Empowered employees at the heart of Abbott in Vietnam’s success

For four consecutive years, Abbott has been named among the Best Places to Work in Vietnam by Anphabe

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For four consecutive years, Abbott has been named among the Best Places to Work in Vietnam by Anphabe. This year, the company ranked 9^th among the top 100 companies across industries and sustained its top position in the pharmaceuticals/biotech/healthcare category for the second year.

To do that is no small feat, as Vietnam has seen an increased presence of international pharmaceutical companies, and as a result, competition among these big names for the best talents. The pharma market is forecast to increase from $4.2 billion in 2015 to $7.2 billion by 2020 and maintains double digit growth through 2025 according to BMI Research. The industry will keep growing at around 10 to 15 percent a year, said Chris Freund, founder of private equity specialist firm Mekong Capital Ltd.

There are keys to attracting and retaining talents, according to Ngo Van Huy, general manager of Abbott’s pharmaceuticals business in Vietnam.

“It is only when employees are supported and have a strong belief in the company’s mission and values that they are motivated to develop innovative solutions to help solve health issues, bringing people a better life,” he said.

Vietnam is one of the priority markets for Abbott. For more than 20 years, Abbott has step by step reinforced its commitment to bring Vietnamese people better healthcare solutions, offering them opportunities to reach their full potential. This commitment is demonstrated not only by services offered to consumers, but also by programmes and policies empowering local talents.

“We are committed to recruiting people with diverse experiences and backgrounds and to provide innovative functional support for local commercial teams,” Huy said, naming the various programmes the company has provided its employees, such as the marketing training programmes, customised training programmes for different management levels, and other rewards and recognition programmes for teams and individuals.

The company also partners with professional and academic organisations to strengthen the capability or soft skills of its diverse talents. On the other hand, there are some global protocols in nurturing and empowering people that Abbott follows in all countries, including Vietnam.

“First, our purpose is to help people live their best possible lives, through the enabling power of health. This starts with giving our employees the best chance to realise their potential. Abbott helps its people do this by leveraging the scale and diversity of its businesses to create unique career paths, providing accelerated development for high-performers, and offering the best-in-class curated learning experiences to support role transitions,” Huy said. “Second, Abbott helps employees have great joy and pride in doing work that matters. The work we do every day at Abbott touches millions of people, helping them live not just longer, but better. At Abbott, we foster a sense of purpose by empowering our employees and providing the platform to challenge conventional ways of thinking and operating, so they may shape healthcare.

“Additionally, we operate with the highest standards of ethics and integrity and actively encourage our employees to give back to the community and partner with our customers and stakeholders to do the same. Lastly, the company ensures camaraderie and collaboration, and a caring and encouraging work environment by cultivating a transparent, performance-based culture, prioritising the health and wellbeing of employees and their families, and providing opportunities to share opinions that make a real difference at work,” Huy explained.

Last year, Abbott acquired Glomed Pharmaceuticals, a leading Vietnamese pharmaceutical manufacturer. The acquisition has paved the way for Abbott to further grow in Vietnam, extend its portfolios across therapeutic areas to better serve patients in Vietnam with innovative, high-quality healthcare solutions and bring benefits to consumers and employees, allowing them to live a healthier life and reach their full potential.

According to Huy, Abbott intends to build on Glomed’s success to ensure long-term growth in the country. “Together, our deep insights into local needs will lead to further local innovation, investment, and partnerships to benefit Vietnamese people and bring greater success to Abbott in the future,” he said.

Through this acquisition, Abbott has become one of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies (according to global information and technology services company IMS’s report for the second quarter of 2016) in Vietnam, further reinforcing its position and commitment to the market and its people.