Ineffective sales management of jupiter logistics vietnam joint stock company

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business - Le Thi Hong Huy INEFFECTIVE SALES MANAGEMENT OF JUPITER LOGISTICS VIETNAM JOINT STOCK COMPANY MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Ho Chi Minh City - 2018 UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business - Le Thi Hong Huy INEFFECTIVE SALES MANAGEMENT OF JUPITER LOGISTICS VIETNAM JOINT STOCK COMPANY MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SUPERVISOR: Dr Pham Phu Quoc Ho Chi Minh City - 2018 SUPERVISOR’S REPORT ON THE THESIS PROPOSAL SUBMITTED FOR DEGREE OF MASTER of BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION The thesis proposal title: INEFFECTIVE SALES MANAGEMENT OF JUPITER LOGISTICS VIETNAM JOINT STOCK COMPANY Student Name: Le Thi Hong Huy Supervisor: Dr Pham Phu Quoc General comments: • Remarks on the student’s attitude: …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… • Remarks on the assignment’s academic quality: …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… Overall assessment:  Meet requirement for submitting  Not meet requirement for submitting Other remarks: − Did the student follow the report schedule?  Yes  No − The Turnitin plagiarism percentage: Supervisor’s signature  Other………………………… CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Background information Symptoms of the problem Situation Analysis 11 3.1 Problem identification 11 3.2 Problem Justification 18 3.3 Causes Validation 22 Proposed solution and plan 30 4.1 The 1st Aspect – Sales team 31 4.2 The 2nd Aspect – Sales support 34 4.3 The 3rd Aspect – Sales manager 36 4.4 The 4th Aspect – Sales Management 38 Conclusions 45 REFERENCES 46 APPENDIX 47 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This thesis is conducted from understanding and approaching the real company Jupiter Logistics Vietnam in order to discover the reasons behind the significant decline in sales in the last three years since 2014 At the same time solutions will be proposed to solve the problem of sales of this business The net sales of the head office in Ho Chi Minh City was down sharply from 7.56% and 10.29%, respectively, while the remaining two branches Ha Noi and Hai Duong still had a very good growth especially in 2016 Further investigations reveal that the decrease in sales of forwarding services was the main reason for the problem in the net sales of Head Office In addition, with the loss of a longtime client and not having any new clients in the last three years, it has been somewhat telling the story behind the company Based on Problem Solving in Organization, the content of this thesis goes into the underlying cause This thesis is based on the information collected through: - intake process: in-depth interview with CFO - Mrs Le Thi Ha - Financial statement of the stage 2014-2016 - in-depth interview with Sales and Marketing manager - Mr Yoichi Murata - in-depth interview with Chairman - Mr Yutaka Kawasaki - online research with company’s customers After the investigation and analysis, Ineffective sales management was identified as a central problem and the five causes were: Problem in company structure, Lack of sales force, Poor sales leadership, Conflict of interest and Limited sales strategy After carefully reviewing and considering the elements as well as referencing the research and practical examples, the solution for the company is based on four aspects: sales team, sales support, sales manager and sales management With each aspect, action plans are launched with the expected time and cost and should be implemented individually to minimize costs as well as to facilitate timely intervention when results are not satisfactory JUPITER LOGISTICS VIETNAM JOINT STOCK COMPANY Background information Jupiter Logistics Vietnam Joint Stock Company was incorporated as a joint stock company under the enterprise registration certificate No.0306355377 initial registration dated 17 November 2008 Actually, Jupiter Logistics Vietnam Joint Stock Company was separated from Jupiter Pacific Forwarding Joint Stock Company which is a subsidiary of Japan Airline Figure 1.1 demonstrates differences of shareholders between Jupiter Logistics and Jupiter Pacific Forwarding Joint Stock Company Figure 1.1 Shareholders structure comparison Jupiter Logistics Vietnam Joint Stock Company Jupiter Pacific Forwarding Joint Stock Company Shareholders Shareholders 20% 49% 51% 80% Japanese shareholders Japanese shareholders Vietnamese shareholders Vietnamese shareholders The company have one head office and two branches as follows: - Head office is located at No.112 Hong Ha Street, Ward 2, Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - The Hanoi branch is allocated at Group 8, Hau Duong Hamlet, Kim Chung Commune, Dong Anh District, Hanoi City, Viet Nam - The Hai Duong branch is located at Lot B7, Phuc Dien Industrial Park, Cam Giang District, Hai Duong Province, Vietnam This branch was set up to conduct operating of business cooperation contract between parties The principal activities of the company are to provide three kinds of services which are: warehousing, trucking and cargo forwarding services About 90% customers are Japanese Three direct competitors are SAGAWA, ALL NIPON and YUSEN The members of the Board of Management and company structure are showed in the table 1.1 and figure 1.2 below: Table 1.1 The Board of Management Position Chairman Members Name Mr Yutaka Kawasaki Mr Hoang Ngoc Oanh Mr Nguyen Quoc Khanh Mr Eisuke Sawada Figure 1.2 General Company structure Chairman Administration Accounting Operation Warehouse Trucking team Sales & Marketing Symptoms of the problem In general, among Head Office and two other branches, Hanoi branch often contributes about 50% of total net sales of the whole company, Head Office takes the next rank with 18% and Hai Duong branch contributes about 11% However, this percentage in contribution of each branch has changed considerably recently, especially Head Office in Ho Chi Minh City The information of percentage of contribution can be found in table 2.1 Table 2.1 Percentage of contribution of each branch/office in total net sales from 2014 to 2016 Head Office (+/-)Compared to previous year net sales Percentage of contribution Hanoi Branch (+/-)Compared to previous year net sales Percentage of contribution Hai Duong Branch (+/-)Compared to previous year net sales Percentage of contribution Total net sales 2014 2015 2016 21,508,890,365 19,882,801,804 17,836,232,814 - -7.56% -10.29% 17.68% 16.95% 15.91% 60,117,088,413 62,854,017,348 80,751,904,700 - 4.55% 28.48% 49.42% 53.59% 72.04% 12,794,262,539 13,903,633,360 16,195,330,701 - 8.67% 16.48% 10.52% 11.85% 14.45% 121,637,280,421 117,282,383,992 112,100,488,863 Ha Noi and Hai Duong Branches continue to increase sales in the past three years In particular, in 2016, the sales growth rate in Hanoi increased rapidly to 28.48% compared to 2015 At the same time, the contribution accounted for 72.04% of the total net sales of the company Hai Duong Branch is the smallest of the three branches, but sales growth has not declined In 2016, sales growth was about 16.48% last year and sales contribution changed from 11.85% to 14.45% Only net sales in Ho Chi Minh decreased suddenly in 2015 and 2016 and this led to the decrease in total net sales of Jupiter Logistics Vietnam Joint Stock Company The decrease in sales of Forwarding services was the main reason for the problem in net sales of Head Office The information of sales in detail is showed in table 2.2 and figure 2.1 Forwarding services include air export, air import, sea export, sea import and domestics services Table 2.2 Total sales of Ho Chi Minh Office (in VND) from 2014 to 2016 FORWARDING AIR EXPORT AIR IMPORT SEA EXPORT SEA IMPORT DOMESTICS SERVICES (+/-)Compared to previous year WAREHOUSE 2014 3,725,663,906 10,639,572 11,716,002 52,811,753 2,452,159,552 7,903,211,426 (+/-)Compared to previous year TRUCKING 7,352,688,154 (+/-)Compared to previous year TOTAL SALES 21,508,890,365 2015 2,712,482,169 11,042,155 88,763,159 1,939,503,225 2016 1,858,679,347 14,330,475 0 1,312,513,393 -24.01% -32.96% 7,829,862,054 7,791,322,608 -0.93% -0.49% 7,301,149,042 6,859,386,991 -0.70% -6.05% 19,882,801,804 17,836,232,814 Figure 2.1 Changes in total sales in Ho Chi Minh (in VND) from 2014 to 2016 FORWARDING WAREHOUSE TRUCKING 9,000,000,000 8,000,000,000 7,000,000,000 6,000,000,000 5,000,000,000 4,000,000,000 3,000,000,000 2,000,000,000 1,000,000,000 2014 2015 2016 It is easy to see that in three types of services, logistics and warehousing have not changed significantly in net sales for the three years since 2014 The only change with rapid sales decline is the forwarding service Net sales in 2016 for forwarding is only about half that of net sales in 2014 In the three years since 2014, the company has made a significant change in sales Trucking and Warehouse services accounted for more than two-third of sales Forwarding services accounted for about one-third of sales in 2014, but then it dropped dramatically and only fell to 17.86% in 2016 Figure 2.2 shows a visual representation of the change in the revenue contribution ratio of the three types of company services Figure 2.2 The change in the revenue contribution ratio Actual sales of trucking and warehousing in the period 2014-2016 were not large fluctuations, so the