vietnam market 2014 by vinh hoang

Fundamental elements define strategies for U.S. Financial Firms in 2014 Vinh Hoang’s Insights & Analysis @February 25, 2014

Sustainable Finance = Diverse Investment Portfolios + Diverse Market Allocation Contact Email: [email protected] page 1

Engaging and Anticipating Objective Business Strategies

Any financial firm or corporation has served U.S. market with various and specific target customer bases. Prediction of the future market outlook is very important because overall financial and economic conditions of served and target customers determine annual revenues, earnings, and market share (including U.S. GDP growth and U.S. respectively-growing size). CEOs, executive directors, and marketing heads may take in those variables and risk-exposure elements: a) Mortgage outstanding accounts or debts b) Unemployment rate c) Purchasing Manager Index d) Trade account balance e) GDP growth rate f) Trade account balance g) GDP growth rates in primary trading partners h) Inflation i) National outstanding public debt j) Consumer debts – credit card debts and non-mortgage loans k) Retailing sales l) Car sales m) Tourism n) Foreign Direct Investment – FDI o) Implemented relevant technology for productivity, cost-based ROI p) Smartly outsourcing practices q) Exchange rate between Domestic Currency and foreign ones r) Positive transactions on customer accounts s) Interdependent and integrated markets (economies) To be on top of market-penetrated competitors and potential rivals, the business organization has to design its own formulas: a) Risk-exposure elements for growth b) Risk-exposure elements for earnings c) Risk-exposure elements for market shares d) Risk-exposure elements for new business lines e) Risk-exposure elements for market performance f) Elements drive customer satisfactions g) Elements double earnings (net incomes, dividends) h) Hi-tech elements reduce costs and increase profits i) Human-capital elements contribute to creativity, innovation, market-edges To recognize primary variables in the step one and design key formulas of managing risk-exposure elements and responding with positive-element implementation, the business organization can achieve a long-term goal – revenue, income, and market share. The revenue is a total of sales transactions generated by customer buying, selling, investing



behaviors or stakeholders’ decisions and contribution. For a bank or financial firm, fund managers can build their customer bases with both large and growing under-management assets and return-on-investment expectation. Customer account managers can contact to customers or communicate smartly with customers who can increase their saving rate, adding new funds into their investment portfolios, and require new services products (credit card, home loans, education loans, and others). Customer service employees provide accurate answers to customers over phone and in-branch counters, increasing customer loyalty and creating viral word-of-the-mouth marketing effect to strengthen customer loyalty. Talented employees submit their ideas and improve their daily working performance and corporate productivity. Top-management teams recognize new opportunities at home and abroad to respond with proper decisions to keep the corporation growing, gaining financially, and acquiring new customers.

Online and Off-line Business Service Portals and Business Development Structure

When consumers (customers) unplug their daily interactions with Personal Computers (desktop, laptop), the former have become more addicted and comfortable with personal handheld devices (Smartphone, tablet, game consolers, wearable devices). Mobile apps are developed to meet new demands for various OS ecosystems – iOS (Apple), Android (Google), Window (Microsoft), Firefox (Open Sources), and other new OS versions. The corporation takes a survey of the most popular OS versions the customers have used for their Smartphone, tablet, and other devices in order to design compatible mobile apps. With mobile apps, customers pay less physical visits to brick-and-mortar stores, local branch offices, but increasing their Wi-Fi and mobile Internet connections for daily transactions, shopping, web browsing, communication (messaging, voices, social networking, social media, email), and entertainment. Marketers join in to learn customers’ behaviors and habits in order to offer location-based sales and anticipating future-demand sales. Ages of customers may determine how customers switch between off-line business platforms and online business ones. The corporation is supposed to measure drawbacks on a specific group of customers who are high-net-worth investors and middle-class customers. If those customers still prefer to off-line business platforms, there must be available alternative customizing and cost-based customer services. Otherwise, online business platforms are chosen such as mobile apps for scanning checks, product price checking, sales and services, information, movie and music streaming and downloading, and booking. Profit-and-fee-based business priority is any business function and process which can generate sales-generating profits or fees-generating profits. A minimum cost is measured to hire enough employees – standards and sophistication – serving customers. If a customer has a low value, a standardized-knowledge employee or online business platform will be the best choice. For valuable customers, sophisticated and customized-service-offered employees are the visible frontline. Highly-customizing services and products are so-called niche for middle-class and high-income customers. To focus on



those customers requires highly-skilled and experienced employees who understand three levels of serving customers – standard, above-standard, and extraordinary satisfaction. Wal-Mart can serve mass market at low prices and low customer service quality. Target may add more niche products, clean shopping and brilliantly-lighting environments, and standardized customer services. If a company has large revenue but small profit, it will rethink on its business development strategies to serve which market segments. Profit is generated by a single unit sale. A car sale generates larger profit than a computer sale. But it takes a longer time for a car dealer to complete one care sale or achieve its car sale goal. Economies of scale, disruptive technology, affordable cloud computing services, mobile employees (contracted, officially-hired), and outsourcing have helped Amazon, Wal-Mart, SalesForce, Boeing, and Google expand their markets and increase their revenues. Exclusively-designed brands, subcontracted-process production (Nexus, Surface, Vizio …) are strategically developed by in-house engineers and outsourced to Asian subcontractors with parts, components, assembling, and packaging from suppliers worldwide. Wal-Mart has moved into a small-and-local community store segment to compete with local grocery stores after having dominated large-size and super-size retailing segments for more than a decade. Amazon has started its own green grocery business experiment in a few metropolitan areas in California as well as continued expanding into other businesses. Google has used its search-engine-generating revenues to build many new brands – Nexus, Chromebook, Chromecast, Google Fiber, Google Glass … Manufacturing industry and computer-based services are outsourced to factories, subcontractors, and back-office companies worldwide, primarily locating in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. Totally-operating online banking service has targeted mobile customers who are young and urban. Those banks have eliminated most local-branch staff and in-person customer services. Customers can access to their accounts over mobile apps on Smartphone, tablet, and laptops. Manually-deposited checks are scanned or digital-copied by scanner or camera from Smartphone and tablet. Customers also have flexible and built-in tools to monitor their funds (checking, saving, spending transactions) with specific alerts of low available balance and advice of financial education. Simple and PayPal have grown to offer mobile transactions and credit card payments. The mobile payment is about $235.4 billion in 2013, a 44-percent increase from $163.1 billion in 2012, and will reach up to $325 million in 2014. A term of digital wallet is referred to mobile payment options and convenience for years to come. But it has various forms of digital wallet based on how customers pay their bills (restaurants, store, bookstore, air ticket, movie ticket, fast-food, utility, rental, and others).

