Vietnam alumni group visits factory started by classmate

On Friday 21 August, alumni of the MSM MBA in Ho Chi Minh City visited Vinh Tuong Industrial Corporation, whose CEO, Robin Tran Duc Huy, is one of our graduates. Registered with MSM in Intake 4 (intake 18 has just started!) Robin founded the business in 1991 and recently opened a new factory in the suburbs of Saigon.

The company has grown 1000% over the last 10 years, gaining a series of national and international quality awards. One of the top 250 largest private companies in Vietnam, its Hiep Phu factory is the first of its type in the country.

The 20,000 square metre factory makes a product called “Duraflex”, a range of calcium silicate boards made from Portland cement, silica sand, lime and cellulose fibre. These boards have been popular for nearly a hundred years in developed countries, mostly used in interiors of homes and commercial buildings. But it took the entrepreneurial talent of Robin Tran Duc Huy to bring this valuable technology to Vietnam, so it can be more affordable and readily available for local developers.

The Duraflex boards are impressive – water and termite resistant, fire-proof, sound-insulating, with no asbestos and made from raw materials easily available in Vietnam. The company has been able to cash-in on the big building boom currently taking place in Ho Chi Minh City. The factory is almost totally automated and surrounded by trees and lawns; office staff have decorative plants around their desks, enhanced by the company’s green colour scheme.

There is a strong emphasis on safety, and the alumni (and faculty, and support staff) enjoyed dressing up in strong boots, visibility vests, helmets and ear-plugs. After touring the clean and modern factory, there was then a chance to pick up samples, read brochures, chat to factory staff and examine different uses of the product – which can look like marble, or wood, or wallpaper – according to endless designs which the creative employees come up with. And everywhere we can see evidence of the learnings of the MBA class – in the quality awards, balanced score card applications, key performance indicators, employee empowerment, teamwork, leadership, marketing and customer service – straight from the textbooks!