Compassionate Vietnamese American CEOs

Compassionate Vietnamese American CEOs Book Excerpt
How Six High-Tech Entrepreneurs Achieve Bottom Line Success by Leading with Their Hearts
By Lena Tran
20660 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 210 Cupertino, CA 95014
BOOK EXCERPT Table of Contents

Introduction Chapter I: Why Care about Vietnamese Americans' Leadership Style? Chapter III: Profiles and Dialogues About the Author Getting the book from Happy About
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C o n t e n t s
NOTE:
This is the Table of Contents (TOC) from the book for your reference. The eBook TOC (below) differs in page count from the tradebook TOC. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction Chapter I
Why Care about Vietnamese Americans' Leadership Style? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Why It's Useful to Understand Diverse Leadership Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Chapter II
History and Breaking the Glass Ceiling . . . 13

The Fly in the Research Ointment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Entrepreneurship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Background and History of Vietnamese Immigration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Chinese Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 French Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Communist Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 From Wikipedia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Vietnamese Resettlement in United States . . . . . . . 20 Creation of the Vietnamese Entrepreneurs . . . . . . . 22 Traits of an Entrepreneur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Entrepreneurship and Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 In the Final Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Chapter III
Profiles and Dialogues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Participant Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 The Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Chapter IV
The Journey to Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

How Vietnamese Americans View Leadership. . . . .43 Family Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Social Status. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Immigration and Life in the United States. . . . . . . . . 55
Compassionate Vietnamese American CEOs
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Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions and the Vietnamese American Entrepreneurs . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Power Distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Uncertainty Avoidance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Individualism-Collectivism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Masculinity-Femininity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Confucian Dynamism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Similarities and Differences in Leadership Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Other Shared Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Importance of Respect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Compassion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 The Law of Karma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Leadership Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Sales and Marketing Know-How . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Chapter V
Interview Conclusions, Implications, and Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Recommendations for Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Recommendations for Educating Leaders . . . . . . . . 95 Research Recommendations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Final Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Chapter VI
Qualities of Relevance: Compassion, Respect, and Karma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Compassion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Steps to Compassionate Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Respect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 How to Lose Respect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Karma. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Incorporating Karma. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Chapter VII
Personal Thoughts on Compassion, Karma, and Respect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Compassion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Respect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Karma. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
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Contents
Author Books
About the Author. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Other THiNKaha Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
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Contents
Introduction
Introduction
A well-known Vietnamese proverb states: "Tien hoc le, hau hoc van." Before I reveal the English meaning, let me share a story. Le Nguyen received an abrupt summons to John Newman's office. John was senior vice president of Golden Technology. It was 11:30 a.m. on the day before Le was due to leave on his annual vacation. Strolling across the company's high-tech campus, Le pondered, What does that guy want now? Did Newman, a millionaire, Harvard MBA, and golf junkie, need to brag (yet again) about his new Porsche and his $15.7 million home in Los Altos Hills? When Le entered the office, Newman invited him to sit down and immediately began to outline his ideas for a new project he was startinga "high-bandwidth over the Internet" communications technology that he expected would bring the company $150 million in new revenue. Newman invited Le to join the team with a promotion and a management title. Without a moment's hesitation, Le politely smiled and declined. Newman was dumbfounded. He simply couldn't understand. When Le returned to his workstation, his manager approached and asked him to explain why he'd declined the amazing offer. Le said that he chose to work for people whom he respected. If he worked for Bob Johnson, he knew that he would certainly not lose face with the other employees when he walked into the cafeteria.
