On June 17, 2017, Mr. Jonathan Hanh Nguyen, Chairman of IPPG, had a speech to Ho Chi Minh City National University students about start-up at University of Economics and Law HCMC.

At the event, there were Board of Management members of the National University and more than 500 students from the National University of Ho Chi Minh City.

Start up steps of Mr. Jonathan Hanh Nguyen.

At the beginning of the talk, Mr. Jonathan Hanh Nguyen has shared his successful career path. He first started his career at grade 12 and the idea of ​​start-up came to him by chance. He said: "I was in a soccer game with friends, accidentally the soccer ball ran into the camp of South Korean soldiers, so I ran to the gate to get back the ball and was stopped by the soldiers. After I presented the reason, the officer offered to buy my motorbike, but I did not agree because the bike was a gift from my father. However, at the same time, an idea just popped up in my head that buying the exact same bike in a store and sold it to the officer for profit (because back then the Korean soldiers were not allowed to go shopping). With no hesitation, I ran straight to the motorbike dealers to ask for the price. Back in that day, the price of a HONDA DD 70 bike is 34,000 VND, I told the officer I would sell to him with 36,000 VND; and he agreed. Therefore, I earned profit of 2,000 VND from the first business.

Mr.Jonathan Hanh Nguyen believed that was also his first lesson of starting a business without spending on capital: "If you ask that where I got 34,000 VND from to buy motorbike in the store to resell, then the truth is I only had 10,000 to deposit from the officer because he did not trust me, I then took the deposit to the motorbike shop to hand over to the owner and asking him to deliver the bike to the officer to receive the remaining amount of cash. Fortunately, after this deal I gained trust from both the Korean officer and the motorbike dealer, hence, my first business was successful. I had earned more than one-month salary of a government officer at that time. After that, more than 200 people in the Korean military based continuously ordered bikes from me so I became a motorbike dealer since then. "

His second start up was when he just graduated from the University in America and was accepted to the Boeing Finance Inspectorate. This job brought to him over 100,000$ per year, which was many people ideal salary. However, he has the thought, if he keeps working for this company, he will never have a chance to own a business. He discussed with his wife, and took all the money to rent a house, bought an old truck to do business in department store. In the beginning, the business was difficult for him since he had to drive for eight hours from home to the state of California to collect the goods. After a while, after knowing the Vietnamese community’s demand, his businesses were gradually prospered. When he owned home, machinery, he started buying the mortgage into the bank to borrow capital to continue running his business.

At this point, he has been working on his business and also working for Boeing at the same time. When the work was favorable, in early 1985 he received an invitation from the Vietnamese Government to participate in the opening of new route. Receiving the call from his hometown, he abandoned all; quit the job with ideal salary, leaving the business that was favorable in the US to return to Vietnam and participated in the opening of HCM – Manila route. This is an very important turning point in his life and his third start up event because according to him, opening the first route from Vietnam to foreign countries meant truly important not only to him but also to the country.

In The Question & Answer section, Mr. Jonathan Hanh Nguyen received many questions from students related to the issue of business startup.

To Ha - 3rd year Marketing student, University of Economics and Law Ho Chi Minh: Can you share your persuasive experience in bringing famous brands to Vietnam?

General Director of IPPG - Ms. Le Hong Thuy Tien represents to answer questions from students 

To this question, Ms. Le Hong Thuy Tien - General Director of IPPG Group, who has a lot of experiences in negotiation to bring world-renowned brands to Vietnam, has shared: "As Mr. Johnathan Hanh Nguyen has just shared, at the beginning we only had a duty-free shop at Tan Son Nhat airport and needed the presence of major brands. We had to convince them that Vietnam is a new country which just escaped from the war and we are working with the government to welcome investors to start from airport industry. That proves that Vietnam's infrastructure is improving day by day, our country is in need of the presence of world-renowned brands to prove to international visitors that our country is developing, it is not a poor backward country. With outstanding financial proof and professional business plans, those brands eventually agreed to do market survey in Vietnam, the very first brand that IPPG brought to Vietnam is Hennessy - the liquor brand. Ever since, other brands have also followed Hennessy's footsteps to enter the IPPG duty-free shops." Ms. Le Hong Thuy Tien said that it was difficult to negotiate because there was no famous brand presented in Vietnam yet, therefore, investors were afraid to enter the market. However, once a big brand is willing to enter, then it will build a fundamental trust for other brands to enter. One other factor that is just as important to the success of the IPPG in persuading well-known brands to come to Vietnam is "actions need to go along with work", this has created a great deal of trust for our partners as well as investors.

Vu Van Dai – majoring in Business Administration from University of Economics and Law of Ho Chi Minh city asked: What are the components to become a successful business man? And which components is the most important?

Answering this question, Mr. Jonathan Hanh Nguyen said that in order to become a successful entrepreneur, there are so many factors. Beside the existing factors, the first factor is hard working in order to accomplish your goal; the second is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of yourself to promote, learn and improve it. The success of IPPG today is not just only the revenue of 600 million dollars a year, or a team of 25,000 employees; but also the responsibility to the community, to society and business as well as to fulfill all tax obligations to the government. According to Mr. Hanh Nguyen, serious compliance with tax obligations is also an important factor to become a successful entrepreneur. Managements must always be transparent and honest to the customer as well as to the partner and to the state management, too.

Nguyen Hoang, a second-year student in E-commerce, University of Economics and Law asked: Knowing that start-ups are always associated with community values, all startups are eager to bring something worthwhile for the community before thinking of profit. As a businessman who has made lot of contribution to the start up community, what are the biggest obstacles for young people starting up?

Answering this question, Le Hong Thuy Tien – IPPG General Director said: With IPPG we do not always think of profits, contributions to the community & society are also goals of development criteria not only of the IPPG, but also of other big corporations. If your start-up project contains unique ideas, relevant to the society, for sure those big businesses are willing to invest. Ms. Thuy Tien also advised that, when you want to start up, you should consider and thoroughly understand the needs of the society. According to her, successful startup projects are projects that solved complicated problems of daily life.

Agreed with this viewpoint, Mr. Jonathan Hanh Nguyen emphasized: "Starting a business always presents in our daily lives, it is important that you have to grasp the opportunity and start working on it immediately since opportunity do not come often.”

At the end of the talk, Mr. Jonathan Hanh Nguyen concluded by saying: "Whatever you do, when successful, always head to the homeland, contribute to build it in order to make your home country richer and more beautiful day by day.”

Here is a short video from the speech of Chairman Jonathan Hanh Nguyen at the National University: