Report from Vietnam

Tweet

This is a guest post by Tony Vu. He is currently in Vietnam, where he is working with a team of consultants to perform research for DDD on the digitization and IT outsourcing landscape there.

Imagine you’re in a crowded room heading towards the exit in a less than orderly fashion.  Next, replace each one of those people surrounding you with a motorbike.  Don’t forget the exhaust from the bus ahead of you spewing in your face as you fight to prevent other motorbike drivers from cutting ahead of you.

Welcome to 5 o’clock rush hour in Hanoi, Vietnam!

My colleague Hue and I had just left a meeting with a successful business owner when it struck me what potential impact I could make here in Vietnam. His fast growing company is serving the financial sector here and has only just begun penetrating the potential market — picture the tip of the iceberg that befell the Titanic to get an idea. It goes to show that the landscape of opportunities to make a difference is incredible here. Vietnam’s developing economy will necessitate services that cater towards the growing middle class, as evidenced by the firm we met with.  Just as an example, something as simple as a directory to search for consumer businesses, akin to the Yellow pages in the U.S., doesn’t yet exist.  How about a website with restaurant reviews?  And how about a website to help find directions?  It seems like information is still shared via word of mouth, but wouldn’t it be much more effective to make this information available online?

And with over 60 percent of Vietnam’s population under 30, it’s going be interesting to see how the country’s development unfolds over the next few years as well.  Will the young generation here outpace their American counterparts in entrepreneurial prowess?

If you can bring your talent, overseas education, and creativity to a developing country like Vietnam, you really have a chance to be at the forefront of something exciting.  There are going to be apparent linguistic and cultural challenges, but there’s nothing like the culture of drinking beer here that gets everyone to speak the same language and do business!

I