“The pandemic has caused global slowdown, but together with the accelerating pace of change.” The quote applied to BCG with its successful strategy and high growth rate in the past 2 years.
1.
The 10th anniversary of BCG at the end of last December was full of emotions for those who witnessed the great challenges in their early days, each employee made tireless efforts, especially recently in a tumultuous year due to unprecedented impacts from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Starting in 2011 as a small company with just a few dozen employees, operating in two main fields of investment banking services including consulting on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), capital mobilization, provision of financial services; information technology solutions and project development. After a decade, BCG has become a giant multi-industry corporation with more than 60 subsidiaries and affiliates, over 2,000 employees, operating in many provinces and cities, market capitalization of more than 11,000 billion dong, total assets of over 35,000 billion dong.
The five main business segments of BCG currently are Renewable Energy, Infrastructure - Construction, Real Estate, Manufacturing - Trading, Financial Services - Insurance, in which renewable energy and infrastructure development are the core strategy development plan. In the energy sector, aside from 600 MW that is operational, BCG has implemented projects to develop 400 MW of solar power and 550 MW of wind power, in order to put more than 1 GW into operation by the end of this year, becoming an outstanding regional company. "It's just about the Group’s abilities, there is still potential business.” said Mr. Nam.
Definitely there are also crucial questions to answer which are does BCG have enough resources, particularly human? How reality the corporation maintain the same speed as before? Mr. Nam answers without hesitation: "I am not afraid of the hardship and intense global competition in the market, but often ponder how to build an elite team, more importantly, always push past our limits, willing to be risk-taking and open-minded”.
With total assets of over VND 35,000 billion, and well-diversified portfolio, BCG currently has no obstacles in capital mobilization, especially international sources with reasonable costs.
The conglomerate has signed many business cooperation contracts with leading international corporations to raise capital for clean energy projects development in Vietnam. Moreover, BCG just has had a successful year in increasing its equity capacity. In addition to that, the strong development of the stock market has greatly facilitated capital mobilization, helped BCG to balance its asset structure.
Mobilizing large capital helps on short-term financial performance by implementing projects. The game of young entrepreneur like BCG is ambitious, but definitely not without risks. “We will continue to put in endless effort to overcome any challenges. The most important factor is BCG's leadership effectiveness with such a large scale. We have to transform from working hard to working smart as ever-increasing complexity” the president shared.
Another priority factor in the stability strategy that Mr. Nguyen Ho Nam mentioned is risk management. Previously, BCG was willing to accept higher risks with higher profitable opportunities, even accepted M&A projects with chances of success are only 50-50, even 40-60. “And now, we have to learn to say no. Many business proposals so we have to choose, could accept lower profits, higher costs but safer. The large scale and sustainable development of BCG force us to choose and decline offers”, Mr. Nam said.
Indeed, the position of BCG is different now, so the Group has to determine priorities, they used to be project development; now capital restructuring. Previously, BCG used loans to finance projects, but now, the Group is increasing equity to reduce debts and assets, thus develops more sustainable. “If in the past, we prioritized growth above all, now we are reinforcing sustainability in order to able to compete fairly with regional corporations in the intense global competitive environment”, Mr. Nam shared.
A busy 2021 for BCG has come to an end. The stepping stone year are set with challenging goals to maintain growth above 100% in both revenue and profit, this was an extremely ambitious plan compared to the prior year. It also meant pressure, but at the same time, motivation to move forward. The conglomerate has made breakthroughs in new business areas, prepared key personnel positions, changed important policies, resolved internal business bottlenecks, etc and BCG has continued to reap sweet fruits of success and prosperity.
All three main pillars, which are human resources, financial capacity and products have undergone significant changes. The Group is expected to exceed the revenue target and pre-tax profit of over VND 800 billion. More importantly is the growth on employee productivity, besides the happiness and satisfaction at work in BCG, which was voted as one of the best workplaces in Asia.
The above figure is probably the best evidence for the effective strategy that Mr. Nam and his colleagues have put a great deal of effort in since the beginning of the year. The company is constantly expanding, enhancing everyone’s skills for better results.
2.
10 years ago, the leaders of BCG might not have fully envisioned what the market would be like, the ups and downs of the economy. However, enthusiasm, consensus, constant effort and creativity have always been kept intact from the very beginning. This is something that Mr. Nam wants to emphasize when was asked about the next journey.
“BCG is still a young enterprise with a history of 10 years, so the initial success was just the foundation for the future development. We still have to continue to improve, adjust our business model to suit our growth stage as well as the new reality; continue to learn, be open-minded, work smarter, work harder, control risks better, be consistent with the Group's long-term strategy," said Mr. Nam.
Mr. Nam said, BCG does not live in the shadow of the chairman, the real power belongs to the Strategy Council with 10 members. “These are 10 Mr. Nams who have the right to decide on the most important issues of the Group. The Chairman's decisions are in many cases vetoed," explained Mr. Nam.
When the organization is managed by many people, it means that they jointly own, cooperate, supervise each other, give honest opinions to each other, and advance together.
Mr. Nguyen Hunan proudly shares about his colleagues: “Mutual trust has been built many years based on our common ethical foundations, and deep understanding of each member's strengths and weaknesses to promote, support, and share together.”
“We, as a collective, share the same passion, same hardship, work together, enjoy together, are the real bosses of the Group, no-one reigns supreme, when the company size is getting bigger, so does the collective. The organization is only as strong as the collective strength of its individuals", Mr. Nam shared about the management philosophy at BCG.
In fact, 3 years ago, BCG was still nameless, with many doubts and preconceptions. The leaders of BCG knew and chose to “work hard in silence, let success make the noise”.
Mr. Nam is right, dream big to achieve big, BCG’s gotten bigger and attracted many talents. There are many leading experts and managers in the field of infrastructure development and clean energy are contributing to BCG’s success.
“Clean energy and big infrastructure projects are capital intensive business. When the conglomerate’s gone global, at some point, BCG will have to consider listing on international stock markets to raise financial capital of billions dollars. Obviously, I have to prepare for a transparent, pressured, and fair competition with global counterparts,” the 7x entrepreneur shared .
3.
Economic success is important, but happiness does not resides in material possessions. It is BCG’s spirit, so everyone learns to give with love.
For everyone in BCG, giving also means receiving, that is the best way to receive love, life lessons, the value of kindness. In 2021, BCG launched the BCG Foundation Charity Fund and donated more than VND 100 billion for charitable activities across the S-shaped country. “Giving is the the best way of receiving is the philosophy of the BCG Foundation, or broadly, BCG Group", Mr. Nam said.
Working, achieving dreams and goals and contributing to the society is probably each one’s happiness and motivation at BCG. Therefore, if you pass by, talk to them, to see how happy and proud they are about the large family.
This is probably also the ambitious goal that Mr. Nguyen Hunan shared: “We, all entrepreneurs, besides business, would love to build a better motherland, which can compete with powerhouses across the globe”.