Some staff asked me: “Why change when our company is doing well?”
I replied, “Now is the time to change, don’t leave until the “dead end” cannot change anymore. We often change when it’s too late, and CMC SISG always changes when it’s good because only then will the company have the strongest resources for change.”
That is just one of many management philosophies that Mr. Dang The Tai – CEO of CMC SISG shared with more than 400 entrepreneurs in the seminar “Decoding service business management system – From zero to 2,000 billion in revenue” took place on the morning of 27/07 in Ho Chi Minh City, co-organized by AnhGroup and CSMO, in a series of Vietnam Business 4.0 Roadshow events.
The work is busy but many CEOs and business managers still attend a lot, and everyone hopes that Mr. Dang The Tai – a famous speaker will bring interesting stories. Not to disappoint people, Mr. Tai shared a lot of business management philosophy, but after each conclusion, the whole room applauded or nodded in agreement.
Consider crisis is an opportunity for businesses to improve capacity
At the beginning of the talk, Mr. Tai told his own story when he decided to start a business in Ho Chi Minh City after 14 years of studying and working in the Russia. Back then, information technology industry was quite new in Vietnam, with qualifications and experience, Mr. Tai was fully qualified to work for foreign companies, but he chose to join Computer Communication Co., Ltd. (precursor of CMC Corporation) in Ho Chi Minh City. At that time, CMC in Saigon had just over 30 employees and had a modest position in the IT industry. CMC has potential but has not been exploited and he has realized many of the changes needed here.
Mr. Tai’s journey of more than 15 years with CMC SISG started at the time when CMC in Saigon seemed to be broken when senior executives quit their jobs, negative revenue, lost their banking credit, cut off human resources … At that time, there were only two options: the first one was to close the company, downsize to become a support center for warranty work in Hanoi, the second is someone takes the responsibility. Mr. Tai has come forward to assume this responsibility when he is a technical person and has never done business.
In the first phase of the transition structure from 2006 to 2007, CMC SISG faced difficulties due to the productivity indicators not attached to the work goals, system of regulations from Hanoi was no longer appropriate.Therefore, Mr. Tai has made many changes in the size of the company, established more specialized centers and departments, cut costs and developed niche markets, rebuilt the whole process system … The goal is to increase productivity and help with effective management.
He said: “The common key to solve all problems is the way we approach them. When a crisis occurs, first of all, we need to gather enough information and make multi-dimensional assessments to clarify the problem. Based on that, we can propose solutions to choose. If we can skillfully gather all those resources, any problem can be solved. In addition, to solve a business issue thoroughly, CEOs need short-term measures, immediate and long-term action. We must consider the crisis as an opportunity for businesses to look back, re-evaluate and adopt the crisis to strengthen and improve their competitiveness.”
Do it quick – try it fast – fix it quickly
From 2007 to 2009, once every 3 months to 1 year, he “break the company model”. Up to now, while CMC SISG is constantly developing, it continues to change its management system. But Mr. Tai affirmed that CMC SISG and its employees are getting more and more mature because: “We are ready to identify and face difficulties and make immediate changes“.
He said many employees asked him, “Why change when the company is doing well?” – I said, “Change when we are the best “. Now is the time to change, do not leave until “dead end” can not be changed anymore. We often change when it’s too late, and CMC SISG always changes when it’s good because only then will the company have the strongest resources for change. ”
The slogan Mr. Tai often repeats is “Do it quick, try it quick, fix it fast”. He said, “Be brave to try, wrong, correct and turn around quickly, so that later the changing skills become one of the important competencies of the enterprise.”
He always encourages and motivates employees to confidently challenge themselves but still feel secure if they always have a CEO to help them, it is important to learn from experience and take quick corrective measures. Thanks to his “open mind” but full of assurances, CMC SISG staff always dared to make new, beautiful things and dare to make mistakes. Any employee can knock on the door of the General Manager room to share and propose work is very normal at CMC SISG.
When CMC SISG did not have a management tool that actually brought optimal results, leading to high risks for business contracts, slow and improper settlement reports, he invited the rival company to invest. However, the solution offered by the competitor did not meet the wishes of CMC SISG at that time. He quickly deployed and upgraded the Portal 1.0 system to become a CMIS (CMC Management Information System) system, redefining precisely the financial indicators and accounting methods on this system. He and his colleagues spent a lot of time building the CMIS system, going through many versions, constantly upgrading and constantly improving. Now that CMIS is copyrighted and deployed to a number of customers, CMIS has become a “soul” system of CMC SISG for many years.
Do not refuse any business opportunity, even if it sometimes involves a loss
Many companies choose contract that create profit, but at CMC SISG the first important thing is the market coverage. CMC SISG sells from the mouse, keyboard to the whole Core Banking system, etc. CMC SISG does not refuse any business opportunity, although historically, sometimes it is necessary to accept “a loss”.
Mr. Tai thinks that having revenue is important, having a gross profit is also very important, having a net profit is an effective problem but cannot put all those criteria into a plan. When there is revenue, there will be gross profit, gross profit, improvement will have a net profit. At CMC SISG, he places a lot of weight on business growth in sales growth. He advises other business to look at the separation: sales, net interest, gross profit and understand the nature of each indicator, each number to make accurate plans.
The benefits of the employers are formed from the benefits of employees
From the lesson about capturing financial indicators, Mr. Tai also had a talk about how to motivate the sales team. Starting in 2011, he applied instant bonuses to sales staff. When employees bring the contract, they get reward immediately, get rewarded, continue looking for another contract, and the deployment and debt collection are from another department, not the business. Mr. Tai said, in the company only 5% Hunting (hunting), the remaining 95% is Farming (caregivers). 5% Hunting will only work for 95% of Farming.
Instant rewards, year-end bonuses or year-end KPIs, each employee can calculate his or her reward level without having to depend on management. This makes reward for employees more integrity. On the contrary, the employer benefits are formed from the benefits of employees, the leaders will gain benefits when and only when the best employee support. He asked: each head of department or more is a CEO, each CEO has 3 main tasks: Training employees; Provision, support when employees leave; Improve processes, solve problems thoroughly. And each employee is a manager, take the initiative and lead his work. This is the transparency and democracy of information and helps every individual in the organization must “run fast” to develop.
The seminar closed with lots of questions from participants for Mr. Tai and his colleagues. In addition to the philosophy and way of corporate governance, even more valuable is the way to overcome ourselves, constantly searching and changing to develop the CEO’s day-to-day with passionate spirit.