Technology changes and retraining employee programs

In many cases, employees reach their capability of maximizing their output per hour or profit per transaction. It is a right time to rethink on technology-oriented performance and



technology-assisting performance. When the company purchases new machines (computers, Smartphone, tablet, office equipment, factory machines, transportation equipment, and manufacturing equipment), it has measured a cost of purchasing new equipment, maintenance, energy consumption, used space over hiring people to do a same task. The equipment is set up, managed, and monitored by one person or a group of employees. But the total cost of using the equipment and hiring people is less than the profit is gained in a long-run. Any organization has at least three types of costs:

a) Fixed costs b) Variable costs c) Miscellaneous costs (unpredicted and accidental)

To cut off the number of unproductive and unnecessary employees reduces the payroll and benefit-payment costs in the fixed cost. Other costs are variable dependent on a number of hiring employees, obviously declined in the case of a large lay-off scale. Such as desk phone line, mobile phones, office space, office rentals, electricity, transportation and housing allowance, and business expenditure (air travel, dining, and socialization). Outsourcing is also a long-term business practice reducing fixed costs, variable costs, and miscellaneous costs. Third-party companies or supplies charge a lower bill but deliver a same quantity and same quality compared to the results in-house people do. Retraining employee programs may be kicked in because of different reasons. Employees need to re-set their mindsets toward performance, customer service standards and service quality, market-oriented relevant practices and values. Employees also learn new skills such as using new software, tools, and devices for their performance, productivity, and profitability. Effective and productive communication channels may be rebuilt with enacted retraining programs.

Vietnam’s market and JPMorgan Chase Brand

J.P. Morgan’s operations in Vietnam are conducted through offices in Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City. The franchise has expanded from a treasury services operation to include corporate banking, investment banking advisory, capital markets and commodities and is supported by a regional equity research and sales effort. The Vietnamese offices are linked to J.P. Morgan’s global network, which facilitates the delivery of sector and product expertise to the government’s economic reform initiatives in state-owned enterprises and equity markets. J.P. Morgan has leadership positions in providing four service and product segments:

a) Investment Bank b) Treasury Services



c) Investor Services d) Corporate Bank

Vietnam’s GDP was about $155 billion in 2013. If it could maintain a 7%-GDP-growth-rate over a next decade, it would double up to $310 billion in 2023. And then, such fashion repeats another Litter-China emerging economy of $620 billion in 2033, and $1.24 trillion in 2043. All hypotheses are projected without other negative impacts of high inflation, large trade account balance deficit, un-healthy public debt, low FDI inflow, and non-improved business environments. J.P. Morgan can generate fee-based revenues and commission-generated profit through those financial services and products:

1) On-progress and proposed equitization and first-time IPO for state-owned enterprises and domestic companies

2) Underwriting for overseas IPOs, merger and acquisition 3) Brokerage for Vietnamese clients and foreign clients in both Vietnam-based and

foreign portfolios 4) Capital liberation for high-net-worth clients 5) Advising Vietnamese corporate clients over overseas investment plans 6) Assisting Vietnamese and foreign clients over payments, trade deals, and related

business matters 7) Providing high-quality equity researches for both Vietnamese and foreign clients

In a long-run, J.P. Morgan will change its status of being the financial franchiser in Vietnam to being the 100-percentage-ownership banking and financial firm in order to serve three tiers of customers – governmental agencies, corporate clients, and high-net-worth clients. It means J.P. Morgan will prepare other training and hiring functions to grow in both quantitative and qualitative business areas. Vietnamese customers who travel abroad for both vacation and seeking-investment-opportunity trips also need specific financial products and services, especially who have more than US$1 million or US$5 million. Vietnamese corporations and state-owned enterprises desire to enter foreign markets with those goals – (a) establishing foreign distributors and partners, (b) seeking new investors, (c) expanding into new business lines. Those clients can use J.P. Morgan’s financial services and investment expertise. J.P. Morgan has to build the visible and valuable brand in Vietnam customers – governmental agencies, corporations, and high-net-worth investors. The brand will demonstrate how professionally and confidentially J.P. Morgan’s staff and professionals are willing to serve customers. Customization and standardization are offered to meet specific groups of customers.

Immediate-action Branding Promotion

The Bank of the Manhattan Company was established in 1799. The Chase Manhattan Bank was formed upon the purchase of Chase National Bank (established in 1877) by the



former. J.P. Morgan & Co was founded in 1895. Chemical Bank acquired the Chase Manhattan Bank in 1996 to remain Chase name until merging with J.P. Morgan & Co in 2000. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co has become the largest bank in U.S. with its under-management assets of more than $2.41 trillion in 2013. If Vietnam is on a rising mode and non-stop reform progress, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co will anticipate such changes for immediate-action responses:

1) Strategically-branding Process 2) Gradually growing its customer base and employee workforce 3) Integrating services and products based on clients’ customization and

standardization needs

Sources:

U.S. Companies and Banks: 1) https://careers.jpmorganchase.com/career/careerhome 2) http://www.dallasnews.com/business/business-headlines/20140225-jpmorgan-

chase-to-cut-5500-more-jobs-boost-profit-target-to-27-billion.ece 3) https://creditcards.chase.com/?CELL=6RRW&jp_cmp=cc/BRChaseBankExact/se

a/na/JPMorgan&MSC=IQ61619800&ev_sid=3&ev_ltx=&ev_pl= U.S. outstanding mortgage account:

1) http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/releases/mortoutstand/current.htm 2) http://www.fhfa.gov/Default.aspx?Page=70 3) http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/mortgage_rates/

