Harmonising opportunity and focus: key to success

You have been living in Vietnam for almost a year. What are your first impressions of the market?

I have been in Diageo for almost 10 years and I came to Vietnam ten months ago. Before coming to this country, I had worked in India and Singapore. Here, I see a similar entrepreneurial culture. I was amazed with Vietnam’s 6-7 percent GDP growth forecast for the next five years. I was also amazed by the young workforce. Vietnam is young and energetic, and its entrepreneurial culture creates great value for growth. The Vietnamese people are friendly and hard-working and want to make a difference in their lives by creating opportunities for themselves. Diageo Vietnam in particular has a fantastic team that I am really impressed with. They are young and energetic and want to create something different and to grow. With these great people and the potential of the market, we must see what we need to do and what is the right platform for this market.

How have you used the experience you garnered in other emerging economies to create a solid platform in the Vietnamese market?

Since there is a correlation between Diageo’s business in every market in the region, the experience in other emerging markets is very helpful in Vietnam. What I cared about when taking over at Diageo Vietnam was to find out the similarities between this market and other emerging markets in the region. In emerging markets, the balance between opportunities and focusing on business is important. You will see a lot of opportunities in this market, but the ability to remain focused on business strategies to create value for the brand and for the customers is important for the company’s long-term development.

The market approach is the other main aspect. The route to consumer understanding is something I can bring from other countries to Vietnam and apply so that we can create value. Conversely, my colleagues in Vietnam also share with me a lot of local market insights and experiences so that we can create value for our customers and consumers here.

How will you and your team overcome challenges to grasp the opportunities?

Personally, I enjoy challenges. I see myself responsible for the whole Diageo Vietnam family. How do we - as an organisation - overcome challenges? The entire organisation must capitalise on opportunities and drive growth. This is the Diageo ethos: acting like an owner. You own the business; you are not working as an employee. That spirit of acting like an owner is fundamental for us to face and overcome challenges. And I think the other piece is the mantle of leadership Diageo places on people. One thing we all believe at Diageo is all roads lead to leadership. If you want to grow, developing your leadership is one of the single biggest things across the organisation that helps you grow and overcome challenges.

In addition, we need the right team. It’s not about hiring new people but about reorganising the existing team so that they can make best use of their talent and capabilities. We have also built a working spirit based on personal progress, which suits our brand’s mantra of “Keep walking”, which means whatever may happen, keep fighting, be bold in our execution and passionate about customers and consumers.

Last but not least, we contribute significantly to society and community. We believe that a good corporate citizen which can create real added value to the community is the important thing. This can inspire our employees, retain and attract talent and become the Employer of Choice which is the fundamental factor in our long-term development strategy. Developing the skills of Vietnamese bartenders through Diageo Reserve World Class, helping Vietnamese women raise their voices in the community through Plan W, responsible drinking through “Drink, Don’t Drive” and caring about the health of the community through Water for Life are some of our critical activities in Vietnam. These continue to be our priorities.

Please elaborate on the responsible drinking campaign.

Diageo Vietnam’s drinking philosophy is drink and discover responsibly. This is also Diageo’s standpoint globally. We need to ensure the right drinking culture.

Diageo is strongly committed to responsible drinking. We also always market our products responsibly. Diageo has a global Marketing Code, which is based on responsible drinking. In an emerging market like Vietnam, we realise there is room to create real value through the culture.