Vietnam – Smurfit MBA Blog

Celebrating Lunar New Year in Dublin

On February 2^nd 2017, our Vietnamese study body organised a warm celebration of Lunar New Year with international students, Irish families with adopted Vietnamese children and members of the Vietnamese community in Dublin.

Lunar New Year is a very meaningful occasion for many Asian countries such as China, Korea and Vietnam, etc. In Vietnam, Lunar New Year is called Tet, which means the ‘feast of the first morning of the first day’. Tet is an important occasion for family reunions, when we cherish the success of past year, let the troubles go and look forward to happiness, success and good fortune in the upcoming year.

As an organising member, I was glad to see many international students interested in the event. We welcomed over 300 guests despite the heavy rain over the whole day. All the efforts spent over the last 3 months seemed to be rewarding when we engaged with participants through traditional games, when international students enjoyed and took pictures in our traditional dresses or when they attentively watched the performances. Looking back, I was reluctant to take the role as Event Director due to a heavy schedule in the first semester and unfamiliar study environment. But now I felt all the experience I had was such a great one. There were moments of tension the ‘ brain-storming’ stage, yet we had gone a long way to learn how to be flexible in our plan, to be appreciative of each other’s ideas, to give more than to take and to put ourselves forward.

Myself in ‘ao dai’ - traditional dress — Myself in ‘ao dai’ – traditional dress

When I first landed in Dublin 4 months ago, I was impressed by a small little thing – signage. All are written in English and Gaelic. Although nowadays, Gaelic is becoming less popular among young people, the presence of Gaelic in almost all public areas is such a great reservation of culture and traditions. Recent years in my home country have seen debate over whether Lunar New Year should be combined with New Year holiday in the Gregorian calendar. Advocates would point to economic loss and overspending during such a long holiday. For me, I still hope that every year we will still celebrate Lunar New Year and that our people will never lose tradition because of a so-called cost-benefit analysis. Simply, globalization and revolution are not to be carried out at the expense of intrinsic values.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?

Khanh Nguyen ~ Full-Time MBA

A Week In South Africa

South Africa is the country that I have always dreamed to visit once in my life. One year ago, I still questioned if I would ever have a chance to be there. One year later, I found myself sitting on the deck of The Water Front, in the centre of Cape Town, enjoying the bright sunshine and fresh breeze. Like a dream. I got this wonderful chance thanks to the International Study Tour which is part of the UCD Smurfit MBA Programme. Although, the trip was only one week, but I, along with my MBA peers spent a fruitful time in this amazing country. The first destination was Johannesburg, a rapidly changing city and the vibrant heart of South Africa. Being the biggest city of South Africa, Johannesburg also plays the role of the major commercial, financial, and industrial hub. Here, we not only visited big companies like Coca Cola and Old Mutual, but also got a chance to go to Soweto, a historic ‘township’ area, Hector Pietersen Museum and Nelson Mandela’s old house which helped me to understand more about history of this country.

Coming from Vietnam, a country experiencing the same terrified pain of war, I feel that I can really relate to South Africa’s long history of struggling for freedom and equality, and also amazed by the fact that the country has quickly rebuilt and developed to become a member of BRICS within just 20 years. The next destination was Cape Town, the capital of South Africa. It is such a beautiful and lovely city which easily makes you fall in love with. We visited a lot of companies, start-ups, social entrepreneur and non-profit organizations, as well as having a great time on a sunset cruise and wine tasting trip to the winelands.

Through this trip, I have learned a lot of new things. What impressed me most is that although being an emerging country, South Africa pays a lot of attention to policy measurements that improve the environment, income gap and social equality. Especially, to me, the idea of BBBEE is very interesting and I think this can be applied to other developing countries. Other than that, I also had a chance to experience the culture of South Africa which is mixture of African and European influence. In just one week, I fell in love with South Africa’s unique culture, beautiful landscape, and nice people. Everywhere I went, I always saw bright smiles, I was warmly welcomed, and treated with friendliness and great hospitality. I will definitely come back to this country. Thanks to the Smurfit MBA for giving me this memorable experience.

