A study on vision of vietnamese corporations lesson from president ho chi minhs vision

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Vu Anh Duong A STUDY ON VISION OF VIETNAMESE CORPORATIONS & LESSON FROM PRESIDENT HO CHI MINH’S VISION Major: Business Administration Code: 60 34 05 MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION THESIS SUMMARY Supervisor: Dr Ta Ngoc Cau Hanoi – 2012 TABLE OF CONTENT LIST OF TABLES LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION Statement of the study Objectives and Aims Research questions Scope of Work Data Sources and Processing Method Significance and implications Limitations Expected Results 10 Disseminations 11 Follow-up 12 Short Introduction CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL FOUNDATION 1.1 Vision’s definitions 1.2 Structure of Vision 1.2.1 Core ideology: 1.2.2 Future perspective: 1.2.3 Vision: 1.3 Desirable characteristics for a Vision 1.3.1 Simple and compendious: 1.3.2 Inner worth: 1.3.3 Challenging and realistic: 1.3.4 Appealing and encouraging: 1.3.5 Concentrate: 1.3.6 Time factor: 1.3.7 Vivid picture: 1.4 Distinguish an Vision 1.4.1 Vision and mission: 1.4.2 Vision and core value: 1.4.3 Vision and slogan: 1.4.4 Vision and strategic: 1.4.5 Vision and project objective: 1.5 Procedures for Developing a Vision 1.6 Transforming a vision 1.7 Lesson of the Ho Chi Minh’s Vision 1.7.1 Ho Chi Minh’s Vision a The first case b The second case 1.7.2 Structure of Ho Chi Minh’s Vision a Core ideology b Great aspiration 1.7.3 Characteristics of Ho Chi Minh’s Vision 1.7.4 Communicating the Vision Chapter 2: Research on Vietnamese corporations 2.1 Unawareness of the importance of Vision of an organization: 2.1.1 The enterprises not think that Vision is extremely important 2.1.2 The enterprises not want to have Vision 2.2 The enterprises not clearly understand Vision 2.2.1 Misunderstanding about the vision a Wrong in Vision structure: b Lack of necessary characteristics of Vision 2.2.2 The enterprises mistake on Vision: a Vision and Mission b Vision and core value: c Vision and Slogan: d Vision and Strategic objectives: e Vision and Project objectives: 2.3 The enterprises cannot effectively communicate their Vision 2.3.1 Bad Vision statement 2.3.2 No communicate the Vision 2.3.3 No invest to brainpower and efforts to develop and communicate a Vision 2.4 Discussions Chapter 3: Conclusions and recommendations 3.1 Conclusions 3.2 Recommendations 3.2.1 Develop a successful vision 3.2.2 Communicate widely the vision 3.2.3 Commitment to follow the vision READING REFERENCES APPENDIX APPENDIX A STUDY ON VISION OF VIETNAMESE CORPORATIONS & LESSON FROM PRESIDENT HO CHI MINH’S VISION Vu Anh Duong MBA Candidate, 2007 – 2009 School of Business Vietnam National University, Hanoi Supervisor: Dr Ta Ngoc Cau The Vision of enterprises has become more and more important with the enterprise especially in the deep and wide integrating process of Vietnam economy now Whether, the enterprise will develop in the right direction, right itinerary as planned and whether the enterprises have a huge enough aspiration, which will direct all members, endeavored to develop company Almost big company in the world has set up a goal, ambition of international stature and then they initially are the big company of country to become the leading international enterprises Their visions will have to be big enough and transformed to all member, employees, and owners of company, as result they will contribute to the strength of their company Objectives and Aims In order to get a full knowledge of the Vision and Vision of Ho Chi Minh President, and how to suggest Vietnamese Leaders, the study will aim to achieve the following objectives: Clear the Vision and Mission of organization? Form and content; required characteristics; differentiate Vision with other statements Find out the lessons about leadership styles of Ho Chi Minh President in term of setting up vision and how to transform the vision Research the biggest companies and cooperation in Vietnam Give suggestions for Vietnamese Leaders to create an appealing vision to apply into their organization Give the approach or suggestion to transform the vision to each member of organization Research questions To fulfill the objectives of the study, the following research questions need to be answered:  What is Vision and Mission of organization?  What is characteristic of Vision?  How to develop a vision? How is the valuable vision?  What are the differences between Mission and Vision?  How to transfer a vision of corporation to all people within the corporation?  In Vietnam, how Vietnamese Leaders develop and implement their vision?  What are suggestions for Vietnamese Leaders? Scope of Work  The thesis focuses on studying the biggest Vietnamese enterprises The conclusions; evaluations; recommendations; or proposal aim to apply on the biggest corporations of Vietnam and the world  This study will focus on analyzing Vision and vision transformation of Ho Chi Minh President  To generalize the fact of Vietnamese companies, study considers the Vietnamese biggest private companies Data Sources and Processing  Book: Leadership in organizations; fifth edition; The author: Gary Yukl  Built to last ; The author: Jim Collins  Vietnam report 500 (VNR500)  Documents and profile of 100 Vietnamese largest private enterprises  “The CEO golden rules” author Mary key + Dennis Stearns  Author: Susan Ward issued on website: About.com (a part of NY times company) Method This study is an empirical research, which applied two methods:  Review of related literature/documentation  Interview relevant people Review of Related Literature/Documentation: This will examine the multidisciplinary theories of and empirical studies on corporate social responsibility in the literature Besides, it will help to compare between theory and practical activities Interview: Questions will be developed and structured interviews are conducted Significance and implications This study will contribute to the body of knowledge and understanding on Vision, Mission, and effective Leadership It will also help Vietnamese enterprises enrich their knowledge on Vision for better application in cooperation with business activities Limitations While the study examines the biggest companies, represented by 100 leading corporations, there are limitations on data sources for analyzing and giving out discussions and conclusions Besides, the inconsistent reporting system of different corporations on Vision is also another limitation for the study Expected Results The study will give a better understanding on the Vision definition and Vision transformation as well as the modern Vision’s transformation activities in the World and in Vietnam Vietnamese corporations’ Vision awareness, implementation, and achievements are also figured out through successful case studies Moreover, some suggestions for promoting Vision in Vietnamese enterprises are recommended at the end of the study Disseminations The result of study will be useful for many target groups Many Vietnamese enterprises might be interested in the recommendations and the conclusions of the study, from which they can get useful information on how to react in Vision-related issues and how to benefit from them 10 Follow-up Further study will be taken on improvement of Vision understanding and implementation among Vietnamese enterprises based on the experience and achievements of large corporations Other way of study will be analyzing the impact of understanding level to Vision implementation in Vietnamese enterprises in some provinces particularly and all over Vietnam generally 11 Short Introduction The research is divided into three parts, which are including: Chapter 1: Theoretical Foundation: Will give a relevant theoretical background to the study and case study of Ho Chi Minh Chapter 2: Research on Vietnamese corporations: In this chapter, Vision understanding and implementation in Vietnam will be reviewed One hundred biggest private corporations representing for Vietnamese enterprises will be analyzed on their awareness, real activities In connection with the Vision of Ho Chi Minh in term of creation and transformation of visions, it will be the best lesson for Vietnamese company Chapter 3: Conclusions and recommendations: Conclusions and recommendations will be noticed for better implementation of Vision in Vietnamese enterprises CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL FOUNDATION 1.1 Vision’s definitions “Vision” has been commonly used nowadays; however, it also has rarely been understood right meaning When someone has been asked “what is the vision?” there is less people can understand the right meaning of this word or can give the right definition of it, however almost of people know that it is the goal, the long-term plan described the future Thesis will extract some Vision definitions of some authors in the world to bring out the general observation as well as basic meaning of Vision “Vision includes two main parts: A core ideology and a future perspective Let pay attention to the symmetrical motivation is “Keeping the core value – promoting the advance.” A far Vision is built on the connection between two elements of “Jin” and “Yang”: on the one side it determines “the reason for existence of us” (core ideology, constancy), at the same time on the other side it talks about “what we expect to achieve, become, create (that will promote the advance and change to achieve the future perspective.” Quoted “Built to Last” of author - Jim Collins & Jerry I.Porras “The Vision can provide a sense of continuity for followers by liking past events and present strategies to a vivid image of a better future for the organization The vision provides hope for a better future and the faith that it will be attained some day During the hectic and confusing process of implementing major change, a clear vision helps to guide and coordinate the decisions and actions of thousands of people working in widely dispersed location.” Quoted “Leadership in organization” of author Gary Yulk According to the author, Vision is a future vision that the enterprise should look forward to and it becomes dynamism to encourage everybody to share his or her efforts to achieve it Vision is offered basing on the current core value or the past and great aspiration of the enterprise Based on the above-mentioned definitions, Author found that Vision could be understood as follows: It is the combination between cores values of organization with the ambition that the organizations want to archive in the future The statement of the Vision is imagination about the future of its organization However, the imagination is not without basic it has been raised from real abilities of organization in