The 28th Dutch Vietnam Management Supporter

Have you ever outperformed yourself?

Early June the Dutch conductor Maestro Jan Stulen (see also DVMS no. 25) returned to Saigon to work for a week with the HBSO Symphony Orchestra. Purpose: to prepare their concert on the stage of the Ho Chi Minh City Opera House. The program offered a variety of classical music genres: songs by Dam Thanh, Bellini, Lehar & Mozart to a complete Brahms symphony. The HBSO Symphony Orchestra has few opportunities to perform, so this was quite a unique event. Maestro Jan Stulen is a terrific orchestra coach. He has been conducting all over the world for over 40 years and is familiar with a wide range of musical genres. Yet, classical music is where he comes from, and will always be at the core of his activities. How does a Maestro coach an orchestra? By insisting each individual does better and better and then even better. Rehearsing is very hard work: 3 hours of continuous rehearsing is hard for Vietnamese musicians who all have jobs on the side to be able to live. But their love of making music drives them to work hard, and to come to a new level of excellence: out-performing themselves. They played Brahms 1st symphonyand got away with it. Coaching: getting people to out-perform. The Maestro did it again.
Prof. Loek Hopstaken Email: loek@hopstaken.com Mobile: 090 888 9450

7th year, no. 3 June 21, 2013

This magazine was first published in March 2007. It is digitally distributed among my Vietnamese and Dutch business & private associates. Purpose: to keep them informed about my activities in Vietnam and overseas This amazingly attractive and energetic country has rapidly conquered my soul, and become my home away from home. Loek Hopstaken

In this issue:
What is your image? Activities June-July What comes before Performance Management Corporate growth?? Picture time Restoration pays off Strategic HRM Contact information Clients 1 2 3

You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.
Winston Churchill

4 5 6 7 8

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The 28th Dutch Vietnam Management Supporter

Maestro Jan Stulen conducting The HBSO Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Dao Nhat Quang (clarinet) and Ms. Cho Hac Ryong performed Mozarts Parto ma tu ben mio.

Excellence is not a skill. Its an attitude. Ralph Marston

Activities in June & July:

Ongoing: executive coaching Public Course HR Strategy & Planning (at Royal Business School) In-company Recruitment, Coaching & Mentoring (via AIT) In-company Management Development Training (via PACE) In-company Sales Management (via SPECTRA) In-company Performance Management (via Vietstar)

In May we spent a holiday in The Netherlands. Of course a visit to the Keukenhof was part of our program. Our daughter Lara enjoyed tip-toeing through the tulips.

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn. Benjamin Franklin

The best teachers show you where to look, but dont tell you what to see. Alexandra K. Trenfor

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The 28th Dutch Vietnam Management Supporter

Want to start Performance Management? Without a solid foundation, it will fail.

This year in Vietnam Performance Management seems to be more popular than ever. Why? The motives differ from CEO to CEO. Some want to have an objective HRinstrument to know who is contributing and who isnt, and link this information to their compensation & benefits system. Reward the producers, sanction the non-producers. Others see Performance Management as a means to exert more control over their staff. Some say you have to do it for external reasons, like compliance with the law. Or: Headquarters demands we do it. Again others see it as a way to find out how to improve individual staffs competencies through training & education. Its not difficult to guess which motive provides a sound reason to start Performance Management. Yes: to enable growth and improvement. But without a solid foundation even then it is doomed to fail. So what would be a solid foundation? An organization that has a complete & up-to-date organizational chart and dito job descriptions (1), clear & agreed upon criteria to evaluate performance (2) and practical policy to determine what to do with the results (3): (1) Job Descriptions must contain, besides title & duties, the jobs purpose, its intended results, Key Performance Indicators, required know-how & the jobs key competencies. (2) Evaluation Criteria are standards to determine if a performance is satisfactory or not. But most important: an objective performance evaluation is fact-based. (3) Results should first be used to determine what further training & education is needed to bring the staff member or manager to a higher performance level. And yes, if you want to connect a monetary reward systembe my guest. But dont focus all your efforts on this. We dont want staff that is totally money-motivated.
June 8: Managers of EVN NPC after completing their course in Hanoi.

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The 28th Dutch Vietnam Management Supporter

Corporate Growth: the only way to go?

For many years the only acceptable goal for a commercial organization was: growth. Supported and encouraged by economists, who kept on predicting growth. In a country like Vietnam, growth has been the case for the past two decades. A growing population leads to more demand. And when people have more money to spend, their demand grows along. However, demand is a generic term. Demand for what? A growing population means more food, clothes, houses, motorbikes. More money means more eating out, more & more expensive clothes, bigger houses and fancier motorbikes and cars. And yes: more holidays and study for the kids. So the economists are right? In generic terms, yes. But they usually dont tell us how many people spend how much money in what industry. Obviously some industries profit more from growth than others. There are a few complicating factors. Take inflation. It is better now, but for how long? Inflation means, you buy less with your money than you could a year ago. The result: prices rise. This curtails our spending behaviour. People are quite flexible in calibrating their demand. We dont like to cut expenses where our food is concerned, but most of us get over it quickly when we can spend less on luxury items. So how do you deal with all this as an entrepreneur? If I were your consultant I would advise you to devote time to strategy. Develop 3, 4, 5 future scenarios, varying from positive to very negative. From growth to the need for downsizing. The problem with strategy is, that these scenarios never really happen as you imagine them. As time goes by, you need to readjust your scenarios, jump to another scenario, or revise your whole strategy altogether. Ask any entrepreneur who was around in 2008. When you have experienced this you know that strategy is a dynamic concept. It is not future prediction. Not wishful thinking. Done badly, its the result of willful ignorance. Like the entrepreneurs in 2008 who blindly followed the advise of the economists. They couldnt imagine the economy going badas bad as it has been going, particularly in the Western world. Done well, it works from plausible realities. We live in a world where the better companies mobilize their talents to turn that competitive advantage into a competitive edge. They grab the opportunity as they fundamentally disagree with all the doom-talk about economic downturns. There are two kinds of companies. The losers: those that save money by firing staff. The winners: those that make a serious effort to improve their efficiency and effectivity, and retain their stellar performers and their qualified staff.

