Community-oriented startups

TTO – After flexibly changing direction, the business of Nguyen Thi Yen (CEO of Nam Duong Textile Company) not only survived firmly but also broke through even during the pandemic, effectively "attacking" the international market.

The start-up journey is not easy, the leaders always have to steer the "ship" to ensure the lives of dozens, hundreds of employees behind.

However, even in turbulent times like COVID-19, there are still many startups that are dedicated to supporting the community.

Challenges in succession

As a famous face in the Vietnamese international student community, Huynh Hanh Phuc (from Binh Dinh) is mentioned by many people not only because he graduated from the world-famous Harvard University, but also because he left his job with an income of hundreds of millions of VND per month to return home to do a free education project for disadvantaged children (Teach for Vietnam) since 2015.

Talking about the challenge, Hanh Phuc said that in Vietnam, a system of collecting classified waste does not exist. 

“Even if the garbage is sorted beforehand, it will eventually be mixed up, loaded onto trucks, and dumped in the city's large landfills,” you worry.

At the same time, during the pandemic, businesses in the agricultural sector have grown well but have been greatly affected in the environmental sector. For example, the demand for agricultural products and clean food has grown well due to the surge in online shopping. However, the increase in online shopping has also led to an increase in plastic packaging, and green living awareness programs have not been organized due to social distancing requirements.

Currently steering a company with thousands of employees, Nguyen Thi Yen (CEO of Nam Duong Textile Company) is always concerned about the lives of the disadvantaged in the country. This is also the enterprise chosen to receive the award. Youth Golf Tournament for Start-ups 2022.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is considered a “test” of the survival of businesses. We were no exception, facing many significant challenges due to the market downturn and reduced orders. At that time, we were also faced with the choice of changing or dying. We decided to turn the danger into an opportunity by exploiting and producing more personal protective equipment (PPE) because we have a foundation as a garment business,” you recall.

But great opportunities also mean your business faces great challenges.

Sustainable development through clear vision

“Because medical protective gear production is a new field for us, we had to learn while working at first. Then when we received an order to produce 3 million isolation gowns for export to Europe in four months, we were both happy and worried because it was too urgent and the price of raw materials was skyrocketing…”, Yen said.

At that time, Yen was very stressed because she and her colleagues had to work continuously day and night, the transportation of goods was difficult, and an unreliable supplier of raw materials "broke out" at the last minute... "Luckily, the last order was still completed on schedule and met the quality, we breathed a sigh of relief and knew that we had matured a lot since the pandemic", she said.

After flexibly changing direction, your business will not only survive firmly but also break through even during the pandemic, effectively "attacking" the international market.

Facing the thorny direction, GreenConnect still persevered step by step to overcome and even won two first prizes in the plastic waste reduction solution competition of the international organization for nature conservation (WWF) Vietnam and the Packaging Recycling Alliance (PRO) Vietnam, and reached the final round of the plastic waste reduction competition of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Don't forget your responsibility to the community

Sharing the reason why she has never been discouraged when spending a lot of effort and time on jobs that do not bring much money despite having a prestigious university degree, Hanh Phuc said she always thinks about the saying of the great scientist Albert Einstein: "Do not try to become a successful person, but try to become a person of value."

“I see many problems in the world arise when people put success above value. For example, there are people who always invest in short-term super-profit projects, with the mentality of “if I gain, someone else will lose”… However, becoming a value creator does not mean disregarding success or working without direction, strategy and ambition,” Hanh Phuc said about his philosophy of life.

Busy steering a start-up that has established a solid position with 3,000 stores opened nationwide and products exported to 20 countries, Mr. Nguyen Duc Hung (CEO Napoli Coffee) still spends a lot of time contributing to improving the lives of families in difficult circumstances, people who want to reform, and individuals whose lives have been severely affected by COVID-19. 

One of those activities is to donate coffee carts (worth 7.3 million VND/cart), provide free instructions on how to make and operate them... to help the above individuals have a stable source of income. "We just donated 4 carts to Phu Nhuan district at the end of April and will continue to deploy them nationwide throughout 2022," said Mr. Hung.

During the most stressful periods of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Yen and her colleagues diligently traveled to many regions of the country to donate more than 50,000 sets of protective clothing worth tens of billions of VND. In addition to units such as the Border Guard Command, K Hospital, CDC Ha Nam, etc., Nam Duong also donated 1,000 sets of protective clothing for COVID-19 (worth 242 million VND) to the newspaper. Youth in June 2021. Most recently, when receiving a prize worth 20 million VND at the Golf Tournament for Start-up 2022, Yen decided to send the entire amount to the program to support children with cancer.Thuy's dream"We always keep in mind that the State and ministries have always made every effort to control the epidemic, so our business cannot stand aside," Yen shared.

Source: tuoitre.vn