from the company or decide to separate your device from the company, all you do is uninstall the App. If you’re separated from the company, the BYOD administrator performs a remote App removal with no intervention needed from you and you’re free again.

The five reasons for this massive uptake and adoption are pretty simple:

1. Apple makes great products.

2. Apple makes products that are easy to use.

3. People like Apple products.

4. Apple is the sole vendor of Apple products.

5. Apple products are well supported by third parties.

Points 1, 2 and 3 are pretty obvious when discussing anything Apple. The products have excellent design. They’re easy to use–very intuitive–no instructions needed. And, people love Apple’s products because of their design and their ease of use.

Points 4 and 5 are from a corporate perspective.

Large businesses don’t like product risk. They want stability in the company from which they select their corporate hardware. For example, the 88 Fortune 100 companies know that Apple isn’t going to stop manufacturing the iPhone product line. They know Apple is here to stay. They know that no one can buy Apple and destroy its product lines. There’s comfort and stability in Apple as a corporate choice.

Apple products also enjoy a huge third-party accessories and Apps market. “There’s an App for that,” isn’t just a cute catch-phrase, it’s a corporate tranquilizer. Large companies want to know that they have third-party buy-in on products they select. It helps with product longevity. And, it’s another stabilizing factor and cementing factor in making business-wide product choices.

For businesses seeking product support and stability, it’s a numbers game. Apple has the numbers on its side. 88% of the Fortune 100 can’t be wrong.

Do you know any other reasons why businesses might adopt Apple products? Is it a wise business decision to do so? Talk back and let me know.

Ken Hess

http://www.zdnet.com

Business & Investment Opportunities
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Healthcare and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN. We also propose Higher Education, as a bridge between educational structures and industries, by supporting international programmes. Many thanks for visiting www.yourvietnamexpert.com and/or contacting us at contact@yourvietnamexpert.com

Dear Reader,

May I invite you to visit our new blog: IIMS-Asean http://iims-asean.blogspot.com/

News and activities of the International Institute of Medicine and Science Asean Chapter of IIMS, Inc. California, USA - Health care, Life Science, Education, Research, Philanthropy. Asean is the economic organisation of ten countries located in South East Asia: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. IIMS is a non-profit organization.

USA - How a Non-Tablet Changed the Tablet Market

Amazon's Kindle Fire is so capable, so packed with features, and so cheap that no tablet but iPad can compete.

What does it say about the market for tablet computers that the best-selling tab running Android is not really a tablet.

It's an e-reader that was invented to help sell the public on e-books, whose components don't have to be manufactured, printed or mailed but retail for close to the same price, vastly increasing profits to booksellers like Kindle developer Amazon.

The leading Android tablet is actually Amazon's Kindle Fire -- an e-book reader built up into a general-purpose tablet that became the main competitor to Apple's dominant iPad immediately after the Kindle Fire was launched in November 2011.

Within three weeks after launch, the Fire had grabbed 14 percent of all tablet sales, compared to 57 percent for iPad, according to iSuppli Market Research.

By the end of February sales of Kindle Fire had grown to 54.4 percent of the Android market, up from 29 percent at the end of December, according to sales tracking analysts ComScore.

Kindle Fire's best feature is its ability as an e-book reader, according to reviewers. It is much more, however. For a list price of $199, customers get a seven-inch display, 8GB of RAM, free storage on Amazon's cloud, WiFi and USB connections, the ability to run any Android-compatible app or game and automagical connections to media (for which you can pay Amazon) including e-books, music, movies and anything else you can find on the Internet.

Fire's list price is $430 lower than the list price of the latest edition of the iPadand $249 less than Amazon's discount price for a new 10-inch Samsung Galaxy tablet and $50 less than the 7-inch Samsung Galaxy.

Price alone makes Kindle Fire a good competitor for the higher-cost Android tablets, but a rumored upgrade with a 10-inch display will improve its chances even more. Comscore estimates that 10-inch tablets sell 39 percent more than seven-inch tablets, regardless of manufacturer or other features included.

