Chairman, General Director of SOUTHERN INFORMATION AND VALUATION CORPORATION, Vietnam.
EBA is pleased to announce presenting the title ‘Honorary Professor of The Academic Union, Oxford’ to Van Tho Nguyen, Chairman, General Director of SOUTHERN INFORMATION AND VALUATION CORPORATION, Vietnam.
Ph.D, Lawyer Nguyen Van Tho has more than 35 year of experience is practicing valuer, bearing valuer’s card No. 06082D1, fellow of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS), membership No. 1262834. He is Ph.D of economics, lawyer, chairman of Asia Pacific Group of international property consultants and advisers (VPC), member of Executive Board of Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association. He is former Director General of a Department directly under the Government Pricing Committee.
Established in 1999, Southern Information and Valuation Corporation is the leading company in the field of valuation in Vietnam with a wealth of experience, expertise, prestige, and the quality management system appropriate to international standards of valuation. We perform valuation for most types of assets with different purposes.
Van Tho Nguyen answered the questions of Jeff Harris, British Guild of Masters of Ceremony during The Achievements Forum 2021 on March 19th.
Jeff Harris: How would you rate your company: national, regional or international?
Van Tho Nguyen: Over 22 years of continuous innovation and development, SIVC is increasingly asserting its leading position in the valuation industry in Vietnam. At the same time, the business also received noble awards from the state:
- First Class Labor Medal: 2014.
- Second Class Labor Medal, and
- Third Class Labor Medal
SIVC has satisfied the strict standards of ACQUISITION INTERNATIONAL to receive the international award "BEST VALUATION ENTERPRISE IN VIETNAM 2017” and 2018 granted by Acquisition International magazine (UK), in the framework of the award "Business Excellence Awards”
In 2017, SIVC excellently received the award "Manager of the Year" and “Best Enterprise Awards” for a solid position in the domestic and international market from the Europe Business Assembly in France.
In addition, SIVC is also member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, member of VPC Asia Pacific Group, member of the International Real Estate Federation.
SIVC is always aware that “National brand is an important and necessary tool to enhance the position of enterprises in the international economic integration process, is the key to increase the value of enterprises". Therefore, SIVC has constantly innovated, integrated, gradually built and developed its brand in a professional and prestigious manner, contributing to enhancing and affirming its position in the domestic as well as international market for 22 years.
Jeff Harris: Have your business strategies and tactics changed during a pandemic? If yes, in what way?
Van Tho Nguyen: Currently, Vietnam's prestige and position are highly appreciated by the international community through its successes in the prevention and fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. This is an opportunity for the world to know about Vietnam with a special advantage of "strategic trust". In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic still having complicated developments in many countries around the world, good disease control in Vietnam has created a great advantage in economic recovery, establishing a new position in the international arena.
The Government of Vietnam has done well to prevent the Covid-19 pandemic, contributing to minimizing the damage, and the negative impact of the pandemic on the economy, but in general, domestic enterprises are still affected and faced many difficulties. During this period, we cannot only rely on the resources and supportive policies of the Government, but to win, we need efforts from businesses and employees. It is the consensus and cohesion from all sides that will be the main driving force for us to overcome this crisis.
The pandemic is still happening complicatedly on a global scale and in Vietnam, affecting many economic sectors. In this context, businesses need to have a flexible change in strategies as well as methods of implementing those strategies. Despite being affected by the epidemic, this is also an opportunity for Vietnamese businesses in general and SIVC in particular to acknowledge and re-evaluate their true capacity, resilience, and ability to "resist" to adapt to changes, consolidate the market, review, evaluate, restructure the customer base and find new directions to be more proactive, develop a plan to renew business strategies, quickly capture signals and new market needs, because risks always paralleled opportunities. This is the basis for promoting capacity building of businesses, creating a premise for sustainable development.
During the recent difficult times, SIVC has been promoting the spirit of overcoming difficulties, self-reliance, efforts to maintain business activities and jobs for employees. SIVC has been very proactive in formulating new strategies. Many initiatives have been implemented to overcome the negative impacts of the pandemic such as applying flexible working hours, reviewing, actively searching for markets, quickly seizing new business opportunities; applying digital technology in business activities, etc. These are the bases to believe that SIVC will take new steps in the current pandemic situation.
“Covid-19 is an unexpectedly big challenge that no one wants, but it is also a test for corporate governance capabilities. Enterprises that invest in development strategies, dare to look directly at the problem will see this as a good opportunity to complete the business operation process, rearrange personnel structure, thereby creating momentum for faster growth as soon as the Covid-19 pandemic is controlled”. At the same time, to prepare for the crises that arise in the new situation, it is the right time to reexamine the priority business areas, look for differences in the value chain, and train employees in a new way of operation. Workforce training, especially young workforce, responding quickly to increase skills for employees, to meet the needs of businesses in the new situation.
Jeff Harris: What qualities in your personality have made you a leader?
Van Tho Nguyen : We cannot decide on natural talent, but we can choose our personalities. We can control it the way we want. For example avoiding or dare to face immediate difficulties, assertive or hesitant about a problem, accept failure or give up? All these choices constantly make up the personality of a leader.
I myself always think that:
- Morality must always go with talent: You have talent, but the morality of a leader you don't have, sooner or later you will get defeat. Morality always goes hand in hand with talent, so you will get the collective consensus and above all, your professional ethics will be maintained in all circumstances.
- Vision and assertiveness: The success or failure of the business depends on the talent of the leader because of the leader's assertiveness and foresight. Because the society has many changes and changes require leaders to have a realistic strategic vision, clear goal planning and know immediate difficulties and advantages to make business development plans. Without the ability to predict the future, it will be difficult to give a long-term vision and development strategy of the business. Besides, assertiveness in all jobs will help them to make timely and wise decisions.
- Understanding and constantly learning: What is certain is that leaders cannot run well if they do not know anything about their field of activity. In addition to the basic knowledge in the field of their activities, the leader must also read a lot and always have the spirit of learning to constantly improve knowledge, recognize and update new information and knowledge. Raising qualifications and understanding is the key to being a good leader.
- Adaptability: Business may work today, but it will be different tomorrow. Specifically, in the present reality, the pandemic of covid-19 is happening complicatedly around the world, affecting the business operations of enterprises. As a leader, therefore, it takes a strong change to adapt to the new situation. A leader must always update with new skills, technologies and methods to promote his business in all circumstances.
* What I want to share here, it is: To become a leader, it requires you to really enjoy your work with continuous effort to be able to converge the necessary qualities of a leader, at the same time you need to go through a long period of training with the necessary qualities besides learning and gaining experiences from previous generations.