U.S. economic indexes (unemployment, GDP growth rate, consumer spending, purchasing manager index, trade account balance, auto sales, retailing sales, consumer price index CPI, ): 1) http://www.bea.gov/ 2) http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000 3) http://ycharts.com/indicators/purchasing_managers_index 4) http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/business-confidence 5) http://www.ism.ws/ismreport/mfgrob.cfm 6) http://money.cnn.com/news/economy/world_economies_gdp/ 7) http://www.bea.gov/international/ 8) http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2012/10/usa-auto-industry-total-sales-figures.html 9) http://www.autoweek.com/article/20140204/carnews/140209961 10) http://ycharts.com/indicators/retail_sales 11) http://www.census.gov/retail/ 12) http://www.bls.gov/cpi/ U.S. primary trading partners (import, export, GDP, GDP per capita, emerging markets, ):



1) http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/top/dst/current/balance.html 2) https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ 3) http://www.economist.com/topics/emerging-markets 4) http://www.msci.com/products/indices/country_and_regional/em/ 5) http://topics.bloomberg.com/emerging-markets/ 6) http://www.emergingmarkets.org/ 7) http://hbr.org/2012/05/how-to-win-in-emerging-markets-lessons-from-japan/ar/1

Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada:

1) http://www.stat.go.jp/english/ (Japan statistics) 2) http://www.esri.cao.go.jp/en/sna/menu.html (Japan) 3) http://www.nstac.go.jp/en/ (Japan) 4) https://www.e-stat.go.jp/SG1/estat/eStatTopPortalE.do (Japan) 5) http://www.aeaweb.org/RFE/showRes.php?rfe_id=145&cat_id=6 (Japan) 6) http://www.oecd.org/japan/ (Japan) 7) http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home/ (European

Union) 8) http://www.eui.eu/Research/Library/ResearchGuides/Economics/Statistics/DataP

ortal/EU-SILC.aspx (European Union) 9) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/european-union-finances-2013

(European Union) 10) http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/europe_map.htm (European Union Map) 11) http://www.statcan.gc.ca/start-debut-eng.html (Canada) 12) http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/index-eng.cfm (Canada) 13) http://www.oecd.org/canada/ (Canada) 14) https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cis-sic.nsf/eng/home (Canada) 15) http://www.abs.gov.au/ (Australia) 16) http://www.statsoc.org.au/ (Australia) 17) http://www.oecd.org/australia/ (Australia) 18) http://www.tourism.australia.com/statistics.aspx (Australia)

China, Brazil, India, Russia, Indonesia, South Africa:

1) http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/ (China) 2) http://data.worldbank.org/country/china (China) 3) http://chinadataonline.org/ (China) 4) http://www.oecd.org/china/ (China) 5) http://mospi.nic.in/mospi_new/site/India_Statistics.aspx?status=1&menu_id=43

(India) 6) http://www.indiastat.com/default.aspx (India) 7) http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/annualPublications.aspx?head=Handbook%20of%20

Statistics%20on%20Indian%20Economy (India) 8) http://statisticsofindia.com/tatasoi/ (India) 9) http://censusindia.gov.in/ (India)



10) http://www.bps.go.id/eng/ (Indonesia) 11) http://www.oecd.org/indonesia/ (Indonesia) 12) http://www.datastatistik-

indonesia.com/portal/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=depan.php&Itemid=17 (Indonesia)

13) http://www.gks.ru/wps/wcm/connect/rosstat_main/rosstat/en/main/ (Russia) 14) https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rs.html (Russia) 15) http://www.oecd.org/russia/ (Russia) 16) http://www.ibge.gov.br/english/ (Brazil) 17) https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/br.html (Brazil) 18) http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/en/country/statistics/tags/brazil (Brazil) 19) http://www.oecd.org/brazil/ (Brazil) 20) http://beta2.statssa.gov.za/ (South Africa) 21) http://www.sastat.org.za/ (South Africa) 22) http://www.sagoodnews.co.za/fast_facts_and_quick_stats/index.html (South

Africa) 23) http://www.tradingeconomics.com/south-africa/unemployment-rate (South

Africa) Online companies with innovation:

1) https://www.simple.com/ 2) https://www.paypal.com/home 3) http://www.paysimple.com/ 4) https://www.globalvcard.com/index 5) https://squareup.com/ 6) http://www.looppay.com/ 7) http://www.mobilepaymentstoday.com/ 8) https://www.paywithisis.com/ 9) https://payments.intuit.com/ 10) https://stripe.com/ 11) http://www.kiplinger.com/article/credit/T005-C000-S002-best-online-banks.html 12) http://mashable.com/category/mobile-payments/ 13) http://www.mobilepaymentsworld.com/ 14) http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/19/loop-the-future-of-mobile-payments-or-a-

temporary-fix/ 15) http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-14/2014-outlook-easy-mobile-

payments-in-reach 16) http://www.economist.com/node/21554744

Cloud computing business and companies:

1) http://www.cioreview.com/crtech/20-most-promising-cloud-computing-companies-2013.html

2) http://lcolumbus.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/results.jpg



3) http://www.businessinsider.com/the-15-most-valuable-cloud-computing-companies-2013-7?op=1

4) http://www.salesforce.com/cloudcomputing/ 5) http://www.networkworld.com/supp/2009/ndc3/051809-cloud-companies-to-

watch.html 6) http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/090512-cloud-companies-watch-

262155.html 7) http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2014/01/04/best-and-worst-

performing-cloud-computing-stocks-of-2013/ 8) http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2014/02/24/the-best-cloud-

computing-companies-and-ceos-to-work-for-in-2014/ 9) http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_11/b4219052599182.htm

Internet of things companies and business:

1) http://www.fastcompany.com/section/internet-of-things 2) http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/2014/industry/the-

internet-of-things 3) http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/10-companies-making-internet-

things-reality 4) http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_internet_of_t

hings 5) http://www.forbes.com/sites/oreillymedia/2014/02/05/the-industrial-internet-of-

things/ 6) http://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahcohen/2014/01/14/year-of-the-internet-of-

things/ 7) http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/27/google-is-making-a-land-grab-for-the-internet-

of-things/

Integrating Vietnam’s market potentials into the future of Southeast Asia

Plus what long-term benefits will U.S. investors and corporations gain by

strategically and periodically allocating sufficient funds into Vietnam’s selected

industries and businesses?