Amazon may also come out with a six-inch version to expand options for readers even further.

However, the Fire won't make much more progress against iPad, iSupply predicted. Of the 124 million tablets iSupply predicts will be shipped this year, 52 percent will be iPads.

The newest iPad's high-resolution display and momentum as market leader will keep the iPad at the top of the heap iSuppli predicts for 2012, while now-discounted iPad 2 models will compete directly with the lower-end, lower-cost Kindle Fire.

Best-Selling Tablet is Not a Tablet?

The oddest-seeming factor in the market-share battle is that tablets act as often as BYOD work devices as they do conveniences for home users – not a role most users or manufacturers expectan e-reader to fill. Barnes & Noble's Nook, in fact, does not even try to fill that niche. It remains a specialized reading machine, but still lists for $249.

Kindle Fire's price, easy access to a huge library of media, weight (14.6 ounces) and ultra-fast browser make it very attractive to tablet users, but function for function is more competitive with the Nook, according to analysts quoted in a September, 2011 Computerworld story.

Kindle's Silk browser can be installed on any Android machine, however; users can root Kindle Fire the way they can any other Android device, to add or get access to 5GB more storage space on the same machine, expand the list of file types it can handle, add far more useful apps than an e-reader supplies, and replace its utilitarian interface with something more attractive.

Plus, refurbs are now selling for less than $150.

That sounds an awful lot like a full-function tablet to me, except for the price, which makes Kindle Fire waaaay more attractive to anyone but a dedicated iOS user than any other tablet on the market, even though it was designed as an e-reader.

Why does the e-reader thing matter?

First, because people buy hardware to have access to one app or function, then take the other things it can do as an additional benefit.

Kindle Fire was designed small, for a market that demands electronics be cheap, light, easy to use and have ridiculously long battery life.

Building extra functions on top of a platform meeting those requirements gives you a high-performing tablet that can do more than just display e-books.

Downsizing a "real" computer to a tablet, or even building a giant smartphone both leave designers stretching their existing designs to meet the potential of a new size, or dumbing down all the specifications they consider standard.

That ends up delivering either a big phone with lousy battery life and iffy touchscreen control, or a dumbed-down PC that is more appropriate as a way to fill in for the PC when a user can't sit in front of a laptop, which is the way designers at PC companies appear to think of it.

Second, a machine designed for the computer-illiterate to operate without a manual is guaranteed to be more reliable and easier to lean than even a simplistic smartphone interface.

That combination – a surprisingly rich set of functions, a simple, fast interface and a price so low nothing else even competes with it – are what pushed Kindle to the top of the tablet market.

Its users still seem to see it as an e-reader with extra richness than as a tablet for general computing, however.

Kindle Fire Splits Tablet Market into Tabs and Almost-Tabs

Despite its success in the U.S., Kindle Fire hasn't taken off overseas. Part of the reason is price. Most of the reason is that, overseas, the Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime and other streaming media services that make Kindle Fire a good media tablet even for non-e-book readers, aren't available.

Is that a problem?

Yes, if Amazon wants to take over the top tablet spot from Apple.

No, if you look at it from a customer's perspective.

Kindle Fire isn't competing for people who would otherwise buy an iPad. It's competing for people who want to read e-books, but don’t to waste time and money on a single-function device.

They're far happier to get something close to an iPad-quality machine for the cost of an e-reader; in making that choice, they expand and enrich the market for tablets – beyond the limited number who would pay $500 to $700 for something less capable than a laptop, while providing something very close in power to a laptop at the price of a decent Android phone.

The question isn't whether Kindle Fire will continue to lead the Android market.

The question is whether Nook will morph into a tablet that can compete with Fire, and whether Samsung, RIM, Lenovo, Acer and other tablet makers will take note of the Kindle Fire equation and try to offer their own iteration.

Given the historical inability of PC makers to squeeze premium features into smaller boxes at lower prices (doing it at the same or higher prices is a different market entirely), I doubt they'll be able to match the Fire any time soon.

Barnes & Noble could compete by beefing up the Nook. But it's already working at a deficit, trying to sell a less-capable machine in competition with a powerful one whose price is artificially low because the manufacturer subsidizes the cost in order to sell more books and other media.

In e-reader quality, accessibility and usability, Barnes & Noble might hope to compete with Amazon. It can't compete with Amazon's deep pockets and drive to make the Kindle Fire as inexpensive and easy to use as possible.

It also can't compete with Amazon's ability to sell a product that's neither fish nor fowl, while getting customers to appreciate a little something in between because it's better and cheaper than either a traditional e-reader or a full-scale tablet.

Unfortunately for makers of full-scale tablets, no one buys a tab for the power it packs.

With the exception of size, which Amazon will solve with a 10-inch version of Fire, the Kindle Fire compares favorably with almost all the features of the leading tablets.

It will continue to do so, I think, leading the non-iPad tablet market by underpricing everything else available, while not really competing with the iPad because it's not as powerful and (more importantly) isn't a Mac.

Odd as it seems, the market looks as if it will remain divided, for the near future, into three segments: basic e-readers, tablets with a range of features, specifications and prices, and iPads.

Nooks will continue to lead the first category.

Kindle Fire will lead the second. iPads, for the foreseeable future, will lead the third, probably until laptops evolve into tablet formats, or smartphones evolve into something that makes tablets unnecessary.

Predicting winners and results of competition in any tech category is a losing prospect. Even when you're right, development moves quickly enough that you can't stay right for very long.

In this case, though, until some major new change in the size, portability and cost of everything on the market except Kindle Fire, the only two questions prospective tablet users have to answer are:

- iPad or not-an-iPad

and

- Kindle Fire or something more expensive?

Kevin Fogarty, ITworld

Dear Reader,

May I invite you to visit our new blog: IIMS-Asean http://iims-asean.blogspot.com/

Vietnam - Less common foreign languages now attract more learners

VietNamNet Bridge – Following the movement of learning English, French and Chinese, Vietnam now witnesses the movement of learning less common foreign languages, because the language skills could be an advantage for Vietnamese to look for jobs.

The 10 scholarships for the summer training courses in Thailand offered every year are the main reason that prompted Nguyen Kim Phuong, a student of the German language faculty of the Hanoi University, to start learning Thai language.

Phuong complained that she meets so many difficulties with the learning. The textbooks used for teaching and learning are just photocopied versions, while reference books and dictionaries could not be found at libraries and bookstores. As very few people are learning Thai, Phuong cannot find anyone to consult with every time when she has problems with the learning.

She said she sometimes feels disappointed with the learning and intends to give up the hard work.

Vu Hoang Quan, a Spanish Language Faculty’s student of the Hanoi University, is learning Italian language, because he loves Italian football, Italian culture. Quan believes that he has aptitude for foreign languages, but he admits that he usually mistakes Spanish for Italian words.

When learning Italian, Quan also meets a lot of big challenges. Lacking materials and the environment to practice skills are the two biggest problems. Having the Latin letter system, but the complexity of Portuguese grammar has made many young learners puzzled.

Though facing so many difficulties, young people believe that they would have more opportunities to find good jobs, if they have fluent foreign language skills. Therefore, a lot of students now rush to enroll in less common foreign language faculties. Especially, no high requirements have been set up for the students to the faculties, while the learning of the foreign language has been encouraged.

The Hanoi University, the biggest foreign language school in Vietnam, enrolls students for 10 foreign language faculties. Students need to have 21 marks from the university entrance exams at least to be able to obtain a seat at the faculties. Meanwhile, the University of Foreign Languages, an arm of the Hanoi National University, requires 22 marks.

Foreign language schools in Vietnam all have opened their doors widely to the learners of less common foreign languages. However, local newspapers still have quoted head hunting companies as saying that the workers who can speak the foreign languages fluently are seriously lacking in all business fields.

