My first impression on landing in Vietnam was, "Oh wow, Ho Chi Minh City looks exactly like Sarajevo." It is a testament to the proliferation of 1970s Soviet architecture that I could fly halfway around the world and feel as if I had arrived back in my own home country of Bosnia, another beneficiary of Soviet-style economic planning. I was visiting Vietnam (and subsequently Cambodia) on a Global Residency trip with my MBA program at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business (McDonough Full-Time MBA Profile). Although I'd still need to take classes on our return to campus, this trip would be a culmination of my learning in global business, concluding in a consulting presentation to a Vietnamese client for whom my team and I created a global branding strategy and regional entry plan.
Part of the reason I chose Vietnam for global residency was I wanted a culture completely alien to my own experiences. Although I had to adjust to a brand-new world when I first moved to the U.S. at 17 after leaving Bosnia, I still saw Europe and North America as essentially sharing the same worldview. It was, therefore, incredibly surprising to see so many similarities—the architecture, bargaining at the city market, the narrow roads resulting in major traffic jams—between Vietnam and Bosnia.
Then things got more interesting. "I got the best recommendation for a tailor," my friend Erica said over a couple of Vietnam's finest $1 beers. "This crazy ex-pat war vet saved us when our Mekong cruise boat dropped us off in the middle of nowhere after we refused to pay them an extra $200. Well, he says you need to go to this lady in the stall in the city market and buy your fabrics. She then gives you the name and address of the best tailor in town. If you tell him that Erica sent you, he'll give you a really good price. I already bought four dresses from him, and he loves me."
Erica's story encapsulates business in Vietnam in so many ways. Although the economic engine is moving the country toward more Western standards at supersonic speeds, there are still many vestiges of lawlessness, such as the boat extortion described above. Most deals are conducted on the basis of relationships; if the two parties don't already know each other, introductions are needed through social situations before sitting down for business matters. Even self-proclaimed nonreligious individuals will often consult astrologers to find out whether a deal is made in auspicious circumstances. Finally, just about everything is open to negotiation. While I always considered my mother to be the family's true expert on price negotiations in the market (she has the patience to look through all the options and a willingness to walk away, both of which I lack), by the end of my trip I was slashing prices on silk scarves and souvenirs down to only one-third of the originally stated price.
The Global Residency brought theory to life. It is one thing to read how a country can manage its currency reserves to set monetary policy and quite another to observe the Vietnamese government's efforts to promote a strong dong clash with the general dollarization of the economy, or to contrast this situation with Cambodia, where ATMs dispense dollars and the local currency is used only as change. Although Georgetown's education pays a lot of attention to public policy, it was still impressive to hear from our panelists about the Vietnamese parliament's preoccupation with some areas of regulation and complete disregard for others. While the Chinese government can relocate a neighborhood to create a highway, Vietnamese culture's respect for land ownership deprived the government of eminent domain rights, resulting in overcrowded roads where speed limits rarely exceed 30 miles per hour.
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