Core foundation creates billion dollar beverage giant

At the end of the first quarter, Tan Hiep Phat maintained its production targets, with several business indicators improved over the same period last year. Deputy General Director of Tan Hiep Phat, Tran Uyen Phuong, says the company, with its growth momentum, is on track to reach the target of becoming one of the leading Vietnamese beverage enterprises in Asia. The group focuses on building internal resources, as the foundation for a regional empire.

“Everyone plays a certain part in the organization, just as every screw is crucial to the whole machine. A loosened screw can lead to machine breakdown. And likewise, a mistake can interrupt production. What made Tan Hiep Phat today is a group of people with a common goal, so we always focus on improving our human resource policy, operating system, and working environment, striving for employee self-development.”

Deputy General Director of Tan Hiep Phat, Tran Uyen Phuong. Photo by THP

Established in 1994, Tan Hiep Phat’s journey has revolved around seven core values, including customer satisfaction, international standard, corporate social responsibility, mastery at work, ‘nothing is impossible’, ‘today must be better than yesterday, and tomorrow isn’t better than today’ spirit, and integrity.

Phuong highlighted that these values help promote employee capacity and make a difference at Tan Hiep Phat. Entering the company, each staff member will be trained along a development path from recruitment to retirement. Each developmental milestone has clear criteria on capabilities, achievements, job management skills… Even if you are not a Tran family member, you can still become a CEO if you meet the requirements.

The company’s board of directors ensure staff enjoys conditions to develop themselves, strengthening each team for the growth of the entire organization. Realizing this commitment, Tan Hiep Phat offers a series of training courses on job expertise, soft skills, leadership skills with international experts.

“Tan Hiep Phat has adopted a leadership capability framework tailored for the development roadmap, along with a center for reviewing, training, and receiving employee feedback, consulted by a global leadership research firm. The consulting team was quite surprised that we got this far because even multinational corporations have only implemented this model at their headquarters for the past three years, to enhance the senior management team,” she added.

Executive board visit a Tan Hiep Phat’s factory. Photo by THP

New managerial employees will have a companion who supports them with internal networking, training, company culture and core values, to quickly integrate into the organization. According to the career development roadmap, this employee will be able to participate in appropriate training courses, and will be regularly rotated to broaden knowledge and perspectives. Senior leaders will have the opportunity to attend more specialized training courses.

Daily tasks and new projects are the most effective and practical training classes for employees. Tran Thi Thu Ha, a staff member in the QC department, in charge of measuring materials, entered the company when she was a fresh graduate, clumsy and unable to distinguish ingredient code numbers, causing loss of raw materials. After four months of training, she was able to accurately weigh each gram, ensuring strict physicochemical standards, and neatly handled a material barrel of more than 200 kilograms.

Ha described each ingredient proudly: “2E is very sweet. 3E is fickle, causing her boss go to the company many times in the middle of the night to fix problems. 4E is often confused with 3E when placed on a pallet.” Ha always had colleagues to support her when she couldn’t pick up ingredients from the manufacturers in time or faced other troubles.

“The company helps me gain more life and work experience that cannot be learned from books,” Ha said.

Ton, an employee at the Hau Giang factory, said he is frequently trained and receives performance reviews through a public evaluation system to rank and record achievements. Those with good achievements will be recognized in front of the team, offered salary increases and assigned a rewarding position.

“No matter what department you work at, as long as you make an effort and deserve it, all contributions will be recognized and honored,” he said.

The working process encourages innovation and improvement. All procedures are standardized so that employees have a clear understanding of each task and timeline, and propose initiatives with improvement tools to solve problems.

All opinions will be listened to through different channels like the intranet, where employees can contact their senior management.

Number one beverage factory. Photo by THP

Uyen once ran with a staff member in the factory ground. He confided that there was a serious matter but only told Phuong or Dr Thanh (CEO of Tan Hiep Phat) about it, which made Uyen laugh because he had no idea that the person who was running with him was the Vice President. Since then, Uyen Phuong has been interacting more with employees, hosting livestreams, and enhancing connection with employees to better understand them and the company’s operation.

“Besides systematic discipline, in order to boost the development of each employee, Tan Hiep Phat has built the company as a big family, with each staff member considered family. Therefore, your success is my happiness,” Phuong said.

This motto is further evidenced in the 125 days implemented “three on the spot” at Tan Hiep Phat during the pandemic, when everyone ate, slept, worked at the factory, and shared little things with each other. The leaders always tried to spread the positive vibes to each member, so that they could complete their tasks.

Last year, despite facing numerous challenges due to Covid-19, the company did not cut salaries or bonuses. The company increased the welfare as a way of appreciating the contribution of employees during the pandemic.

“Staying competitive without affecting the lives of employees is challenging, but we are confident that we are getting better every day,” Phuong said.