“For me, the most daring change was choosing Le Tri Thong as CEO and there were a lot of criticisms at that time.”
In a recent conversation, two leaders – Chairman of the Board of Directors of PNJ Cao Thi Ngoc Dung and General Director of PNJ Le Tri Thong shared about the strong restructuring and innovation period of a company. The long-standing state jeweler has been privatized.
In early 2017, Ms. Cao Thi Ngoc Dung considered herself very daring when choosing a person who was previously “not interested in fashion, not interested in the retail market” – Mr. Le Tri Thong – to become the General Director of the Company. But in fact, 2017 also marked a period of strong growth when PNJ recorded the largest sales since 2011, reaching VND 10,977 billion, up 28% compared to the revenue achieved in 2016.
“I also changed it years ago but why doesn’t it turn on? One thing I realized is that I only change on the outside”
When listed on HoSE in 2009, PNJ had 142 stores, becoming the company with the largest jewelry retail system in Vietnam. This national brand was later announced by Plimsoll as the 16th company in the top 500 largest jewelry companies in the world.
However, before 2010, Vietnamese businesses had almost no concept of professional retail. Pioneers like The New Mobile World are starting and Saigon Co.op is commercial. PNJ leaders quickly realized weaknesses in the face of a continuously expanding retail system and the fear of “lagging behind” in a regional vision.
“At that time, there is only change or death. I also changed it years ago but why doesn’t it turn on? One thing I realized is that I only change on the outside. I know I have to change from thinking, perception”Mrs. Dung recalled.
With that determination, in 2012, PNJ decided to restructure and conduct seminars to let everyone see the need to change. After agreeing on the ideology, the company hired a foreign consultant to standardize the management system according to international standards.
But it is this continuous rise that poses a problem for PNJ is how to innovate but still have to “keep the rhythm of the train stable”. On the one hand, among the new generations there are a lot of new ideas, bringing in best practices from many companies, from many parts of the world. One side is a success formula of 20, 30 years.
“Those two formulas collide, it’s fine. I need the collision of currents of experience, thought flow tooh. The question is, how do we manage those thoughts?“, Mrs. Dung said.
As a leader, Ms. Dung believes that it is her responsibility to listen and share with the team that used to have old formulas and create conditions for the two sides to sit together, analyze the causes and Find common ground to go together.
“For me, the most daring change was choosing Le Tri Thong as CEO and at that time there were a lot of criticisms”
PNJ’s process of pressing the regeneration button is also different from other companies conducting restructuring. In 2017, PNJ nominated Mr. Le Tri Thong for the position of General Director. Originally an MBA at Oxford University (UK) and holding senior positions at DongABank and Prudential Vietnam, Mr. Thong said that normally the company would make huge changes in structure, departments, people, etc. create great thrusts. But at PNJ, when researching the Company’s channel, the leadership team has other options.
“Instead of normally called “open surgery”, open the ribcage and change the internal parts, here we do “laparoscopic surgery”, we change the parts one by one, sequentially from Part after part, it’s all programmed. It is this that makes PNJ constantly innovate, but it doesn’t take much effort,” said Mr. Thong.
The “memory” is gradually freed, refreshed, and run faster without stopping the system. However, it also requires more work in creating a program that changes parts one by one, connects those parts together, solves problems of stagnation.
It should be emphasized that PNJ is invisible as an organization that everyone considers family – a sustainable culture during decades of development. But, that very culture will be the stagnation in the future. For that reason, Ms. Dung and the Board of Directors set the first goal of “reinventing the culture” at PNJ.
“It’s a story of determination, of leaders, a story of integrity and respect for the truth. It means daring to look straight at the problem sometimes it’s very good, very deep, but look at it. Only then can I find a solution.” Mr. Thong said.
Previously, PNJ had only one foundation, which was a manufacturing company that emphasized discipline and quality management, trying to keep everything between the “margins” to control quality. On the other hand, “family” administrators are mostly protective and do not dare to force themselves to let people decide their own problems.
In order to innovate, PNJ has re-evaluated and re-examined the foundations and values that the Company currently has: keeping the important boundaries but expanding the creative space; at the same time, changed completely from the Board of Directors to the staff and deployed downwards.
For example, instead of having to report multiple levels when there is a new idea, PNJ uses the “workplace” tool so that leaders or individuals both post about their ideas or questions and 5 minutes later can have ideas that people comment below.
“Your ideas may not bring any economic value, but first of all, the program makes you confident, creating an atmosphere that I call faith in each child. Thus, creativity is no longer the exclusive story of those who report directly to me and Ms. Dung, but even those in the lowest positions still have a very democratic space for everyone to enjoy. give your opinion”, Mr. Thong shared.
at Blogtuan.info – Source: cafebiz.vn – Read the original article here