contribution of these two objects increased was due to the decline in sales of the forwarding service This is not a good sign 10 try the product and only decide to buy the product when they really see the effect.) Evaluating • and Intervening From December 1st ,2019 to December 10th ,2019 Evaluate results of that trial period If the service is effective, the company could apply this service as long-term plan If the plan shows poor results, a revision will be made to identify the problem or to consider stop using or changing the service provider - 44 Conclusions From the information provided along with collected data as well as analyzes based on theories and literature review, the central problem facing the company is the ineffective sales management The ineffectiveness of sales management has had a negative impact on keeping existing customers and attracting new customers Weak customer relationship management is a potential issue that has a direct impact on maintaining ongoing customer relationships However, in terms of profound origin, this problem comes from ineffective sales management After analyzing, there are three major causes for the company's problem: lack of sales force, poor sales leadership, and conflict of interest There are also three potential causes: problem in company structure, no target and clear KPI and limited sales strategy Suggested solutions help address the main causes These solutions are divided into four areas: sales team, sales support, sales manager and sales management Sales team and sales support solutions will solve the shortage of sales force The sales manager solution addresses poor sales leadership and conflicting interests The sales management solution is primarily aimed at customer relationship management The above solutions may be considered for selection in turn Each solution will have different timeframes and different testing times to ensure cost reduction and increased feasibility 45 REFERENCES Schwartz M Fundamentals of sales management for the newly appointed sales manager: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn; 2006 Mosca JB, Fazzari A, Buzza J Coaching to win: A systematic approach to achieving productivity through coaching Journal of Business & Economics Research 2010;8(5):115 Calvin R Sales management: McGraw Hill Professional; 2004 Geoffrey Lancaster and Lester Massingham (2010), Essentials of Marketing Management, 1st edn USA and Canada: Routledge p.273 Customer Service Newsletter (October, 2001) Alexander Communication Group 3p Mazzeo, M (2003) Competition and service quality in the U.S airline industry Review of Industrial Organization, 22: 275–296 Estelami, H 2000 Competitive and procedural determinants of delight and disappointment in consumer complaint outcomes Journal of Service Research, 2: 285-300 Daniel H Simon, Miguel I Gómez (2005), “The Competitive Causes and Consequences of Customer Satisfaction”, May, pp.9 Cravens, D.W., Ingram, T.N., Laforge, R.W and Young, E.C (1993), "Behavior-based and outcome-based sales force control systems", Journal of Marketing, Vol 57, October, pp 4759 10 Deeter-Schmelz, D.R., Kennedy, K.N and Goebel, D.J (2002), "Understanding sales manager effectiveness: linking attributes to sales force values", Industrial Marketing Management, Vol 31 No 7, pp 617-26 11 Brown, S.P., Evans, K.R., Mantrala, M.K and Challagalla, G (2005), "Adapting motivation, control, and compensation research to a new environments", Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Vol 25 No 2, pp 155-167 12 Moncrief, W.C and Marshall, G (2005), "The evolution of the seven steps of selling", Industrial Marketing Management, Vol 34 No 1, pp 13-22 13 Moon, M.A and Armstrong, G.M (1994), "Selling teams: a conceptual framework and research agenda", Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Vol 14 No 1, pp 1730 14 Panagopoulos NG, Avlonitis GJ Performance implications of sales strategy: The moderating effects of leadership and environment International Journal of Research in Marketing 2010;27(1):46-57 15 Leigh TW, Marshall GW Research priorities in sales strategy and performance Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management 2001;21(2):83-93 16 JobStreet JobStreet Vietnam Salary Report 2016 Vietnam: JobStreet Vietnam; 2016 23p 17 Adecco Vietnam Salary Guide 2017 HCMC: Adecco; 2017 66p 18 Baldauf A, Cravens DW, Piercy NF Examining business strategy, sales management, and salesperson antecedents of sales organization effectiveness Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management 2001;21(2):109-22 19 Panagopoulos NG, Avlonitis GJ Performance implications of sales strategy: The moderating effects of leadership and environment International