Latest Thinking

Every year, the world’s leading dictionaries and many global publishers come up with a “word of the year”. For me, there is one very clear one to describe 2022: transition.

Last year was the one when the world acclimatized to living with Covid-19. Even the last country to hold out – China – had opted to head down the same path by the end of the year.

For most people across the world, life feels back to normal and what a joy that feeling is after everything we have experienced since the pandemic began back in 2020.

Here at THP we have also been transitioning, as we realize our ambition to transform ourselves from a national to a regional champion. I found 2022 to be a year of largely positive change as we continued along that journey. Here are a few of my personal THP highlights:

1. Digital Transformation

Our journey from manual to automated processes has been ongoing for a number of years. It is the bedrock of our ongoing success.

In 2021, we decided to accelerate our digital transformation by adopting a detailed five-year plan.  And in 2022, the major project we executed from it was the roll out of SAP Ariba.

This new system represented a significant upgrade for our procurement operations. It officially went live in April after 157 days of testing with more than 2,000 suppliers.

What SAP Ariba provides us with is a single source of truth to manage our supply chain relationships. The data it generates not only enables us to manage our existing relationships much better, but has been helping us to find new ones as well.

It has helped us to become a more streamlined company and proven to be a win-win situation for both sides. One way it has done this is allowing us to hone our evaluation criteria.

The price that a prospective supplier offers will always be a key input, but SAP Ariba means that it is not the only criteria. Under our new scoring system, price now amounts to 20% of the factors we consider as part of a wider and deeper relationship.

2. Environmental Transformation

It is very pleasing to see how quickly environmental awareness is taking root in Vietnam. Many of my fellow countrymen and women now understand the importance of the transition to net zero in ways that they did not only a couple of years ago.

This goal is one that we take very seriously at THP: we have placed the circular economy (produce, consume, re-cycle or re-use) at the very heart of our operations.

During the first five years (2013-2018), we focused on reducing our plastic use by 50,000 tons and then accelerated this to 70,000 tones from 2018 to 2022.

We have now moved into a re-cycling phase and are investing considerable resources into building plastic recycling plants (with solar roofs) so that plastic bottles can be re-used after our consumers have enjoyed the contents. Phase one of our Hau Giang plant has a re-cycling throughput of 3,600 tons per year.

3. Internal Transformation

Anyone who reads my blog posts will be well aware of how much store THP sets on training. It is how we realize our own internal evolution, not just towards greater efficiency and ever-better working practices, but also from a founder-led company to a founder-inspired one.

This year was no exception. Every single member of staff will have attended a training course at some point during the year.

And what was particularly rewarding was how many of these sessions were face-to-face again. Hybrid ways of working have many benefits but there is nothing like interacting with a “live” person right next to you to promote a spirit of co-operation, information sharing and engagement.

One highlight was when our Open House sessions re-started in-person. These monthly sessions provide an opportunity for employees to engage with the HR department so that we can continuously promote a spirit of improvement and implement concrete measures to execute it.

By Teachers Day on November 20th, we had completed a total of 162 lectures and 155 classes over the course of the year. I would like to thank all the teachers and participants for training and learning the techniques that will help to ensure that while “yesterday is better than today it is not as good as tomorrow”!

And what has remained the same….

In addition to celebrating what has changed, I think it is also equally important to highlight what has not.

As a company, there has been one constant for the past sevens years: the accolade that both Dr. Thanh Herbal Tea and Number 1 Energy Drink have received as National Brands of Vietnam from the Ministry of Trade and Industry.  We are incredibly honoured to rank as one of the top 172 enterprises in the country.

THP’s core values also remain fixed: the guiding stars that help us to tread a clear path towards our goal of reaching the century mark. One thing that I am also very grateful to say fundamentally does not change is the way that the THP family values each other.

The heart of this family is the founding Tran family – my father, mother, sister Bich and I. But THP is a much bigger family these days.

As my father always says, he created THP, but today it is led by team of people, striving to make us one of the leading companies in Asia. This year, our THP Big Family grew larger yet with the addition of new recruits to help us manage our post pandemic growth.

And we also a gained two new four-legged members after Strawberry and Bean, two new  puppies arrived. They are rapidly turning into the company’s mascots.

All it leaves me now is to wish all of our THP Big Family, our suppliers, our contractors and of course, our customers a very happy and prosperous 2023.