According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism VNAT, by May 2011, Vietnam had had 5272 international tour guides having practice cards. Of this amount, only 171 tour guides speaking less common languages, including Spanish, Thai, Italian, Lao, Bulgarian, Indonesian, Romanian and Hungarian.

Tran Hai Yen, the lecturer of the Portuguese Language Faculty of the Hanoi University, has affirmed that those, who can speak Portuguese, now have the chances to find good jobs. The military telecom company Viettel, for example, is expanding its business to Mozambique, therefore, it needs the staff who can speak Portuguese.

Viettel regularly asks the school to introduce the Portuguese speakers to the company. Therefore, the school is considering increasing the number of students to the faculty by 20 students this year.

Pham Van Kim, MA, from the Hanoi National University, has affirmed that in the context of the global integration, students would have more opportunities to get jobs if they have foreign language skills. Kim said that Arab language skills would be a big advantage for the students who want to work for state agencies such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Public Security or Ministry of National Defense.

Source: Tien phong

Dear Reader,

May I invite you to visit our new blog: IIMS-Asean http://iims-asean.blogspot.com/

Vietnam - Warnings of danger given to people using well water

VietNamNet Bridge – The water monitoring results show that the underground water resources have been decreasing in many places. Meanwhile, the underground water has also got infected with ammonium and arsenic, which is a big threat to local residents who cannot access the national water supply system.

According to Dr Nguyen Thi Ha from the Center of Water Resource Monitoring and Forecasting under the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MONRE), in the Northern Delta, the water levels at some monitored places, including Mai Dich, Cau Giay in Hanoi, have decreased nearly to the allowed limits.

In some other areas of Hai Hau, Truc Ninh, Nam Dinh, Quynh Phu and Thai Binh, the decreased water levels are still within the safety line. However, scientists have warned that the aquifer has complicated hydrogeological conditions; therefore, it is necessary to apply necessary measures to prevent the saltwater intrusion caused by the water exploitation.

The monitoring results showed that in the dry season, 17 out of 32 water samples have manganese content higher than the allowed standards, four have the As content higher than the allowed level. The highest As content was 0.1500mg/l, or three times higher than the allowed level.

Meanwhile, in rainy season, 12 out of 30 samples were found as having the manganese content exceeding the allowed level, and 4 samples have As concentration higher than the allowed level. Especially, all the 18 samples have the NH4+ much higher than the allowed level.

In the southern delta, in some monitored places, the water levels have dropped deeply approaching to the allowed levels, especially in districts 1 and Binh Tan in HCM City.

Only the water quality in the Central Highlands remains relatively good which does not show signs of the underground water pollution. The concentration of microelements in the underground water can meet standards, except manganese. 13.4 percent of water samples in dry season and 4.35 percent of samples in rainy season have the manganese concentrations higher than the allowed standards.

Dr Nguyen Thi Ha stressed that it is necessary to give warnings about the salinity intrusion. The underground water being exploited is fresh water. However, the aquifers above and under the exploited one are salt water. The overexploitation may lead to the intrusion of the salt water into the fresh water aquifer.

To date, in Vietnam, there has been no thorough research work about the salinity intrusion into fresh water aquifers. However, scientists say it’s necessary to give warnings about the possibility of fresh water turning salt water.

Dr Tran Hong Con from the University of Natural Sciences under the Hanoi National University said that the decrease of the underground water and the pollution have been warned for a long time. However, all the measures applied so far still cannot help improve the situation, while the water quality is getting worse.

In principle, underground water can recover itself, but the natural water recovery would not be enough to satisfy the overly high demand. The water overexploitation may lead to the earth sinking, and badly affect the quality of underground water.

Experts have pointed out that in order to prevent the underground water from “reaching the bottom,” it is necessary to adjust the exploitation capacity. They have also called on to strictly control the drilling of wells for water. Meanwhile, there has been no regulation on the exploitation and the use of water from drilled wells.

