Latest Thinking

How a big clean generates even bigger rewards

Few people in life enjoy cleaning and de-cluttering with the exception of some well-known gurus like the Japanese consultant Marie Kondo. And yet we all know how cathartic it can be. It’s a principle that rings true for both our home and work lives. So what explains this disconnect: we avoid cleaning and throwing things… [Read the full article]

2022 in Review: A Year of Transition

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… [Read the full article]

Combating unethical business practices

In a recent blog post, I wrote about the reassuring findings of Edelman’s 2022 Trust Barometer. It found that, globally, trust in business is growing because people view companies as a reliable and credible source of information in the fake news era. I also wrote about how THP views trust as the core part of… [Read the full article]

Why informality not hierarchy is the watchword for Vietnamese business

One issue that often confounds Westerners when they come to visit us at THP is the gulf between their pre-conceived notions about the way that Asians value hierarchy and what they perceive happening on the ground. In some ways, this is very understandable. It is well known that Vietnam is a Confucian society. This is… [Read the full article]

How to align individual attainment with a company’s business goals

One of the most difficult and fundamental issues that any company faces is getting the right balance between many peoples’ innate desire for self-advancement and the need for collaboration to achieve common goals. I am always reminded about former US President Harry Truman’s quote on the ideal scenario: “It’s amazing what you can achieve when… [Read the full article]

Developing PDCA Skills

At THP we recently conducted some PDCA training sessions for employees across the organization. PDCA stands for Plan-Do-Check-Act and it is a very popular management technique for ensuring continuous improvement whether that is for a product, a process or a person. The concept was originally developed by the American engineer Dr. William Deming in 1950… [Read the full article]

Being a Teacher

Each year since 1982, we have celebrated Teacher’s Day on November 20th here in Vietnam. It is a chance for students, past and present, to show respect and admiration for the teachers among us. And one of our most famous sayings about education always reminds me of my father and his great childhood friend Uncle… [Read the full article]