Journal of Research in Marketing 2010;27(1):46-57 20 Piercy NF, Cravens DW, Lane N Sales manager behavior-based control and salesperson performance: the effects of manager control competencies and organizational citizenship behavior Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice 2012;20(1):7-22 21 Robert Walters Robert Walters Vietnam Salary Survey 2016 Vietnam: Robert Walters; 2016 11p 46 APPENDIX TRANSCRIPTS Intake process interview Interviewer Interviewee Date Time Location Le Thi Hong Huy Le Thi Ha (Mrs Ha) August 6th, 2017 from 13:45pm to 14:25pm 4th floor, 17 Pham Ngoc Thach Street, Ward 6, District Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Transcripts and recordings are conducted by Le Thi Hong Huy Interviewer: “Could you please tell me a little bit about yourself?” Mrs Ha: “Well, my name is Le Thi Ha I’m 40 and I am working as a CFO for two companies which are Jupiter Logistics and Jupiter Forwarding.” Interviewer: “So how long have you been working for Jupiter Logistics Company?” Mrs Ha: “Hmm, Jupiter Logistics company…, about years from the first day the company was established in the end of 2008.” Interviewer: “What kind of goods or services does your company provide?” Mrs Ha: “Warehousing, trucking and forwarding But mainly warehousing and trucking.” Interviewer: “So you have been sticking with the company for a long time, haven’t you? Is there any problem present in the company?” Mrs Ha: “The most obvious problem is that sales have dropped significantly since 2015.” Interviewer: “As far as I know, your company has head office in Ho Chi Minh City and other branches in the north But only the head office in Ho Chi Minh City has a problem with sales, is that true? So what kind of services on the sales decline?” Mrs Ha: “Yes, indeed! Sales have declined significantly for the type of forwarding service Also warehousing and trucking are not much fluctuations but also tend not to grow in recent years However, the company focuses on two main areas of warehousing and trucking, accounting for 80%, while forwarding accounts for less than 20%.” Interviewer: “Excluding the external factors, you think sales decrease because of lower orders or lower prices or both?” Mrs Ha: “The number of orders decreased In 2014, there were total fixed customers using forwarding services In 2015, the Head Office lost customer and from then the number of customers still has been stopped at There was no significant change in price of each service from 2014 to 2016 so the reason of price could be eliminated from the list of causes of sales decrease.” Interviewer: “How is the company's supply capacity? Is it one of the reasons why sales are falling?” 47 Mrs Ha: “I don’t think it is the reason In 2015 and 2016, Trucking services used only 60% of capacity and Warehouse services used about 90% of capacity In 2017, the company expand warehouse area from 1500m2 to 4500m2 at Binh Duong Province.” Interviewer: “So does the company develop the sales department? Orders, in other words, where did the customers come from?” Mrs Ha: “There is no sales person except sales and marketing manager The initial customers of Jupiter Logistics were partly introduced by Jupiter Forwarding when it first established, and some of their customers were referred by their former sales manager.” Interviewer: “As such, the sales and marketing department currently has no employees How did the number of customers change from the time the former sales manager left the company?” Mrs Ha: “Warehouse and Trucking services have quite stable net sales each year because the number of customers is stable and fixed over years Forwarding services have been similar like that since its inception but in 2015 the company lost a loyal customer So until now, customers in the forwarding segment are left with only customers.” Interviewer: “That means there are no new customers in the last couple of years, and losing a longtime customer, right?” Mrs Ha: “That’s right!” Mrs Ha: “Actually, these two companies have different owners Jupiter Pacific Forwarding has 80% Japanese shareholders and 20% Vietnamese shareholders, while Jupiter Logistics has 51% Japanese shareholders and 49% Vietnamese shareholders As the company first developed to the south, Jupiter Pacific mainly focused on forwarding services, but later found out that the service was not well developed, then established a new company Jupiter Logistics specializing in warehousing and trucking In fact, the chairman, sales manager and some other positions working for Jupiter Forwarding also cover some of Jupiter Logistics's positions Because the initial departure is the forwarding company, almost all the key components are in the forwarding company Some Jupiter Forwarding employees also work part-time for Jupiter Logistics However, these two companies are completely independent and not share in profits.” Interviewer: “This means that the human resources of Jupiter Logistics is not fully professional, doesn’t it?” Mrs Ha: “Yes, because it's a cover, it's an addition to the job, not a recruit except for a few positions About 80% of the workforce will be covered by Jupiter Forwarding for Jupiter Logistics.” Interviewer: “Do the two companies share any benefits? Mrs Ha: “In fact, Jupiter Logistics was established after that It is not capable of working directly with the airlines but through Jupiter Pacific Forwarding as a middleman.” 