Source: Bee.net

Dear Reader,

May I invite you to visit our new blog: IIMS-Asean http://iims-asean.blogspot.com/

Vietnam - MobiFone and VinaPhone--both gold mines which VNPT wouldn’t cough out

VietNamNet Bridge – Retaining the current resources to regulate the infrastructure is the reason VNPT has cited when suggesting merging the two mobile networks MobiFone and VinaPhone. However, experts have said, this would not be the optimal solution for the telecom market.

The fates of MobiFone and VinaPhone, the current two biggest mobile networks in Vietnam, have once again become a hot topic after the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT), the owner of the two brands, has suggested merging MobiFone and VinaPhone.

The draft plan on renovating the structure and operation of VNPT has been submitted by the group to the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC). Under the plan, VNPT would carry out a “major surgery” inside the group by merging and turning its member units into companies to form up key businesses.

One of the most important suggestions by VNPT is reorganizing VinaPhone and MobiFone into VNPT Mobile Corporation. VNPT Mobile would become an independent company belonging to the economic group, which would develop mobile services with two brands MobiFone and VinaPhone.

According to VNPT, in the last five years, the main source of income of the group comes from mobile services. The merger of the two mobile networks would help the subsidiaries of VNPT better share the same telecommunication infrastructure system, which would allow cutting down investment costs.

VNPT has also affirmed that the new model, if approved, would allow the cooperation between VNPT Mobile and its subsidiaries, VNPT Mobile and local VNPT branches to be implemented more smoothly.

VNPT has stated that if the suggested plan is approved by the government, VNPT would kick off the restructuring process right in the third quarter of 2012. It is expected that by 2016-2020, VNPT would turn VNPT Mobile into a company operating under the mode of one-member limited company, in which the holding company holds 100 percent of capital and operates in accordance with the Enterprise Law.

VNPT has also proposed the government not to equitize MobiFone as previous planned in 2005, reasoning that the state ownership would facilitate the operation of the mobile network and help create sufficient necessary resources to ensure the success of the group’s renovation process.

However, the plan suggested by VNPT has not been welcomed by the public. Analysts have commented that the plan would bring benefits to VNPT rather than to the market.

Once the merger of MobiFone and VinaPhone is completed, there would be only two big mobile networks existing on the market, which hold 94.54 percent of the market share.

The two include VNPT Mobile with 57.82 percent of the market share, and Viettel 36.72 percent. If so, other smaller networks including Vietnamobile, S-Fone and Beeline with 5.46 percent of the market share would really meet big difficulties in the struggle for survival, especially when the market gets saturated in terms of the number of subscriptions.

Lawyer Tran Vu Hai has pointed out that if there are only two mobile networks on the market which hold 90 percent of the market share, it is likely that big networks would stifle smaller ones, thus affecting the interests of consumers.

Dau tu has quoted Michael Sascha Cluzel, GTel Mobile’s General Director, the owner of Beeline network, said that the merging of big telecom networks would create big challenges in policies the legal framework, and that MIC, as the watchdog agency, needs to apply necessary measures to ensure fair competition for small networks.

Especially, if Vietnam decides not to equitize MobiFone, this would discourage a lot of foreign investors, who have been waiting for years to jump into the Vietnamese telecom market.

Source: Buu dien

Dear Reader,

May I invite you to visit our new blog: IIMS-Asean http://iims-asean.blogspot.com/

Vietnam - The biggest affairs relating to coffee brands in 2011 (part 1)

VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnamese coffee market in 2011 witnessed a series of big deals wrap up. However, analysts say it’s not easy to squeeze into the market.

The surprising affairs

Any information relating to the current most famous coffee brand--Highlands Coffee, always catches the special attention of the public.

After buying Pho 24 brand, the owner of the Highlands coffee chain unexpectedly sold 50 percent of Viet Thai Company in Vietnam, including Pho 24 and Highlands to Jollibee Foods for 25 million dollars.