The Five Factors that characterize a High Performance Organization (HPO) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Management Quality Openness & Action Orientation Long Term Orientation Continuous Improvement & Renewal Employee Quality

From What Makes a High Performance Organization? - Andr de Waal

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The 28th Dutch Vietnam Management Supporter

Picture Time!
HFIC Group 1

(above) June 19: 1 company, 2 courses, 2 groups, 6 days: Recruitment & Interviewing Skills, and Coaching & Mentoring Skills. Company: Ho Chi Minh City Finance & Investment Company (HFIC). Training organization: Asian Institute of Technology (AIT). (below) June 20: University of Houston students at Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE).

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The 28th Dutch Vietnam Management Supporter

Bruges: the roi of restoration

During my holiday in The Netherlands we made a trip to the Belgian city of Bruges. It has grown into one of the major tourist attractions of the country. While the city was a famous port in the 15th century, since then it lost more and more of its grandeur. I remember an excursion to Bruges in 1974, with fellow students. The city looked like it was at the end of its life: due to pollution but mainly, age, it looked dark grey, and some buildings were falling literally apart. Since then the Belgian government has focused its attention on restoring its old cities, and Bruges was one of them. Today, decades later, the city shines as it must have shined in its heyday, when ships from all over Europe would drop their anchors in its port. The massive effort and investment is now paying off. The city has become the number one tourist attraction, with millions of tourists visiting Bruges every year. What happened to Bruges, has happened (or is happening) in many major cities in Europe: major restorations. From Amsterdam to Dresden, from Berlin to Paris. In the case of Ypres (Belgium), this entire medieval city had been bombed flat during WWI. Ypres has been restored, and is a destination for anyone interested in Europes history, attracting lots of tourists. A bit like Hoi An: the old traders have become touristsspending their money.

Leadership is not magnetic personality, that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not making friends and influencing people, that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a persons vision to higher sights, the raising of a persons performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. Peter F. Drucker

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The 28th Dutch Vietnam Management Supporter

Oxygen
Tony Gaskins said that communication is to a relationship like oxygen to life: without it, it dies. Therefore we use our time to communicate with those that matter to us. However, when work is demanding it happens that those who need our communication come second place. This is why we have (or should have) free time, weekends, and holidays. Time to catch up with our family and friends. Indulge in our hobbies. Spending free time is a form of regeneration: our life-batteries are being charged, our motivational drives restored, our inspiration renewed. We step out of our daily routines and do things we normally dont do, as they are always second priority to work. Oxygen keeps us on our feet. Make sure you get plenty of it. Make time to regenerate.

Strategic HRM requires far-sightedness

Strategy is not about predicting the future. It is about being well equiped and more confident to face whatever happens in the future.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
General George Patton

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The 28th Dutch Vietnam Management Supporter

Loek Hopstakens Clients

In Vietnam: a.o. business field Tan Thuan IPC (HCMC) Industrial development HCMC University of Technology Master of BA program RMIT (HCMC campus) Communication progr. Royal Business School (public courses) Courses & seminars Vietnam Airlines (RBS; ISM) International airline Vietnam Singapore I.P. (SPECTRA) Industrial park Petronas Vung Tau (SPECTRA) Chemical factory Nike (Tae Kwang Vina) (SPECTRA) Shoe factory Le & Associates Training & consultancy Training House Vietnam (Sacombank) Training & consultancy Ministry of L.I.S.A. (RBS) Civil Servants SONY Vietnam (RBS) Consumer electronics CapitaLand Vietnam (SPECTRA) Real estate Institute for Potential Leaders / PACE Courses & seminars Dalat Hasfarm (Agrivina) Pot plants, cut flowers Hoanggia Media Group Key to Success TV Show Fresh Green Earth Hi-tech agriculture Unique Design Interior Design ERC Institute Vietnam Vocational training Schoeller Bleckmann Vietnam Oilfield Equipment De Heus Vietnam Animal food Centre for Tropical MedicineOxford Uni. Clinical research Khue Van Academy Courses & seminars Training House Vietnam Courses & seminars Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Business consultancy HCMC Finance & Investment Company Investments Academy of Finance MBA (Un. of Gloucester) In The Netherlands, a.o. ING Bank Philips Heineken Yamaha Voerman International Damen Shipyards Wittenborg University of Applied Sc. Voortman Machinery Royal Van Zanten Financial services Electronics Brewery Musical instruments Intern. relocations Ship repair wharfs IBABBA, MBA CNC-contr. machinery Pot plants, cut flowers

K-quotes

Real knowledge is to know the extent of ones ignorance.

Master Kong

To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.
Nicolaus Copernicus

The DVM Supporter is published by Prof. Loek Hopstaken.

Email: loek@hopstaken.com or loek.hopstaken@gmail.com Mobile: 090 888 9450 Assistant: Ms. Vo Ngoc Lien Huong Email: jane.hopstaken@gmail.com Mobile: 090 888 9451

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

Albert Einstein