Vietnamese Enterprises' Perception of the Role of Corporate Culture (2003)

business. Many Vietnamese businesses believe that the company's logo and business philosophy are just labels to promote the company's image, but they do not realize their important role: the logo is the first impression of customers about a business, is the factor that helps customers easily find the products and services of that business, and the business philosophy determines the direction and development direction of the business. In fact, only 10 out of the total number of businesses surveyed expressed the opinion that: doing business with culture is a very important manifestation of corporate culture. This is an alarming issue for Vietnamese businesses because in the context of current international economic integration, doing business with culture, keeping credibility with customers and international friends is the most important thing, the decisive factor for the success or failure of a business.

Up to this point, Vietnam has entered the first years of international economic integration after becoming an official member of the World Trade Organization WTO, the country integrates economically and in parallel with that is cultural integration, the term Corporate Culture is no longer really strange to Vietnamese enterprises. The topic of Corporate Culture is increasingly discussed enthusiastically on forums and mass media. Many websites have been established such as www.vhdn.vn or www.doanhnhan360.com to discuss this issue, attracting much interest as well as contributions from business people about Corporate Culture. Correctly determining what is Corporate Culture, its components, roles and ways to build Corporate Culture is vital if Vietnamese enterprises want to assert themselves in the global integration environment.

1.2. Awareness of the role of Corporate Culture

The 2003 survey results of the Ministry-level Scientific Research Project, Foreign Trade University, Hanoi showed that: the majority of opinions believe that Corporate Culture has the role of coordinating and controlling business activities.

Table 2.3: Vietnamese enterprises' awareness of the role of Corporate Culture (2003)

The Role of Corporate Culture

Rate of responding enterprises
Coordinate and control business activities	35.36%
Create cohesion among members of the business	33.33%
Motivate employees	13.33%
Creating competitiveness for businesses	8.89%
Reduce the risks	8.89%

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Source: Nguyen Hoang Anh (2003), Solutions for building Vietnamese corporate culture in the context of regional and global integration , Ministry-level scientific research project, Foreign Trade University, Hanoi.

Only 13.33% of opinions believe that Corporate Culture creates motivation for employees, and only 8.89% believe that Corporate Culture creates competitiveness for enterprises. The above figures have proven that, although at this time, Corporate Culture has been studied and some roles of Corporate Culture have been recognized, but not all enterprises understand the most important role of Corporate Culture. Thus, at the time of research in 2003, not many Vietnamese enterprises had a deep and correct awareness of the concept and importance of Corporate Culture for the long-term development of the organization.

Three years after the above survey, based on the survey data table of the School-level Scientific Research Project, Faculty of Business Administration, National Economics University in 2006, it can be seen that the awareness of Vietnamese enterprises about the role of Corporate Culture is still a matter of concern.

Table 2.4: Vietnamese enterprises' awareness of the role of Corporate Culture (2006)

The Role of Corporate Culture

Number of selected enterprises	Percentage
Engage members and reduce conflict	26	34.67
Reduce risk	10	13.33
Create motivation to work	8	10.67
Improve competitiveness	5	6.66
Coordinate and control operations	26	34.67

Source: Le Tuong Lan (2006), Current status of Vietnamese corporate culture in the trend of international economic integration , School-level scientific research topic, National Economics University, Hanoi.

This data shows that in 2006, the awareness of Vietnamese enterprises about the role of Corporate Culture did not change much compared to 2003. A large proportion of enterprises (34.67%) believed that the role of Corporate Culture was to unite members and reduce conflicts, the same number believed that Corporate Culture had the effect of coordinating and controlling activities in the enterprise, and 10.67%, equivalent to 8 enterprises, believed that Corporate Culture contributed to creating favorable conditions for employees in the working process. What is worrying is that only 5 enterprises - equivalent to 6.66% of the total number of enterprises surveyed, believed that Corporate Culture creates competitiveness for the enterprise. In fact, very few businesses are aware of the importance of Corporate Culture. Only when they clearly understand this issue and pay more attention to building a Corporate Culture for themselves, will Vietnamese businesses be able to cope with the increasing competitive pressure in the market.