the present and the past Vision is not same with Mission that the purpose of Vision attends to its organization and the member of its organization, purpose of Mission attend to customer of its organization The statement of Vision will not present how to reach to it, it only show the direction of other business plans That is the reason why the organization issues a statement of Vision while the Leader has to image where his organization come to and has enough courage to dream of it Besides that, statement of Vision could catch the emotion of a Leader A good vision should have a strength to attract everybody in the enterprise to together look forward to and achieve it in the future, basing on the competence or characteristics that the enterprise is owning That means Vision should emphasize the strongest point of the enterprise, what the enterprise needs to exploit it is to overcome the desire of the enterprise itself 1.2 Structure of Vision This thesis has a special interest in a model or structure and elements of “Vision” of an organization; thereby “Vision” includes Core ideology and Future perspective Following this vision means to create link of organization and strategy to keep cores and push up advances for a future perspective Such link brings vitality and realizes initial vision 1.2.1 Core ideology: Constant particulars of an organization are constant factors and surpass product/ market life cycle, technological advances, administration styles and leaders Frankly, the biggest and most important contribution of “architects” of the world leading corporations is core ideology of such corporations The talented leaders will depart this world, products will be outdated, the market will change, new technologies will appear, and administration styles will change Nevertheless, core ideology of a leading corporation is always invariable and a guiding star for development The core ideology includes core values and core objectives - Core values: Core values are basic and constant of an organization The core values are a small group of leading, constant, and unexplained principles They have internal values and importance for members of the organization - Core goals: Core goals are basic reason for existence of an organization Between core goals and core values, core goals are considered more important in leading and communicating inspiration for an organization To see more clearly, what the core value is The author selected and offered some examples about the core goals, as follows:  3M: Solving the unsolved problems creatively and innovatively  Wal-mart: Creating opportunity for ordinary people to purchase the goods like the rich often buy  Merck: Protecting and developing human life Example about Core ideology: Table 1.1: Case of core ideology Company Name Core ideology Humans are the core of the company strength The product is the final results of efforts Ford Motor Profit is a necessary means, being measure of success Honesty, veracious in business Expect to achieve happiness achieved due to development, renovation and applying technology due to the benefit of community Sony Improving the cultural life of Japan Always be leaders Respect and encourage the ability and creativity of the staff Taking enough care to all staff IBM Spending time bringing about trust to customers Going to end in all pledge, always in leading position 1.2.2 Future perspective: It includes two small parts: Big hairy audacious goal (BHAG) for duration of 10-30 years and a specific description about the company’s situation upon obtaining such BHAG Future perspective describes a detail and vivid future of an organization when it reaches to the BHAG stipulated It is supposed concretization of the Vision; from words of mouth to the detail “picture”; create the vivid images appear on mind of organization’s member The author believes that it is “paint the picture by words.” The “painting” is extremely important to lead the BHAG (long term 10-30 years) will become what is very detailed, visible things on the member’s mind Please consider the example of Henry Ford, instead of saying the importance of cars and present about his cars and company, he describe the future society with car, it is looked very nice and excited society not only for society but also for his employees The example about Henry Ford describes future perspective: “I will supply cars for the majority of people Cars should have reasonable prices, helping any commuters can purchase them, using them comfortably with their families By then, anyone can have a car Horse carriages will disappear from the highways of our country, cars will be considered as an obvious means of transport … and we will create jobs with high salaries for many laborers.” 1.2.3 Vision: Nature of the Vision as analyzed above is a combination between the present and the future, any company’s Vision must be shown Core ideology and BHAG Some leaders seem to ignore the past or the present and only focus on the future If a leader respects things obtained by his organization or himself and expresses respect for the persons who lay foundation for his position This makes people of such organization feel unworried because they know that they are members of an organization with historical depth and all their efforts to be respected The example about Vision of Merck: “With the tools supplied by us, science and knowledge will develop; people’s life will be free from diseases and anxieties We pledge to assist maximally so that the center will deserve our belief Let’s people fetch for truth, the laborers are hard-working for a better world, those who always raise the torch of science and knowledge, having more courage and feel that they are always assisted by us.” 1.3 Desirable characteristics for a Vision The Thesis has integrated the most essential characteristics that a vision should be: 1.3.1 Simple and compendious: A vision should be simple and idealistic, a picture of a desirable future, not a complex plan with quantitative objectives and detailed action steps In addition, a successful vision should be simple enough to be communicated clearly in five minutes or less A successful vision must be easy to remember and remind as well as it must be excited every one whenever mentioned it This characteristic requires a vision should be simple enough to such an extent that all people in the organization can understand and remember 1.3.2 Inner worth: The main purpose of vision attend to the member inside the organization, therefore The vision should appeal to the values, hopes, and ideals of organizations members and other stakeholders whose support is needed The vision not only guides the people know where they need to go, what they are required to perform but also support them to go right way 1.3.3 Challenging and realistic: The vision should be challenging but realistic Hope is not a vision; vision has to be realistic other than it will be an impractical ideal Realistic of the vision should increase faith on a leader The vision should address basic assumption about what is important for the organization, how it should relate to the environment, and how people should be treated Turning a vision into realistic, it is not meaning turning it into challenge If the vision not requires all people have to try by their best, maybe they will ask themselves that their contribution will be worth A number of leaders may be afraid since challenging his group However, a challenge should interest the qualified person want to have wingspan and take off as well as inflame enthusiasm of conscientious person and make threats against emotionless person Challenging will support the people on the organization have to attempt by their best to achieve the goals 1.3.4 Appealing and encouraging: The vision should be appealing, compelling and encourage enough to evolve the people A successful vision should excite on value, hope, and idea of all member on the organization as well as stakeholders who their contribution is very necessary with the organization The vision should emphasize distant ideological objectives rather than immediate tangible benefits 1.3.5 Concentrate: It should be focused enough to guide decisions and actions, but general enough to allow initiative and creatively in the strategies for attaining it The vision will state how to achieve the inspiration of enterprise however, it should not show the detail any way or step 1.3.6 Time factor: To avoid becoming the ambiguous vision, a vision should include the time factor; it means that the leader should estimate when his organization can achieve the vision 1.3.7 Vivid picture: A vision should be the very vivid picture of future in which all member of organization can realize himself or herself in that picture It means that the leader must be a “painter” who can “draw” the future perspective of his or her organization In addition, the leader has to show or present his or her high aspiration, inspiration, as well as commitment to achieve The vision is not only a vivid picture but also it must be all heart of the leader However, the vision must point out the objectives and purpose of organization Vision should stem from sincere sentiment, passionate feelings, the convincement of the listeners, etc which are basic qualities of Vision It is possible that some managers not wish to express sentiment when talking about their desires; however, the truth is like that which is easy to attract and encourage people more Let us try to analyze an example about the declaration of Winston Churchill in 1940, he not only stated clearly: “Let’s defeat Hitler”, but said: “Hitler knew that he had to either defeat us on this island, or lose in the whole war If we stay firm, the whole Europe will be free, and life in the whole world will step forward If we lose, this whole world (including the US, including what we take care about) will fall into the abyss of prolonged disasters Thus, take our hands firmly to implement our mission; how to make the United Kingdom exists more than one thousand years, people will keep talking about today as follows: That is their most splendid time.” 1.4 Distinguish an Vision Vision is a term used with many different meanings, and there is widespread confusion about it It is unclear whether a mission statement, strategic, objective, value statement, or slogan constitutes an effective vision In the absence of direct research on this question, one way to answer it is to examine each construct in relation to the desirable characteristics for a vision This analysis suggests that a compelling and enduring vision usually requires something more than a bland mission statement, a slogan, a list of value, or a specific strategic objective 1.4.1 Vision and mission: The mission statement usually describes the purpose of the