C.P. boss reveals key to doing business in Vietnam

What brought you to Vietnam 25 years ago?

Montri Suwanposri: I was assigned to come to Vietnam in 1993 after graduating from university and working in the military force. C.P. is the first corporation I worked for. In the first time in Vietnam, I worked as an accounting and financial manager for 11 years before turning back to Thailand in 2004.

Four years ago, I got the chance to come back to Vietnam in the role of C.P. Vietnam general director.

What is your impression of Vietnam when you first came here?

Montri Suwanposri: C.P. entered and set up its representative office in Ho Chi Minh City in 1988 when Vietnam had already started the implementation of the open-door policy. At first, the company did not need an accounting and financial manager until it got an investment license in 1993.

I quickly got the chance maybe due to the earlier excellent outcome. Also, I had a great sense of connection with Vietnam. My childhood school Bannajok is now the Ho Chi Minh museum. I also made friends with a lot of overseas Vietnamese; therefore, I could quickly get familiar with the community in Vietnam and adapt quickly to its culture.

I was quite worried when knowing that I would come to Vietnam to work. Vietnam had just opened at that time so that information and management system were limited. Besides, my English was not good while I could not use any Vietnamese. Therefore, learning Vietnamese and investment law, meeting with authorities to learn the company establishment procedures and process were very difficult for me.

However, that pressure was gradually released and I loved Vietnam more. Receiving Vietnamese friends’ sincere and warm welcome, I felt happy to work and share with them C.P.’s experience and technologies that had applied successfully in Thailand.

Could you please share with us your journey to conquer such difficult language to learn as Vietnamese?

Montri Suwanposri: I started learning Vietnamese by the first week coming to the country and spent at least one hour every morning talking to my teacher for three months.

I learned and remembered vocabularies by writing down all the words I learned every day, trying to use them anytime talking to my staff. Sometimes I made mistakes but I was not afraid as everybody was willing to help me correct them. Therefore, learning Vietnamese became one of my hobbies.

However, I still need to keep learning as I have just held about 50-60 per cent of Vietnamese in my hand.

Each country would have a different business culture. What impresses you the most in Vietnam?

Montri Suwanposri: Although Vietnamese culture is quite familiar to Thailand’s and those of other Southeast Asian countries in general, there are still some small differences in cuisine, drinking business culture, etc.

I always impressed with the sincerity and kindness of Vietnamese people as well as the support of the authorities. When I first came to Vietnam, I deeply felt the deep meaning of love amongst Vietnamese communities.

In many multinational corporations, general director usually works overseas in a 3-5 year term. What has kept you such long in Vietnam?

Montri Suwanposri: The working time of a general director in another country also depends on the assignment of the higher level. In most cases, the general director has to come back to Thailand or move to the next country. However, love and deep understanding of Vietnam, as well as the positive outcome, are the reasons for my consistent involvement.

We also satisfied our higher level in Thailand when having successfully implemented the three-benefit policy for Vietnam, the local people and our business. We have expressed our gratitude and repaid Vietnam, created love and trust amongst our staff and other Vietnamese people.

Agriculture is one of Vietnam’s strength but still in the family and small scales. Do you face any obstacles when running your company in Vietnam?

Montri Suwanposri: Vietnam has a lot of similarities to Thailand with a number of favorable factors to develop agriculture including soil, climate and people. In the past when Thailand had not developed yet, we mostly saw family and small-scale animal husbandry. Protein supplied to the market was limited while prices were high.

Until C.P., which is almost 100 years old now, started bringing advanced technologies from Europe, the US and work with Thai farmers in livestock development, it has helped them not only produce enough for consumption but also export.

Thailand quickly became the world's leading meat exporter for over 30 years. Thai farmers have been always willing to cooperate, learn from us and develop their farms, getting higher income and together with C.P. increasing the agricultural standard in the Feed-Farm-Food (3F) model.

Similarly to Vietnam, we transferred production techniques for farmers to promote agriculture, co-operating with farmers to develop thousands of modern farms, creating jobs for the locals and accelerating the shift from small-scale production to an industrial livestock breeding model.

For the past 25 years, C.P. Vietnam has encountered many difficulties. Our key to overcoming those is always determined to comply with state regulations and follow our objectives set under the three-benefit policy.

We have also paid great attention to human resource training and social welfare activities. We build a working culture in which everybody never stops learning and improving themselves, turning us into the world’s kitchen and helping Vietnam’s agriculture not lag behind any country in the world.