Executive Summary

Any market is considered as a lucrative and potential market with these facts and growing patterns – (1) substantial population size (93 million consumers), (2) increasing numbers of high-income and middle-class consumers (luxurious brands, entrepreneurs, reinvestment capitals), (3) sufficient labor force of manufacturing, assembly lines, packaging, off-shore back-office and outsourcing capability at a fraction of U.S. workers’ earnings, (4) political stability, (5) available resources of arable lands, rivers, mining, wood products, oil and gas reserves, deep-water sea ports of containers, international airports, transportation facilities, (6) underdeveloped infrastructural systems, (7) accessible gateways to neighboring markets by land, air, waterway, (7) cost-based supply



chain suppliers over physical distance and technical assistance, (8) increasing consumers’ incomes, (9) urbanization for new cities, towns, consumers’ services and needs, manufacturing and industrial capability, (10) domestic saving rate, (11) overseas remittance back to relatives, (12) consumers’ spending habits. U.S. investors and corporations can establish the geographic-and-demographic investment map of Vietnam’s market based on statistics and projected demands over 5-year term, 10-year term, 15-year term, 20-year term, 25-year term, and 30-year term to diversify their investment funds and adjust their funds over those fixed investment terms. Triple-benefited investment strategies are defined by (1) return-on-investment, (2) leveraging China’s rising power in the East Asia and aggressively-expanding into Southeast Asia, (3) establishing the next U.S.-owned R&D and consumer-product facilities in Vietnam to compete with brands from South Korea, Taiwan, China, and others in coming decades.

Purpose

[1] Return-on-investment: Hypothesis versus Reality [2] Leveraging China’s rising power in East Asia and aggressively expanding into Southeast Asia: Political ideology versus Free-market capital-flow mechanism [3] Established U.S.-owned R&D and consumer-product manufacturing facilities in Vietnam to compete with brands from South Korea, Taiwan, China, and others in coming decades: Cost-based disruptive technology versus Cost-based Supply Chain Suppliers

Conclusion

Vietnam is a small market in Today’s American investors’ mindsets and developing status in American economists and policy makers. Both groups of American elites weigh their money and policies in China, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea, India, and Middle-east more than in Vietnam. Furthermore, Americans still remember so-called Vietnam-war syndrome in 1954-1975, but actually both countries have normalized since 1994 as well as Vietnam was accepted to become the member of the World Trade Organization in 2007. When American investors choose Vietnam as their next investment destination, their money, know-how, technology, expertise, and global connections will rapidly transform Vietnam’s market in those areas: (1) financial principles, (2) banking practices and standards, (3) internationalization and modernization of business practices and investment environments for mutual benefits and common interests between Vietnamese partners and American counterparts, (4) indirectly improving a living standard and Vietnamese consumers’ spending power and buying patterns on both American brands and upscale segments, (5) more Vietnamese students can afford to attend U.S.-based educational institutions and come back to work for American companies, (6) Vietnam can become a proxy market of Southeast Asia where American brands and products are consumed and manufactured among those countries of ASEAN (Association of Southeast



Asian Nations), (7) Vietnam will serve not only as a manufacturing site but also tourist attraction, retirees’ short-stays at resorts and villas and condominiums, visa healthcare services, upscale consumer products, IT and service back-offices, agricultural and food processing production, and entertainment industry. If American investors can lower their sentimental drives into where to invest and by how to invest, Vietnam will be a highly-valuable-profiled country of short-term, mid-term, and long-term investment portfolios. A value of a land is usually appreciated by many factors such as who live on that land, what were built on that land, and how economic activities and values are produced by people and facilities built on that land. Tokyo’s land used to be too expensive in 1980s because Japanese companies exported too many goods worldwide and earned more profits to convince Japanese investors to buy more and invest more in Japanese stocks and real estate assets. What values will Vietnam gain is also connected to what the GDP size is, how rich Vietnamese consumers are, who much FDI is poured into Vietnam, and other objective elements – positive trade balance, millions of foreign tourists a year, and hundred billions US dollar reinvested.

Sources:

1. http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/vietnam 2. http://www.imf.org/external/country/VNM/index.htm 3. http://www.adb.org/countries/viet-nam/main 4. http://www.worldbank.org/en/region/eap 5. https://www.hsbc.com.vn/1/2/about-hsbc_en/newsroom 6. https://globalconnections.hsbc.com/global/en/tools-data/trade-forecasts/vn 7. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/vietnam/gdp-growth 8. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/vm.html 9. http://www.bain.com/publications/business-insights/world-economic-forum.aspx 10. http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/asia-pacific/sustaining_growth_in_vietnam 11. http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/economic_studies/taking_vietnams_economy_to_the_next_level 12. http://www.nielsen.com/intl/vn/news-insights/press/english/2013/vietnam-consumer-confidence-index-highest-over-the-past-year.html 13. http://www.nielsen.com/intl/vn/news-insights/reports.html 14. http://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent%20GAIN%20Publications/Retail%20Foods_Hanoi_Vietnam_11-14-2013.pdf 15. http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140120005825/en/Research-Markets-Vietnam-Consumer-Banking-Report-2013-2014 16. http://www.marketresearch.com/Business-Monitor-International-v304/Vietnam-Consumer-Electronics-Q1-7991958/ 17. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/research-markets-vietnam-consumer-banking-210500812.html 18. http://www.euromonitor.com/consumer-lending-in-vietnam/report



19. http://talkvietnam.com/tag/vietnam-development-report/ 20. http://www.state.gov/e/eb/rls/othr/ics/2013/204760.htm 21. http://www.vietnam-report.com/vietnam-fdi/ 22. http://www.ibtimes.com/vietnam-economic-outlook-2014-exports-fdi-support-growth-1525182 23. http://www.stoxplus.com/News/118299/1/188/vietnam-disburses-$5-7bln-fdi-in-h1-2013-fia.stox 24. http://www.knightfrank.com.vn/en/quarterly-reports/report-hochiminh/2013-q1 25.