48 Interviewer: “What you mean “not capable”?” Mrs Ha: “To work directly with the airlines, you have to have a large customer base, otherwise you have to go through other companies called airline agents To get a good price, Jupiter Logistics must ask Jupiter Pacific Forwarding to book the price.” Interviewer: “Is your rival company split into two separate companies for forwarding and logistics as your company? Who is the direct competitor of your company?” Mrs Ha: “No Other companies are not separated those services, they merged into one company but divided into several arrays such as YUSEN or SAGAWA I not dare compare with the big European corporations, Korean companies are also different so it is difficult to compare directly For Japanese rivals, there are quite a few, YUSEN is strong in Logistics and Warehouse, SAGAWA and ALL NIPON.” Interviewer: “Main competition on price or quality of service?” Mrs Ha: “Mostly brand name and quality In general, Japanese companies have a strong source of foreign support from the parent company, not only financially, but also the source of customers Moreover, the personality of the Japanese is quite loyal, once successful cooperation with a partner, they often stick with that brand, so it is quite difficult to attract customers from the opponent The parent company must be strong enough to support the new subsidiary to develop However, the parent company of our company in Japan is not as strong as other companies, so the company in Vietnam does not have the source of customers designated by the parent company as the competitors.” Interviewer: “So what about the personnel changes? Are there any leave situations? What you think about the compensation of the company?” Mrs Ha: “Not at all Because my company policy is quite stable, the salary is not high but the working environment and the staff are quite pleasant, the boss is friendly So no one wants to leave The target set is also quite light Previously, not even set target.” Interviewer: “How you think about your boss?” Mrs Ha: “Hmm…my boss… He has been working for about 20 years His leadership style is to give employees self-awareness of their responsibilities, not the control activity, not to tighten tasks for each department He says that they are head of the department, they know what to When the problem occurs, the boss is also in the spirit of solving the problem, not to blame or to anyone As long as customer satisfaction is okay On the inside, the boss is mainly gentle reminder, no strong action Working with a boss like that is great, but the company's performance will not thrive.” Interviewer: “So that is! Does your company intend to hire more sales staff?” Mrs Ha: “In my opinion, it is very necessary now I and several managers have suggested many times but did not see any action for a long time The former sales manager was the one who made the 49 source of the customer and decided the actions After he left the company, no one else was in charge of finding new customers For me, I hope to recruit a sales manager for the logistics company to make it grow stronger and less dependent on the Forwarding company to distribute sales.” Interviewer: “Ok.” Mrs Ha: “Former sales manager who is overseas Vietnamese from the US, he also helped sales of the company increased quite well Two customers on the forwarding side were also found by him for the company After he left, the current sales manager was loaned from Jupiter Forwarding to cover the job My boss is also thinking of hiring a sales manager, but he fears the cost increases A few months ago Mr Kawasaki intended to recruit a Japanese sales manager but ultimately failed to agree on salary.” Interviewer: “Is it necessary to recruit Japanese? Why not recruit Vietnamese people easier to find domestic customers?” Mrs Ha: “It is not important to recruit Japanese I suppose at least a sales team, one or two sales staffs to report a job to the current sales manager will also solve the problem.” Interviewer: “Do you have anything else that you would like to share?” Mrs Ha: “Well, the structure of these two companies is similar but varies in size More than half of Jupiter Logistics employees are borrowed from Jupiter Pacific Forwarding, with its own staff numbering only about 11 people It is worth noting that although sales have declined, the company still has a lot of idle money thanks to the strong development of its northern branches But the company absolutely does not use to invest but retains in the bank.” Interviewer: “Thank you so much for those precious information!” Mrs Ha: “You are welcome!” 