Technology As Innovator

The Request that invoke excitement

Vietnamese citizens, especially Hanoians and people in the construction industry, are excited by a recent request for fulfillment of commitment sent to Keangnam - Vina (K) by a group of war veterans and construction experts (R).

The request, as reported on many newspapers, can be summarized as:

• The 1000th Anniversary of Thang Long - Ha Noi, the one millennium year-old capital of Vietnam, will take place in 2010.
• Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Towe, constructed by Keangnam Vina has been appointed as a tribute to the great event.
• (R) believes that (K) will not be able to meet the deadline for the event.
• (R) challenges (K) to an agreement:
  • If (K) can meet the deadline, (R) will reward (K) with VND 100 billion (approximately USD 6.25 million)
  • If (K) cannot meet the deadline, (K) will then apologize Hanoi citizens and compensate VND 100 billion to (R)
• Both sides propose to donate the money to charitable organizations.

Media and observers’ reactions

Almost immediately, the buzz rose throughout Vietnam on this agreement. Two topics are usually exchanged in conversations:

The technical aspect of the agreement “can they (K) make it?”

and who would win the what-they-call wager.

The business lessons

What I am intrigued is I have learned various business lessons from Keangnam Vina’s response to the challenge.

Asset Management

(K)’s offer for the deal includes 11 apartments on the sixth floor and one penthouse whose total value is estimated to VND 1 billion.

It is important to note that during this economic recession, the real estate market is going slower. There has been evidence of downturn on luxury apartments’ price. While it is difficult to predict the price of these assets in 2010, experts agree that the chance these assets will increase in value in the next two years is slim.

Keangnam Vina’s offer can be considered smart in terms of financial values.

Reputation Management

(K) has been very responsive to inquiries regarding the agreement. This has boosted their visibility on the news and the company is now more well-known by Vietnamese people than ever.

(K) also promised to donate the money if they win to charitable organizations, makes it a diplomatic move.

They have done a very good PR pitch on the field.

Project Management and Resource Management

Though this is usually not easy to observe from outside, we can expect more advanced Project Management and Resource Management techniques by (K) to reach the committed deadline.

Quality Control

Quality Control is also an interesting area we can watch.

What do you think of this incident?

Only after a decade, Phu My Hung in District 7 of Ho Chi Minh City has transformed from a marshy outskirts area to a sharply developing center. The development process of the city requires a lot of labor to provide services (construction, sales, sanitary, maintenance) to the citizens. Not being able to afford the extremely high real estate price in the area, these people are gathering in certain less (much less) luxury vicinities somewhat away from the heart of the city.

Now, adjacent areas such as Him Lam or Trung Son are also growing with no less rapid rate. This development accidentally surrounds the mentioned living blocks of less luxury, creating so-called slums inside the developed city.

Where to plan accommodations for these labor - District 8, District 4 or Binh Chanh? If not planned right now, the slums will grow beyond an easy-to-tackle level, hurting the view of the city and even feng shui setups by many Japanese, Taiwanese, Chinese and local constructors.

1. 360plus started off in April 26, 2008.
2. Reaction was very weak. None, yes, none, of my 360 friends moved to 360plus. Even the non-tech users lost their confidence in Yahoo! products. When they saw the buggy 360plus, they even backed off farther.
3. Later on we learned that 360plus Vietnam was the product for Vietnam. What was meant to replace 360 is Yahoo! Universal Profile.
4. With no old friend on 360plus, I made friends with some a few new people though. However, it was neither an information goldmine nor a communication platform I was looking for. The community there was filled with spams, unthoughtful and inconsiderate bloats from younger users, despite some very nice efforts to guide the new users. I lost my patience after around 500 entries.
5. I tried to come up with around 20 suggestions for features for the 360plus team before quitting nevertheless.
6. Not until early September did they introduce a data migration tool from 360 to 360plus. What flabbergasted me was that the tool looks like it bases on public RSS feed from 360 to import to 360plus, which means the 360plus team has limited access to the 360 global database. Where is inter-department collaboration inside Yahoo!?
7. But I’m sorry it was too late I was not even trying the tool out. I have backed up entries I want to keep to my Window Live Spaces blog, manually.
8. Many of my friends on 360 have moved to Facebook.
9. Will 360plus Vietnam hit the 2 million cap that 360 did in Vietnam?

Addendum

Yahoo! shut down their “social network experiment” Mash just a few days before. Generally people agreed with this decision, Mash was too weak even for a marginal project to last.