This was no day at the beach (pun intended), but it was still very interesting and very caffeinated. First on our agenda was a meeting with Dan Thai at the Hard Rock Cafe here in Ho Chi Minh City.
Hearing his family’s story and the story of how the company started was really interesting. It was inspiring to hear about their rags to riches, riches to rags story, even more so with the international twist of Vietnam. I can’t say I am as knowledgeable about business as some people on this trip, but I still found all of Dan Thai’s business stories and strategies to be both interesting and helpful. One of my favorite quotes was, “You do not bring a Ferrari to Vietnam because you won’t make it past first gear.” If you see the streets here you understand that better. What he was saying here was that you cannot come to Vietnam and expect it to be like America where everyone does their job and is concerned about every little detail in order to keep their jobs. For example he said last weekend he had his secretary reserve him a table for 20 at a restaurant. When he arrived his name was wrong and they asked if it was OK to split his party into three different tables. He said you have to keep your hands in every part of the business from the accounting to the plumbing work in order to make sure that everyone runs smoothly. He said that was why most companies get discouraged from doing business in Vietnam or why those that try often fail—they do not understand the culture here. He had a very good point that any time you try to do business internationally you should get a good understanding of the culture first. One of the things I respect most about Viet Thai is that they have their own brand that they started—Highland’s Coffee—but they also help other brands like Nike, Emporio Armani, and Debenham’s come into Vietnam and be successful. Because they have their own brand to take care of they understand how these other companies feel and want to add value to their products rather than try to make a quick dollar off of them.
We had a really good lunch at Hard Rock Café Ho Chi Minh City and then went to look at some storefronts of different brands brought in by Viet Thai such as Armani, Debenhams, Swarovski, and their own brand—Highland’s Coffee. Then we went to the Highland’s Coffee training center in Ho Chi Minh City, located above another Highland’s Coffee location, where they train new employees.
There we talked to Andrew Nathan while drinking some delicious Highland’s Coffee. I really liked this presentation because we learned some things about business, coffee, and some of Mr. Nathan’s own experiences. As it turns out he used to work for Starbucks before coming to work for Highland’s Coffee and actually lived in Thailand before moving to Vietnam. He also told us about the traditional way of making Vietnamese coffee. You put the hot water and ground coffee beans into a small coffee press and put a flat piece in it that pushes down slowly to push the coffee into your cup. Here’s a picture of one from our beach trip.
After this presentation I went to the Ben Thanh market to pick up some souvenirs and look at some of the things they had for sale. I don’t think we were able to bargain as well as some of our Vietnamese friends can, but I think we did pretty well. Later we went out to karaoke with some of the Viet Thai employees. This was a really fun time with some good food (but then good food always means good times).
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