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Thousands of enterprises have applied the solutions recommended by the “Made in Vietnam” Lean Management System and achieved excellent performance in production and business. This is the “fruitful” result of an arduous journey chosen to ride by Associate Professor Nguyen Dang Minh – The president of the Advisory Board of GKM Lean Institute (under GKM Vietnam).
THE JOURNEY CREATING THE “MADE IN VIETNAM” MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Graduated Hanoi University of Science and Technology the young man Nguyen Dang Minh was granted with the scholarship of Honda Vietnam for a study at Honda International College in Japan. Over there, what made him most surprised was beside of teaching on the technique and the art of auto business, the school also trained them with vocational skills. This made him understood why there are so many Japanese can live with a life-job with the spirit of mastering the top of career.
Finishing the study Minh took Master of Engineering Program at The Tokyo University, which is the No.1 university of Japan, while working part time job at Honda Dealer at the same time. He graduated and was accepted to work at Production Engineering Division of Toyota Motor Corporation, Japan.
“At Toyota I worked at the Division of Production Engineering which creating technology for producing the high quality cars with 30,000 complicated parts, and designed production system. The technology transfer projects at Toyota helped me to learn the way of managing the quality of the project and define the live philosophy”, Minh shared.
Satisfying clients with good “TAM THE” “What I always keep in mind is to always do the best with what I am doing to help Vietnamese businesses grow up reaching new heights with “Made in Vietnam”, “Made by Vietnam” products which are competitive and contribute added value for the global value chain. My working way is to satisfy clients with good “TAM THE”, overcome-difficulties energy, and aspire for a more and more beautiful Vietnam“. Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Dang Minh
During working at Toyota, he continued to implement his Ph.D at Nagoya University and had chance to study deeper in lean management of Toyota Production System (TPS) together with the enterprise management technology of Japan. Besides, the internal training program of Toyota also allowed him to access deeper into the spirit and the thinking way of “Made in Japan” Management which converged of elite factors and lean of modern management technology absorbed of the culture of Japan.
The life and the work of Dr. Nguyen Dang Minh would have been continuous in such way if he was not return home country due to family affairs.
Returning to Vietnam in 2011 after 13 years living, studying and working in Japan and witnessing the “difficulty” of the management of Vietnamese enterprises he wanted to develop a “Made in Vietnam” Lean Management System like the one has been implemented by Singapore (Singapore has studied and created a management system helping to put the enterprise and society management into order).
“After many years implementing “Doi moi” the speed of penetrating the scientific management for improving productivity, goods and service quality of Vietnam is till very low. The question “Why Vietnamese enterprises can not increase their productivity as expected while Vietnamese people is recognized smart” has no proper answers”, Minh frankly admitted.
In order to find out the answer he decided to roll off into the real lives of more than 300 enterprises and participated the training and consultancy projects at enterprises with Japanese experts. From the actual situation, he realized that the number of Vietnamese enterprises being able to remain applying the trained management methods in long terms for sustainable development is not much.
Studying the development history and learning from the Japan’s management system, after returning Vietnam, Dr. Minh had to suffer from the desire that Vietnamese businesses can make the graded “Made in Vietnam” and “Made by Vietnam” products and services satisfying the customers from Vietnam and other countries.
However, at the beginning when Dr. Minh proposed this idea the entrepreneurship of Vietnam had not pay attention. They gave priority to choose the “Made in USA” or “Made in Japan” management system instead of the one “Made in Vietnam”.
AND The full-of-hardship approach
Being both an entrepreneur and a consultant and teaching lean management at the University of Economics and Business, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Dr. Nguyen Dang Minh understands the hardship of entrepreneurs in the management of enterprises and sees the difficulties in the quality of human resources.
“I always aspire to build a pure Vietnamese management system, called the “Made in Vietnam” Lean Management, bringing Vietnamese intelligence on the foundation of inheritance and promoting the civilization in management of mankind. The “Made in Vietnam” Lean Management system needs to contain specific elements, best suited to the reality of Vietnamese people” Dr. Minh excitedly shared.
