3 LESSONS FROM FSOFT FOR IT BROTHERS TO RING BELLS IN THE LAND OF KANG-GA-RU

Vietnam and Australia have just upgraded their relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership, opening up many opportunities in the future. Talking to many IT brothers who came here to find partners and listening to their concerns reminded me of the conversation with Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nam, former CEO of FSoft, about the story of FSoft's expansion into the world 25 years ago. Of course, the international software market in 2024 will be very different from the Y2K era, but there are still a few things that can be pondered and summarized from the story of FSoft, one of the pioneering Vietnamese IT enterprises that "went global without knowing anything" at that time.

1. Dek knows everything and goes forward: This is the title of the book of the same name that recounts this journey in great detail. Those who are interested can find it in the link below the comment. The word Dek can easily create a negative feeling for readers who are picky about language, but if you read the book carefully, you will know that it is a bit of Extreme, hyperbolic, and mischievous in the DNA of FPT people. The main idea here is that when going out into the world, there will be difficult, strange problems from customers. And if you only dare to do things you already know, you will lose your chance. FSoft's lesson, briefly put in the way of going to school, is: if the teacher gives you a difficult problem, just accept it, then go home and find a way to solve it, don't be afraid that you don't know, don't hide your ignorance, just be honest + enthusiastic so that the "customer" will "teach you again". If you can make a deal of 1 dong with an international customer, the knowledge you learn is worth 5 dong. In short, even if you don't know anything about a difficult problem, still accept it to find a way to solve it.

2. 25 years ago, the name of Vietnam on the world IT map was almost zero, the ranking was very low, so FSoft would have a lot of difficulty. It was like there was no reputation or brand yet and they wanted to sell products. 2024 is different, not only FPT but many other IT companies have become famous and won a lot of respect in the international market. The brand "IT from Vietnam" in the eyes of the international community is very different. That is a more favorable thing for current IT brothers. However, we should not be subjective because of that. There are clients in Australia who still do not know anything about this "brand", or have only heard about it but have not been convinced, so we must always maintain a humble, sincere spirit and build reputation and relationships right from the first and shortest moments of contact. In short, as our grandparents often say, when you have trust, everything later is easy. Yesterday, when visiting a winery, I heard Mr. Allan McLean, founder of St. Anges, a long-standing wine company in Melbourne, told me: “I like working with the Chinese, they shake hands, trust each other and everything goes smoothly from then on”. I don’t know about the tech industry, but I guess Australians also like sincere and trustworthy partners. Who doesn’t? Building relationships needs to be deep, not just broad. Meeting and interacting at events is social, you always need to take the initiative to meet privately and in depth to show sincerity and the desire to solve difficult problems together. Building relationships when you are nothing requires “giving first, receiving later”.

3. A persistent problem that many parties still complain about is the English ability of IT people from Vietnam. Although things have improved compared to before, this is still a big weakness. 25 years ago, when Fsoft entered the Japanese market, they didn't even know a word of Japanese, English was still acceptable. What is Fsoft's solution? It is to try to recruit only 1 excellent Comtor (communicator). Comtor, the word Fsoft people use specifically for this position, is a Messenger, someone who understands foreign languages ​​from the client and conveys them to their team correctly. 10 developers who know foreign languages ​​may hear the client give them a problem and then understand it in 10 different ways, which is still fatal. The important thing here is to understand the problem correctly to find a solution, not to be proficient in a foreign language.

Proficiency in a foreign language is one thing, but it is more important to have a team that understands the client's pain points. Therefore, you only need to focus on having a really good Comtor. If he doesn't understand, the client just needs to grab him by the head and beat him until he understands, but having to explain it to 10 devs is a disaster. In short, being weak in a foreign language is a problem, but if you can't improve it, you need to focus on investing in a really good Comtor to get the right questions for the warrior dev team to solve. Solving the problem correctly will make the client satisfied, even if after that, when celebrating the deal, the two sides clink beers but still lose translation...

(Shared from Host Tran Quoc Khanh)

See more: Video chat of author Nguyen Thanh Nam about FSOFT's "Progress without knowing anything" journey at Vietsuccess channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YcRIOdNu98

And let's wait for the Leader Talk activity with author Nguyen Thanh Nam in Hanoi for readers to debate and discuss Fsoft's lessons. Detailed information will be updated on Anbooks Fanpage, let's wait!

☘ Order books at:
https://anbooks.vn/products/dekbietgicungtien

#Anbooks #PowerSupplySecurity #NguyenThanhNam #FSoft History #Business #podcast #thequockhanhshow #Vietsuccess #Australia #IT
Back to blog

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.