organization in terms of the type of activities to be performed for constituents or customers A vision is concerned with what these activities mean to people The core of the vision is the organization’s mission, but different aspects of it may be emphasized A successful vision tells you not only what the organization does, but why it is worthwhile and exciting to it A successful vision makes the typical dull, abstract mission statement come alive, infusing it with excitement, arousing emotions, and stimulating creativity to achieve it In vision there usually includes Mission, thus in many cases Vision and Mission are not clearly distinguishable or they can be one entity However, it is still recognizable of its basis and qualities, specifically: Vision is mostly used internally of the organization whereas Mission is often used for objects outside organization such as customers or partners 1.4.2 Vision and core value: A value statement is a list of the key values or ideological themes considered important for an organization The values usually pertain to treatment of customers, treatment of organization members, core competencies, and standards of excellence Common themes include satisfying customers, achieving excellence in products or services, and making important contributions to society A value statement provides a good beginning for developing a more complete vision However, just listing values does not clearly explain their relative priority, how they are interrelated, or how they will be expressed and achieved An effective vision statement provides a glimpse of a possible future in which all the key values are realized at the same time Basing on the structure of Vision mentioned above, Vision should include core values of the enterprise and Vision should be based on that core value if one wishes to have a strong enough and feasible vision The distinction here is core value is what an organization is having, is possessing and it should actually be the strength of that organization, and Vision will be built on that basic background 1.4.3 Vision and slogan: Slogans are used to summarize and communicate values in simple terms However, a slogan is limited in how many values can be expressed Consider the following examples: technology is our business, quality is job one, we feel good when you feel good, all the news people want to read, and partners in making dreams come true Only the last slogan has more than one value; it describes the ideal service provided to customers and the ideal relationship among the providers Slogan can be useful as part of a larger vision, but overemphasis on a simplistic slogan can trivialize the vision and diminish important values not include in the slogan The slogan is like mission, it mainly serves the objects who are customers or partners of organizations Thus, all individuals in the Organization should try their same strength to achieve and serve the Slogan of the Organization; however, the beneficiary is not only the individuals in the organization Vision is introspective, all individuals in the organization strives their best to achieve the same aloft purpose of the organization that the beneficiary from that strive is the individuals of this organization 1.4.4 Vision and strategic: Strategic objectives are tangible outcomes or results to be achieved, sometimes by a specific deadline A performance objective may be stated in terms of the absolute level of performance (e.g., profits, sales, return on investment), or the relative level of performance (e.g., becoming number one in the industry or region, outperforming a traditional rival) Neither type of objective is likely to involve enduring, ideological themes Performance objectives are useful to guide planning and facilitate evaluation of progress, but the focus of a vision should be on values and ideological themes, not on improvement of economic outcomes or outperforming rivals If performance objectives are included in a vision, they should be regarded as milestones along the way toward achieving ideological objectives 1.4.5 Vision and project objective: Project objective are defined in terms of the successful completion of a complex activity (e.g., developing a new type of product, implementing a new MBA program establishing a subsidiary in China) These objectives can emphasize economic outcomes, ideological outcomes, or both A limitation of most project objectives is their relatively short time perspective When the project is completed, the vision is end Project objectives can be included in the long-term vision for an organization or a supplementary vision can be built around an especially important project However, no single project should be allowed to eclipse the fuller, more enduring vision for the organization 1.5 Procedures for Developing a Vision It is extremely difficult to develop a compelling vision, and it cannot be generated by a mechanical formula Judgment and analytical ability are needed to synthesize the vision, but intuition and creativity are important as well To develop an appealing vision, it is essential to have a good understanding of the organization (its operations, products, services, markets, competitors, and social-political environment), its culture (shared beliefs and assumptions about the world and the organization’s place in it), and the underlying needs and values of employees and other stakeholders In most cases, a successful vision is not the creation of a single, heroic leader working alone, but instead in reflects the contributions of many diverse people in the organization The vision is seldom created in a single moment of revelation, but instead it takes shape during a lengthy process of exploration, discussion, and refinement of ideas Some tentative guideline to help leaders develop a vision is summarized as follows: - Involve key stakeholders - Identify strategic objectives with wide appeal - Identify relevant elements in the old ideology - Link the vision to core competencies - Continually assess and regime the vision 1.6 Transforming a vision The successful leader must know how to transform his vision to people to evolve “enthusiasm flame,” and encourage the people in the right way Base on seven below-mentioned elements for the leader to achieve the goal: - Articulate a clear and appealing vision - Explain how the vision can be attained - Act confidently and optimistically - Express confidence in followers - Use dramatic, symbolic actions to emphasize key values - Lead by example - Empower people to achieve the vision b Great aspiration Aspiration of an independent and powerful country was smoldered right when Uncle Ho left Nha Rong Port to seek pathways for national salvation In the same period, many revolutions of Phan Boi Chau and Phan Chu Trinh were taken place however, they failed President Ho Chi Minh, by his experiences, went to many parts of the world, met many people and all lifestyles (capitalistic class, bourgeois class and proletarian class) in the world and he realized the pathway of national liberation With LeninMarxist Ideology, which played a key role and his steadiness and profound visions, President Ho Chi Minh led Vietnamese Communist Party to gain a final victory The greatest victory was that Vietnam seized power from French colonialism in 1945 and President Ho Chi Minh wrote Declaration of Independence to mark success This proves that his aspiration is not a groundless and dreamy aspiration Such aspiration is based on his experiences, knowledge and great will 1.7.3 Characteristics of Ho Chi Minh’s Vision Considering characteristic aspects in Ho Chi Minh’s Vision based on modern theory on Vision, Ho Chi Minh’s Vision contains all these characteristics:  Ho Chi Minh’s Vision is always a vivid picture of the future of a country in general and an organization in particular Such picture is drawn with materials of straightforward, easy-to-imagine and extremely vivid words such as “Vietnam’s nation”, “more decent, more beautiful”, “can be on an equal footing with other powerful countries in five continents” and “we will rebuild our land ten times more beautiful”… His imagination to communicate to the listeners is easy to understand and imagine, even children can imagine He used comparative words “ten times,” “be on equal footing with other powerful countries in five continents.” These words are easy to communicate to the listeners and the readers and help them imagine a clear and coherent future  His statement clearly pointed out purposes and objectives that the whole nation must aim at in near future That is a nation of powerful, decent, beautiful nation and equal footing with other powerful countries in five continents With clear purposes, all people must research and create to obtain such objectives It is not an inflexible instruction forced all people to follow  Ho Chi Minh’s Vision is realistic His statement is not totally groundless and an unrealizable wish During the process of seeking pathways for national salvation, he experienced hardship With only two bare hands and secret operation, he led the country to gain independence To this, he struggled by strength of brainpower, sound guidelines, and mobilization of the masses to carry out revolution … and he succeeded With studious spirit, diligence and no fear of hardship, creativeness and intelligence of Vietnamese people are core values to develop the country by knowledge Knowledge is the foundation of development in the world  Ho Chi Minh’s Vision is a time factor “Mostly depends on your efforts in learning” or “The American invaders defeated” show the generation of students at present but not dream of former President Ho Chi Minh about the future Or “The American invaders defeated” is not impracticable because when he wrote a testament in 1965, American army basically no longer predominated in the battle-field; the balance of power at that time made us hope a united and independent country  Ho Chi Minh’s Vision is legible, straightforward, and easy to communicate it to many people His words are not for the intellectual circles only They are for the whole of people His words are close and pure  Ho Chi Minh’s Vision is highly encouraging In his statement, he drew a picture of bright future He used highly encouraging words such as “Vietnam can be glorious or not” It is like a harassing question to urge patriots to develop the country When this question imprints on the mind, it will become urgency and great encouragement Or “Our mountains will always be, our rivers will always be, our people will always be” hurries national pride of each Vietnamese person,  Ho Chi Minh’s Vision is challenging However, to fulfill objectives he expected, it was a great challenge, which is not easy to this This challenge was not only to children who go to school