Nor would he be laughed at behind his back during company functions. Newman could give him wealth and status, but Le knew that he would never receive the same respect as he had while working for Mr. Johnson. Le worked with an engineering team that was highly supportive of its members. Whenever an engineer ran into difficulty at a client site, another team member would be on the other end of the phone to walk him through the situation and help resolve the problem. Likewise, all the engineers were committed to help one another pass multiple industry certifications. Bob Johnson encouraged and applauded this culture. Most of his engineers deeply respected Johnson and chose to work for him. They respected him for his hard work and his belief in being a role model. He would often visit the client's site, along with the engineer, to help finish up a project. There were nights when he and the engineers stayed late and slept at the company offices while trying to solve an intricate problem. The engineers never felt that they were treated as subordinates, even though they fully knew who was in charge. And even though they were often paid less than what they could make at other companies, most of the engineers didn't jump ship when receiving frequent offers from other firms. They truly respected Bob and what he represented as a leader. His engineering team felt that the company was a family, and it wasn't right to abandon their family. Money was important, but they'd rather have great coworkers and friends. The translation of the Vietnamese proverb "Tien hoc le, hau hoc van" is "Proper manners in human relations before knowledge." Most Vietnamese parents teach their children at a very early age that if they want to develop into
Introduction
respectable human beings, they must work hard to preserve their dignity and be forever careful not to "lose face," which would affect not only themselves but their family. In Vietnamese culture, this keeping face is considered far more important than obtaining high education, social status, or wealth. It isn't surprising then that Le, Vietnamese in his heart, preferred to remain with Bob rather than go with Newman, a man whose values he didn't share. The question, of course, arises: if Le continues to work for American companies, will his cultural background and values remain unchanged and continue to guide his decisions? In my quest to understand leadership over the years, I noticed something extraordinary. I've read most of the popular books on leadership, including the classics: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Covey, 1990), The One Minute Manager (Blanchard & Johnson, 1991), Emotional Intelligence (Coleman, 1995), etc. These books gave me valuable insights into the factors that create effective leaders. For example, Covey's work considers spiritual attainment a key part of becoming a leader, while Coleman makes a strong case for the role of "emotional intelligence" in determining how effectively a leader can deal with others. Besides reading books and research studies, I have taken many classes and seminars in my effort to learn what kind of leader I amam I visionary, a charismatic leader, or a servant leader? For all my reading and studying, I've been disenchanted with these seminars and trainings, since in the light of the usual Western understanding of leadership, my own views on leadership would probably be considered weak.
That's because I continue to struggle with the many contrasts between western and Vietnamese values. For example, I can readily agree with the notion of accepting authority without ranking; everyone is equal (western). But I'm also quite comfortable with the idea that one's fate and destiny are predetermined (eastern). Whereas western theories of leadership tend to espouse individual success, standing up for one's own ideas and opinions, making things happen by initiating them oneself, and taking risks to achieve success, my Vietnamese heritage often tells me quite the opposite. While adopting western concepts of leadership that I believe will help me be a winning leader, I continue to struggle to find a synthesis between seemingly opposite cultural concepts and practicesopposites, both with which I can be quite comfortable. After long study of the academic research on how culture affects leadership, and after reflecting on my experiences with two very different cultural notions of the qualities of a good leader, I have come to believe that developing successful leaders requires, at a bare minimum, understanding the individual's ethnicity, history, and cultural background. Over the decades, major studies have explored how cultural values influence the leadership practices of Chinese, Singaporean, Korean, and Japanese business leaders and employees, compared to leaders in western countries such as the U.S., Chile, Austria, and Germany. However, hardly any studies have looked at how national culture impacts Asian Americans, and particularly how these individuals fare when they are offered leadership positions in American
Introduction
organizations. Fewer studies have looked at how Vietnamese American managers' cultural background influences their leadership styles. My motivation for writing this book was strongly influenced by a desire to help two very different business cultures understand each other. In the chapters to follow, I will first look at certain attitudes toward leadership that are deeply rooted in Vietnamese history and culture. I will describe my conversations with six successful Vietnamese entrepreneurs who now live and work in the U.S. and will isolate some key elements of their leadership styles that contributed to their success. This book is based on the research for my doctoral dissertation at University of San Francisco. I have translated the often turgid formalities of "academese" into what I hope is a more readable style. My goal is to nurture understanding and tell a good story. In my research, I interviewed Vietnamese American business leaders who told me about their life histories, and the rewards and pains of their journey to become successful high-tech entrepreneurs in twenty-first-century America. My subjects were first-generation Vietnamese American entrepreneurs who were born in Vietnam, had immigrated to the U.S. after the Vietnam War, and had worked for American companies but then left to form their own entrepreneurial companies. Of my six subjects, four have achieved extremely high successtwo are millionaires, one a billionaire. Without exception, they all believed that their unique cultural heritage, including their inherited traditions, values, family teachings, family history, and the concept of karma, had
given them a priceless compass for their leadership practices. They all also felt that these cultural factors had played an essential role in their success. These individuals had all sought to blend their cultural beliefs with western leadership theories and practices of business management. Their stated goal was to harmonize the two belief systems with the prototype that ethnic people such as themselves have in mind when they describe "the ideal leader." What can they teach usnot only about themselves and their successes, but about working effectively with successful Asian entrepreneurs and business managers who share their background and beliefs? And what lessons can we draw from the manner in which they achieved outstanding success, based on a leadership style that incorporates culturally seated values of kindness, compassion, honor, honesty, and karma? One personal noteseveral people have asked about the circumstances of when the proverb, Tien Hoc Le, Hau Hoc Van, first entered my life, and in what context. To tell you the truth, I can't remember. It's one of many teachings that my parents repeatedly used as lessons about life. Each time I'm faced with a dilemma or a crossroads situation, that phrase comes back. It has often helped guide my decisions and subsequent actions.
