Bridging the great divide
Doing business in Vietnam often requires double vision. Expatriate managers must perceive and adapt to cultural differences between the north and the south. While the country has been reunified for nearly three decades, there's still a major divide between the northern capital of Hanoi and the southern hub of Ho Chi Minh City. But since those cultural differences aren't always clear-cut--and perceptions vary according to personal experience--dealing with human resources requires a double dose of sensitivity, too.
First lesson: Establish clear lines of communication. While southerners tend to be more open, northerners tend to stifle their discontent. "Expatriates should reach out more to northern staff--draw them out to understand their problems," advises one Vietnamese banker from Hanoi, who recently moved to Ho Chi Minh City.
Second lesson: Don't expect staff to jump at promotions if they require migrating north or south. Even if the company might benefit greatly from relocating an experienced employee, deeply instilled prejudices and strong family ties build resistance. "We have found it impossible to get people from Ho Chi Minh City to go to Hanoi, and only recently, a few from Hanoi were willing to move to Ho Chi Minh City," notes Peter Karam, general manager of ANZ Bank in Ho Chi Minh City.
Generally speaking, many southerners fear they will encounter a cold, bureaucratic, back-stabbing office environment if they move to Hanoi. Likewise, many northerners dread the idea of leaving a sincere, hardworking circle of colleagues to join a bunch of fun-loving, free-spending and ultimately superficial bunch of office-mates in Ho Chi Minh City. While such stereotypes often prove far removed from reality, they can be difficult to shake.
This doesn't mean that companies have totally abandoned the idea of relocating talented employees. As Vietnam's dynamic private sector expands, some companies have pinpointed individuals with the gumption to accept new challenges and bigger pay cheques.
Take Colgate-Palmolive Vietnam. In January the American consumer-goods firm dispatched southerner Ho Trong Khai to take charge of its regional sales office in Hanoi, where he supervises sales and distribution in 24 northern provinces. After spending three years as a manager in the southern Mekong Delta, Khai says he was eager to tackle the Hanoi job. But he didn't anticipate how much time he would need to explain his strategies and convince the northern employees to follow his lead. "In the south it's very easy, they obey me in everything," he observes.
Managers at other firms confirm that Hanoi employees often require more hand-holding. That's not surprising. Hanoi, as the seat of communist rule, has less experience of the commercial whirl than Ho Chi Minh City, long the nation's vortex of commerce and marked by a greater influx of Westerners. "We haven't given the time or the training to the people in the north. I'm about to address that by bringing in an expatriate manager to Hanoi," says Malcolm Sayer, general director of Cargill Vietnam. "I don't believe that people are any less talented in the north."
Indeed, many northerners insist that they are much more hard-working than their southern brethren. "In the north, a deadline is a deadline. It's non-negotiable. In the south, if they can't achieve it, they just tell themselves, 'forget it'," grumbles a recent migrant to Ho Chi Minh City.
Moulding a unified operation that runs smoothly from north to south can be the biggest struggle. "The challenge is trying to come out with something standard in terms of output or results," says John Cabato, chief representative in Vietnam for Johnson & Johnson Thailand. "You have to have more patience."
Final lesson: Don't make too many compromises. "You need to be sensitive to cultural issues, but on the other hand, you shouldn't give in too much," advises Thomas Isaac, research director for Taylor Nelson Sofres Vietnam. As the country wades into the mainstream of global corporate culture, there's no substitute for instilling a sense of personal responsibility and respect for deadlines--the bedrock of professional behaviour in any country.
By Margot Cohen - The Far Eastern Economic Review - March 28, 2002
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