but also to all generations of Vietnamese people and all walks of life that how to create the best learning and research environment in order to develop Vietnam’s intellectual foundations His 10 Vision is that besides struggle for the country’s unity, we must focus on the future generation to construct and develop the country after its independence  Ho Chi Minh’s Vision has orientation His statement contained orientation to enable all people to follow it The only way to develop the country is to develop based on intellectual foundations However, it is not so specific to eliminate creativeness and each individual has his own learning style subject to his conditions and situations to contribute to development Each individual must learn about at any time and everywhere and create his own learning conditions Immediate objective is to successfully struggle against American invaders to develop the country 1.7.4 Communicating the Vision a Clarity and coherence of the Vision Former President Ho Chi Minh is an excellent leader Considering all aspects of communicating the Vision, that is clarity and coherence of the Vision; all documents, speeches, poems or stories of former President Ho Chi Minh point out his obvious viewpoint about Vietnam’s war of resistance and national independence and national unity In each specific period, each of his specific strategies or situation always expresses his idea in the truest and most obvious manner Clarity and coherence are proved in each his sentence He did not use abstractive and unintelligible words but used the simplest, closest and more natural words for all walks of life such as “Our mountains will always be, our rivers will always be, our people will always be/ The American invaders defeated, we will rebuild our land ten times more beautiful!.” His verses are pleasing to ear, legible and plain He wrote these verses in a formal document but it was indeed close As a great poet, his verses are not wordy and incomprehensible Former President Ho Chi Minh often expressed his purposes in a coherent and confident manner It communicates confident feeling to the listeners He had no unfounded optimism or excessive optimism He always explained clearly his idea by specific examples or evidences “His very practical and creative action needn’t to be written and spoken lengthily but he did much and very much He spoke little but did much; even he did without speaking by specific and persuasive action” (Professor Tuong Lai) b Explain how the vision can be attained He always explained to the doers to understand the importance and significance as well as how to attain such thing These help the doers to promote their creativeness and initiative upon implementing the Vision When communicating to the listeners or the readers, he always expressed his confidence and optimism; he always emphasized key factors and used impressive acts and symbols to stress such key factors; and finally he used a lot of specific examples and evidences to clarify the Vision as well as communicate it to the whole of people Besides, talent of former President Ho Chi Minh is to use all ways to communicate ideas and objectives (actions, literature and poems, meetings …) Regarding action, upon living in the forest, he may be Mr Ke, an old ethnic man or upon attending the meetings or meeting partners, he may be a levelheaded and clever politician Former President Ho Chi Minh is famous in the world for not only a hero of national liberation and an excellent leader but also a great man of culture of the world He used all forms to communicate his Vision such as prose, short stories, and poems It is not only by unique language but also by different languages such as demotic script, Chinese script, Vietnamese script and foreign languages President Ho Chi Minh used different means to describe his vision such as decisions, ordinances, articles, answers to the press and direct meeting, etc As commented by ex-Prime Minister Pham Van Dong, “The soul of President Ho Chi Minh is always poetic” or Prof Tuong Lai said, “It is rare to have such a revolutionary leader with meditations and great inspirations President Ho Chi Minh, therefore, is a revolutionary soldier with poetic emotions of a poet, revolutionary poet Ho Chi Minh.” c Commune the Vision to listeners in a confident, optimistic and passionate manner With the same idea and objective, he could communicate to the listeners by different ways It was repetitive but the listeners had no boring, dry, and formalistic feeling; on the contrary, this mad the listeners feel more elated and excited and have more motive forces Besides, he was excellent at 11 communicating his idea at anytime and anywhere and with each different object, he expressed the same content and idea differently According to comments of Prof Tuong Lai, “What that is called argument, science, scholarship, and profoundness is included in former President Ho Chi Minh That is harmony and combination of folk brainpower That is intelligence, tact and simplicity of Vietnam’s cultural quintessence expressing in daily actions of peasant on their rice-fields or in the middle of forests, “remote villages” [Nguyen Trai]” When studying his life, his determination and optimism for the career of national liberation and country construction Right after leaving Nha Rong Port with two bare hands, he answered a friend of his to earning money to go abroad: “Here, here is money” he both said both put up his hands This proved his confidence and determination He still kept confidence upon secret operations in the forest or the mountainous cave Alternatively, in the short story named “The 10-year sleep” written in 1949 by Ho Chi Minh President, i.e in the first years of hard and tense resistance war against French colonialists in the “hold-out” phase, at that time, he still imagined Vietnam’s independence and development such as: “All streets and villages are clean and beautiful There are schools, libraries, theatres, medicine rooms and sports ground everywhere …” All indicate that President Ho Chi Minh always had great confidence and high determination; thus, in all circumstances he still communicated his ideas and thoughts to all people with all passion and confidence In all situations, he still wrote poems and stories … CHAPTER 2: RESEACH ON VIETNAMESE CORPORATIONS The author’s concern is why Vietnamese enterprises have not achieved great success in Vietnam’s market Why Vietnamese companies cannot occupy the domestic market evidentially almost of products in Vietnam imported or made by foreign enterprises or imported to Vietnam? Why there are not companies, corporations, or organization meeting regional standards? Isn’t is that Vietnamese people in general and the companies’ leaders in particular have no enough necessary inspiration and ambition? To learn about the Vision of Vietnamese enterprise in the clearest and most realistic manner, the author consolidated, reckoned up, and studied real situation of Vietnamese corporations in stating, developing, and communicating their Vision based on collected data of 100 Vietnamese largest private enterprises among Top 500 Vietnamese largest enterprises in 2010 This study focuses on learning about how the largest private companies in Vietnam state, have awareness of, and communicate their Vision? Besides, the author deeply studied some big companies (within the list of 500 Vietnamese largest enterprises in 2010) and interviewed some senior leaders and employees of such companies to more profound and comprehensive outlook 2.1 Unawareness of the importance of Vision of an organization: An enterprise without Vision is like as a person walking in the forest without a compass and going out to sea without a nautical chart According to the author’s investigating 100 leading enterprises in Vietnam and Top private enterprises voted by VNR500 in 2010, in which 68% largest Vietnamese companies had no Vision statement for two reasons that the Vision is an entirely new definition with such organizations or they did not want to state the Vision The material weakness of Vietnamese enterprises is they often look at short-term and usually lead the business by solving matters, annually plans or several year plans This is true, but not enough, as enterprises need to have more long-term vision, need to have greater desire enough to extend themselves to the world range and develop sustainably The fact that enterprises have not had a vision with enough strength stems from many reasons, but the major reason is the viewpoint of being afraid of changes, subjective, voluntaries and always thinks that, “our enterprise is developing very well without the so-called Vision.” However, according to the statistics of the author, hardly any enterprises of Vietnam maintain development for a long time from 10 to 20 years; these enterprises 12 only maintain its existence, annual revenue, however it could not developing to last as well as could be hard when facing changes or adverse circumstance Stemming from the viewpoint of being afraid of changes, or looking forward to short-term instead of looking forward to farther, more lofty targets, thus many enterprises own very good human resources and have full competitive competence, however, it is impossible to exploit it, for example: intellectual resources, the unity and determination of the human resources, other competitive advantages 2.1.1 The enterprises not think that Vision is extremely important These enterprises not completely know definition of the Vision of a company or an organization or they not think that their inspirations are a Vision This is easy to understand because the Vision of an enterprise is a new definition in Vietnam for about 10 years In addition, this definition is only taught in the business administration graduate classes or short-term business administration training courses In reality, the enterprises’ not stating the Vision or communicating it to employees in their organizations is completely not that they lack inspiration or have no the Vision The reason is that the leaders of such organizations not know definition of the Vision In reality, these enterprises ranked among Top 100 Vietnamese largest private enterprises This proves that they have great inspirations and certain values to succeed Yet, many enterprises have not escaped from Vietnam to become the largest companies in the world Whether, these companies have enough competitiveness and gain a victory in Vietnam, the region and the world or not? Whether these companies are good substantially and have firm foundation to develop or they are large companies in revenue? Thus, this thesis will provide and clarify definition of the Vision Actually, there are many books, materials, and curricula about the Vision However, they only introduce