Back to the Future: Reflections on Vietnam

I mentioned in my last blog that I would report on the CIO mission to Vietnam. Well we took the delegation to our HCMC and Hanoi centres, invited outside speakers and introduced the mission to both the ICT and IT education environment. How did we get on? well I decided it would be better to hear directly from the delegates

The first, Professor Roger James, IT Director, Westminster University wrote:

In October I was invited, together with other CIOs, on a trade mission to Vietnam. The key purpose of the trip was to visit Harvey Nash’s off-shore development company, but the trip turned out to be much more than this.

Harvey Nash have a growing presence in Vietnam starting in 2001. But to understand the company you need to understand Vietnam and its people. Like the rest of the CIOs I think our perception of Vietnam was some hazy mix of the end of the Vietnam war and the Asia effect. It is an opinion partly right and partly wrong – Vietnam is indeed part of the success of South East Asia but with a character and energy all of its own.

Starting with the Vietnam war is wrong, the company and the people have a tremendous energy born from the war – 85 million people with over 50% of the population under 25. The country, the companies and the cities are all incredibly vibrant and energetic. For Vietnam it is their post war generation – their baby boomers – and like ourselves a generation ago they are learning and growing together. In another paradox Vietnam is a socialist communist country, yet with more evidence of entrepreneurism and enterprise that would put any technology hotspot to shame.

In deciding to do business in Vietnam there are two factors: the judgment of the heart and the head. The visit provided much evidence, described later, for the head. For the heart I think we found the people of Vietnam charming and approachable. There is friendliness, an openness and a sense of humour which is completely in tune with our own expectations and values; in discussion there is a quick rapport and easy interchange of information. As a legacy of the French Indochina the alphabet is Roman, English or Japanese is a priority and the courtesy is over-whelming.

Technically the companies are, for Vietnam, well established with some of the most senior Vietnamese IT professionals working for them. Most employees with more than a decade of experience have started their careers abroad and moved home to build the indigenous industry. There is a share option scheme for senior employees, there is post-graduate company sponsored training for many employees and the ties of family and company breeds a strong company loyalty. At the other end there is an individual and societal focus on education with a strong tradition of industry/academic collaboration – from company sponsored universities to ‘industry years’ in degrees. Together the societal and learning produce a generation keen to visit the UK for experience but also keen to return home. An ideal combination for outsourcing services with minimal problems of staff ‘jumping ship’ or applying for permanent residence.

The companies have, quickly, reached very high professional standards – they quote their accreditation at CMMI5. It is to be believed, the use of process measures and metrics needs to be seen to be believed [there was a league table of project managers with their productivity, defect and process scores displayed by the lift]. There is one strange paradox the low investment in development tools (such as Rational Rose), which for me is reminiscent of my early days in programming (circa 1980). Their core activities are driven by a very solid and very thorough in-house process system which is developed around key technological standards (such as UML or waterfall) but implemented ‘mandraulically’. The reason for the relative low adoption of high powered, high cost tools is simply finance; however it results in a rigorous and well understood internal methodology. It reminded me of my own IT ‘apprenticeship’at CAP and how I now struggle to give this opportunity to my team - learning as part of a large team all learning together. The Vietnamese partner in the Harvey Nash Joint Venture has a graduate intake in excess of 200 annually so continuous managed training is critical to their success.

The visit was not just to meet with Harvey Nash but also representatives of the UK Government and investment community. Largely through a series of dinners, with just one morning of presentations, we were able to see the potential and the prospectus for Vietnam. The local knowledge of the diplomats, coupled with a rich lexicon of stories, provided a 3-D view of the country and addressed, then answered, some unconsidered concerns: such as the layman’s guide to WTO and TRIPS. Keen to suggest the professional resources to address any issues, their quick expert advice guided the way on what to ask. Socially the energy and enthusiasm of the diplomats were impressive, Vietnams own energy, size and growth is reflected in the passion and dynamism of the diplomatic corps. The diplomats also introduced us to the increasing policy of ‘China plus One’ – the growing trend of organizations to hedge their risk by running outsourcing from two centres.

Much of the visit was built around case studies and presentations – there were many. For me two provided the best view of the company and it’s capability. The first was a rescue project for a Telecom company [a network telecoms configuration & contract optimization company]. They were committed to demonstrating their new ‘configurator’ at a trade fair some 3 months away. The incumbent supplier had failed to deliver, or make progress, and HN inherited a broken prototype, some vague design ideas and a ticking timeline. In meeting the deadline HN delivered an industry first which included the algorithm for a constrained multi-parameter optimization. This drew on excellent mathematical skills of the team, a legacy of the Vietnamese education focus on science, in addition to those of systems development.

The second was with a Hedge Fund in London, and was, in essence, an off-shoring version of Agile. Anyone familiar with Agile, SCRUM or any of the time bound, feedback driven will know they all struggle with the communication difficulties of off-shoring. Here HN, with their clients, had established a blended on-shore and off-shore team linked their workspaces by ‘always-on’ video conferencing which delivered. For the company the solution allowed the intimacy of peer programming with the economics of off-shore. The guys really should write this up as a case study.

Downsides? Writing this on the plane returning home the travelling is over long, although the much anticipated direct flights will help. Upsides? The team spirit and learning from such a visit, just having time away from the office in the company of CIOs facing similar difficulties sparked any number of new ideas and new insights.

My recommendation: if you get that call just go, Vietnam will educate your mind and refresh your spirit

October 21, 2008 04:24 PM | Permalink