Viettel's Investment Formula

2013 marks 6 years since Viettel has invested in foreign markets with Cambodia being the first market. Mr Duong Van Tinh, Deputy General Director of Viettel Corporation said that when Viettel decided to invest abroad, telecommunications experts of Vietnam only considered that the first step, no one ever thought that it would reap the rewards. To sum up, Viettel has five investment success formulas as follows:

With seven investment licenses, Viettel has a market of 110 million people (including Laos, Cambodia, East Timor, two African countries which are Mozambique and Cameroon, two American countries which are Haiti and Peru), larger than the domestic market. Four markets are experiencing profitable business with total active subscribers of nearly 10 million. In particular, in Mozambique, Viettel was profitable only after only six months of operation. With more than 2 million new subscribers, Movitel is considered the most effective investment projects of Vietnam in Africa since 2008.

 

"Viettel goal is to promote foreign market investment so that Viettel will have dominated markets with the scale of 400 - 500 million people by 2015 and one billion people by 2020. If this figure is reached, Viettel will gain revenues from foreign markets three times as high as the domestic market and become one of the 10 largest telecom companies investing abroad.

 

Investment is always going along with potential risks, especially investing in markets different in geography, customs, and political regime. In each new market, we have to study to take appropriate steps. The biggest difference in business is experience. One can be successful in one market, but will probably fail in others. One thing that helps Viettel overcome the challenges is always thinking differently. One of the success formulas for Viettel when investing abroad is: Think different and be creative.

 

Around the world, we have huge rivals and opponents who never give you a single minute to rest. Fortunately, we can be aware of this fact. In Vietnam, we would like VNPT to create momentum for Viettel to develop mutually" said Mr Tinh.

 

There is an African proverb saying: When waking up every morning, an antelope thinks it must run faster than the lion in order to survive. On the other hand, the lion also thinks it must run faster than the antelope, or else it will starve when he wakes up every morning. The fact is that in any field, the speed factor is crucial to the success of the company. Mr Hoang Anh Tuan, an telecommunications expert said that it is only the philosophy, the fact is that "fast" is not enough, "fastest" is the key to success. This is reflected in the culture of running business of Viettel.

 

This philosophy is demonstrated by a movement of Viettel. Particularly, when the 2G network is on top of the telecommunications market, Viettel was thinking of developing 3G network. Currently, Viettel’s 3G network is covering nationwide with the best quality. In Dak Nong, 3G network has covered up to 95 percent of the province. Where there is 2G network, there will be 3G network.

 

Another success story of Viettel is that when it was in the top of success in the country with over 48 percent of market share, Viettel shifted to foreign investment and initially achieved significant success in Laos, Cambodia, Mozambique, Haiti, Cameroon, Peru and East Timor.

 

Many experts in the field of telecommunications still remember the story of Viettel which has adopted the strategy of "Bringing rural area closer to urban area." This strategy has been a great success and with the development of science, mobile phone has become a popular thing.

 

The philosophy of "stepping carefully to pass the river" has been applied successfully by Viettel. A representative of Viettel shares that when facing a problem, it only takes an hour to meet the 70 percent of requirement. But finding a solution to meet 80 percent of the requirement, it can take up to three months. And the response to 90 percent of the problem, it can even take up to six months or more. One can never come up with a solution to solve 100 percent of the problem. So it is best to choose a solution to address 70 percent of the problem, then just go ahead and adjust. This will be much faster. It is important to identify the destination. Once it finds a solution meeting the 70 percent of the requirement, Viettel will make adjusted in accordance with reality.

 

Mr Nguyen Manh Hung, Deputy General Director of Viettel said that one of its eight core values is the tradition and discipline of the soldier. Tradition of a soldier is the absolute steel discipline. Soldiers do it fast, decisively and thoroughly. "The army has many values that businesses need such as discipline and obeying orders. Viettel inherited from those military traditions." According to Mr Hung, in modern society, people are not so willing to accept difficulty and sacrifice as they were in the war. But in Viettel, people simply accept it. It is a normal thing that Viettel’s staff can be in Vietnam today but in Cambodia, Laos, or a country in Africa and the America tomorrow. "This creates strength of Viettel. They are values that cannot be measured in money. These values ​​make up the strength for Viettel to conquer foreign markets.”