Thao Nguyen ~ Full-Time MBA

Would You Choose Vietnam? (If you had another chance)

In advance of the MBA International Study Tour, we had to vote for two out of three destinations. Among the three options – UAE & India, South Africa and Vietnam, most people selected the first two. As a Vietnamese student, it was a sad result for me (though I did not vote for my home country because we were encouraged to choose another place for our trip). I know that a few people were interested in Vietnam, but the final result proved that Vietnam was not as attractive (to our class) as the other two. Therefore, I write this blog to give you some interesting points about my home country that will probably change your mind.

1.Global opportunities:

It should be the first and the most important reason when considering Vietnam as an option for the study tour. As a developing country with the advantages of the low labor cost, Vietnam has been attracting numerous global companies. You can find a branch office of Unilever, P&G, McKinsey, Deloitte, Microsoft and several other international names either in Hanoi or Saigon. Those companies are open with international applicants and you – great MBA candidates – will definitely have many choices there. Furthermore, if you want to start up a business, especially in IT or Production, Vietnam is an ideal place with good human resources and reasonable cost of setting up.

2. Low cost of living:

You might not believe, but many locals can live (not very comfortably but in a basic standard) with 200 to 300 euro a month. The lawful minimum wage for workers in Vietnam is VND3.5 million (about 150 euro) per month, so if you spend more than 200 euro a month, you are richer than many other people.

3. Diverse Foods:

Have you ever tried Vietnamese spring rolls or Pho (noodle)? They are assumed as the best dishes of Vietnam, but that is probably not true. We have tons of different foods, from Broken Rice, Hue Beef noodle, Banh Mi, Banh Cuon, Bun Cha, to Café Sua Da. If you don’t require a high star restaurant, you can find those foods in many places with just 1 to 2 euro. And if you question about the taste? Just ask Pooja, Tar or Arka, they will tell you how the foods are.

4. Amazing landscape:

Vietnam has 63 provinces/cities and each has a different landscape that you will definitely be attracted. While Saigon and Hanoi are dynamic and cosmopolitan cities which would be enough for one week of studying, you can spend an extra week exploring Sapa, Dalat, Ninh Binh, Phu Quoc, Nha Trang, Da Nang, and many other amazing places. The cost of traveling between the places is not very expensive, just from 5 to 100 euro depending on the type of transportations and the distances, but I promise that it will be more affordable than in any place in Europe. Each place will give you a different impression and you should have to shout “Wow, Amazing!” when you see those breathtaking views.

Mu Cang Chai, Yen Bai province, Vietnam (photo taken from my friend’s Facebook)

Trang An, Ninh Binh, Vietnam (photo taken from my friend’s Facebook)

There are so many things about our country that I want to tell you, but frankly my English sucks and too many deadlines are waiting for me. If I have a chance, I will share more about that. If my words are not convincing enough, this is a video that can help you have an overview of our country. Just take a quick look, you will love it!

Well, would you choose Vietnam if you had another chance?!

Nhan Nguyen ~ Full-Time MBA (and lover of Vietnam)

The Smurfit MBA – A Diverse & Rich Learning Experience

As a marketer, I have to learn how to tell an exciting, relevant, and believable story about the products, the brands and of course, the companies. As a person, I am a keen listener. Through stories, I learn not only the tellers’ interests, perspectives and experience in life but also a tonne of random facts – all of which are equally interesting to me. For all of the years I have spent working and travelling around the world; I have been told many great stories, yet very few of them could be exciting as the stories I have heard from my mates in the MBA Programme.

From memorable social experiences to nights out on the town, from the context in Asia, Europe to the Americas (continent not country!), all those narratives not only gave me some good laughs but also taught me so many things about the world – one of them is that funny accountants exist! And two of them happen to be in my class. How cool is that!

Diversity (70% of our class are not from Ireland) and rich experience (average of more than five working years and some wiser ones have worked for twenty years) would be the things that I appreciate the most from the MBA experience at Smurfit. Very often, I – a Vietnamese – drink American beer (illustration purpose only, my favourite is Irish now) with Indian classmates; and we will soon travel to Africa and China together.

The world seems much smaller to me because of the experience here. And now, during group discussions, when someone speaks up, I no longer think “oh, a different opinion…” I think “oh, a different perspective that I should listen to.”