what the Vision is After reading and studying, they only know the definition of the Vision but cannot acquire a real and valuable Vision 2.1.2 The enterprises not want to have Vision This is because the leaders of such organizations know the definition of the Vision but they are unaware of the importance of the Vision in building and developing the enterprises Even, some leaders think that if their Vision is publicly stated, the competitive enterprises will know their future orientation and then focus on learning about or pushing up competition Such enterprises’ leaders inadequately understand the Vision They confuse the Vision with the Vision for a specific strategy or a specific objective; the Vision for a specific strategy or Objective may be obtained for or years, focusing on some specific activities However, the Vision is not As mentioned above, the Vision is a future picture indicating great inspirations to be attained by the enterprises in near future (for 20 or 30 years) or in further future However, the enterprises as well as their employees must make every effort to realize such future picture Therefore, the Vision is unable to imitate and keep secret The Vision has real value when it starts from great inspiration of the leader and bases on core values of such organization The valuable Vision will be communicated to all people in an organization and all individuals in such organization must understand and have the greatest inspirations and desire to realize such future picture 2.2 The enterprises not clearly understand Vision According to the statistic figures in 100 leading private enterprises in Vietnam in 2010, 68% of the enterprises almost not state the Vision and 32% of the enterprises have the Vision statement but 80% among such enterprises confuse the Vision with the Objective of the company Besides, such Vision statements not indicate their inherent values Hence, it fails to obtain real purpose of developing a Vision of an organization The author also interviewed some middle and high-ranking enterprises who have the Vision statements and found that “the Vision” is formalistic; it represents that enterprise catches up with the era and it is the fashion for such organization It has no its inherent value The below are some specific examples to understand clearly, what “the Vision” is: 2.2.1 Misunderstanding about the vision a Wrong in Vision structure: As mentioned in the previous chapter, Vision should include two important parts, which are Core value and BHAG The author thinks, most vision mentioned above only achieve half in total in the structure of Vision that is to look forward to a bright future of the enterprise, such as “To be the best 13 Bank and a leading business” “a leading quality”; “a leading company”; etc Considering bout the above declarations, there is totally lack of a very important idea that is, “Core value,” thus these Visions becomes lack of basic to reach it Core value will answer the question, what does enterprise base on to realize their future aspirations Table 2.1: Case of Saigon Commercial Bank Company Name Vision Increasing value for shareholders Developing various types of products and services of a modern SAIGON bank COMMERCIAL Maintaining the satisfaction, loyalty and association of customers BANK to SCB Ensuring the growth and sound financial capacity Continually enhancing working motive and creativeness of its staff Among most of 100 biggest private enterprises in Viet Nam according to the table of ranking of VNR in 2010, the visions all lack of an important part of Vision, which is the Core Value of the enterprise The author has selected quite a sufficient vision declaration in the structure of Vision, in the case of Saigon Commercial Bank, Vision declaration has offered a value of the enterprise they are the dynamism and creativity of the labor force However, their use of Core Value does not bring about any practical thing for the member of this enterprise, only one member of the enterprise benefits from Core Value that are the Shareholders Moreover, Core Value of the enterprise does not also bring enterprise to a loftier target, a more desirable target Thus, BHAG of this enterprise is normal and lacks necessary knowledge Generally considered, a major weakness of Vietnamese enterprises when offering a Vision declaration is incorrectly in structure, and thus will not have a perfect vision, and not good Vision cannot bring about anything great and does not exploit all the inherent value of Vision b Lack of necessary characteristics of Vision The Vision declarations of most of Vietnamese enterprises in general and the Visions mentioned in this topic lack of important qualities of Vision, specifically:  Simple and straightforward: A vision should be simple and idealistic, a picture of a desirable future, not a complex plan with quantitative objectives and detailed action steps These Vision declarations have the simplicity and easy to recognize, however it is not a picture describing the great desire of that enterprise The author recognizes, among the Vision of Vietnamese enterprises almost no enterprises having Vision has this important characteristic Some Visions are simple but too monotonous, lack of color, unattractive and so simple that they mistake it for some slogan of the company; some Visions are lengthy, presenting too many unnecessary issues thus Vision becomes complicated and lack of conciseness The author thinks that this weakness of Vietnamese businessmen stems from the fact that they not understand what should Vision be to be good and they would also not having to invest to develop it, maintain it and pledge with it The case study of analyzing of Vision declaration of Kinh Do Company and Habubank is belows: Table 2.2: Case of Kinh Do Group Company Vision Name Vision: Living Fine Kinh Do enriches people's lives by providing products and services, which immediately realize the needs, and desires for Living Fine Applying our dynamism, creativity, foresight and other core values, we KINH DO create products and services which deliver consumers what they want and GROUP make us all proud People trust Kinh Do companies, products, and services so much they rely on them for Fine Living every day Kinh Do generates bonus personal, economic and 14 For the case of Kinh Do Group, this enterprise has partly contains the structures and characteristics necessary of Vision considering in reasoning basis aspect However, Vision declaration is too long, offering too many issues not sufficiently concentrating on the most important points Besides, Vision of Kinh Do Group offers also issues relating to customers, to society, this is a misunderstanding as Vision is introversive, it is only for members of Organization: Shareholders and the whole working force of that organization  The challenging character of Vision: Vision does not express value, the desire, and the ideology of the members of the society These visions not point out how to achieve that desirability, how to navigate for the whole members of the organization, and how to guide them to go in the right correction to achieve their desire Table 2.3: Case of Techcombank and EMIS Company Name Vision TECHCOMBANK To be the best bank and a leading business in Vietnam MATERIALS – To be a leading company in quality of services in petroleum trading in PETROLEUM JSC Vietnam (main line of petroleum) – EMIS Analyzing some Visions above, the author realizes that, they are challenges to the enterprise, however it does not left any remarks to the members of this organization Seeing on the viewpoint of the laborer in the enterprise, they will see that there is not much difference between a normal company and a leading company in the country or the industry The laborers will not be able to recognize that they gain some practical things from the fact that their company becomes the leading company and they are nearly absent in bringing the company to become the leading company, although their effort they contribute is very great The author themselves are working for a leading company of an industry in Vietnam, The author recognizes that the laborers still feel satisfied when their company is in the highest position in the industry, as their biggest expectation is income, is the working environment, is respected, etc, then it is not mentioned Thus Vision will not be able to reach an important function of theirs is to encourage and boost every individual to strive their best  Attractiveness: A very important characteristic of Vision is it should be lively, attractive and should encourage everybody to take part in as well as strive for achieving it by his or her best A successful Vision should attract the participants, bringing about great hope and always desire to reach of every member in the enterprise The Vision of Vietnamese enterprise totally does not have this important characteristic; the Visions are totally monotonous, colorless, and mundane When asked the staff and even the leaders of some Enterprises with the above said Vision declaration, most of them did not know what their enterprise’s Vision is or when talking about it does not have any enthusiasm Table 2.4: Case of Habubank Company Name Vision Habubank’s vision is positioned in the slogan of the Bank “VALUES FORM TRUST.” Habubank constantly adopts this slogan as it shows all basic targets set by the Bank Habubank aims to generate unique and useful values to customers in order to gain trust and loyalty from them HABUBANK Habubank has been operating and obtaining success based on the TRUST accumulated over the years It is the trust from the State, shareholders, customers, employees, and partners That trust has been formed by values created by the Bank no matter whether they are core or added, economic or non-economic, tangible or intangible values The case of Habubank is a typical example for a Vision lack of liveliness and color, the listener has a feeling that it is presented in a general meeting, a seminar, or any event of their company According to the statistics of the author when having a chance to work with Habubank, most of the staff of Habubank when asked can only remember the Slogan: “Value accumulates belief” Vision 15 declaration of Habubank is concentrating in analyzing the Slogan, not offering a picture about the future of Habubank  Orientation and focus: Vision should concentrate necessarily to bring out decision and action However, it is large enough to permit originality in every strategy of the enterprise Most Vision of Vietnamese enterprises often offer wishes vaguely, specific but not point out the manner to achieve it, for example: “to be a leading company”; “Leading company in quality”, etc, However nearly no one in the enterprise knows how to achieve it even the person who created