Although the construction of Corporate Culture has not yet become a popular trend in the Vietnamese business community, it has attracted the attention of researchers and contributed significantly to the prosperity of a number of Vietnamese enterprises that have invested in building Corporate Culture. In recent years, many Vietnamese enterprises have initially successfully built Corporate Culture such as Trung Nguyen, Mai Linh, Viet A..., making significant contributions to the benefit of the whole society, demonstrated through products that serve the long-term interests of the community, charity programs, education promotion... On each company's website, there are separate sections on Corporate Culture. Many people explain this as "wealth gives rise to courtesy", "when you do well, you want to do something different from others". But in fact, all directors of these companies have had the right perception of Corporate Culture and affirm that Corporate Culture is the core factor that determines their success. These businesses have partly created a successful Corporate Culture in the Vietnamese business community.

2. Current status of building Corporate Culture in Vietnam

Applying the research on the structure of Corporate Culture in Chapter 1 to clarify the current status of building Corporate Culture in Vietnam, the thesis will focus on analyzing the following aspects of Vietnamese Corporate Culture in order of decreasing importance. First are the values within the enterprise, which are the manifestation of the core value layer and the accepted value layer in the structure of Corporate Culture (including the purpose and business philosophy of the enterprise, the level and awareness of the enterprise's leaders, the behavior of employees and the organization and operation of the enterprise). Next are the values expressed externally of Corporate Culture (including superficial manifestations, awareness of law compliance, and social communication activities of the enterprise).

2.1. Business purpose and philosophy

a. Business purposes

The business purpose of each Vietnamese entrepreneur today is very diverse in nature because the reason for human life is extremely rich, especially in the current conditions of increasingly deep international integration. It can be seen that some prominent trends are: business is to continue and maintain the long-standing tradition of the family, business is to earn a lot of money, business to have reputation and social status, business to assert oneself, to perfect oneself and have the opportunity to develop freely... Starting from the renovation process until now, a new business purpose has gradually formed in Vietnamese enterprises, which is to do business for the benefit of the enterprise in particular and for the benefit of the whole nation in general. Each enterprise develops not only for its own benefit, but also for the benefit of customers, for the development of the homeland and the country.

The Institute for Economic Management and Research coordinated with the Japanese organization JICA to conduct a survey on the business purposes of Vietnamese enterprises within the framework of the Ishikawa project in 2000 for 481 enterprises. The results were as follows.

Table 2.5: Survey results on business purposes of Vietnamese enterprises 9

Business Purpose

Response rate (%)
Want to do something useful for society	41.04
Want to decide your own work	27.03
Want to continue my current job	16.04
Want to maximize your potential	13.05
Want to make a lot of money	9.07
Due to previous job not being suitable	5.01

9 Le Dang Doanh (2003), New entrepreneurs in Vietnam - results and challenges , National Political Publishing House, Hanoi.

It can be seen that the business purpose for community benefit accounts for the highest percentage of 41.04%. The group of business motives to promote personal capacity (27.03% + 13.05% = 37.05%) also accounts for a higher percentage than other business motives.

The good news is that the noble values in the business purposes of Vietnamese entrepreneurs are increasingly promoted, especially in the private enterprise sector. The business purpose of wanting to contribute to society increased from 41.04% in 2000 to 52.07% in 2008. In addition, there are other business purposes such as wanting to do a job that suits professional ability accounting for 20.81% or wanting to build a separate career accounting for 27.12% 10 . This has demonstrated the noble human values in the spirit of Vietnamese entrepreneurs, creating the foundation for building a successful corporate culture.

b. Business philosophy

The role of business philosophy is still not given due importance in business activities in our country today.

- In state-owned enterprises: the one-sided emphasis on quantitative planning indicators (sales, profits, efficiency, taxes, etc.) has somewhat reduced the humanistic value and sustainable development orientation of the business philosophy. To have a valuable business philosophy, leaders need many years of experience in the market and in the management field. However, in the current management mechanism of Vietnam, the functions, powers and tenure of state-owned enterprise leaders are not clear and stable... Therefore, the vast majority of state-owned enterprises today do not have a clearly presented business philosophy with its full functions and values.