Introduction
C h a p t e r
Why Care about Vietnamese Americans' Leadership Style?

Arriving in America at age eight, I worked hard to realize the American Dream. Growing up in New Jersey, I completed my education; played softball, basketball, and track along with the other neighborhood kids; and joined student government, student leadership empowerment clubs, and gifted and talented programs, hoping to gain perspective on my options for a career and personal advancement. I devoured every resource that I felt would make me a better person, student, friend, worker, and daughter, including books, seminars, conferences, and special classes. Along the way, I developed an enduring passion for understanding human development in general, and leadership in particular. For an eighth grader, being accepted and well liked by friends and peers was more important that anything else. I clearly remember the morning of October 2, 1987, when the principal's voice sounded over the PA loudspeaker to announce that Alfred MacKinnon Middle School had elected a new student council president. When Mr. Saks announced my name, I was
elated. I had finally been accepted by my peers and was officially "popular" among my fellow students. I couldn't wait to share the news with my family. When I got home from school, I ran into the kitchen, yelling and screaming to my mom and siblings, "I am the president of the whole school, and not just the eighth grade president!" Instead of congratulating me, Mom reminded me that a lady should not yell or scream. She then asked me to help her prepare the Vietnamese sweet and sour soup she was making for dinner. Later, I remember her asking my eldest sister if being president would give me good grades in school. At that moment, I realized that I faced a challenge of adapting to two very different cultures, each with its own unique expectations. At school, I was a person who was active in sports, clubs, and volunteering. Away from home, I seized every opportunity to improve my leadership skills. At home, I was the Vietnamese girl who was respectful of my widowed mom's wishes. Mom encouraged me to become a righteous woman, finish school, find a good job, and get married. She constantly reminded me to avoid doing anything that would bring shame to our family's name. I began to suspect that many of the older Vietnamese parents, like my mother, didn't grasp the concept of leadership. To many of them, running an army or holding a political position was considered leadership. Very few viewed leadership as empowering the individual. After high school, I entered Montclair State University, where I studied international business, management, and marketing. Upon graduating, I transferred to Seton Hall, where I earned an MBA. After leaving school, I took a job with a high-tech firm in New York City. The company employed many engineers around the globe, particularly Vietnamese and Chinese. It was then I had my first exposure to unconventional leadership practicesparticularly striking were those of managers and employees born abroad but educated in the U.S. My career path eventually led me to California. I served as a business development manager for an interactive marketing company where, once again, I witnessed the deep differences in leadership styles of
Chapter I: Why Care about Vietnamese Americans' Leadership Style?
engineers and managers from China, Vietnam, India, and the U.S. In my spare time, I began teaching classes and workshops in leadership development and in small business management.
Why It's Useful to Understand Diverse Leadership Styles

Approximately 1.5 million Vietnamese now call the U.S. home, with more than 800,000 living in California and more than 160,000 in the San Francisco Bay Area. When I arrived in San Jose, I discovered that it had the Bay Area's largest Vietnamese population, with over eight thousand Vietnamese-owned businesses. According to the Survey of Business Owners (SOB) 2007 and Census 2010, the number of Vietnamese-owned businesses has increased to 229,000, with revenues of $28.8 billion a year. That reflects a 56 percent increase since 2002 compared to a 40 percent increase among the other Asian communities. The Vietnamese business owners who agreed to be interviewed for this book were born in Vietnam and have all lived in the U.S. for at least ten years. They formerly worked for private or public U.S. companies but left to start their own entrepreneurial businesses. From the first interview, it was clear that their leadership practices, which had primarily motivated them to leave the American corporate environment and become entrepreneurs, had been powerfully impacted by their cultural background and the transition of doing business in the U.S. In my interviews, I focused on the following topics: 1. How did their family, education, and social background in Vietnam affect their present leadership practices? 2. How did the journey to America, and their subsequent experiences in the U.S., influence their choice of business venture and their leadership style? 3. How did they perceive themselves as leaders? 4. How did they perceive the leadership attitudes and practices of American business executives, managers, and entrepreneurs?