Who is Mr. Vinh Hoang?

Mr. Vinh Hoang, freelance consultant and business strategist in Saint Paul, Minnesota, has observed what has been changing in U.S. corporations and U.S. Congress’s policies since the 2008 financial crisis and recognized patterns of risks and opportunities. Those risks are evaluated for immediate solutions which generate revenues, profits, dividend, and market capitalization. On contrary, opportunities are new demands or business lines which also generate new income streams, specially for a corporation having struggled to maintain its impressive and convincing financial reports not only for investors’ trust but also for employees’ interests. This is Mr. Vinh Hoang’s U.S. market analysis and suggesting solutions for U.S. corporations to achieve their business goals in 2014. The next topic he has also recommended U.S. investors and fund managers to consider what necessary steps of understanding Vietnam’s market and transitory conditions for U.S. investors to develop their own business ventures or design their own investment portfolios in 2014 and following years.

*** Vietnam’s Market and Opportunities for U.S. investors and fund managers Fund managers and individual investors can order highly-data-processed reports from market research firms in U.S., Asia, and Vietnam before considering any possible investment plan there. Here are some highlighted facts and economic performances:

1) Population of more than 93 million consumers 2) Having multiple gateways accessing to East Asia (China, Taiwan, South Korea,

Japan, and Russia), Southeast Asia (Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia), Australia, New Zealand, South Asia (India), and Middle-east through maritime traffic routes, air transportation, and land roads.

3) Low labor cost attracts FDI, including new manufacturing sites for re-export and domestic consumption

4) Opportunities of bidding infrastructural construction projects



5) Demands in energy, tourism, training, advertisement, services, and finance for corporate clients and consumers

6) U.S. retailers have tapped the market of textile, garments, leather footwear, fashion design, and supply chains

7) Ship repair, ship maintenance, ship building capability 8) Outsourcing, off-shore services in IT, data processes, graphic designs, fashion

design, and others 9) Divided and inequality income has created so-called ultra-rich and middle-class

consumers in Vietnam whose assets are more than $1 million become potential markets of fund management services, upscale consumption and others

10) Immature market segments – energy, fiancing, banking, retailing (partially developed with foreign-brand retailers), tourism, upscale real estate for foreign retirees, manufacturing zones (industrial parks, export economic zones, deap-water sea ports for containter ships, airports for domestic and international flights), infrastructural construction projtects (roads, bridges, urban residential districts, shopping malls, schools, hospitals, services), food processing facilities, outsouricng and off-shore back-office services

11) Professional advertisement, PR, talent management, media development products and services, training firms

12) Fund management, Investment firms, and International trade firms Since China began to undertaken the economic reform policies in 1979, most of Western investors and multinationals have poured hundred billions U.S. dollar in the 1.3-plus-billion-consumer market for three reasons:

1. Low labor cost for assembly lines, manufacturing processes, and supply chain suppliers for Western brands and shipped final and complete products back to retailers in U.S., Europe, Japan, and other developed countries to explore large margin incomes

2. Paying minium wages or a fraction of Western counterparts’ wages without any attached benefits such insurances, healthcare, pension, and retirement plans

3. Low barriers, lax of environmental regulations, and tax incentives 4. Cheap land rental and other relevant services 5. Near material and supply markets 6. Potential vast market of Chinese consumers 7. Leveraging USSR’s rising power and political influence in East Asia

China now has become the world’s second-largest economy and the world’s largest trader to threaten any challenge from U.S., E.U, Japan, and the rest of the world. Why?

1. “Made-in-China” is printed on most products displayed on U.S. retailers’ shelves as well as shipped products from online stores in U.S. and foreign countries

2. Chinese manufactuers, logistics firms, and service companies have dominated not only in low-end and high-labor-intensive industries but also mid-end and high-end sectors



3. Chinese industries and brands have received both private funds and state subsidiaries not only for business operations but also foreign brand acquisition strategies

4. Chinese students have earned B.S., Master, and Ph.D degrees from U.S. educational institutions and European schools in a large number a year

5. China has also set-up world-class educational institutions of reasearches, studying, and joint-ventures with well-known business schools worldwide

6. China’s companies have agressively entered all markets in all five continents not only as exporters and traders but also as investors and donors

7. Chinese companies have applied so-called disruptive technology with three miracal achievements – (a) adopting Western invention and know-how into Chinese-modified and improved concepts, (b) acquisitions of foreign brands and technology, (c) Chinese students, engineers, and scientists work for foreign companies and come home with knowledge, skills, and expertise

What are China’s syndrome and economic success relating to and influencing on Vietnam’s market and economy? Japan has directly taken a conflict position with China. Taiwan has also behaved with some distance under China’s one-country ideology and foreign policies. Chinese disporal communities have spread in almost continents and countries with uniquely-developed culture and business community called as China Town. China Town exists in Yokohama, Japan; New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and other cities in U.S.; Paris, France; Bangkok, Thailand; Cholon, Vietnam; Jarkarta, Indonesia; and many cities in the world. Vietnam has a smaller population to China’s 1.3-plus-billion-consumer market. U.S. Corporations and Their Responses

Objective Corporate Management Practice Observation

A corporation is a legally-registered and legitimately-recognized business entity in a single market or multiple-markets. The broader of customers and the more markets it serves and gets engaged in the more vulnerable and uncertain the corporation is exposed to and encounters. A top-management also takes in inputs as variables and primary factors influencing on revenues, earnings, dividends, market share, customers’ favorite brand, and relevantly-ranked value deliveries.

1. Government policies and government behaviors over both economic and political decisions and ideologies

2. Liberalization of capital flows, labor supplies, materials, energy, land usage and ownership, business ownership and contribution and responsibility, business regulations

3. Barriers of new entrants into a market as well as costs of time-and-money to start a new business, procedures of hiring employees, opening a factory and office, utility and services for a business to serve effectively and efficiently customers



4. Tax incentives, tax rates, subsidiary, and government-supported resources and services

5. Monopoly or competitive business environments welcome new companies with innovation, creativity, and cost-based quality and cutting-edge advantages

6. Available opportunities of increasing sales volumes, sales revenues, and maximum of economies of scales over e-commerce, brick-and-mortar retailing, local stores, and small business venues

7. Local government assistance programs promote local economic booms with both pro-business organizations and non-profit business service organizations What are characteristics and up-to-date economic environments of the United States of America?