Duc Le ~ Full-Time MBA

Smurfit/Irish Aid ‘Ideas’ scholarship enters its 2014 interview phase and heads for Vietnam

This is the 6^th year that the Smurfit School has been involved with the Irish Aid “IDEAS” programme. Irish aid provides scholarships for candidates from Irelands developing country partners such as Vietnam, to further their education in Ireland in subject areas which are relevant to the development of the individual’s home country. Since the start of the scholarship programme we have welcomed over 72 Vietnamese students to the school.

This April, the director of the MBA Orla Nugent and I will fly to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to complete the interview process to select the top 20-25 students for both the MSc and MBA programmes. This will be my first trip to Vietnam and I’m really excited. As a lifelong foodie, I can’t wait to try some of the local food- Phở (Vietnamese Noodle Soup), Bún Bò Huế (Beef Vermicelli Soup), Bánh Kẹp Lá Dứa (Coconut Pandan Waffles) to name just a few! There was a huge volume of people that attended this year’s têt celebration that the current Vietnamese students held in the school in February, so I’m confident that next year’s cohort will be equally embraced by Smurfit and it’s students.

Olivia Moss

Smurfit Admissions

Little Flappy Bird vs. giant Zynga Dog!

Our MBA class just has come back from a great MBA International trip, “Doing Business in Emerging Market – China 2014”. In Beijing, we had an exciting morning visiting Zynga Inc., a giant social game company named in honor of Zynga, former CEO Mark Pincus’ late American bulldog, which transformed hundreds of millions of office people around the world to genuine farmers through a social game, Farmville and other popular games on Facebook such as Mafia Wars and Zynga poker.

UCD China 2014 – Doing Business in Emerging Market.

Recently, a tiny game – Flappy Bird – developed by the Vietnam-based developer Nguyen Ha Dong, became the special phenomenon in tech world when it climbed to the top 1st free application on both Google Android and Apple Store, a dream of even many giant technology companies which paid millions US dollars for marketing campaigns to get the top position in both Operating Systems (the author who writes this blog is also proud of being a Vietnamese guy who studies at the same technology university with Dong). While many people doubted that the top indie game Flappy Bird on Android and iOS Store can earn $ 50,000 a day, many top games have reached revenue of $ 1 billion. For example, the game Farmville has reached a revenue of $ 1 billion since early 2013 or the recent game, Clash of Clans, generates $ 2.4 million per day from Supercell Studio, a two-year-old start-up game company of Finland with only 95 members. It is quite normal in “the flat world”, a metaphor by Thomas L. Friedman in term of commerce for viewing the world as a place where all competitors have an equal opportunity. I believe that the metaphor is totally right for the mobile market where many developers have an equal chance to be successful from over the world even they are giant technology companies or dependent developers.

Flappy Bird vs. Zynga

During the meeting with the executive managers at Zynga, Flappy Bird story has been referred by my Indian classmate when he asked whether Zynga planned to make some tiny games like Flappy Bird. There are also some questions about ethical issues, i.e., many young people get addicted to the game, leading malnourished and neurological problems. The philosophical answer of the manager in Zynga quite met my moral perspective: “The addiction can happen to any field such as workaholic, alcoholic, Facebook-addicted etc… And individuals have a complete responsibility for their own actions but game developers should also limit time to play game”. Playing game in moderation is good for entertaining and socializing as Zynga stated their mission is “Connecting the World through Games”.

Coming back to the 5-star hotel, New Otani Chang Fu Gong and researching more about Zynga and Pincus, I opened my Google Market Store on my Android Phone and saw that some games from my classmate’s start-up game studio (not Ha Dong) had reached 1 million downloads. It’s amazing! Can it be a second Flappy bird earning $50.000 a day? Standing up to open the window and seeing “the emerging market” outside, I exclaimed: “I have found China and Friedman is right. The world is flat!!!”

Vietnam Culture Night Part 2

Michael Smurfit Business School provides not only an excellent academic background but is also very culturally diverse. In the college, we have good opportunities to explore different cultures from many international student communities.

