Vietnamese history, GlassEgg, and video games

Today felt much more relaxed compared to the previous day since we had only one company visit.  We started the day with a Vietnamese history class again.  It is very interesting to keep learning more and more about this culture.  It is making a lot of our experiences and what we’ve noticed about Vietnam make much more sense.  I think the biggest thing I got out of this lecture in particular was how the Vietnamese feel about Americans.  As many people know, during the war Agent Orange was spread in order to reduce foliage that the Viet Cong were hiding in.  An unfortunate side effect of this was ill health in people and birth defects for infants.  The professor giving us this lecture has a relative who was affected by Agent Orange.  One of us asked him if he had any negative feelings towards Americans because of this and he said, “No, we do not.  There are a lot of American organizations that come to help those affected by Agent Orange and besides that, Vietnam has a long history of wars.  We fought the Chinese, Cambodia, France, United States, etc.  If we hated all of these people we could not live.  You may think I am just saying this, but I think if you ask most people they will say the same thing.”  I personally found this to be very big of them.  This is just another example of the ill-effects of war but how each side can come together for a brighter future (as often happens). 

                Today’s company visit was to Glass Egg Digital Media.  This was by far one of the coolest company visits.  We were able to walk around and see artists working on cars and characters from video game franchises we are all familiar with.  What I found especially cool was that they made a lot of the cars in the Gran Turismo series, meaning I have probably driven a few cars made by Glass Egg in that video game!  It was also interesting to hear about the business plan for this company and how their process works.  They receive a contract from a company such as Microsoft or EA Games to make cars or something in a game.  Then they receive specifications and pictures and then go to work designing the graphics.  First a wire mesh of the shape is made and then more and more detail is added on as necessary and/or is able to be supported by the gaming device.  What really helped me too was hearing the story of how the company started.  Before the trip we read a case study intended for MBA students about Glass Egg and in that it wasn’t very clear how the company started and I was left thinking, “How did someone with a law degree think of starting a video game outsourcing company?”  Well as it turns out, Phil Tran was a law intern here in Vietnam working on a case where a company wanted to outsource to Vietnam and could not find anyone to outsource to, so he suggested they start their own studio.  After said company failed he and Steve Reid got together and the rest is history.  Here is the logo for Glass Egg as well as some of the games they have worked on:

Viet Thai, Hard Rock Cafe, CAFFEIN, and karaoke

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).  

Hydrofoils, Beaches, large mountains, and statues

So I think half of my posts have said something about “this was my favorite day yet,” or “that was the most fun thing we’ve done yet.”  Well, this one will be no different.  Today was by far my favorite days on the whole trip.  Seeing the countryside, going to the beach, and getting out of the city were amazing.  First we rode on a hydrofoil (my first ride on one) down the river to get out towards the ocean.  Along the way we saw lots of large container ships and we also passed under the Phu My Hung bridge. Just to clarify:  a hydrofoil is a boat with a fin attached to the front.  This fin uses the same principles as an airplane wing to lift the boat out of the water slightly enabling it to ride smoother, go faster, and use less gas.

                Once we arrived at the other dock we got onto another bus and went to see the statue of Mary holding Jesus.  The statue itself was pretty but also the land below it was very beautiful with all of the flowers and trees.

 Despite the statue's large size, it was actually pretty light.  I held it up for at least 10 minutes:

  Then we drove down the street to the pagoda (it was a Buddhist temple).  This was a very peaceful place.  The statues were really neat and all the decorations were very cool!  All of us rubbed Buddha’s belly and then rubbed our heads.  This is for good luck and it makes sense since we learned in our Vietnamese culture class that the top of the head is used for praying, so you rub Buddha’s belly and then your head for good luck.  Steve and Jay even released two birds while we were there (one purchases a bird, makes a wish, and releases the bird).   

After this we drove just a bit further down the road so that we could climb the mountain up to the Jesus statue.  There were SO many steps!  The exercise was definitely good for us, though, and the views at the top were fantastic.  The flowers and statues all along the way were very beautiful too.  After relaxing at the top and taking some great pictures we made our way back down the mountain.  I’m still not sure if going up or down was more difficult…

                After a wonderful lunch we then went to the beach!  The sand was so fine and the water was so warm.  Because there is no winter to cool it down it was like bathwater—it was fantastic!  We had lots of fun swimming in the water and playing Frisbee.  I found lots of seashells.  What surprised me was that one of the seashells had a hermit crab in it.  I actually ended up finding two hermit crabs on the beach.  Then Anh and Tinh showed us some fun games to play on the beach.   

Sadly we could not spend the entire day on the beach and we had to catch the next hydrofoil make to Ho Chi Minh City.  However, we ended the night right by going to Charmongue, a restaurant that Jake found in a travel book.  It was an Italian restaurant with excellent food.  Warning to those wishing to go here:  you must go to the corner of Hai Ba Trung and Dien Bien Phu.  Then pick one of the two alleyways that lead back to the restaurant.  This was extremely confusing, but worth it for the meal and the atmosphere.

Mekong Delta Day Trip, Cocoa Farms, Hot pot rotary

Ok, so this blog is a day late (these day trips are tiring!), but this will still be an awesome post.

This was a day filled with lots of agriculture and cocoa, all in the Mekong Delta.  The first thing we saw was the entire process of cocoa production from the fermenting to the drying and grinding.  We learned about some of the specifics of how they farm such as using the pods as fertilizer and covering the beans with banana leaves during the fermentation process.  After this visit we went to an actual cocoa farm.  They had some of the same machines but this visit was especially interesting because of the different plants this farmer had.  We saw corn, flowers, cocoa plants, pineapple trees, palm trees, and so much more.   However I think everyone’s favorite part was the free chocolate.  They gave us samples of chocolate bars made from cocoa actually grown on that farm, and it was all very delicious!

                Next we had lunch at a very nice restaurant; the food seemed to be endless!  We then took a bus ride to a boating company and took a small tour of the river in the Mekong Delta.  We saw lots of interesting boats.  One of my favorites was two identical ships traveling side by side.  One was overloaded to the point where it looked like it was sinking.  Our first stop on this boat tour was to an island where they make coconut candy.  We then went over to the island where the coconut monks live.  The bamboo monkey bridge and the alligator pit where the first sights to greet us.  Luckily the two were not in the same pool of water.  We wrapped this day up with dinner at Kichi Kichi, a hot pot restaurant.  It is sort of like fondue, but not quite the same concept.  Instead of dipping chunks of food you more or less dump ingredients in and make a soup.  Also the food comes to you on a small plate on a very large rotary track that goes around the restaurant.  This was a very neat experience.