In our "Together with Our Customers" series, we have previously featured expatriate staff members from our overseas locations.
Starting with this article, we will shift our focus to local employees with strong ties to their communities. Through their stories, we hope to share the changes they see in the market, the voices of customers they hear every day, and their passion for their work from a perspective that is close to both the region and our customers.
My name is Nguyen Thien Chinh, and I am from Hanoi, Vietnam. I am 49 years old and have one daughter who is studying at a university in France.
I have been working with Sumitomo Heavy Industries for 21 years. Currently, I serve as General Service Manager at SHI Plastics Machinery (Vietnam) LLC, where I am responsible for overseeing all service operations.
The Sumitomo Group is a big company with a professional working environment and a long history. In Vietnam, eight out of ten people know the Sumitomo brand. With that in mind, I am proud to be a member of such a well-known and respected group. Whenever I visit a client's company, just mentioning the Sumitomo brand immediately reassures them, and they feel they've made the right choice.
I love my job here because, as a service job, I can get travel to many cities and regions, talk to many people, and learn new things from different cultures in my country. In addition, I enjoy repairing machinery, especially new technological challenges. However, now that age is becoming a burden, I don't travel as much as I did when I was young. I've shifted to managing a young team of engineers, and I want to pass on my youthful inspiration and experience to them.
In recent years, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have been undergoing significant transformation. Driven by rapid modernization, infrastructure improvements, and changes in social behavior. Both of our cities already have subway systems; Hanoi has trains imported from China and France, while Ho Chi Minh City has a subway system imported from Japan. In the coming years, we will continue to develop more new lines, and this will greatly reduce traffic congestion.
There's one really interesting thing I have to mention here, and it's surprising: the disappearance of cash. Both cities are almost completely cashless. Even street food vendors, traditional markets, and motorbike taxis rely solely on bank transfers via QR codes or e-wallets.
Online shopping and networking: Social media e-commerce has significantly transformed the retail sector. Consumers' daily shopping habits have shifted from traditional web browsing to short, highly interactive sales videos streamed live on social media apps.
Previously, intersections were frequently congested with long lines of motorbikes, but that has now changed. Instead, there are long lanes dedicated to cars, resulting in significant emissions from these vehicles. Our city, Hanoi, is among the top 10 most polluted countries in the world. The government has implemented new policies to reduce emissions, such as encouraging people to switch to electric vehicles and banning gasoline-powered cars in some central city areas. As a result, cars and electric vehicles are now widely used in these two major cities. Initially, people were against it, but after a while, they gradually got used to it. We hope that in the coming years, as more new urban rail lines are completed, we will use public transport more.
In my work, I've noticed that companies are becoming increasingly responsible for environmental issues. They require us to provide ISO environmental certifications and commit to emission reductions, something we never had to do before.
When visiting factories, I also see that our customers are increasingly gravitating towards smart, green, and clean factories. They are more interested in manufacturing integrated with artificial intelligence (AI), and they always ask us about how AI technology is applied to Sumitomo Heavy Industries' injection molding machines.
Japanese customers remain our primary customers. They consistently account for more than half of our monthly sales, making them the most important market for our service sector.
We typically respond to inquiries within 24 hours, however, for certain specialized spare parts, there are limitations on keeping sufficient inventory, which sometimes results in delays for our customers. In difficult cases, I usually report to my superiors for resolution, as communication among Japanese people often leads to better outcomes.
When I first started working at a Japanese company, I didn't fully understand Japanese culture. Meeting clients demanded an astonishing level of punctuality, greetings upon arrival and departure were mandatory, thank yous were always very important to them. Unlike Vietnamese people, the Japanese usually don't shake hands, they only bow to each other. After a while, I got used to this style and found it quite interesting which helped me teach my daughter how to work efficiently and always be on time with everyone.
Japanese customers are very important to me, so my motto for this customer segment is "Your trust is our profit."
I always strive to provide the best possible service so that customers' machines don't have to break down for long, and we can also earn income from repairing their machines, a win-win situation for both sides. I'll also aim my staff to build trust with customers right from the start so that we have a chance to compete with increasing number of other companies in Vietnamese market.
For our local customers, this is a major challenge because their mindset is primarily focused on financial matters, they are unwilling to spend money on repairs when machinery breaks down, and they have a strong demand for free machinery repair solutions. With such demands, I empathized and discussed with them the best ways to find the most cost-effective solutions.
On some occasions, my staff spent several days repairing machinery at the factory, but I waived their labor costs, only charging for the parts.
By taking this kind of approach, I have been able to build trust in Sumitomo Heavy Industries. I believe that, through these small actions, customers have gradually gained trust, and now they think of Sumitomo Heavy Industries' injection molding machines first whenever they need them.
For domestic customers, my motto is "act to build trust." With youthful enthusiasm and dedication to teaching, we will act as efficiently and quickly as possible to build trust with customers experiencing Sumitomo Heavy Industries's modern machinery for the first time, a leading injection molding machinery brand in Vietnam.
My biggest goal is to make the Vietnam Service team the top team in Southeast Asia. I see my team as young, enthusiastic, and skilled team.Through this after-sales service, I also hope that many Vietnamese company will seek out Sumitomo's machines to experience this modern money-making tool.
My aspirations are quite modest, because I think I'm getting old and won't have as many ambitions as before. I hope SPM (V) company will continue to grow up and prosper, always achieving its annual budget targets, and that the whole company can travel together more often. More further, I want our team to be a true family both in and outside of work, that is my passion as the team leader.
Left: SPM Vietnam team members; Right: SPM Vietnam team members and their families
Going forward, we will continue featuring local employees from around the world, sharing their unique perspectives on their cultures, their work, and their passion for what they do.
This time, we had the opportunity to hear from Nguyen Thien Chinh in Vietnam. In our next article, we will pass the baton to a local employee in another region and explore their story.
Stay tuned for the next chapter in our series.