CHARACTER NGUYEN DANG HIEN – GENERAL DIRECTOR OF TAN QUANG MINH COMPANY (BIDRICO)
Living is constantly creating
Coming from a tattered countryside of Quang Tri Province, Nguyen Dang Hien always carried in his heart the torment of debt for food and clothing and the burning desire to change his life. With independent thinking and the philosophy of “living is constantly creating”, Mr. Nguyen Dang Hien created a leading beverage brand in Vietnam – Bidrico. Now his name has become a “personal brand”, penetrating deeply into corporate culture, making the Bidrico brand increasingly develop and affirm a solid foothold in the business world.
I met him by chance like many other coincidences in life. He has a very gentle smile, very attractive humorous and witty way of speaking because of his intelligence and humanity. This left me with a good impression of him right from the first meeting. Through my conversations with him, I truly loved and admired the will to strive and the extraordinary strength of an experienced man with a noble personality and a magnanimous soul.
Mr. Nguyen Dang Hien was born in a poor farmer family with 6 siblings in a not prosperous countryside in Co Luy Commune, Hai Lang District, Quang Tri Province. There is only Lao wind and white sand here all year round, farmers have to work hard in the fields “the peasants toiled and moiled all the year round” but poverty still haunts them for generations. Nguyen Dang Hien’s family was also in that miserable situation, a pot of rice had to be mixed with 7 parts of corn and cassava, so he deeply understood the suffering of farmers, from there, the mind of the child named Hien appeared the idea of how to escape the scene “the buffalo goes first, the plow follows”.
Despite of poor life, Nguyen Dang Hien lived in a happy family, filled with love, protection, and support from his parents. His parents were still determined to educate their children to become talented, with the hope that their children could change their fate through the literacy and escape the hardships of the fields.
Like many children of the same age, he was born from “stubble” and encountered a time when his homeland was engulfed in a storm of bombs and bullets of war. His hometown of Quang Tri was a fierce battle, making an already difficult life even more difficult. During the chaos of war, every day after school, Hien had to go to the fields to herd buffalo, cut grass, find crabs, and catch shrimp to help his family. Despite the hardships and deprivation, with determination to overcome difficulties, Hien was always one of the best students in the school. It seemed that the harsh circumstances gave him a strong personality, deep in his mind, he was always conscious of rising, determined to overcome difficulties and study well so as not to disappoint his parents, and that was also the best way to escape poverty.
In 1968, just after finishing the “de tu” grade (9th grade), at an age where he could not even take care of his meals, Nguyen Dang Hien made a big breakthrough, he left his family, said goodbye to his hometown, and decided to move to Saigon to pursue a great career in the hope of changing his life. Here, instead of having to finish 10th grade like his friends, Nguyen Dang Hien was allowed to advance to 11th grade by the School Board of Saint Tomas School because of the outstanding academic ability of the student in Quang region.
It’s a surprise from the poor countryside to the city, without money and relatives, but the Quang student was not discouraged, he always kept in mind that if he was determined, everything would be overcome. From now on, Nguyen Dang Hien had to live an independent life, struggle with all kinds of jobs, from parking to loading, not refusing any job as long as it was legitimate and honest to make ends meet as well as take care of his education in the city. The money earned through his sweat and effort helped Hien to cover his living expenses, and most importantly, it helped him become more confident, stronger, and more mature to continue nurturing and realizing his dreams.
Time is fleeing away, overcoming many difficulties and hardships in a “foreign land”, the most awaited thing also came, Nguyen Dang Hien became a bachelor of economics and bachelor of finance and banking. After that, with his talent and intelligence, he in turn took on responsibilities such as lecturer at Ho Chi Minh University of Banking, head of the Operations Department and foreman for a large food processing company in Saigon. At that time, having a job and a stable income was the dream of many people.
However, for Nguyen Dang Hien, that was still not satisfactory, he wanted to realize the dream that he was desired and cherished long time ago, which was to become a businessman so that he could control and planned the destination for his business ship. Tan Quang Minh Manufacture and Trading co., Ltd. (Bidrico) led by Nguyen Dang Hien as the General Director is currently a large and reputable enterprise that owns dozens of beverage brands in domestic and international markets. Bidrico is currently one of the leading beverage brands trusted and highly appreciated by domestic and foreign customers. It must be said that, from empty hands, boldly leaving the village, entering the city and achieving success like Nguyen Dang Hien is something not almost everyone can do.
He is a simple and sincere person and rarely reveals himself, but his brand name became a prestigious “personal brand” associated with Bidrico’s development and brand building process in the business world. Now, Nguyen Dang Hien has become a great businessman, the simple dreams and daily worries about “bread and butter” of Quang Tri boy in the old days have receded, making way for greater aspirations, worthy of a big brand in the integration period. Bidrico is sending a strong message to the international community through quality products that protect consumer health from a “made in Vietnam” brand.
In 1992, Nguyen Dang Hien started his career with a small production facility called Quang Minh with 26 employees and simple and unknown equipment. However, with new thinking in management, customer service style, and great ambitions, the company became a strong beverage brand with a large-scale production factory with 7 filling lines using leading European technology, more than 500 workers and thousands of distribution agents in Vietnam and around the world.
Nguyen Dang Hien, with sharp analytical ability, built a market access strategy for Bidrico in 4 steps, from outside to inside: Firsly, dominating the market in remote areas, then towns, provinces and small cities, and finally big cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, etc. In his brand building and image promotion strategy, Mr. Hien worked in a “Slow and steady wins the race” style through fairs and exhibitions in all provinces and cities nationwide. This was a “guerrilla” approach to the market, then the appropriate time was chosen to launch the product in a “full force attack”. From this approach, Bidrico’s products were available everywhere, from urban to rural areas and affirmed a solid position in the hearts of customers.
To help Bidrico develop sustainably, Nguyen Dang Hien considered people as an important factor and put them first. In addition to recruiting professional and highly qualified staff, he always paid due attention to appreciating talent and building corporate culture. He treated employees like family members, creating the best conditions for them to work and contribute to the company.
Nguyen Dang Hien’s new approach to customers and creativity in working methods brought great success to Bidrico. However, he did not stop there, he always desired to discover new things and accept turbulence to assert himself. Regardless of any circumstances, Nguyen Dang Hien also tried to learn and research to come up with optimal solutions to perform work through his own solutions. He did not want to work according to a routine, nor under someone’s pressure or arrangement.
It can be said that Nguyen Dang Hien’s “quality” was revealed very early, when he decided to leave his homeland since he was less than 15 years old until he became a student, in a simple way but few people expected its effectiveness, that was, using his shorthand ability to “narrate” the teacher’s instructions and then printed them out to sell to students to earn more income. In his position as a head of the operations department and foreman for a food processing factory, he proposed a technical solution that was not very complicated and expensive, accordingly, after only 3 months, the factory’s product consumption increased 5 times, raising the factory’s ice capacity from 30 to 50 tons/day. Then, even when he quited his job to open his own production facility just because of pride, he still proved his natural ability “unlike anyone else” through the efficiency and day-by-day growth of the enterprise led by him.
Whether he was a poor student or a “captain” of a large company like Bidrico, Nguyen Dang Hien proven his strong personality and spirit of continuous learning and always maintained his simplicity and sincerity, it was truly a precious thing. Now at the age of sixty with gray hair, he is the head of a famous enterprise. Everything for him was like an experience in life, but his creativity was still as strong and restless as when he was a teenager.*
Cong Phuong – Hung Cuong