50 Interview with Sales and Marketing Manager Interviewer Interviewee Date Time Location Le Thi Hong Huy Murata Yoichi (Mr MY) August 16th, 2017 from 16:30pm to 16:50pm Jupiter Logistics Vietnam Joint Stock Company at No.112 Hong Ha Street, Ward 2, Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Transcripts and recordings are conducted by Le Thi Hong Huy Interviewer: “So…Nice to meet you! This is an honor for me to interview you Before we start, would you please introduce yourself?” Mr MY: “Xin Chao! I’m Murata My name is Murata I am Sales and Marketing Manager I am 40 years old and now I have been working here for four years.” Interviewer: “What is your company name?” Mr MY: “I am working for Jupiter Pacific Forwarding Company and Jupiter Logistics Company But my main company is Jupiter Pacific Forwarding.” Interviewer: “As I know that you and some main managers is taking care of the two company which are Jupiter Pacific Forwarding Company and Jupiter Logistics Company, I guess it must be very busy for you Do you have enough time to take care of the two company?” Mr MY: “Ha ha…yeah actually, honestly speaking we don’t have any sales staff, just only me taking care everything.” Interviewer: “So according to the information that I have, I realize that the sales decrease, the downtrend in sales is from 2014 until now and only the head office in Ho Chi Minh city has that downtrend In your opinion, what might be the factor for this problem?” Mr MY: “So as I told you, the first reason is we don’t have enough sales staff in our company and the secondary is now Vietnam country is developing more and more and many Japanese companies, Logistics companies are coming so we have many competitors in the same market…and before the big Japanese Logistics companies coming, the small and medium size companies also coming to Vietnam from country side in Japan.” Interviewer: “So you have the threat from your competitors and you don’t have enough manpower in your sales team, right?” Mr MY: “Yes, but luckily we came to Vietnam from 1997 so we have many businesses before, now we have many competitors.” Interviewer: “How about your customer number? Is it increasing or decreasing?” Mr MY: “Luckily the number of customer does not change a long time so we keep the same customers and try not to lose any customer.” 51 Interviewer: “Well as I know, Logistics and Warehouse still keep the same customer number but Forwarding service lost one customer in 2015 and then the problem in sales started seriously.” Mr MY: “Yes, I see Actually in Ho Chi Minh, so we don’t have much customer in Ho Chi Minh area, seaport Cat Lai, airport Tan Son Nhat… Ho Chi Minh market is small so…how to say…not too far from customer to airport and seaport so…until some years ago, customers don’t need warehouse business Besides In north Vietnam, Hanoi area is different from Ho Chi Minh, it’s so far from Ha Noi city to Hai Phong so many customers need warehouse in the middle for examples Hai Duong So that’s why our Ha Noi office develops so much in Logistics” Interviewer: “It is said that you not have enough manpower and also your workload is too busy to handle the two company so you have to focus on the Jupiter Forwarding, don’t you?” Mr MY: “Yes, it is.” Interviewer: “And who is your company target customer? Because as I know, 90% of your customer is Japanese and just 10% is Vietnamese customer Do your company plan to expand the customer in Vietnamese market?” Mr MY: “Yeah, yeah of course yes Because I only talk in Japanese and not good in Vietnamese language so in the future, we will need more Vietnamese sales staffs to expand the business.” Interviewer: “So why don’t you hire more sales staffs?” Mr MY: “Ha ha…Actually we need to consider the cost and also the top manager support.” Interviewer: “Well I understand The next question will be a little special Let’s imagine that you will be the next owner of this company, what would you or change to increase the sales?” Mr MY: “Hmm…” Interviewer: “In your opinion, what would you do?” Mr MY: “For Logistics?” Interviewer: “Yes.” Mr MY: “Well Sai Gon or Ho Chi Minh is a very important market in