5. What were the similarities and differences between how they perceived their own leadership practices and how they perceived those of American business leaders? 6. How did these differences influence their decision to leave the American firms they formerly worked for? 7. How did their leadership practices affect the success of their current business ventures? 8. To what extent were their values strengthened or modified by living in California? Research suggests that it's important for business leaders to understand their employees' diverse cultural backgrounds, traditions, and values. As U.S. companies began to expand into Europe, Asia, and Latin America in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, they found it essential to adapt their business and leadership styles to the local cultures. The growing enthusiasm for understanding the cultures of the target countries coincided with the wave of Vietnamese refugees arriving in America, with an estimated five hundred thousand refugees escaping Vietnam in small fishing boats bound for Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, in the hope of settling in the U.S. The refugees who managed to reach the American shores found themselves quickly relocated by the U.S. government, with the result that many families were dispersed across this very large land. Meanwhile, the companies that were now doing business abroad had narrowed their focus to learning about the cultures of the clients' countries as a step toward improving their profits, ignoring or discounting the growing diversity of the workforce at home. When it came to diversity training, the newly arrived Vietnamese workers found themselves generally overlooked. Few refugees were fortunate to have superiors and coworkers who could sympathize with their struggles with the language, culture shock, and social adaptation, much less who looked like them or spoke their language. Their frustrations were expressed by one Vietnamese immigrant, "Why were we not warned? Was there no one going in who had any idea what problems we were likely to encounter?" (Mathews, 1982, p. 100).
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I have had a fascination with the endurance and accomplishments of Vietnamese Americans. At the beginning, when thousands of Vietnamese refugees landed in the United States, our main goal was to survive. Thus, we worked and worked so that each family could have a better life in the land of opportunity. As time progressed, the community was further strengthened with flourishing businesses, new houses, and above-average lifestyles. Now the community has reached its next phase as it prepares for the future and seeks to move younger generations into mainstream America. Vietnamese Americans have accomplished so much, yet they still face a major struggle in leadership development. Common statements that you may hear are: "The Vietnamese community does not get along"; "We don't work together"; "There's no unity in the Vietnamese Community"; "Why can't Vietnamese build strong support systems for the younger generation?"; and "Younger Vietnamese Americans are too Americanized and are unfamiliar with their own heritage." All these concerns are real, and thus exploring leadership among Vietnamese Americans has become one of my passions. I find significant meaning in my efforts because there are so many wonderful Vietnamese traits, values, and cultural aspects that adapt to leadership development. It is often stated that a person cannot grow, experience success, and be strong unless he has encountered struggles in life. I asked myself, Could this be the reason why many Vietnamese Americans are so determined to make it in America? At the same time, could it be a detriment to younger generations who were born in the United States? These individuals didn't escape Vietnam by boat or see other people killed. Without these adversities, can they become the leaders that many older Vietnamese Americans would hope them to be? As an educator and an avid leadership developer, I am heavily invested in the understanding and building of Vietnamese American leaders. I have several mentors who have advised me to "follow your passion; do what you love." But it's difficult to respond to such a statement because studying leadership and trying to apply those lessons to help build Vietnamese American leaders is not a job description that you can readily find on Monster.com.
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I believe it is my duty to contribute to the understanding of leadership development for Vietnamese Americans in any way I can. If I can share the stories and information that may influence and encourage just one person to change his life for the better, then I am delighted and satisfied. If an individual reads this book and can then understand why his dad quit his job and started working for someone else for less pay, or a CEO decides to reward his employees by insisting that each Vietnamese take the Lunar New Year off without a deduction in pay, then I have achieved my goal and have made a contribution that has helped ensure our heritage will continue for years to come.
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C h a p t e r
III
Profiles and Dialogues
In my interviews with Vietnamese American entrepreneurs, my primary goal was to explore their cultural backgrounds and to understand how culture affects their leadership practices and success as entrepreneurs. All of the subjects had worked for private or public U.S. companies before leaving to start their own companies, either because they made the decision to become entrepreneurs or were terminated. I interviewed each subject three times, asking them about the following areas: their life history, details of their experiences and leadership practices, and the meaning of their experience. The interviews included closed and open-ended questions adapted from Geert Hofstede's 2001 list of national cultural dimensions. Hofstede investigated national culture by surveying over twelve thousand employees from IBM Corporation working in various subsidiaries in fifty different countries. His research examined the fundamental differences in which groups perceived organizational work climate and the employee's values regarding various ideological factors.
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At the first interview, I invited the participants to talk freely about themselves and their life experiencestheir family, schooling, friends, coming to America, living in the U.S., and becoming entrepreneurs. I felt that asking them to speak about their life before they became business owners would elicit a more complete and insightful narrative of their transition to entrepreneurship than if I had asked them directly why they had decided to start their own business. In the second session, I asked them to share stories and details of their experiences relative to a number of national-culture dimensions defined by Hofstede: 1. power distance, 2. uncertainty avoidance, 3. collectivism-individualism, 4. femininity-masculinity, and 5. Confucian dynamism. My goal in the second interview was to elicit their experiences in their former corporate jobs and their current business ventures in hopes of shedding light on their motives for becoming entrepreneurs. I wanted to understand how their experiences had shaped their leadership practices and brought them to their present situation. I also wanted to learn about their management conflicts, language barriers, cultural differences, beliefs about leadership practices, and concepts of entrepreneurship. In the third session, the participants reflected on their past and present experiences. Although they revealed a great deal of what their experiences had meant to them, this session allowed them to focus on what one researcher called "meaning making" (Vygotsky, 1987). They tended to talk about events that were particularly meaningful to them and to elaborate on why the events had special meaning. When I invited them to tell specific stories, they tended to frame the stories with a beginning, middle, and end, resulting in a natural "meaning making" process.