However, the more surprising affair in 2011 was the one in which Vinacafe sold 50.11 percent of stakes to Masan Group. Meanwhile, two years ago, Masan tried to negotiate to buy Vincafe stakes, but it was refused.

Most recently, due to the big losses, the owner of Coffee Duc Lap Minh An and Coffee Duc Lap Dakmil brands has shown his intention to sell the brands to a Chinese company for 18 billion dong.

The sales of the coffee brands show that it’s not easy to squeeze into the coffee market because of the stiff competition, even though the market is believed to have great potentials.

Analysts believe that Vinacafe had to sell stakes to Masan because it had no other choice. Meanwhile, Deputy General Director of VInacafe Bien Hoa said coffee companies would still have to spend more money, efforts and time to raise the coffee consumption rate of Vietnamese people to the average rate of foreigners.

He went on to say that the stake transfer deals clearly aimed to improve the competitiveness of the sellers and create favorable conditions for the buyers to penetrate the Vietnamese market. In other words, the deals would bring benefits to both sides.

Vinacafe has admitted that the cooperation with Masan can help Vinacafe improve its marketing skills to make the products better and more widely popularized, thanks to the powerful financial capability and good marketing staff of Masan.

Finance experts believe that Masan still continues buying more Vinacafe’s shares, since it sees the high growth rate of the Vietnamese coffee market f 8-10 percent per annum, higher than the world’s average rate of 6-7 percent. Meanwhile, Vinacafe is really a good choice for investors, because the brand is still leading the soluble coffee market with stable business performance and large distribution network.

Analysts have said by buying Vinacafe’s stakes, Masan would not only have the right to join the management of Vinacafe, but it would also have a firm “springboard” to penetrate the lucrative coffee market in the quickest way.

Besides, the move would also help Masan’s plan to list its shares on the market.

Similarly, when buying Highlands Coffee – Pho 24, Jollibee took the first step in its plan to do business for a long term in Vietnam and seek promising profits on the Vietnamese potential coffee market.

Trung Nguyen, a well-known coffee brand in Vietnam, has also bought the Saigon coffee plant, explaining that the deal would help triple the soluble coffee capacity of Trung Nguyen.

However, consultants have warned that it’s not easy to jump into the coffee market. A lot of the conglomerates have failed to make investment in non-core investment fields.

Vinamilk, the most well-known dairy brand in Vietnam, for example, failed to squeeze into the coffee market, despite the great efforts. In late 2010, Vinamilk had to transfer the project on the Saigon Coffee Plant to Trung Nguyen.

They have warned that Masan should consider the case thoroughly, when it plans to distribute coffee products on the existing distribution network which has been specializing in selling soya sauce and instant noodles.

Doanh Nhan Saigon

Dear Reader,

May I invite you to visit our new blog: IIMS-Asean http://iims-asean.blogspot.com/

Vietnam - Hiring CEOs not always best solution

VietNamNet Bridge – Hiring CEOs is now in fashion. However, a lot breakup cases reported recently have made businessmen rethink.

In mind of many people, hiring a CEO is the best solution for a rapidly developing business, because the CEOs are professional who have better experience and corporate governance skills. However, in most of cases, the “marriage” between business owners and hired CEOs do not last for long time.

Businesses need consultancy

Robert Tran, General Director of Robenny Asia Pacific, a consultancy firm specializing in leasing CEOs to businesses, related that one day, he was invited by the director of a veterinary medicine company to the company’s head office to consult with him about high ranking personnel.

The director said to Robert Tran that he wanted to hire a CEO, because he feared that the too rapidly developing company would go beyond his control, while he is just a veterinary doctor and he had never experienced the training courses on corporate administration.

Finally, Robert Tran advised the director to continue managing the company with the assistance of an advisor, because the director himself has a good management method already.

According to Robert Tran, the fee to hire a CEO at Robenny would be no less than 10,000 dollars a month, while the fee for a consultant would be just 1/5 of 10,000 dollars.