U.S Market and Foreign Inter-dependent Markets

U.S. economy has entered another vulnerable and non-solvable situation (challenge, phrase, stage) since the world economy was stripped down by the domino-effect reaction of U.S-based 2008 financial crisis. What are causes of vulnerable and non-solvable elements?

1. U.S. government overspending behaviors exceeding the government tax revenues 2. U.S. public spending budgets on less-likely GDP growth areas and job creation

mechanism 3. U.S. corporations have kept their outsourcing practices not only for cost-based

competitive edges but also shareholders’ dividends and revenues 4. U.S. job market is vulnerable to low-wage, temporary, and regular jobs which

provide basic needs and low-income means to majority of Americans – including retirees, job seekers, and permanent part-time workers

5. Corporations – retailers and businesses – have abused some social security and healthcare programs by paying a minimum wage to part-time and full-time employees

6. U.S. established corporations have struggled to create their own power-houses of creativity, innovation, and cutting-edge technology in order to offer best-in-category products and services; therefore, the former has to acquire new hi-tech start-up firms

7. Productivity, benefits, and efficiency of U.S.-based educational institutions have not delivered sufficient values (relevant knowledge, self-decisions making, internationally-cutting edge deliveries, cost-based innovation) to keep American workforce relevant and internationally competitive to the world-class standards and performance ratios

Objective Market Performance and Catch-up Events

In the month of January, 2014, observers can recognize those corporate responses from U.S. well-known and high-market-capitalization corporations:



1. Microsoft has drained its internal creative and innovative powerhouse in order to compete with competitors like Apple, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and others not only as the software developer or hardware maker but also business service provider. The on-progress CEO search is still open and not finalized for any confirmed candidate. Microsoft’s future market value and position are depended on a next CEO’s leadership DNA and capability of prioritizing the corporate resources into new product and service development strategies. It has just renamed “SkyDrive” to “OneDrive” for the cloud storage. It has also increased capability of providing cloud. The current revenue decline was explained by sales decline of PC and Office 360 Home Premium to $17.616 billion from $20.639 billion in the previous year. Microsoft has changed its business model of selling hard-copy or download software to individual and business customers at a cost based on a number of licenses to the cloud service platform in which customers need to pay for a year contract or usage. As long as customers use software or services, Microsoft can earn steady income streams. For specific cloud products and services, Microsoft can easily monitor, administer, and update services in a larger scale and more efficiency of economies of scale over borderless markets. The net revenue was $24.5 billion, including the net income of $6.6 billion in 2013. The extension of business lines such as Xbox and Surface have helped on billions of sales revenues, including $893 million of Surface. It has benefited from Cloud Service revenues at a double size, including a best sales goal of SQL Server.

2. Yahoo’s earning report, continuous acquisition, future creativity-innovative capability, diverse investment portfolios (brand management), flexible and newly-managed workforce. Since CEO Marissa Mayer took the corporate helm, Yahoo has undertaken a series of acquisitions to strengthen the brand portfolios and empower the future corporate advertisement engines by tapping into at least three areas – popular micro-blogging platform, mobile ads, and business mobile apps. But the fourth-quarter revenue declined at 6% compared to the previous period, breaking the confidence on investors. Furthermore, Alibaba also had declined revenues respectively. CEO Marissa Mayer hopes to revamp Yahoo brand by increasing the traffic of users to Yahoo’s sites, products, services with three immediate solutions – product makeovers, acquisitions, and hiring media celebrities. The common sense is how to attract people to Yahoo’s environments in which Yahoo can generate three sources – ads revenues, sales completion, and customized business services. One action or win-win executive decision can keep CEO Marissa Mayer staying as Yahoo symphony conductor is to make people feel happy when visiting Yahoo’s site, using Yahoo apps, accessing to Yahoo information sources, and benefit from Yahoo’s products and services.

3. Google has become more popular not only by its Google search engine but also other products and services – Gmail, Google+, Google Drive, YouTube, Android OS for Smartphone, Tablet, and devices, Chromebook, on-progress experimental Google Fiber, Google Glass, Google Map, Google Earth, and many other products. Google acquired Motorola Mobile at a price of $12.5 billion in 2011-2012. Google has found more loss by churning out Motorola brand’s Smartphone and tablet with the advantage of developing Android ecosystem. Other brands like



Apple, Samsung, LG, HTC, Sony, and Chinese brands have taken the majority of U.S. and the global Smartphone and tablet market. Google has tried to extend its long list of managing brand portfolios. It has expanded into military robotic production, green-and-solar energy power plants, healthcare research, venture capital, and Google Wallet for payment solutions. Google’s strategies are implemented into a broader list of acquired brand portfolios which can generate new income streams and disrupt other competitors in pricing and one-stop shopping advance.

4. Apple’s doubtful and controversial product and service development strategies (followers, trend setter, revised and improved market practices), cash-pile management, overseas market penetration, standardized and cutting-edge specification for iPhone 6 and upcoming products, Intellectual Patent lawsuits, new headquarters office, Internet-based TV service with a similar-model of Netflix. The new release of iPhone sales was a miss of 51 million versus a 55 –million-sold-iPhone expected goal. Its suppliers’ share prices are also impacted by percentage down. Apple has not created a new thing or new category inventor, but improved and redesigned things for better values like mp3 player iPod, Smartphone iPhone, and tablet iPad. Consumers love Apple products because of designs, styles, smartly-arranging features and functioning buttons.

5. American Airline rebranded its brand value and logo for the new market position. It has stock-piled as much of $10 billion cash in its coffer compared to Delta’s $2.84 billion and Southwest’s $3.1 billion. Either reason of emergency cases and business operation expenditures, American Airline is expected to utilize a certain degree of return-on-investment of $10 billion cash. The merger of American Airline and U.S. Airway has helped both brands serving passengers with more productivity and efficiency. It has also maintained its capability of serving more passengers in an increasing demand of air travel and air transportation. The expected revenue per seat mile goes up from 2 percent to 4 percent in the first quarter of 2014. Passengers can book flights on both companies’ websites – U.S. Airway and American Airline. The combined revenue was $9.98 billion or 8.7%. The fuel expense was down 1.7% and operating expense up to 7%, but the fuel cost is the biggest expense.