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Chapter II: Profiles and Dialogues
The third session also gave them an opportunity to review the overall meaning of their experiences and to find new meanings in retelling stories from their lives. The participants had held managerial positions in their former companies, which were mostly non-Vietnamese owned. They all had at least one year of business experience and careers that spanned eight to seventeen years. Their ages ranged from thirty years and up, and the length of their business ownership was one to five years. All the respondents' companies had formerly or presently provided high-tech products and services. One interviewee, Luong, had led two technology start-ups and had recently retired. Another, Huy, had founded a high-tech consulting company that had been acquired four months before the interviews. Huy now worked for the parent company, running his own consulting division. Four other interviewees, Tri, Thu, John, and Dung, had started companies that offered high-tech products and services to manufacturers, retail stores, and midsized companies. All of the participants had graduated from college. Three had masters degrees, and one had earned a PhD. They were all married with one to three children. Some had been divorced and remarried.
Participant Profiles
Luong
Luong, fifty, is a distinguished-looking, well-dressed, high-level executive. He is remarried and has two sons from his former wife. He holds the Vietnamese equivalent of B.S. and M.S. degrees in mathematics and physics. At the time of the interview, he had been retired less than two months. His work experience spanned twenty-two years in global information technology and management, during which he held several senior positions and founded two high-tech start-ups. The interviews took place at Luong's home in San Jose. At the first interview, I learned he would be flying to Paris the next day, so he agreed to meet me again upon returning a month later. We spoke in his
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home office, a separate workroom with magazines and newspapers spread out neatly on a coffee table: The Economist, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. Luong told me that he is "Vietnamese, French, and American" since he had lived in all three countries and had adopted aspects of each culture in his daily life. He said that he often did his thinking in French and translated it to Vietnamese or English. Having spent many of his school years in Paris before settling in America, Luong internalized a great deal of French culture and values and remarked that he found it easy to do business in Europe. Being Vietnamese, he also found it easy to do business in China. Somewhat surprisingly, he seemed equally at home in the role of an American executive. In his earlier years, Luong faced significant hardship due to language barriers but eventually became so fluent that coworkers and business contacts often forgot that he is Asian. His adaptability is a major strength, and his demeanor reflects his self-confidence and business know-how. He attributes his business success to his mother's early influence, recalling how she advised him as a young boy in Vietnam to be a person with morals, values, and integrity before considering how to become a successful businessman. By his own assessment, he has lived a full life and is now ready to enjoy retirement: "I am at a point of my life, fifty years old, and I am retired. I had my share of successes and failures. I started two companies. One was a great success, and the other was a miserable failure. I have a lot of choices ahead of me, and I feel very fortunate that I can provide for my children financially. Now it's my time to enjoy the beauty of life. I am going to travel the world. However, I do see myself getting involved in projects that will help reduce domestic violence in Vietnam. This is my current passion."
Tri
Tri is the CEO of the second manufacturing technology company he started, now in its third year. He previously founded a tracking inventory software start-up that was acquired by a Fortune 500 company. Before making the decision to become an entrepreneur, he worked as an engineer for several mid-sized Bay Area companies. He has always worked in technology.
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Tri has a B.S. in computer science and a graduate degree in engineering, both from the University of Massachusetts. He arrived in the U.S. in 1985 and took a high school equivalency test then began his college studies. He is married with a son who was less than one year old at the time of the interview. I spoke with Tri in his office, which was typical of a Silicon Valley tech company with bare walls and high-walled cubicles. The office was fastidiously neat. As Tri walked me to his office, he declared that he is "an engineer at heart," a statement reflected in his appearance. He is slim, with unruly hair and large round glasses, and is fond of polo shirts and khaki pants, the "uniform" of many Silicon Valley engineers. Tri is shy and soft-spoken. At times, he seemed to hesitate before making a statement, pausing to measure his thoughts and occasionally not completing his sentences. Yet the atmosphere was more cordial than at some of the other interviews. His office was small and well-organized, with a few papers and files on the credenza and desk and a large whiteboard covered with action items and notes. There was no art on the walls, but a large picture of his son was displayed on his desk. He said that his determination to be a successful entrepreneur stemmed from his previous experiences working with incompetent managers who made more money than he did, and who had risen in rank based on their persuasive skills, self-marketing, and false pretenses. As CEO of a company with seventy employees, including offshore engineers, Tri described his greatest challenge: "I have a difficult time being a CEO and working with people who are much older than me, and who have more credentials and experience." He believed his cultural upbringing had definitely affected his management style since he had been taught to hold older people and those with greater experience than himself in utmost respect. This outlook made it difficult for Tri to confront older employees who showed up late for work or left early, talked excessively, or submitted incomplete projects. Other lessons learned from his parents made it hard for him to correct others' mistakes, especially if the employee had greater experience or education. His parents had taught him that people with more experience and education were smarter and wiser.