Vietnam so in the recent year, it’s developing more and more so Vietnamese people are becoming rich, and there are many export shipments oversea, especial to Japan, and some consumers coming from Japan to Vietnam so now I am considering to focus to approach some special goods like foods.” Interviewer: “How can you it if you don’t have enough human resources? I mean that…if in the future, maybe you will be the owner of this company, what will be the top three actions that you will take to change this situation?” Mr MY: “Yes, of course we need to hire more sales staffs, and I and Vietnamese staffs will approach together so we can talk both side in Japanese and local stuff I’ll try to draw more good 52 relationship to customers And if I have Vietnamese staffs, they will know what the Vietnamese customers want or require…we can solve the customer problems.” Interviewer: “So it means that you want to hire Vietnamese sales staffs who are good at interacting with customers, can receive the feedback from customers and find out what they want, what they expect.” Mr MY: “Yes, yes And for Vietnamese, they can communicate more easily, and also they can help bargain the price that customers expect from the company.” Interviewer: “Ha ha…Vietnamese culture is quite different a little bit from Japanese.” Mr MY: “Well I think Vietnamese people are open more.” Interviewer: “How you think about the relationship between the two companies? Because I heard that, some of the customers of Jupiter Pacific Forwarding also use the services provided by Jupiter Logistics Company, so does it mean that these two company support each other or they just develop independently?” Mr MY: “Hmm, sometimes operate each other and sometimes develop independently.” Interviewer: “Well, it is helpful Do you have anything else to share with me? If the company still keep the situation and the same customer number, what will be the picture of the company that you can see?” Mr MY: “Of course we will get more customers for the company And our Hanoi Branch office and our Ho Chi Minh office, we work separately and independently… and I change my mind, I go to Ha Noi also and our boss in Ha Noi will come to Ho Chi Minh, we exchange and share information so now we try to approach customers together and work together and in Ha Noi also” Interviewer: “Hontou ni tasukarimashita!”* (* “Hontou ni tasukarimashita” means “You were really a great help”) Mr MY: “Arigatou gozaimashita!”* (* “Arigatou gozaimashita” means “Thank you very much”) Interviewer: “Otsukaresama deshita!”* (* “Otsukaresama deshita” means “I appreciate your efforts, thank you very much, good work”) Mr MY: “Arigatou gozaimashita!” 53 Interview with the Chairman Interviewer Interviewee Date Time Location Le Thi Hong Huy Yutaka Kawasaki (Mr YK) December 1st, 2017 from 8:00pm to 9:10pm Jupiter Logistics Vietnam Joint Stock Company at No.112 Hong Ha Street, Ward 2, Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Transcripts and recordings are conducted by Le Thi Hong Huy Interviewer: “Ohayou gozaimasu! Hajime mashite! Watashi wa Huy desu Yoroshiku onegaishimasu”* (* “Ohayou gozaimasu! Hajime mashite! Watashi wa Huy desu Yoroshiku onegaishimasu” means “Good morning! Nice to meet you! I am Huy Please take care of me.”) Mr YK: “Ohayou gozaimasu!” Interviewer: “If you don’t mind, could you please introduce yourself!” Mr YK: “Hmm, my name is Yutaka Kawasaki I’m Japanese and I’m more than 60 I have been living and working in Vietnam for nearly 20 years and I am the chairman of two companies - Jupiter Pacific Forwarding and Jupiter Logistics company in Vietnam.” Interviewer: “How you think about the down trend in sales in the recent years? In your opinion, what factors/reasons could cause this problem?” Mr YK: “There are many many reasons…,Hmm, first you should know that we have quite a lot of competitors More and more foreign companies are more likely to enter the Vietnamese market Plus, a few years ago, an excellent employee left the company after a long time working.” Interviewer: “Does your company target only Japanese companies? Do you intend to find Vietnamese customers? As far as I know, there was a decrease in the number of customers in 2015 What you think is the reason behind this change?” Mr YK: “Not only Japanese companies I also want to expand in Vietnamese customers But you know, it’s not quite easy, the competitors, the industry…” Interviewer: “Besides, is the absence of new customers in the long run the policy that your company wants to maintain in the head office in Ho Chi Minh City?” Mr YK: “Well, how to say? Of course it is not our policy and strategy As I told you before, I lost one excellent manager a few years ago, he was the one help the company to find the new customers.” Interviewer: “How you think about Sales & Marketing department in the company? Does it significantly affect the growth in sales? Do you think that this department has enough manpower and ability to well in the future?” 