Thang Nguyen 555

Cultures on Collision Course

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With some short-term relief work in Asia/Africa and long stint in Telecom, Thang also earned a B.A. at Pennsylvania State University. M.A. in Communication at Wheaton Graduate School, M.A. in Cross-Cultural Communication at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Boston. In addition, he earned a CELTA – classes taken in Hanoi for cultural re-immersion.

Tag: Customer Service

  • Underneath is Love

    Companies outsource Y2K tech work, then while at it, their software development. From manufacturing to marketing, R&D to customer care , jobs went overseas to cut costs. Then we tout culture-building, crowd-sourcing etc… The truth is, we did not care about our customers or corporate culture. Yet, it’s culture that reinforces brand. Weak corporate culture links to…

  • OPP (other people’s problems)

    We live in a world full of acronyms e.g. PPO, OPM (Other People’s Money), SOP, CDO, COD etc.. In big companies, Customer Service reps just get through their day, throwing around acronyms to feel they are on the inside, without thinking about “touchpoints” (problems as opportunities to upsell). My cable acted up two days ago.  The…

  • creative disruption

    Innovator’s Dilemma is when incumbents grow complacent and are challenged by emerging forces that disrupt and destroy them. Gary Hamel in The Future of Management urges constant reinvention of management principles e.g. decision-making be pushed to the outer edges.  The point is, leaders are listeners, not lecturers. That’s hard! For centuries, we are conditioned to sit passively, and take…