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John
Upon meeting John, I was immediately impressed by his outspoken, down-to-earth style. He decided to take American first and last names that wouldn't identify him as Asian. When asked to explain his reasons, he said, "I wanted a new identity" and changed the subject. After he arrived in the U.S. in 1975, John attended high school in New Jersey and then moved to California to study at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He completed his education at the University of San Francisco, where he earned an MBA. He is married and has a three-year-old son. For the last two years, John has operated his own company in Santa Clara. The company, which has five employees, provides server services to small and medium-size companies. Running the company requires him to have strong technical, business, and management skills. Although John doesn't have an engineering or computer science degree, he was confident that he could find engineers to help him with his innovative business ideas. When I asked how he decided to get into a business where he wasn't an expert, he laughed, "I cannot work for a company anymore. I need to spread my wings." After being laid off from his previous job as an engineering manager, John was motivated to find fresh opportunities rather than return to the corporate environment. His office looked extremely "busy"every inch of space was covered with papers, books, files, and notes, reflecting his personal style of not needing to impress anyone. John was the most forthright of the respondents in expressing both his positive and negative thoughts. Mirroring his office environment, his dress fit the image of a busy scientistbusiness casual clothes, glasses, and rebellious hair. John talked frankly about his life and his professional strengths and weaknesses. He said that his parents had only finished seventh grade but that family connections had enabled his father to be promoted to the rank of officer in the military. The neighbors had treated the family with great respect and honor, but John considered it a false faade and felt ashamed that his father's high title hadn't been earned.
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He said that his greatest professional challenge was finding the exact combination of engineering talent and management skills that matched his personality and that could grow the company. He considered it extremely important to be surrounded by extraordinary engineering talentfeeling that it was the engineers' skills that would make or break the company. However, he relies heavily on his own business experience for sales and marketing. John is deeply engaged in the day-to-day operation of the company and the development of the engineering, sales, and marketing.
Huy
Huy left Vietnam on a fishing boat in 1975 and eventually settled in California. When his family made the decision to flee Vietnam, his father worked for the government and his mother operated a small business. He has six siblings. Contrary to the stereotype of the close-knit Asian family, Huy is "an independent individual who has to make it on his own without the family's support." Huy completed a B.S. in engineering in Oregon, attended graduate school at Stanford, and completed a Ph.D. at Harvard. He was the only respondent with a doctorate. He is divorced with no children. Huy started two technology companiesan engineering consultancy that was acquired by a major corporation, and a medical device company that is currently operated by a partner. Huy walked away from the second venture because of disagreements about the company's management and daily operations. He runs a consulting division, where he manages the operation as his own business with fifteen employees. I interviewed Huy at his office. The desk was neatly organized, with nothing out of order, and achievement certifications and awards were displayed on the walls. The office appeared to reflect Huy's meticulous organizational skills and professionalism. Huy said he decided to start his own company because of unhappy experiences working for various managers at Fortune 500 companies. He felt there was too much disagreement between the employees and managers, and he disagreed with common practices such as withholding important research and development information from the
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engineers, allowing unqualified engineers to lead projects, and rejecting promotions for deserving engineerspractices that, he said, conflicted with his personal beliefs. Although he founded two successful software start-ups supporting the manufacturing industry, Huy perceives himself as "an unsuccessful entrepreneur," referring to his accented English, which, he feels, makes other executives and managers superior to him.
Thu
Thu lost his father in early childhood. Before the family escaped on a fishing boat in 1975, his mother taught in a Vietnamese elementary school. He said that he is incredibly close to his mother, sister, and two brothers. When he left Vietnam at age thirteen, he remembers desperately wanting to leave the turbulent land and start a new life. As a teenager, Thu had difficulty learning English as a second language while growing up in a poor section of Chicago. But he learned to survive on the streets and worked to help his mom, graduating from college in Chicago but not pursuing a graduate degree. He is married with three teenage children. Thu's company has thirty-five employees and offers data sharing technology to major retailers such as Walmart, Target, and Macy's. He chose the field because he "saw a need for retailers to work with thousands of spreadsheets where they don't have to cut and paste." He started the company with his brother, and both are deeply involved in the day-to-day operations. Before deciding to become an entrepreneur, Thu worked as a network manager for several prestigious high-tech companies. When asked why he left those stable companies, he said, "I am not with the company anymore when I realized that I have made enough money to be comfortable. Therefore, I wanted to leave and try something new. Besides, I was getting bored with my daily responsibilities." At the start of the interview, I was immediately aware of Thu's energetic personality, which lent excitement and enthusiasm to his answers. His responses were alternately eloquent and reflective, and he was exceptionally matter-of-fact in his thoughts and opinions.
