More and more Vietnamese businesses are operating across borders. At the same time, more and more 'overseas generals', mostly young people, are taking on the role of businessmen abroad.
Shelves at a Thien Long point of sale in Thailand - Photo: MT
Start-up KiotViet or Thien Long ballpoint pen is quite familiar to many Vietnamese people. But it is gradually becoming familiar in many other countries thanks to "global entrepreneurs".
The journey of opening the way
Lai Quoc Minh was born in 1990 and graduated from the Foreign Economics Department of the Foreign Trade University in Ho Chi Minh City, while Vo Tran Tung is 1 year younger and studied economics and finance at the University of Economics in Ho Chi Minh City.
Both worked at FMCG companies before joining Thien Long in 2015. When they started, they were both market development staff. Now both are in charge of international market development departments.
Starting by developing the Philippine market, Vo Tran Tung quickly realized that this was a difficult market to conquer due to differences in culture, consumer habits and distribution systems. Here, stationery products are mainly brands from the US and China.
"I used to worry a lot because of bad comments about product design, rejection from customers and homesickness," Tung recalled the period when he thought he couldn't hold on.
After carefully researching that Filipino consumers prefer affordable cap pens instead of click pens like in Vietnam, Thien Long launched the FO-GELB08 product, which quickly became a best-selling item.
"We should prioritize choosing a medium-sized company with a spirit of cooperation and building a brand together from the beginning," Tung shared. Thanks to applying this approach, Thien Long's growth in Nepal in 2023 reached more than 100% compared to the same period.
Similarly, Minh also faced challenges when rebuilding the distribution system in Laos, a market where Thien Long had established a representative office and operated but had not met expectations. At that time, with the advantage of knowing Thai, Minh and his team rebuilt the distribution system, from wholesale, retail to mobile sales channels.
As a result, in just 1.5 years, the company's FlexOffice branded products dominated the market, leading in sales and coverage. If considered by the criteria of revenue per capita, the market with about 6 million people has entered the top 3 foreign markets of Thien Long.
After the success in Laos, Minh continued to lead the team to explore the Indonesian market in early 2018.
With a population of about 300 million people, it is impossible to apply the model of working with only one distributor like previous markets. Minh and his team, including local Thien Long employees, had to divide this market into regions, each with its own distributor.
With much effort and tireless adaptation, the results in the first two years saw sales triple each year.
Minh (right cover) and Tung (second from right) at the annual international fair and meeting customers in Dubai, UAE - Photo: MT
Bringing business management solutions to the world
Initially, the KiotViet team focused on outsourcing software for customers in the US, Australia, and Singapore. Realizing the potential of the domestic market, in 2014, KiotViet was born, creating an opportunity to change the management method from manual to more modern and effective for millions of businesses.
To date, KiotViet has become a familiar name in the field of software as a service (SaaS), serving more than 300,000 customers in 20 different industries in Vietnam. Each month, the total value of goods traded on the KiotViet platform reaches about 4 billion USD.
With the SaaS model, KiotViet is not limited by geography. Mr. Vu The Tung, international market development director, plays an important role in bringing KiotViet to its goal of becoming the leading popular business management technology solution in Southeast Asia.
In 2023, KiotViet officially expanded to foreign markets. Mr. Tung and his team had to carefully research target markets, build a distribution network and ensure service quality meets international standards.
But "when in Rome, do as the Romans do", according to Mr. Tung, one must adapt. For example, in Myanmar and Bangladesh, where the internet is only available for 3-4 hours a day and electricity is only supplied for 7-8 hours, KiotViet added a feature that helps the software work even when there is no internet.
In developed markets before Vietnam, demand focuses on advanced features such as smart reporting and market trend prediction using AI.
Over the past year, the KiotViet team has learned many lessons from the strategy of choosing target markets and product positioning: prioritizing markets where Vietnamese expatriates live. Currently, Korea, Japan and Cambodia are the three foreign markets with the most customers of KiotViet.
A store in the US uses KiotViet software - Photo: KV
Expanding the territory for Vietnamese goods
Mr. Tung shared the story of a Vietnamese woman in Taiwan who, during her visit to her hometown, came to the KiotViet office to get support for installing a POS machine and bringing it back to her store in Taiwan to use. This not only made the KiotViet team proud but also motivated them to bring Vietnamese technology to support overseas Vietnamese businesses more effectively.
The team is also focusing on expanding in Asia-Pacific and North America, said Mr. Tung. "We want to be known as a provider of innovative, flexible and market-specific solutions.
This contributes to putting Vietnam's name on the map of pioneering countries in the field of global technology," Mr. Tung shared his motivation to strive on the challenging journey abroad.
As for Lai Quoc Minh, after 10 years of "bringing bells to strike foreign lands", the biggest lesson is identifying and managing risks.
Potential markets with bright initial results, such as Indonesia, can quickly face difficulties after unforeseen events, such as COVID-19. Meanwhile, markets that seem to be full of risks due to political instability, such as Myanmar, still bring unexpected success.
Before the pandemic, Minh spent an average of 30 days in Vietnam each year, and the rest abroad. This was when Minh worked, immersed himself in local life, and learned the language through daily communication. As time went on, Minh is now fluent in Thai, Lao, Bahasa Indonesia, and English.
After the pandemic, Minh returned to Vietnam and shifted to managing many large markets such as Southeast Asia, East Asia and Europe. Minh is proud to have worked with the team to bring Thien Long "Made in Vietnam" products to a wider audience, with a presence in 74 countries and a target of 100 countries in the next 5-10 years.
"Many times when we go to restaurants or schools in other countries, we see them using Thien Long pens to write the names of dishes. We are happy to contribute to spreading Vietnamese brands to many countries," Minh shared.
The 'rejuvenation' journey of Vietnam's leading brandsSource: https://tuoitre.vn/nhung-doanh-nhan-toan-cau-20250107175847928.htm
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