6. HSBC has operating in 80 countries with 6,600 offices and workforce of 259,300 employees worldwide. HSBC earned the 2013 revenue of $56.702 billion, net income of $13.334 billion, dividend of $2.25, and market capitalization of $194.35 billion. In January, 2014, HSBC has restructured its services for small business clients in Canada and the United States of America. The top-management has a specific reason of focusing on potential customers who generate more incomes and fee-based revenues in HSBC’s international banking segment. Any corporation only takes serious management steps in defending its long-term corporate growth through its primary business lines and customer-centric profit-generating platforms. It helps the corporation survive and grow in both upturn and downturn of the global economy. HSBC has served five segments – Commercial Banking, Global Banking and Markets, Private Banking, Retail Banking and Wealth Management.



7. Hewlett-Packard and still-in-a-struggling situation for positive earning, market shares, cutting-edge products – Smartphone, consumer-oriented product development platforms, sold of under-performance business lines and assets. Hewlett-Packard’s share price reached the peak of $66.28 in 2000. The U.S. Internet-related stock market was also crashed in the following months to make HP share price down to $11.67 in July, 2002. The share dropped again to $14.25 in October, 2012. Hewlett-Packard’s current market cap is $55.89 billion compared to Microsoft Corp’s $305.3 billion, IBM’s $186.228 billion, Intel Corp’s $123.48 billion, and Apple’s $448.1 billion. HP has a few business areas to restructure and prioritize in order to grow and sustain – (a) Corporate and business customers, (b) individual and home devices, appliance, software, services, (c) Smartphone and tablets. Depending on each segment, HP can redesign its business development platform, licensing fee methods, and cloud service and products. Consumers also change their daily behaviors from PC works to Smartphone-tablet-mobile works. Corporations and business organizations have specific needs on internal communication channels designed for mobile apps compatible to iOS, Android, Window Mobile devices. Customers – small and individual – can order prints from their mobile devices and pick up the orders at FedEx Kiosks, Office Max stores, and others. Software is rented out over Internet-based platforms for a competitive fee. The more-than-expected revenue of $1.41 billion outpaced the loss of $6.85 billion in the previous year. HP still has capability of designing reliable and scalable data-storage and data-backup server systems for big corporations that are sensitive to data management workload. Salesforce and HP have agreed in providing the new cloud computing service architecture which was built by HP’s dedicated computer services, storage, and networking and Salesforce’s cloud computing facilities. Both companies can gain benefits in serving customers worldwide.

8. Tesla has become the newly-founded iconic brand since the bankruptcy bailouts of GM, Ford, and Chrysler in 2008. Tesla has some issues with battery safety, but it has the young and dynamic leadership that executes more relevant and sustainable business decisions in the smaller organization and well-managed communication environment. Tesla brand has just 10-years old to make its market cap as much of $22.37 billion with the workforce of 2,000 employees specializing in sales, service networks (design, developing, manufacturing outsources, sales force). GM has a market cap of $50.96 billion and Ford’s $60.19 billion. An average age of executive directors is in 30s and 50s. To prove capability and long-ride outperformance, Tesla has tested the world record of lowest-charge time for an electric car with Model S from Los Angeles to New York in a traveling distance of 3,400 miles.

9. AT&T’s earning and non-stop customer-subscribing war with T-Mobile U.S. over non-contract, competitive Smartphone prices, and more appealing services

10. Strategic merger triggered by Tokyo-based Softbank Corp in acquiring Sprint and a new proposal of acquiring T-Mobile to create three big brands – Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint-T-Mobile

11. Facebook, even facing the negative reports on its declined user population in recent months, enjoys a 63-percent-jump on its fourth quarter revenues at $2.585



billion compared to $1.585 billion in the previous-year period. It earned $523 million income compared to $64 million in the year before. The total 2013 revenue was $7.9 billion and the profit of $1.5 billion. The most ads revenues come from mobile ads because 945 millions of 1.23 billion users use Smartphones or tablets on Facebook activities. A number of daily mobile active users is 556 million, helping Facebook generate more than $1 billion revenue. If the number of teen and young users leaving Facebook is a substantial issue, Facebook’s marketing and product development teams will be pushed in a stress-and-pressure circumstance. To be fair, Facebook has also encountered a severe competitiveness from both established brands like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and newly-founded start-up companies. How to retain a faithful and satisfying population of young teens is another mission.

12. Lenovo, China-based PC and Smartphone maker has moved on to acquire IBM’s low-end server division and now in the final talk to buy Google’s Motorola brand. If Lenovo succeeded in both cases, the Chinese brand would possess two American brands – IBM low-end server and Motorola handset brand for a combined cost of $2.3 billion and $2.91 billion or $5.21 billion. Chinese consumer electronic and business product makers can advance to the global market based on their disruptive technology and cost-based frontiers.

13. Credit card and online data breaches at Target Corp and other retailers may trigger more long-term solutions on personal credit monitor programs and security services and technology protecting both in-store data storage and online payment transactions for years to come.

14. Banking practices, regulators’ fines on wrong practices, consumers’ acknowledge and engagements for their benefits in choosing right-and-low-fee products and services. The government’s regulatory agencies have executed their powers in protecting consumers and respond to U.S. Congress’s pressure and directions.

15. Investors always look over GDP growth rate, PMI, trade account balance, inflation, property asset prices, unemployment, and retailing health as signals of confidence or distress in those economic zones – China, India, Russia, Southeast Asia, European Union to redirect confidence and pressure on U.S. stock and bond markets. Euro Zone has two doubtful areas – France and Greece – where observers need more positive reforms and changes. The rest of E.U performs with positive indexes – PMI, under-controlled inflation, moderately-growing GDP. Private banking and financial sectors are the most priority for reforms and test tools. Germany still plays a motivation and aspiration for the whole continent market to resume the growing mode in 2014.

