In 2016, I left IDM Vietnam – my last employer – and began my journey as a freelance consultant with a number of years experiencing the ups and downs of managing an agency at the scale of 40 personnel. Since then, this experience has changed my life in the way of the least expected.

I never wanted to be a leader though, but I was voted by my colleagues to lead the team at IDM Vietnam out of the entanglement after the manging director left. I did not even want to be an entrepreneur either. During my years in college, I spent most of my time studying and I would think to myself what a dump idea it was for someone so eager to waste their precious time doing part-time job. In short, I consider myself to be kind of a person who lacks the essential elements such entrepreneurship and leadership to successfully run a business, and my story is a good example of how one can change if he/she has to and how surprised a person can be of his or her own undiscovered capabilities.

Today, along the way of my career journey, it has been my pleasure to have a chance to work with many talented people and help them grow as much as they help me. Some of them had stayed with me at my organisations for several year before they left to work for another or started their own. Some of them decided to come back to work with me, and I know there is no privilege more valuable to me than this trust.

So now, by the time of I write this article in 2020, I realise that it has not been the motivation for power, monetary value, individual gains in any form that I have strived my very best to build my group of organisations; it was the fulfilment of witnessing the success of my mentees that always pushes me forward. I absolutely acknowledge that, without the raw talent, most of them would not achieve much in life or at work, but I am still happy to be a minor part of what they are today.

Personally, I know now that one of the great lessons in life that I have learn is finding the right mix between what you are good and what the society really needs in order to become someone in this great world. To me, I know deep down inside I am not a businessman or entrepreneur but an academic and educator, who aspires to contribute to the society via intellectual work. Therefore, growing people has always been my innate motive that fuel my career development, so I consider all my organisations to be the facilitation platforms for the future young talents instead of being economic companies that are driven simply by financial objectives.

Minimal Marketing

Minimal Marketing is very much a content hub that I write about my school of thought on how minimalistic lifestyle has been an influence on my marketing consultancy. In a foreseeable future, I do hope that this minimal marketing philosophy could be popularized and applied not only by me but all the marketers who find it interesting and applicable. So far, it very much remains a broad concept that I have meticulously fabricated every day, but I do hope to receive help from marketing community very soon.

Website: minimalmarketing.com

Wisdom Agency

Wisdom Agency was previously known as Twist Creative which had been in operation since 2013. I was offered to join the board of shareholder in 2017 and the first thing that I immediately realised was changing the brand to reflect the new positioning and directions of the organisation with me as managing partner.

Wisdom Agency is a strategy agency that is driven by my goal to assist the local companies to compete in the context of global integration. We provide strategy consultancy to help companies select the right objectives and align resources accordingly. Service wise, Wisdom Agency provides consultancy on branding, marketing, communications campaign and digitalisation. The scope may appear to be quite broad but the truth it is more related to the strategic level of management rather than any tactical work with the aim to prove that strategy matters at every stage of business growth.

For more information, you can visit its website wisdomagency.com to learn more about its services and customer portfolio.

Digit Matter

Digit Matter is another attempt of me in order to enhance the digital elements of our marketing plan. The team is led by Nguyen Xuan Son, a well-known digital specialist among marketing community in Vietnam. I had the chance to meet Son in one of my strategy classes and since then he has helped me to build the digital team at Wisdom Agency and now is my turn to help him build Digit Matter to the level that it deserves.

Digit Matter is a digital agency that specializes in building digital infrastructure and tech stack for businesses to automate marketing processes and enhance the effectiveness of customer conversion. With a compact team of highly trained digital specialists and business consultants, we closely collaborate with clients to identify the right constraints that businesses face and then deliver the matching digital solutions.

For more information, you can visit its website digitmatter.com to learn more about its services and customer portfolio.

Mai Linh Media

In late 2019, I had the privilege to meet Mr. Ho Huy, a Vietnam war veteran and chairman of Mai Linh Group. Mr. Ho Huy is very noble personality by the way he builds the company thus far and treats the people that he works with. As the company was in the transitional phase of changing from a traditional taxi company to a modern mobility one, I just loved to join the task force to transform this national business icon into a new beacon of innovation and global expansion. At that time, we all realised that there was ineffectiveness at both strategic and tactical levels in the way Mai Linh built its brand and exploited its advertising space on cabs. Thereby, Mai Linh Media was founded as an extended arm of Mai Linh Group to help set the brand strategy right and effectively deploy the advertising spaces.

For more information, you can visit its website mailinhmedia.com to learn more about its services and customer portfolio