54 Mr YK: “Of course there is influence I think we probably lack the manpower to work for this department Perhaps it is this…that affects the effectiveness of the work.” Interviewer: “Can you please tell me why this department has not had any sales staff over the years? Is it because of the company's strategy / intention or because of not finding the right candidate? If you want to recruit staff for this sales department, what you expect of that candidate?” Mr YK: “To be honest, that's not the strategy of the company In the last years, my company has recruited candidates, and received many many CVs I interviewed quite many candidates, about 100 people, but still have not found any candidate suitable for my requirements I want to find a candidate with good skills and experience Not necessarily the Japanese, there are quite a lot of Vietnamese candidates to interview But somehow I have not seen the right candidate Some Vietnamese people are too heavy on salary so I can not understand.” Interviewer: “Yeah I see.” Interviewer: “Which recruitment channel did you use? And how many employees you want to hire?” Mr YK: “We recruit mainly through recruiting bulletin board And we just need, maybe one sales staff.” Interviewer: “Have you tried the advantages of social networking? As far as I know, there are a number of reputable sites that companies use to recruit, even on Facebook, which is more likely to receive feedback from candidates, as well as commentary on rankings of trust.” Mr YK: “Hmm… Do you think that we can use them?” Interviewer: “Yes, I think so.” Interviewer: “Have you ever thought about recruiting interns? Some companies are very successful in recruiting, they start to foster talents for applicants from the third and fourth years of the university, so after graduation, these candidates completely have the ability to be loyal and stick with the company In addition, the amount of money paid to them is not so good, even without pay.” Mr YK: “Well, that seems a good idea Ha ha…Hmm, if you can help solve the problem, I can pay you.” Interviewer: “Ha ha.” Mr YK: “I think the problem here is in personnel, because we not have enough manpower The sales manager is Mr Murata, who is skilled and knowledgeable in the company.” Interviewer: “But I heard that, for the sake of working for both companies, he was really busy and did not have the time to all the work, is it right?” Mr YK: “Well, I have to admit that We really need to find a suitable candidate And I also consider to hire a new sales manager to share the work with him.” 55 Interviewer: “In your opinion, what should be changed or implemented to improve the "sales drop" from a corporate perspective?” Mr YK: “Maybe I need to improve on procedure, need more ideas.” Interviewer: “Is there anything else that you would like to share?” Mr YK: “If you don’t have any question, I think it’s enough for today Is that helpful?” Interviewer: “Hontou ni arigatou gozaimasu!”* (* “hontou ni arigatou gozaimasu!” means “Really thank you very much!”) Mr YK: “Douitashimashite!”* (* “Douitashimashite!” means “You are welcome!”) Interviewer: “Gokigenyou!”* (* “Gokigenyou” means “Goodbye”) 56 QUESTIONNAIRE OF THE SURVEY SURVEY ON CUSTOMERS' ASSESSMENT OF COOPERATION WITH JUPITER LOGISTICS VIETNAM JOINT STOCK COMPANY This questionnaire was conducted by a representative of Jupiter Logistics Vietnam Joint Stock Company in order to collect data to improve and serve better for person who was and is our customer Designed for the surveyed subject who must meet the only condition: - Are the company that used to work or is working with Jupiter Logistics Vietnam Joint Stock Company in Ho Chi Minh City If you not belong to that group of subject, please leave this address with all appreciate and gratitude from our company Thank you very much for your valuable contribution! * Required 57 58 ... are not satisfactory JUPITER LOGISTICS VIETNAM JOINT STOCK COMPANY Background information Jupiter Logistics Vietnam Joint Stock Company was incorporated as a joint stock company under the enterprise... between Jupiter Logistics and Jupiter Pacific Forwarding Joint Stock Company Figure 1.1 Shareholders structure comparison Jupiter Logistics Vietnam Joint Stock Company Jupiter Pacific Forwarding Joint. ..UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business - Le Thi Hong Huy INEFFECTIVE SALES MANAGEMENT OF JUPITER LOGISTICS VIETNAM JOINT STOCK COMPANY MASTER OF BUSINESS