The creation of a theory of management is difficult, but the application of this theory to reality is a bigger challenge.
“Imagine, the first days at the GKM Lean Institute, I spent many days teaching in an empty classroom without students, saying while looking up at the sky to let tears getting inside. The easiest thing I could have done at that time was to give up and go back to Japan, where I can continue my creative passions.”, Minh could not hide his emotions when he looked back on his journey.
However, that emotion passed quickly. I saw in his eyes that seemed to light the fire.
“But I didn’t choose that. Perhaps, the samurai spirit of not being afraid and determining to overcome difficulties has absorbed me, but moreover, I am the creator of this theory, I understand this is good for me, good for businesses and society. I really have the belief to turn a burning desire into reality” Minh confided.
At that time, he approached and told many business leaders that, if the GKM Lean Institute’s Consulting Program was not effective (in terms of financial and non-financial) they would not be charged.
In the following days, with effort, sincerity, personal prestige and support from friends, some entrepreneurs agreed to apply the lean management system of Dr. Nguyen Dang Minh and paid for it. The development of the GKM Lean Institute (GKM Vietnam) today originated from those initial successes.
AND THE DESIRE FOR a prosperous COUNTRY
Up to now, there have been thousands of enterprises applying all or part of solutions of Made in Vietnam lean management system including THACO Truong Hai Auto Corporation, MK Smart, Novaland, Anova, Manutronics, Tan Phat Equipment JSC, Legroup, Hai Phong Company, Lao Cai Branch of Copper Refinery Company under Vinacomin, Vietnam Paper Corporation and so on.
The list of GKM Lean Institute also includes the enterprises invested by foreign investors such as Midway Metals (Australia), Mitsubishi Corporation Vietnam (Japan), Julie Sandlau (Denmark) and ect.
Mr. Soren Roed Pedersen, Director of Julie Sandlau Vietnam (Denmark), a member of Eurocham Board of Directors in Vietnam, affirmed without hesitation that he would share information about this methodology of management to European businesses in Vietnam due to the results of the application of the system at his own business.
Similarly, after attending all the modules in the CEO program for lean management, Mr. Tetsu Funayama, Chairman and CEO of Mitsubishi Corporation Vietnam, affirmed: “These are the methods that Japanese companies investing in Vietnam may refer to and apply creatively in management”. Soon after, Mr. Funayama introduced Japanese and Korean enterprises to approach these methods.
Dr. Nguyen Dang Minh is finding a solution to preserve the system as a source of precious genes, and become “A tale never loses in the telling” because the desire of the author of this thinking does not stop at helping Vietnamese businesses to do real things and real business, but also pushes the thinking of the businesses to the new level of global thinking which means Vietnamese enterprises should not stop at outsourcing, but need to continue to develop and research (R&D), and need an R&D management system on the basis of lean management system to contribute higher value added to the global value chain.
Not stop there, Dr. Nguyen Dang Minh also set his aspiration at a higher level in which once lean management system is applied in the whole society including families, businesses, and schools for educating people, then it will be possible, the desire for a prosperous Vietnam will become true in non-far future./.
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The Management system with Samurai spirit of Japanese people After the Second World War, Japanese people was introduced about lean management of the US and Europe. Japanese intellectuals understand that they need a pure Japanese management system which is a “Made in Japan” management system created on the basis of Japanese culture while inheriting the essence and keeping to be the way of Japan of Samurai spirit, the culture of respecting the faith of customers and daring to cope with difficulties. By applying specific “Made in Japan” management solutions, in the years from 1945 to 1960 Japanese businesses and the whole country joined in the same period of national reconstruction. They were happy to have a business that produces “Made in Japan” goods to replace the imports, and sad when the products cannot be exported. The greatest value that Japanese intellectuals make is to create a spirit of Japanese management that even the United States, which they had inherited from management solutions, must also admire. |
By Tran Ha – In ” The Pioneer” section of Vietnam Investment Review