The 70-year-old “female powerhouse” is still passionate about playing Facebook, has no specific position, but what to say 5 President/Director cum children must listen carefully

You could say, Mrs Nguyen Thi Son – Founder Son Kim Group is a real powerhouse of the Vietnamese business world. She lost her husband very early, raised 5 children under one arm, but she not only raised her children to grow up to be human but also actively supported them from experience, knowledge to finance; so that all 5 people have become the top entrepreneurs in the city. HCM.

In 1987, at the age of over 30, she was assigned by the State to manage the Legamex Company. During its heyday, this state-owned garment company had 4,000 official employees, 10,000 employees of satellite companies, and exported to countries such as the Soviet Union, Poland, Japan, France…; and was the largest garment company in Vietnam at that time.

The family consists of the President and the Director, doing business in all fields: apparel, real estate, retail, pharmaceuticals, investment, coffee, furniture….

During the Vietnam Family Business Administration Conference a few years ago, Ms. Nguyen Thi Son revealed that her 5 children are currently owners/managers of many different companies, in all fields of industry.

The first daughter Hong Van and her husband Ho Nhan are holding Nanogen – Bio pharmaceutical company, the second son is Hoang Tuan is in the position of Chairman of Son Kim Group and Son Kim Land, the third son Hoang Anh is the boss. Golden Mountain coffee and tea production company, the fourth daughter Hong Trang is currently CEO Son Kim Mode – GS25 Vietnam, the last son Hoang Lam went out to set up Duy Quan interior design company.

Besides, Hoang Viet – grandson of Mrs. Son is also involved in the management of the family’s education investment company SEAEDI in the North American market. Currently, Ms. Nguyen Thi Son is the Director of the Institute of Legal Sciences, Chairman of the Board of Directors – CEO of SEAEDI. SEAEDI is a rather special company, invested and run by three generations of her family members.

“The reason why my children and grandchildren all follow the business career is because they were trained from a young age, when they followed me to learn management from the time I was in Legamex. After having Son Kim Group, the children have another environment to learn business“, said Mrs. Nguyen Thi Son.

Like other families, her children don’t always agree, that’s why now each person goes to develop a different career and currently only 2/5 people are serving. for Son Kim.

“First, Hong Van managed SEAEDI, but then her husband, Mr. Ho Nhan, started a business with Nanogen – Bio, then Hong Van came back and handed it over to me. Hong Trang is not a businessman, Trang is a Master of History from Ho Chi Minh City University of Education. After graduating from Ho Chi Minh City, he went to teach at Saigon University.

In 2000, a Japanese partner invested in Hong Van Garment Import-Export Company, then entered into a joint venture with our family to establish a Quadrille – Vera joint venture and appointed Hong Trang as CEO. At that time, she had to hold 2 positions at the same time but did very well. Later, when Son Kim cooperated with GS25 from Korea, Trang had to manage this brand in Vietnam“, Mrs. Son revealed.

Nguyen Hoang Tuan – Chairman of Son Kim Group and in charge of real estate for the family.

In your opinion, all of her 5 children are stubborn and consider themselves the best? Of all, the third son – Hoang Anh gave her the most headache. His educational path was extremely brilliant: he studied for a master’s degree in Australia, and had a doctorate in technology management in the US. After graduating from school, he returned to Vietnam, first working at the Law Society, then as Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology at the School of Business Administration, Vice-Chancellor of KENT Coledge College in a joint venture with Australia.

But suddenly this son of hers stopped, did not follow the academic path anymore, but demanded to open a coffee shop and then a clean tea-coffee production company.

“Now, Hoang Anh is fine, Golden Mountain can produce to sell out. Golden Mountain not only provides tea and coffee for GS25 chain in Vietnam, but also through this partner, coffee can be exported to the Korean market.

This child of mine has a different personality, but if the earth does not accept heaven, then heaven must suffer from the earth, I must obey him.“, Mrs. Son confided.

“Currently, my family only owns 51% of shares of Son Kim Land, the remaining 49% is in the hands of domestic and foreign investment funds. However, I told my son, if I only have 30% of the shares, that’s fine, because foreign partners are better at management – management than me.

Likewise, I do not dominate the decisions of my children, only Tuan is very good, always telling his mother every Monday breakfast every week. I do not impose on my children, if I advise not to listen, I still try to support what I can to make my children more favorable in business, such as: experience, capital, premises.“, Mrs. Son shared.

She added that she currently has a job at the Institute of Legal Sciences and SEAEDI and has a passion for Facebook – the goal is to have a status on this social networking platform every day, so she has no time to intervene. interfere in their children’s business. When there is an emergency, she will call her son, if it is not urgent, just come to the Monday morning routine to discuss.

Although the second son Hoang Tuan works very decisively, he always reports to his mother fully. In addition, according to her, in a time like this, if you want to keep your family business safe, business owners should not show too much, because “living and surviving is already difficult”.

The woman does not hold any position, but dominates many decisions of the 5 presidents/directors and children.

Ms. Hong Trang – CEO of GS25 Vietnam (3rd person from the right) is participating in a discussion in the Workshop.

“As my mother said, after my mother left Legamex she had no assets at all, she just passed on our genes of passion for business.“, Ms. Hong Trang affirmed.

According to this female CEO, in the early 1990s, when her family had trouble, she was a freshman. Before that, family conditions were very good, so at that time my first thought was: how will I have to live?, who will pay for me to go to college?. Despite falling into difficult circumstances, Trang still believes that learning is important.

Before that, she passed many universities, but Son’s mother did not force her to pursue a career in business, but advised her to choose a major that she liked, because she knew how hard it was to do this job; So, Ms. Hong Trang chose the Pedagogical School. However, Ms. Son also added, no matter what she chooses, Ms. Trang must study seriously, study and do the best in her industry. Therefore, in order not to disappoint their mother, all 5 brothers had to support themselves and never stop learning.

“In order to do something for our mother, with the experience and knowledge we learned from our mother and others, we established the Son Kim company. Also from the existing close relationships of the family in the garment industry, we have been supported by many partners in technical support – technology transfer. Thanks to that, the new company developed smoothly and achieved today’s achievements.

It can be said that my whole life I have always listened to my mother. Now, sometimes her knowledge – judgment is a bit outdated, but once she said or decided something, we all followed. Sometimes we may not fully agree with our mother’s decisions, but we always listen, then adjust ourselves or things to fit.“, Ms. Hong Van continued.

Although Mrs. Son is old, with extensive experience in the market and acumen to the times, according to Ms. Hong Trang, often her mother’s advice is quite accurate and timely. And this may be the main reason why Ms. Nguyen Thi Son has such a great influence on her children.