it Table 2.5: Case of Angiang coffee and Toan Luc Trading JSC Company Name Vision ANGIANG To become a leading company in coffee manufacture and export in COFFEE Vietnam TOAN LUC To become a leading provider in dedicated printing paper in Vietnam TRADING JSC and the world Analyzing Vision of these two enterprises, the author said it only offer the targets of the enterprise However, it totally has no orient ability, the members of this enterprise also not know how to achieve that target, the author also affirms that the people creating this Vision declaration does not know what to do, where they should start and base on what to achieve their target  Time factor, vivid picture, and inner value: Almost of vision of Vietnamese companies stipulated in this Thesis is lacking of these characteristics, the author focus on analyzing two cases in which included some of these characteristics It is case of FPT and Vietsteel, as follow: Table 2.6: Case of FPT and Vietsteel Company Name Vision Our aims are to bring high quality steel products through innovative technologies but more importantly protecting the environment We pride on excellent customer services to ensure to meet the demands of our VIETSTEEL clientele whilst achieving customer satisfaction Finally, to create a better future is the goal of every Vietsteel’s member We are a dynamic and welcome challenges company Together with us, let bring the ideas into actions for a better future FPT strives to be a company guided by technology innovations, committing to the highest level of customer and shareholder satisfaction, FPT contributing at best to the society, and having the most favorable working environment for all employees that enables them to explore their maximum potential in professional career as well as spiritual life Two these companies aspire the good future for all organization members The purpose of them is “spiritual life” or “better future” however, none of them could estimate when they can achieve the goals On the other hand, these visions “draw” somewhat the vivid picture about their future under the strength of organization as well as commitment of the leader to follow his aspirations 2.2.2 The enterprises mistake on Vision: a Vision and Mission Some enterprise cannot distinguish between Vision and Mission, resulting in mistake between two definitions To avoid this mistake, some enterprises combine Vision with Mission as a statement This leads loss of real value of both Vision and Mission Some enterprises state that Vision is like as a business plan, a strategy or specific business activities of the enterprise as stated by Doji Gold & Gems Group below: Table 2.7: Case of VIB Bank Company Name Vision + For customers: Excel in providing innovative, customer-centric VIB Bank solutions to satisfy the needs of the customers 16 + For employees: Cultivate a high performance culture, entrepreneurship and openness in working environment + For shareholders: Provide sustainable and attractive to shareholders + For community: Support community development VIB states this is the Vision and Mission of the enterprise, in this case we see that, in the four missions of VIB, only two missions bearing the characteristic of one Vision, that is introversive, serving the personal target in that enterprise: For Employees and Shareholders However, according to the author it is not actually the missions of this organization; it is nearly a pledge of the leader of the enterprise Table 2.8: Case of CMC Corporation Company Name Vision CMC Corporation constantly strives to develop the key strategic fundamentals namely IT, Telecommunication and e-Business by embracing continuous creativity and innovation in research and CMC application of hi-tech solutions, thus leading Vietnam rapidly towards CORPORATION the digital future CMC is firmly confident to bring satisfaction to our customers, profits to our shareholders and enriched material and spiritual life to all of our employees The case of CMC is similar to that of VIB, in the declaration they only express part of their Vision: “CMC is firmly confident to bring …, profits to our shareholders and enriched material and spiritual life to all of our employees.” This example shows that the difference between Vision and Mission is not clear In a part of this declaration we also see somewhere expresses how to achieve Vision, it helps people visualize the way to reach the desire is, “profits to our shareholders and enriched material and spiritual life to all of our employees” but that road is not quite clear and mostly describe the strong fields of CMC Table 2.9: Case of DOJI gold & GEMS group Company Name Vision To incessantly expand scope and efficiency of production and business DOJI GOLD & and sustainably develop to become a leading Group in Vietnam and the GEMS GROUP region in exploiting, manufacturing and trading gold bar, gemstone and jewelry as well as fields of investment, trading and services Vision of DOJI is quite clear about the desire of the enterprise as well as how to reach that desire However, the author affirms that Vision bear politics quality rather than offering a desire to the internal company, from which boosts and encourage the laborer to try to reach their high target of the enterprise b Vision and core value: A value statement is a list of the key values or ideological themes considered important for an organization The values usually pertain to treatment of customers, treatment of organization members, core competencies, and standards of excellence A value statement provides a good beginning for developing a more complete vision However, just listing values does not clearly explain their relative priority, how they are interrelated, or how they will be expressed and achieved An effective vision statement provides a glimpse of a possible future in which all the key values are realized at the same time When the author analyze the case of Kinh Do Group mentioned, this enterprise not want to lack of mission and core values on its statement c Vision and Slogan: Slogans are used to summarize and communicate values in simple terms However, a slogan is limited in how many values can be expressed Slogan can be useful as part of a larger vision, but overemphasis on a simplistic slogan can trivialize the vision and diminish important values not include in the slogan Case of Habubank, they think that vision has been stated in its Slogan 17 d Vision and Strategic objectives: Strategic objectives are tangible outcomes or results to be achieved, sometimes by a specific deadline If performance objectives are included in a vision, they should be regarded as milestones along the way toward achieving ideological objectives Author found that SHB Bank had been mistaken Visions of organization with the Vision on its business strategies, beside that they show the Visions for years from present to 2015 Table 2.10: Case of SHB Bank and Phu Thai Group JSC Company Name Vision With available foundation and strengths, SHB determines strategy to SHB Bank strive for becoming a leading multi-purpose retail bank in Vietnam and a strong financial group by 2015 PHU THAI GROUP To become the Leading Distribution Group in Vietnam JSC e Vision and Project objectives: Project objective is defined in terms of the successful completion of a complex activity These objectives can emphasize economic outcomes, ideological outcomes, or both A limitation of most project objectives is their relatively short time perspective When the project is completed, the vision is end Project objectives can be included in the long-term vision for an organization or a supplementary vision can be built around an especially important project Table 2.11: Case of Southern Bank and Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group Company Name Vision To become a multi-purpose financial group and one of Vietnam’s leading retail banks recognized in the financial markets in the region SOUTHERN BANK through efforts to improve quality of customer services, set up solutions and new business orientation and optimally use resources of Southern Bank (manpower, infrastructure and real estate) To become the leading diversified multi-sector group in Vietnam with HOANG ANH GIA sustainable development operations in rubber, hydropower, mining, LAI GROUP and real estates 2.3 The enterprises cannot effectively communicate their Vision Another thing is that each enterprise is ready to answer that “our company has a far Vision”, but in fact, when learning about this, no one knows their company’s Vision except for the leaders because they are not shared, communicated and widely disseminated it in the company as well as partners and stakeholders Occurrences arise in the company because there is no orientation to develop together At that time, the entrepreneurs are extremely hard to worry about personnel Do not think that employees work because of their monthly salary They also need to be respected, recognized, encouraged, and known how this enterprise will be in near future The leader sharing the development Vision is a great encouragement they need Stating the Vision, but no communicating it in an organization or communicating it ineffectively as expected is for many reasons In this thesis, the reasons may be as follows: 2.3.1 Bad Vision statement From the above analyses, most of the Visions of the enterprises are valueless as it is worthy A Vision is only for decoration in such enterprise, indicating that it aspires to reach to the peak and its leaders are visionary, learned, and up-to-date Such Vision statements show an individual stating it does not understand how to attain it Such Visions communicated to employees of the company are unable to create urgency and encouragement, and of course, it cannot be communicated in the whole organization In addition, if efforts to communication it is made, no one will follow Let analyze the case of Vinamilk, its vision absolutely not comply with the theoretical foundation as well as is not worthy in term of enterprise member The author thinks that it only stands for the 18 value of customer, because when stating it the employees, manager, or shareholder did not find that where they will be Table 2.12: Case of Vinamilk Company Name Vision Vinamilk will be the fastest and sustainable growing healthy dairy and VINAMILK food company by building a long-term competitive advantaged product portfolio across the scale The failure to transmit Vision, part of the reason is the fact that Vision declaration is too bad, a Vision does not have strength and attraction necessary, and then it is very difficult to urge individuals to joint The above analysis shows in most Visions of Vietnamese enterprises not have strength, without the attraction and fail to describe the lively picture about