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Thu admitted he still has much to learn, and he's afraid he might not be as successful as he would like to be. He said that he finds it difficult to blend his Vietnamese cultural expectations with his working relationships with Americans. For example, his parents always urged him to be polite and respectful of others, even when he disagreed with them, and to maintain harmony rather than seek confrontations. In contrast to this deferential style, he finds that the American model of working relationships encourages the expression of disagreements and the voicing of one's own opinions in order to achieve goals and objectives. Thu hired mostly Vietnamese employees because he embraces their loyalty to the company and to himself. However, he finds it difficult to communicate with his Vietnamese employees in the American business style of "business is business, personal is personalno hard feelings." Whenever there was a confrontation or a discussion of the company, its clients, and its projects, Thu found that the Vietnamese employees were apt to take any implied criticism as a personal attack on them. After these meetings, they would refrain from talking to him or to each other for several days, until in time the communication channels closed completely. Thu is working hard to reopen the channels, partly by offering his employees training in confrontation and conflict negotiation so that they can better understand each others' perspectives and their personal views on business etiquette, while negotiating their differences.
Dung
In Vietnam, Dung's father was a doctor, and his mother was a teacher. His three sisters and two brothers are doctors and lawyers. Dung is very close to his family. He arrived in the U.S. in 1982, earned a B.S. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1986, and attended graduate school at Santa Clara University. Dung has two children and is remarried. When I asked him to describe his first year in the U.S., he said that he worked and studied like everyone else and encountered no hardships.
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The last interview took place at Dung's office in Milpitas. He was dressed in polo shirt and khakis, the standard uniform of a Silicon Valley engineer who has been working all day at a computer. He led me down a narrow walkway with open gray cubicles on one side and plain white walls on the other. His office featured two light yellow sofas and an oval conference table, with no pictures or other decorations. The desk and table were clear, except for a few pens and some blank paper. My immediate impression was that Dung is an engineer of few words. Unlike the other respondents who shared their stories volubly, Dung stated that he is a private person and would only share what was necessary. His reticence often made it necessary to repeat questions to be sure I had understood his answers. Dung's current business is chip design. When asked why he chose the field, he didn't answer. He was formerly an engineer at several brand name high-tech companies but declined to share experiences from that period of his life. He was more open about sharing his weaknesses than his strengths. "I feel, as the CEO and president, I must know everything in the technical, marketing, sales, management, and operation fields so that I can be strong for my employees. My employees look to me for answers." Dung currently employs about fifty engineers in Vietnam. He feels obligated to be the kind of Vietnamese leader that they expect, but with American business know-how in sales, marketing, and operations. The Vietnamese engineers perceive Vietnamese American entrepreneurs working in the U.S. as extremely competent in engineering, sales and marketing, human resources, and operationsthey are regarded as role models. Dung's plans for the future include developing the company and expanding it to other locations. He is actively searching for talent in management and operations to help him run the company.
The Questions
In session I of the interviews, the questions focused on the subject's life story. Session II centered on Hofstede's five cultural dimensions: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism-collectivism,
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femininity-masculinity, and Confucian dynamism. It also included questions about leadership practices. In session III, I invited the subjects to reflect on the meaning of their experiences. Session I: Research and Interview Questions Research Questions 1. How do Vietnamese American entrepreneurs' family background, education, and social status in Vietnam affect their leadership practices? Interview Questions 1. Please tell me about your family and their occupations in Vietnam. 2. Please tell me about your family in Vietnam. 3. Can you share stories about your education and training? 4. How would a neighbor in Vietnam describe your family? 2. How has immigration and adaptation to life in America influenced the leadership and business practices of Vietnamese American entrepreneurs? 1. Tell me about your journey to the United States. 2. How long have you been in the United States? 3. Please share your experiences as you began a new life in the United Statesafter one year, five years, ten years, fifteen years, etc. 4. What is your current business? Why this field? How long? What were your prior jobs, occupations, and titles? Why are you no longer working for the former organization?
