Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh (or Saigon as the locals call it), and Da Nang are cities thick with development. I live in Saigon, which has bloomed into a metropolitan city. Its streetscape is constantly transforming with new trendy shops, cafes and restaurants popping up on every corner. Roads are bustling with motorcycles at all hours… [Read the full article]

Each and every day we are faced with decisions large and small as they pertain to growing our businesses. These challenges and opportunities require confident decision-making, often elicit varying amounts of stress, causing us to feel as though we need to fight, flee, or just freeze. We can’t predict every scenario we’ll be faced with,… [Read the full article]

Six years ago, I was sitting in the glass-encased conference room at Coca-Cola’s headquarters, my head spinning. My heart was beating furiously as I watched my father—the owner of Tân Hiệp Phát Beverage Group (THP), our family-owned business—turn down a $2.5 billion offer from one of the largest beverage companies in the world. At the… [Read the full article]

Since the turn of the century, THP has become one of Vietnam’s leading private-sector companies. It has successfully ridden the wave of rising domestic consumption at home and taken its first steps to export abroad. That independent success however, hasn’t eliminated our need or desire to partner with multinationals or other companies. In fact, collaboration… [Read the full article]

As a business, no matter your size, there is no reason for you not to be in complete control of your vision as it pertains to your market.  My experience in business is shaped by the evolving Vietnamese business environment which has great potential. Many foreign companies and investors see this potential and want to… [Read the full article]

You read that right, $2.5 billion. It’s the amount of money we walked away from in 2012 when The Coca-Cola Company offered to acquire a controlling interest in Tân Hiệp Phát Beverage Group (THP), the family-owned business my parents founded in 1994. I remember sitting in the glass-encased conference room at Coca-Cola’s headquarters, my head… [Read the full article]

We’ve seen it firsthand—authentic local products are very hard to competitively beat. This is because they are the only ones that truly adhere to the famous Four Ps of Marketing—product, price, promotion, and place. As many who have attended a business marketing class may recall, each of these “Ps” are essential to a product or… [Read the full article]

The historical dominance of China means that one of the many issues Vietnam has had to deal with is the Confucian view about a woman’s role in society. When our northern neighbor invaded, Vietnam adopted the Confucian Three Obediences: “tại gia tòng phụ, xuất giá tòng phu, phu tử tòng tử.” “A woman should obey… [Read the full article]

As of 2018, THP is Vietnam’s largest family-owned manufacturer in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods category (FMCG), employing more than five thousand staff members nationwide. We have a 15 to 20 percent domestic market share, ranking alongside multinationals such as Coca-Cola and Japan’s Suntory. In terms of the healthy beverages sub-sector, THP leads the pack… [Read the full article]

Globalization, which propels large multinational companies like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Starbucks, etc., across the world can seem like a powerful, almost irresistible force. This is particularly the case across the emerging and frontier markets where many independent companies like THP may have only recently become national leaders, wondering how they can fend off these global giants… [Read the full article]