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Organizations go through many life cycles before winding down, or absorbed in a M&A. Here in Vietnam, fluidity is the word that describes the dynamics of organization. Like organism that evolves with its environment, organization here often bends and changes beyond recognition. We know the solution is embedded in the problem. Yet we need to…
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On my first week as CEO at UVT – I met an issue none of the Business School in the US had equipped their students for: to bow or not to bow at the Fortune–God altar in the school lobby. It’s hard enough to know where the bathroom is – much less stumbling upon the…
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Last night I said goodbye to a good friend. He was going back to California. We sat and listened to Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World (Vietnamese singer but if you closed your eyes you would think the black legend was there in person). I recalled a scene from Good Morning Vietnam whose subjective shot…
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Like Trinh Cong Son‘s Diem Xua, I got my own imprints of what Saigon was like. Especially on Sundays, like today. Shaded streets, short strolls and sweet smiles. Who needs all the executive shirt with designers’ emblem on it. Instead of shirt, just smile even when you are not on camera. “Cuoi len di em oi” Just…
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After the trilogy: Start seeing, start hearing and start thinking, I am on the roll. Behaviorists have debated whether action precedes attitude, or vice versa. Nike commands: JUST DO IT. Start acting. Some guy somewhere mustered his courage to ask for a girl’s hand. That girl after much deliberation, accepted. Boom! Action. We are conceived out of…
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Seeing a photo of a grey-hair guy, on bike and backpack, riding home with bouquet of flowers in the front basket, reminded me of International Day of Women. There is no doubt, according to an Australian’s observer, that women are bosses here in Vietnam. Tiger Mom. To punctuate this point, I was sitting at an outdoor…
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I have searched in vain for courses and seminars in Listening. You will find tons of books on Winning Presentation, Zen Presentation etc.. but not listening. For one, listening is hard. You have to suppress the urge and the tendency for mis-matching. You have to enter the other person’s frame of reference: understand what he/she is…
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Same walk way ( pedestrian only flower festival on Nguyen Hue), same anticipating crowd. Except for the I-pad people took pictures with. Years ago, at the same setting, I was lost as a five-year-old boy, trying to find my way back to the family’s car. I then climbed on top of it, hand holding the balloon high…
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The old couple holding hands walking down the street. They looked at me, I at them. What did they see in me? Younger version of themselves? Old man looks at my life? I am a lot more like you? Should it be the other way around? What did I see in them? Grey and withered,…
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Thang Nguyen 555 