future of the enterprise or in other words, it is not enough desirability, and for the monotonous Visions then most strive to transmit to individuals is not meaningful On the other hand, the leader of the enterprise cannot express or see his desirability, her target then it is certain that no one in the enterprise can see it, or does not dare to declare about it Vision should stem from the spirit and the heart of the leader and considering about the nature it is the product of the desirability and ambition of the leader of the enterprise 2.3.2 No communicate the Vision The enterprises not know how to communicate a good Vision or communicate it ineffectively In some organizations, the leaders have a good Vision but they not know how to communicate it to all employees of such organization They not understand that their Vision must urge, lure, and encourage all staffs, and employees of an organization, even individuals join their organization Their Vision brings limitless aspiration to all people to attain the Vision All efforts or actions of the people are to aim at a “ten times” future as stated by former President Ho Chi Minh To this, the Vision must always repeat in all various forms and all situations In addition, the Vision must be communicated lively such as articles and wishes on special occasion … The Vision must be stated many times everywhere such as regular meetings and meetings deploying business activities, meetings of staffs and employees on occasion of Tet holidays, the company’s birthday and the company’s social activities … During the process of researching about Vision of enterprises, the author recognizes that for most enterprises, the notion of Vision enterprise is the personal task of leader of the enterprise Beside there are some cases of offering Vision is of some individual of the enterprise created it and the leaders of the enterprise approves it, then the Vision to put for display Thus, Vision and transmitting Vision in Vietnamese enterprise have not been invested properly and that is the reason Vision cannot develop all their capital value Table 2.13: Case of Vietsteel Company Name Vision Our aims are to bring high quality steel products through innovative technologies but more importantly protecting the environment We pride on excellent customer services to ensure to meet the demands of our VIETSTEEL clientele whilst achieving customer satisfaction Finally, to create a better future is the goal of every Vietsteel’s member We are a dynamic and welcome challenges company Together with us, let bring the ideas into actions for a better future In case of Vietsteel, it is quite good vision, however the communication of this vision is not good enough The author have a chance to meet some sale manager and salesman of Pomina Steel – a subsidiary of Vietsteel, however the definition of them about vision of company is ambiguous and they also not explain the main thing showing in “Message from Thep Viet.” The statement of Vietsteel is very clear that, “create a better future is the goal of every Vietsteel’s member” or “Together with us, let bring the ideas into actions for a better future.” The author also interviews the Director and staff of VIB – Thach That Branch about its Bank Vision, his answers is that: “Normally the Bank did not mention to the Vision of Bank during meeting with Leader of the Bank” or “There is no training, induction for middle-level manager about Vision during 19 his working time in VIB Bank.” The author also asks the staff of the Bank, almost of them said that they did not know or did not remember the exact their Bank Vision It is evidence to state that may be the Vision creator did not remember what his/her vision should be transformed widely within their enterprise to encourage managers and staff to contribute to development of the Bank 2.3.3 No invest to brainpower and efforts to develop and communicate a Vision When perform this Thesis, the author interview staff and middle level manager of some companies listed on top 100 of VNR500-2010, almost answer is “do not remember company vision,” sometime is “remember the slogan of company only.” When the author asks the manager the question is “where is your vision described outside the website,” the answer is not surprise “I not know” or “no elsewhere.” Each enterprise should once strictly answer to a question: “How will our enterprise be?” When one first hears that it is simple, in fact, it is not simple to answer If an answer is available in the enterprise’s mind, it is too good However, more wonderfully, such answer is written and shared with the company’s employees to coordinate with the leader to establish a business “path.” The above answer will be the Vision of the enterprise Table 3.1: List of interviewees Ranking on No of Item Interviewees Name of company VNR500interviewees 2010 Staff FPT CORPORATION Middle-lever ASIA COMMERCIAL JOINT manager & staff STOCK BANK SAIGON THUONG TIN Middle-lever COMMERCIAL JOINT STOCK manager & staff BANK VIETNAM TECHNOLOGICAL Staff AND COMMERCIAL JOINT STOCK BANK Middle-lever 10 HOA PHAT GROUPS manager & staff 11 Sale manager THEP VIET COMPANY LIMITED INTIMEX IMPORT - EXPORT 13 Staff JOINT STOCK COMPANY 15 Staff POMINA STEEL CORPORATION Middle-lever MARITIME COMMERCIAL JOINT 23 manager & staff STOCK BANK VIETNAM INTERNATIONAL Middle-lever 10 26 COMMERCIAL JOINT STOCK manager & staff BANK Middle-lever ANKHANH STEEL COMPANY 11 40 manager & staff LIMITED Middle-lever NAM VANG JOINT STOCK 12 50 manager & staff COMPANY HANOI BUILDING 13 52 Staff COMMERCIAL JOINT STOCK BANK Middle-lever MAILINH GROUP 14 57 manager & staff CORPORATION Middle-lever VIETNAM PROSPERITY JOINT 15 59 manager & staff STOCK COMMERCIAL BANK 20 16 64 Middle-level and staff 17 66 Staff 18 72 19 73 20 79 Middle-lever manager & staff Middle-lever manager & staff Staff 21 81 Staff 22 88 Salesman 23 89 Middle-lever manager & staff 24 91 Staff 3 TOYOTA EAST SAIGON JOINT STOCK COMPANY NHABE GARMENT CORPORATION - JSC MOBILE WORLD JOINT STOCK COMPANY COTEC CONSTRUCTION JOINT STOCK COMPANY KINH DO CORPORATION VINCOM JOINT STOCK COMPANY TMT MOTOR JOINT STOCK CORPORATION HA NOI TELECOM CORPORATION TRUNG NGUYEN CORPORATION AN BINH COMMERCIAL JOINT STOCK BANK Middle-lever manager & staff Total 58 In scope of the Thesis, the author had interviewed 25 biggest private enterprises in Vietnam with 58 interviewees included middle-level manager and staff, the result is almost of them said, “They not remember what stated on their company’s Vision.” The result also shows that the employees are more interest in their company vision in compare with middle-level managers Normally, the staffs almost have known their company Vision on public website or other public profile of company instead of they heard from his directed managers It means that may be the leader of company did not often mention their point and their vision, and the most important thing is the Leader of company did not invest on communication of his/her vision widely in company and invest to build the vision to become the symbol of company 2.4 Discussions In this research of the author, there are many Mangers, Leaders and Enterprises hardly prepare the statement of Visions for its enterprise, however, the result is chaotic mass of Core values, Goals, Objectives, Philosophies, Believes, Aspirations, Strategies, Principles, Descriptions, etc All of them are becoming intricateness, and rarely these statements strictly relate to the major principle of the leading companies on this research, it is “maintain the core” – “promote the advance.” This correspondingly is “motivation” of a leading company, and Vision and future perspectives is the creation of background to realize the above-mentioned motivation Clearly understanding this, author hope that the enterprises will absolutely apply the definitions stipulated on this Thesis to adjust Vision/Mission of its organizations to such an extent that Vision would be leading properties to build up a great company 25 93 CHAPTER 3: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 3.1 Conclusions Recently, many enterprises as well as entrepreneurs used Vision but not entrepreneur or enterprise understands a right definition or a thorough outlook on the Vision Visions and missions have become guiding stars for enterprises of the new era According to analyses of real situation of the Vision statement of the leading private enterprises in Vietnam, they are the future mainstays of the country and factors of the economy, which are expected to be the motive force of Vietnam’s economy to catch up with the region and the world These analyses indicate weaknesses of the enterprises and wrong points in building and stating the Vision 21 of the enterprises, thereby helping the entrepreneurs or the enterprises develop with orientation Besides, it also indicates how Directors, CEOs, and Chairmen of Vietnam’s enterprises communicate their inspirations and development orientation to all managers, employees, and shareholders and obtain as expected The author linked a story from an individual who built and developed the Vision successfully, former President Ho Chi Minh, for Vietnamese entrepreneurs to easily imagine what the Vision is and how to communicate the Vision Success and influence of former President Ho Chi Minh are recognized all over the world and he is the closest to all Vietnamese people Thus, it is easier to link between the Vision of the enterprise and Ho Chi Minh’s Vision 3.2 Recommendations 3.2.1 Develop a successful vision The enterprises should clearly understand that the Vision is a future aspiration of the enterprises combined with their core values The most importance of Vision is that Vision must contain inspiration of the leader The enterprises should clearly understand that the Vision is future aspiration of the enterprises combined with their core values The most importance of Vision is that Vision must contain inspiration of the leader To this, the enterprise should follow the below-mentioned procedures:  Brainstorming A single leader is unlikely to have the knowledge needed to develop a vision that will appeal to all the stakeholders whose support is necessary to accomplish major organizational change Even when the initial ideas for a vision originate with the leader, it is desirable to involve key shareholders in refining these ideas into a vision with widespread appeal Key stakeholders may include owners, executives, and other members of the organization, customers, investors, joint venture partners, and labor unions Often the best place to begin is with senior executives, the group most likely to have the broad perspective and knowledge necessary to understand the need for change Insights about their ideals, values, and attitudes about change can be explored in