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Session II: Research and Interview Questions Research Questions 1. How do Vietnamese American entrepreneurs perceive themselves according to Hofstede's dimensions of national culture values? Interview Questions 1. In your previous job, what was your view when it came to facing the unknown (projects, rules, changes in management, etc.)? 2. Do you generally operate your business and life with formal rules? What are those rules? Why do you think you need them? 3. How frequently do you disagree with your workers? 4. How often did you feel nervous or tense in your previous job? In your present job? 5. How do you feel about status at home and in business? 6. Do you agree that people should be treated according to their status: employee, manager, owner, etc.? Why? 7. Do you feel that you must look after yourself first before considering others? 8. How do you feel about being loyal to your extended family members? 9. What are the perceived roles for women and men in your family? 10. How important are long-term goals? What are those goals? 11. How important are short-term goals? What are those goals? 12. How important is it to make a real contribution to the success of your company or organization?
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Research Questions 2. How do Vietnamese American entrepreneurs perceive American business leaders' practices, according to Hofstede's dimensions of national cultural values?
Interview Questions 1. How did your manager and coworkers handle the unknown in your previous job in an American organization? 2. When your manager made a decision, did he/she consider others in the process? Why? 3. Did your manager look down on other groups of employees? How? 4. Did your manager treat people according to their status? How so? 5. Did your manager get involved in details of your job? How? 6. Did your manager operate the department on an individual or collective level? Did the company? 7. How would your manager describe the roles of women and men in your company? 8. Would you say your manager was more concerned with short-term goals or long-term goals? Why? 9. Would you say your manager was concerned with maintaining a good working relationship with his employees and coworkers? Why?
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Research Questions 3. What are similarities and differences between Vietnamese American entrepreneurs' perceptions of themselves and the practices of American business leaders?
Interview Questions 1. How would you describe your leadership and management style? Your former managers? 2. What are some differences you see between Vietnamese American business leaders and American management? 3. What are the leadership and management challenges you feel you have in common with your previous managers? 4. In your opinion, what are some important leadership traits in the corporate workplace? In your current business? Why?
4. How do differences in leadership practices induce Vietnamese American entrepreneurs to leave American corporations?
1. Would you say the differences in leadership practices of your management led you to leave the company, or were you fired? Why?
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Research Questions 5. How do Vietnamese Americans see their own leadership practices as affecting their success in their business ventures?
Interview Questions 1. Was there a specific person or situation that helped you get to this point? 2. What are some personal attributes that you feel helped you rise to this level of entrepreneurship? 3. Describe the culture of your current business. 4. How effective do you feel you are as an owner of your business? 5. How would you describe the leadership and management style necessary to become a successful Vietnamese American entrepreneur?
6. How have Vietnamese American entrepreneurs found their values to be strengthened or changed as a minority group living in the United States, who were considered to be a part of a majority when measured in terms of the overall Vietnamese population throughout the United States?
1. Do you think your values have been strengthened or changed by being in America? How? 2. Given what you have said about your life before you became a business owner and what you have said about your work now, how do you understand business in your life? 3. Where do you see yourself going in the future?
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Session III: Research and Interview Questions Research Questions 1. Reflection on meaning. Interview Questions 1. Are there any questions you would like to revisit? 2. Are there any points you would like to make that were not covered in the questions? I asked all of these questions during the interviews and allowed some flexibility to change the order of the questions as the flow of conversations dictated. In some cases, the participants asked me to stop recording because they didn't want their comments noted, and I honored their requests.
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A u t h o r
About the Author
Dr. Lena Tran is Director of Education and Business and Management at the University of California Extension, Santa Cruz. She lectures on various topics involving leadership and empowerment, Vietnamese and Asian American culture and experiences and ethnic entrepreneurship. Her professional experience includes working with established technology firms in New York City and start-up enterprises in Silicon Valley. Dr. Tran earned an MBA from Seton Hall University in New Jersey and a Doctorate in Education from the University of San Francisco in California. In 2009, Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal named Lena Tran to its list of "40 Under 40" rising stars of the Silicon Valley Community. She serves on the Board of Directors, East Meets West, and Silicon Valley FACES.
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Compassionate Vietnamese American CEOs can be purchased as an eBook for $14.95 or tradebook for $19.95 at http://happyabout.com/vietnamese-american-ceos.php or at other online and physical book stores. Please contact us for quantity discounts sales@happyabout.info or to be informed about upcoming titles bookupdate@happyabout.info or phone (408-257-3000)
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Compassionate Vietnamese American CEOs Book Excerpt

20660 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 210 Cupertino, CA 95014

BOOK EXCERPT Table of Contents

Why Care about Vietnamese Americans' Leadership Style? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

History and Breaking the Glass Ceiling . . . 13

Profiles and Dialogues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

The Journey to Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43