Tết or Vietnamese New Year, is the most important celebration of Vietnamese culture. On the first day of the first month of the Vietnamese calendar, we, Vietnamese students at Michael Smurfit Business School, successfully organized the special event called “Vietnam Cultural Night”. The main purpose of the event was to introduce Vietnamese culture and promote “Only rice is not enough,” a charity program that raises funds to provide food and cooking services in elementary schools of poor highland mountain regions.

During the event, guests were served different kinds of Vietnamese traditional foods. Some highlights of Vietnamese cultural activities that happen during Tet through the traditional costume shows, traditional dances and music provide the insights about Vietnam. The most interesting activity was the Kid Corner which enabled Vietnamese adopted children to understand about their original point. The event is one of the most meaningful activities during our one year in the Smurfit Business School.

Ba Nguyen

Full-time MBA 2014

Vietnam

Good Things Come to Those Who Plan Ahead

Having been used to Dublin’s ubiquitous WI-FI connection, I was flabbergasted to find how hard it is to find decent Internet during my travel in Spain and Italy. So I’m finally glad to be able to write this blog post from …Vietnam my final holiday destination.

If there’s one thing I learnt through last year, it was that I could never really plan for anything. I was a planning enthusiast. I would spend countless hours drawing up Excel sheets and action timelines, planning to the tiniest details. I usually overestimate my own capability and underestimate the externalities. Often, I did not get to achieve the goals I set out to be, but arrived somewhere in between. While this has worked out okay in the past, there was unsatisfaction inside me; a feeling that I never reach my full potential. I was not happy.

Then last year came and brought me better things than I’d even hoped for. Of course I was delighted but also worried at the same time whether my luck would run out. Then I realized that these good things, despite not being what I originally planned for, were the culminations of my continuous efforts for a long time.

While the virtue of staying organised and committed remains, I’ve learnt I can never be certain in this increasingly competitive climate. However, by staying prepared, I could hope to be ready to grasp the opportunities when they come.

Cong Vu

Full-time MBA 2014

Vietnam

Vietnam Culture Night

Let’s remember and be proud of yourself and your ethnic identity. We often feel lost in a complex and large world. However, you will feel consoled if you have a knowledgeable background of your ethnic cultural heritage. It gives you a historical root, a sense of your place in the present and a unique permanent though this world is always changing.

– Le Hong Diem, MSc Strategic Management & Planning, UCD Smurfit

Costumes Tet — Traditional Costume “Ao dai” Performance

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, though living far away from home, Vietnamese MBA students in Dublin were involved in organizing a successfully special and meaningful event – Vietnam Culture Night. The event’s purpose, along with introducing and promoting Vietnamese culture, was to raise funds to support poor children in mountainous areas of Vietnam through the programme, “Only rice is not enough.” The event attracted more than 400 international friends, expatriates and Vietnamese students in Ireland.

Guests attending the event enjoyed the traditional foods of Vietnam such as Gac sticky rice, spring rolls, salt roasted chicken, Vietnamese salad, and a traditional five fruits tray garnished with apricot, peach blossom and Lunar New Year calligraphy. The entire space of the event was decorated with red and yellow symbolizing “luck” and “prosperity”. International friends were excited to take memorial pictures in Vietnamese Tet space and enthusiastic to participate in quizzes about Tet traditions in Vietnam.

I want to send best wishes to the MBA program staffs and my classmates in the new year!

Chuc mung nam moi!

Happy Lunar New Year 2014!

Hung Nguyen

FTMBA 2014

Vietnam

Learning New Things.

Our first semester is coming to an end. Time is really flying these days. I am so eager and look forward to the next two weeks, when all is said and done, I will have one month free!!!

I heard from many former students that the first semester is the hardest semester of the course. If what they said it right, I am about to overcome the hardest part of the course in the next two weeks!!!

After nearly four months studying here, I have learnt a lot from my classmates and my Team-mates. There are two characteristics of my classmates that I really wish that I can apply to myself and they are the way they manage time and their self-discipline. Hopefully, I can be more disciplined and better in managing my time, even it takes time to achieve these skills, I will do my best.

I have gone through one-third of my UCD Smurfit MBA course. Hopefully, in eight months’ time, the day I leave Dublin and take the flight back to Vietnam, I will have learned many new things in comparison to the day I left Vietnam some five months ago.

Trang Do.

FTMBA 2014.