In fact, there are many problems existing that may hinder the cooperation between CEOs and businesses. Tran Sy Chuong, a Viet Kieu consultant, who spent 20 years working in Asia and 20 years in the US, said that most Vietnamese businesses want to hire CEOs, but they do not have the high enough confidence in the CEOs to assign all the works to them. This is one of the most important reasons that make the cooperation finish soon.

Chuong said that an advisor could be seen as an employee, but CEO needs to be considered as a fellow passenger of business owner. The owner of an information technology business said at a seminar on business strategies that in the current economic difficulties, businesses need to consult with advisors who can help improve the situation. Meanwhile, Chuong believes that businesses need advices even at the moments when they perform well.

Human resource experts believe that one should think of hiring CEOs only when he has three conditions. First, his enterprise is not strong enough and still does not have good management capability. Second, he is ready to share information with the CEOs to be hired. And third, enterprises need to have long term vision.

Tran emphasized that when company witnesses big personnel changes and follow a strategy to expand business, the owner should think of hiring a good CEO to manage the business for at least two years.

Tran said that business owners need to be very cautious with their decisions to hire CEOs. Many Vietnamese companies follow the “nepotism style,” while business owners do not trust “outsiders.”

In Vietnam, Tran Bao Minh, who is now the Managing Director of Asia Food Joint Stock Company, is considered a “star” at many big Vietnamese enterprises (Vinamilk, TH Milk). Minh leaves the businesses just after one or two years of holding high ranking positions and achieved some successes.

Robert Tran has warned that Vietnamese enterprises should not expect too much on hiring CEOs for a long time, because this is unrealistic. Robenny Vietnam only signs the contracts on leasing CEOs for one or two years, while it refuses longer term contracts.

Source: Dien dan DN

Dear Reader,

May I invite you to visit our new blog: IIMS-Asean http://iims-asean.blogspot.com/

Vietnam - NPL ratios increase sharply, worrying bankers

VietNamNet Bridge – A lot of commercial banks have faced the big non-performing loans (NPL) of up to trillions of dong by the end of the first quarter of 2012. A bank reportedly had seen the NPL triple that of early this year

The Q1 finance reports of some commercial banks show the same problem that while the outstanding loans decreased, the NPL ratios increased rapidly. The noteworthy thing is that this happened not only with small banks, but to big banks as well, including state owned banks, which are considered as strictly following safety lending procedures.

According to Dan tri newspaper, the finance report dated April 20, 2012, of Vietcombank, an equitized bank--showed that the pretax profit in the first quarter of the year dropped by 112 billion dong in comparison with the same period of the last year to 1662.85 billion dong. Besides, one could see worrying figures about the outstanding loans and NPL.

While the bank’s total outstanding loans decreased by 1195 billion dong from 208,085 billion dong to 206,890 billion dong, the 3-4-5th group debts had increased sharply by 40.69 percent to 5873 billion dong by March 31, 2012, in comparison with December 31, 2011 (the 5th group debt is considered the worst debt which may be irrecoverable).

This has raised the NPL ratio of the bank from 2 percent earlier this year to 2.84 percent. This would be a big challenge for the bank which strives to curb the NPL ratio at below 2.8 percent as committed by Vietcombank’s General Director Nguyen Phuoc Thanh recently.

However, Vietcombank still lags behind Vietinbank, also an equitized bank, in terms of the NPL growth rate. The Q1 finance report of Vietinbank shows that the total NPL of the bank has reached 139 percent, or double that at the end of 2011, increasing from 2165 billion dong to 5176 billion dong just after three months.

The highest growth rate of NPL can be seen in the fourth group debts, which increased from 200 billion dong to 817 billion dong, while the third group debts rose from 1053 billion dong to 3358 billion dong. As a result of the credit quality degrading, the bank has to make higher provisions against the bad debts, which increased from 2994 billion dong in late 2011 to 3738 billion dong.