There are many general, innocuous business philosophies that are propagated by some business managers such as: "Serving the people", "We must know how to sacrifice for the collective interest", "The economy must obey politics"... However, the current policy of self-sufficient business, profit and loss, has forced businesses to

10 Thu Hoai, Entrepreneurs and business - a scientific approach , Saigon Economic Times Online, Issue dated June 18, 2009

State-owned enterprises pay attention to the importance of business philosophy for the sustainable development of enterprises.

- In private enterprises: Private enterprises are not subject to pressure and management from many superiors, so they have many conditions to promote their personal mark, summarize business experience into philosophy and disseminate and educate employees in the enterprise. However, in the current market mechanism in Vietnam, there are still many private enterprises, mainly small and medium enterprises, dominated by opportunistic business practices, not fully aware of the role of business philosophy and enterprise management.

- In foreign-invested enterprises: Foreign-invested enterprises are the economic sector that promotes the role of business philosophy the most in our country today. Foreign companies have brought to Vietnam useful business philosophies that are truly effective in managing and educating members, contributing to the sustainable development of enterprises in the market. Some examples include "Always listen, always understand", "The customer is always right"...

2.2. Level of awareness of business leaders

The management team in Vietnamese small and medium enterprises is mostly both the owner and the operator of the enterprise, most of them lack the necessary management knowledge. The survey results in 2006 showed that: only 30% of business owners have attended a management course for at least three months, 25% of business owners know clearly the Law on Companies and the Law on Private Enterprises, 44% know clearly the Law on Taxes, 25% know about the Law on Labor, 22% know about the Law on Bankruptcy and especially only 8% know about the Law on Investment Promotion in the

11. Three years later, a survey conducted in 2009 with more than 63,000 businesses

A survey of business leaders nationwide shows that: 43.03% of business leaders have an education level below high school, the number of business leaders with a master's degree or higher is only

11 Vu Quoc Tuan (2006), To form and develop the Vietnamese business class , National Political Publishing House, Hanoi.

12.89% 12 . It can be said that, up to now, the majority of business owners and directors of private enterprises in Vietnam have not been properly trained in business knowledge, management, socio-economics, culture, law... and business management skills, especially business skills in the context of international integration. This is clearly shown in the fact that many enterprises have not complied well with regulations on taxes, human resource management, financial management, product quality, industrial property...

At the workshop “Entrepreneurial Culture – Integration and Development”, writer Le Luu commented on Vietnamese entrepreneurs: “... We are facing internal obstacles, which are some outdated characteristics of the Vietnamese people themselves, such as lack of will to get rich, no business tradition. If we do business, we tend to imitate but lack creativity. In addition, there are some inherent characteristics, such as strong in righteousness but weak in trust. Lack of cooperation with each other. The previous subsidized society still left behind the legacy of hypocrisy and irresponsibility...” These are the shortcomings left over from the subsidized economic period that Vietnamese entrepreneurs need to clearly see and take positive measures to overcome.

It must also be noted that today, Vietnam is forming a class of young, dynamic and creative entrepreneurs, who work hard, are willing to learn and strive for new things. The average age of Vietnamese entrepreneurs today is quite young, around 40 years old. Of which, about 42% of entrepreneurs are aged 40-49, 20% are aged 30-39, and 32% are aged 50-59. Although the percentage is not high, there are more and more young managers who are well-trained in business and management skills. A typical example is Mr. Dang Le Nguyen Vu - Director of Trung Nguyen Coffee Company, with a relatively young age - born in 1971, but up to now he has led Trung Nguyen Coffee to become a leading brand in the domestic coffee market, and is moving towards expanding to foreign markets.

In recent years, there have been two events of great significance: First, the Party's platform and social awareness have confirmed the existence of the business class.

12 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen The Nghia, Improving the competitiveness of Vietnamese enterprises in international economic integration , Vietnam Economic Times, Issue dated May 31, 2009

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