16. China’s hard-landing economy and soft-landing economy are two unknown or just-predictable in-near-term economic outcome of the world’s second-largest economy and largest consumer-population market. Observers and investors respond with both passive and active opinions on whether the central government seriously pursues more reforms and neutralizes the balance of the export-driven economy and domestic-consumption economy. How can China survive with three immediate solutions related to sufficient job creation, renewable capital for reinvestment and the economically growing scale, and GDP growth mode? China’s economic engine has hit more unsolved problems such as air pollution,



sufficient-and-clean energy supply, and sustainable supply of foods, housing, healthcare, jobs, education, and transportation. Foreigners think about reforms on enterprise ownership, capital liberalization, market-determined currency exchange rate, internationalized and complied hiring and business environments. The period of 1979-2013 supported the free-drive of State Capitalism or a less-and-non disciplined business environment to minimize fixed costs and maximize return-on-investment for both Chinese industries and foreign-invested enterprises in China. China now becomes richer and the largest creditor of U.S. bonds. Foreigners are not envy about what China has gained multi-trillions U.S. dollars in the global trade account over the last three decades but also rapidly competed and dominated many areas of the global economy. Each decline of percentage in China’s GDP growth rate can be translated into other economies’ growing chance. Why? If China used to have 10 big sellers in the past, it would only have seven to eight players and allow other countries to take the two positions in the global supply chain values.

17. Honda USA and its exported car volume can convince how foreign brands are manufactured in U.S. and then re-exported to other markets based on prices, quality, features, and trendy technological edges. American workers and engineers have more motivation and pride in designing, developing, and manufacturing more Honda models not only for North American market but also others.

U.S. Corporations and Their Responses

CEOs’ ages and their responses to market changes are very important because of those elements:

1. The longer a CEO has worked in industries or career, he may find more resistance in changing his ways of doing things different from what he often does or has done on his daily basis

2. The longer a CEO has climbed up to the top-management position in more than one organization the more conservative and stiff he can respond to changes and make right decisions on time

3. The more experience or accumulated top-notch positions on his portfolios the higher compensation or golden parachute package he can exclusively receive from any corporation hires him a CEO

4. A CEO believes slow changes make him be safer in the current position than fast-change to kick him out the CEO chair and office.

5. An experienced CEO rarely chooses a new path to take a risk or adventure with unknown outcomes, but most of new inventions or innovative products come from such direction. In such perspective, a seasoned and celebrity CEO chooses a safe defensive decision by acquiring as many start-ups and high-tech companies as possible.

6. Before the Internet became more popular and affordable to everyone, Intellectual Property and Patent rights were protected and kept inside high-security vaults and multi-door-accessible safe boxes. Furthermore, spies and employees found more



difficult to steal information – hard-copy (CDs, disks, media storage) and print documents – out of their offices and company computers. Today’s hackers can intrude any corporation’s computer systems to steal information or employees send zipped information out to buyers through the Internet and mobile connections.

7. Cloud computer, open source code communities, anti-monopoly enterprise groups, borderless engineer groups can share their knowledge, collaborate their skills in open projects, and cross-check and cross-test coding programs before a final software version published and shared over the World Wide Web.

8. Low barrier for new entrant companies entering a market helps young and talented engineers launch their companies and become young millionaires and billionaires

9. 3-D printing technology, high-speed Internet connection, available Wi-Fi and mobile connections, affordable Smartphone and tablets, cheap PCs and computer servers are indirect factors accelerating the outsourcing from developed nations to developing and emerging markets like India, China, and Southeast Asia. Works and projects are encrypted and delivered over the high-speed Internet connection from a customer to an outsourcing service firm. A result can be re-sent back in a same method to the customer in minutes, hours, and days. All data is digitized and encrypted for convenience and security.

IBM, Google can sell low-cost serve unit and unprofitable Motorola brand to Lenovo that purchased IBM’s ThinkPad and PC unit. How can Lenovo succeed by acquiring American brands and product manufacturing facilities?

1. Chinese workers earn a fraction of American counterparts’ salaries 2. Chinese engineers earned U.S.-based college degrees 3. Chinese government supports Chinese brands to acquire foreign brands 4. Chinese companies have different cultures and management structures to operate

profitable at lower costs compared to American counterparts 5. Chinese engineers master in learning U.S. technology and modifying old

technology into so-called disruptive technology 6. Chinese companies have more flexible tools in hiring employees with less

benefits and easily firing off in a near future 7. Chinese companies have different sales channels to provide a broad range of

products and services to all kinds of customers What are long-term and sustainable solutions for U.S. industries in 2014? Google made mistakes when buying Motorola more than $12 billion. HP also did make mistakes of buying different brands and made no money from those brands – Palm, Autonomy Corporation, and others. Compaq brand has declined its values and market share compared to other Taiwanese and Chinese brands – Acer, Asus, and Lenovo. CEOs and in-charged marketing and product development directors may take some leads in those strategic and essential business functions:



1. Outsourcing for low-cost, but focusing on overall return-on-investment for made-in-USA because foreign-assembled and packaged products are shipped back to American retailers and online stores for sales to American consumers who need jobs and incomes to purchase those products.

2. Designing products and services not only for American consumers but also foreign consumers who have different spending powers and tastes

3. Establishing the global supply chain network with those considerations – where to design, where to develop, where to manufacture, where to store, and where to sell in order to manage combined costs of transportation, wages, insurances, benefits, and uncertainty of social chaos and natural disasters

4. What legendary of U.S. education system is champion over other foreign education systems is now in a history because outsourcing and globalization have entered in both education and service industries

5. Foreign companies also hire seasoned experts with strong backgrounds of working in multinational corporations to help the former penetrate and dominate foreign markets like U.S., Japan, Europe, Africa, South America, and others

6. Living standards and costs of living are two things because workers earn salaries with slow appreciation and adjustment to inflation and changes of costs of living.

7. Most U.S. media outlets like to broadcast what they believe American audiences want to watch, but ignore what the outside world is changing and directly impacting on American consumers’ careers, lifestyles, and future security