Vietcombank and Vietinbank were both state owned banks, and though they both have been equitized, they are still referred to as state owned banks since the state is holding controlling stakes at the banks.

The NPL at private joint stock banks have also increased, though the NPL volume was lower than that of the big banks. Even Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), which was listed as one of the banks with the lowest NPL ratios in 2011, has also seen the sharp decrease in the credit quality.

The bank’s finance report released April 20, 2012 showed that the total outstanding loans of the bank increased by less than 1.8 percent, while the bad NPL ratio increased by 38.8 percent, from 873.4 billion dong in late 2011 to 1212.5 billion dong.

Dau tu chung khoan has quoted ACB’s General Director Ly Xuan Hai, who said at the bank’s shareholders’ meeting on March 30, that 60 percent of NPL of the bank relates to the loans to the real estate sector.

The NPL increases have also been reported by some other banks, including Eximbank (from 1202.9 billion dong to 1377 billion dong, 14.5 percent), and SHB (18.17 percent, 769.8 billion dong). While the outstanding loans decreased by 5 trillion dong in comparison with the beginning of the year, but the main sponsor for V-League got 174 billion dong more in NPL.

All the five banks have been listed as the first group banks, i.e. the best banks, which can have the credit growth rate of 17 percent in 2012.

One dollar is equal to 21,000 Vietnam dong.

C. V

Dear Reader,

May I invite you to visit our new blog: IIMS-Asean http://iims-asean.blogspot.com/

Vietnam - Korea-backed CJ Group jumps into Vietnam

CJ Group has further big plans for Vietnam following a $73.6 million controlling stake purchase of Vietnam’s leading cinema owner and film distributor.

The investment into Megastar Media Company will be conducted via the business cooperation contract signed between CJ GLS, one of its member companies and CT Land, a member company of CT Group, one of leading logistics developers in Vietnam. Under the agreement, CJ GLS will corporate with CT Land to develop and operate CT Land’s logistics projects in Binh Duong province, Danang City and Bac Ninh province.

Tran Kim Chung, chairman of CT Group, said that CJ GLS invested at least $20 million for facilities and machines into the 18,000 square metre Song Than logistics zone, located at the 7.64 hectare Song Than complex zone in Binh Duong province, while CT Land poured about $12 million to develop the logistics zone’s basic infrastructure.

Chung said the 18,000sqm Song Than logistics zone was opened in 2012’s first quarter. The alliance between CT Land and CJ GLS was part of a plan to expand a 8,000sqm logistics zone nearby the existing Song Than logistics zone, construct the 30,000sqm logistics area in Bac Ninh province and the CT Song Than Danang logistics zone in Danang.

CT Land’s expected investment capital for the logistics area in Bac Ninh province and Danang City was $15 million and $8 million, respectively, according to Chung. Chang Bok Sang, president of CJ GLS Vietnam did not reveal CJ GLS’ total investment in the above logistics zones, but was expected to be larger than CT Land’s investment.

“The market is bigger than expectation and still offers golden opportunities for professional foreign logistics and supply chain management service providers,” said Sang. With total logistics services are available across the globe with 71 partners and 25 own subsidiaries in 12 countries, CJ GLS is considered as one of the world’s leading logistics and supply chain management service providers. In Vietnam, CJ GLS provides container transportation, warehousing, products export, and inland transport in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

Due to Vietnam’s geographical landscape, the company plays an important role in connecting the north and the south through container transportation. In Hanoi, its major business is in air freight forwarding for portable telecommunications equipments for multinational enterprises and constantly expanding our air freight services. Currently, an exclusive air cargo charter is being operated once a week from Hanoi to Singapore, North Africa, Turkey, Middle East, and other countries.

In addition, CJ GLS also provide freight forwarding, ground transportation, and warehousing services.

Thanh Thuy | vir.com.vn

Dear Reader,

May I invite you to visit our new blog: IIMS-Asean http://iims-asean.blogspot.com/