strategic planning sessions Another approach is to ask executives to develop a personal vision statement describing what they see as their ideal future role in the organization The personal vision statements can be examined to identify shared values and appealing images of how the organization should be transformed  Gather and select the ideas The first step is to ask people to identify specific performance objectives that are challenging and relevant to the mission of the organization Then ask people to discuss the relative importance of the various objectives and the reasons why an objective is important Look for shared values and ideals that can become the basic for a vision with wide appeal  Look for relevant elements Look for values and ideals that will continue to be relevant for the organization in the fore-seeable future Sometimes traditional values that were subverted or ignored can serve as the basic for a new vision  Combine the core values with company goals A successful vision must be credible as well as appealing People will be skeptical about a vision that promises too much and seems impossible to attain Leaders face a difficult task in creating a vision that is both challenging and believable Lofty visions often require innovative strategies, and untested strategies are risky and difficult to assess In the absence of a tested strategy, there must be a basic for people to believe the vision is attainable One basic is the belief of people in their ability to find answers A vision that entails new and difficult types of activities is more credible if the core competencies of the organization are relevant for these activities 3.2.2 Communicate widely the vision The entrepreneurs should present their Vision statements in the clearer and most coherent and appealing to communicate widely to all managers, employees, and shareholders The entrepreneurs have to invest properly on development of a Vision and loyalty tries to reach it by all his mind and 22 heart From the knowledge of Vision entrepreneur have to realize his aspiration to become the performance, therefore his aspiration have to present on the enterprises strategies, on the yearly plan, etc  Articulate a clear and appealing vision It must be communicated repeatedly at every opportunity and in a variety of different ways Meeting with people directly to explain the vision and answer questions about it is probably more effective that other forms of communication The Leader also should use letters or email messages to followers, new letter articles, televised news conferences, videotaped speeches, it is helpful to provide opportunities for followers to ask questions afterward (e.g., use email, hotline, open meeting, or visits to department meeting) The vision should be communicated more clearly and persuasively with colorful, emotional language that includes vivid imagery, metaphors, anecdotes, stories, symbols, and slogans Metaphors and analogies are especially effective when they excite the imagination and engage the listener in trying to make sense out of them Anecdotes and stories are more effective if they invoke symbols with deep cultural roots, such as legendary heroes, sacred figures, and historical ordeals and triumphs A dramatic, expressive style of speaking augments the use of colorful language in making an emotional appeal Use of rhyme, rhythm, and repetition of key words or phrases can make a vision more colorful and compelling  Explain clearly about the Vision It is important to make a clear link between the vision and a credible strategy for attaining it This link is easier to establish if the strategy has a few clear themes that are relevant to shared values of organization members It is seldom necessary to present an elaborate plan with detailed action steps The leader should not present to know all the answers about how to achieve the vision, but instead should inform followers that they will have a titan role in discovering what specific actions are necessary The strategy for attaining the vision is most likely to be persuasive when it is unconventional yet straightforward If it is either simplistic or conventional, the strategy will not elicit confidence in the leader, especially when there is a crisis Consider the example of a company that was losing market share in the face of intense competition  Communicate confidently and optimistically the Vision It is important to remain optimistic about the likely success of the group in attaining its vision, especially in the face of temporary roadblocks and setbacks A manager’s confidence optimism can be highly contagious It is best to emphasize what has been accomplished so far rather than how much more is yet to be done It is best to emphasize the positive aspects of the vision rather than the obstacles and dangers that lie ahead Confidence is in both words and actions Beside that, the enterprise should train the middle-level manager to communicate the Vision of company to communicate with all staff Because of lacking interaction between top leader and staff of company, this case the middle-lever manager is important role to communicate the Vision It mean that the middle-level manager can act confidently and optimistically like tope leader in term of transformation of vision  Express confidence in followers The motivating effect of a vision also depends on the extent to which subordinates are confident about their ability to achieve it Research on the “Pygmalion effect” found that people perform better when a leader has high expectations for them and shows confidence in them There is more need to foster confidence and optimism when the task is very difficult or dangerous or when team members lack confidence in themselves If appropriate, the leader should remind followers how they overcame obstacles to achieve an earlier triumph If they have never been successful, the leader may be able to make an analogy between the present situation and success by a similar team or organizational unit Review the specific strengths, assets, and resources that they can draw on to carry out the strategy List the advantages they have relative to opponents or competitors Tell them that they are as good as or better than an earlier team, that was successful in performing the same type of activity 23  Use dramatic, symbolic actions to emphasize vision A vision is reinforced by leadership behavior that is consistent with it Concern for a value or objective is demonstrated by the way a manager spends time, by resource allocation decisions made when there are trade-offs between objectives, by the questions the manager asks, and by what actions the manager rewards Dramatic, highly visible actions are an effective way to emphasize key values Symbolic action to achieve an important objective of defend an important value are likely to be more influential when the manager risks substantial personal loss, makes as self-sacrifice, or does things that are unconventional The effect of symbolic actions is increased when they become the subject of stories and myths that circulate among members of the organization and are retold tome and again over the years to new employees  Communicate by example According to an old saying, actions speak louder than words One way a leader can influence subordinate commitment is by setting an example of exemplary behavior in day-to-day interactions with subordinates Leading by example is sometimes called “role modeling.” It is especially important for actions that are unpleasant, dangerous, unconventional, or controversial A manager who asks subordinates to observe a particular standard should also observe that same standard A manager who asks subordinates to make special sacrifices should set an example by doing the same Some of the most inspirational military leaders have been ones who led their men into battle and shared the dangers and hardships rather than staying behind in relative safety and comfort The executives in a large company that was experiencing financial difficulties provide a negative example After asking employees to defer their expected pay increased, the executives awarded themselves fat bonuses This action created resentment among employees and undermined their loyalty to the organization and commitment to its mission A more effective approach would have been to set an example by cutting bonuses for top management before asking for sacrifices from other employees The values espoused by a leader should be demonstrated in his or her daily behavior, and it must be done consistently, not just when convenient Top-level leaders are always in the spotlight, and their actions are carefully examined by followers in a search for hidden meanings that may not be intended by the leader Ambiguous remarks may be misinterpreted and innocent actions may be misrepresented To avoid sending the wrong message, it is important to consider in advance how one’s comments and actions are likely to be interpreted  Encourage people It means asking people to determine for themselves the best way is to implement strategies or attain objectives, rather than telling them in detail what to It means encouraging subordinates to suggest solutions to problem if they come to you for help, and it means supporting subordinates who assume responsibility for resolving problems on their own, even though they not it the same way you would Empowering also means reducing bureaucratic constraints on how the work is done so that people have more discretion Finally, empowering means providing adequate resources for subordinates to carry out a task for which they are being held accountable 3.2.3 Commitment to follow the vision The entrepreneurs should regularly mention their Vision to encourage them Besides that, he has to undertake his responsibilities to execute what he targeted Set up strategies to achieve the vision, people can learn more about what is feasible and what is not Although some continuity in the vision is desirable, the leader should keep looking for ways to make the vision more appealing and credible The development of a vision is an interactive, circular process, not a simple, linear progression from vision to strategy to action 24 ... for actions that are unpleasant, dangerous, unconventional, or controversial A manager who asks subordinates to observe a particular standard should also observe that same standard A manager who... Misunderstanding about the vision a Wrong in Vision structure: b Lack of necessary characteristics of Vision 2.2.2 The enterprises mistake on Vision: a Vision and Mission b Vision and core value: c Vision and... Great aspiration 1.7.3 Characteristics of Ho Chi Minh’s Vision 1.7.4 Communicating the Vision Chapter 2: Research on Vietnamese corporations 2.1 Unawareness of the importance of Vision of an