Group member: Kira, Long and Minh-san
On the last day of the fieldtrip, we visited an IT company called Rakumo. It is located inside the E.Town Complex (9th floor – E2 building), also the gathering place for other IT and technology companies. The presenter of Rakumo was the representative Director, Mr. Trinh The Huynh, and also Ms. Hieu from Human Resource Department. The content of the presentation includes the history of Rakumo, its business mission, the company’s advantage, providing service and also company’s welfare system.
When we talk about a mission for IT company, it tends to be something very ambitious and practical, such as “Utilize the power of Moore’s Law to bring smart, connected devices to every person on earth” (Intel), or “Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” (Google). However, for Rakumo, the company’s mission is rather more “friendly”: “Apply IT technology in order to bring happiness to everyone”. From this mission statement, we can understand that Rakumo emphasizes on human aspect, on the customer satisfaction, rather than trying to focus on the technology development only. The business guidelines also includes three keywords that seems to be a bit different from normal IT firm: “Honest”, “Openness”, “Happiness”.
Besides from the company’s mission and vision, Mr. Huynh also explain very carefully about the service of Rakumo since our MBA students are not very familiar with technological knowledge. Therefore, we could understand the core services of Rakumo as well as Rakumo Vietnam. The services include develop, maintain systems and application on every platform such as PC or mobile, also building and developing website.
We consider that Rakumo Vietnam has a strong leadership, based on what we understand about Mr. Trinh The Huynh’s clear and consistent career path, knowledge, experience and motivation. We believe that under his governance and commitment, Rakumo Vietnam will develop more to achieve their business mission and vision. It seems that Rakumo is on its right track to build an organization with sustainable working culture, because of several following reasons:
Firstly, human resources have always been put in the center of the organization. Staff, who are mostly and typically young, energetic for an IT company, have been continuously taken care of, via not only compensation package, but also via workplace design and accommodations (well-equipped pantry, high-end & powerful computers, etc.). The company aims to bring happiness to not only investors and customers, but also to his employees, who feel that their growth attaches with company’s development, hence they will stay longer (low turnover rate), or even come back after leaving the organization for some time. Especially, all employees are highly recommended not to work overtime.
Moreover, customer-centric behaviors are the code of conducts from the top to the bottom. All members are encouraged to put their feet into customers’ shoes every time negotiating or acquiring new projects with customers, in order to have insights on their needs. Also, they are requested and trained to listen to every complaint, even small; fix and report as soon as possible any arise technical errors, in order to enhance customer’s time & efficiency while using Rakumo’s products.
One more big lesson that we are able to capture thanks to the field trip here, is that the Japanese philosophy on “Sanpo Yoshi” while planning long-term vision, to achieve a sustainable development. It means “Three-way Satisfaction”.
This idea is supposed to be originated since Edo and Meiji periods, through the extreme success of the merchants group called Omi Shonin (近江商人). They used to travel across the country to sell native Omi regions products, such as medicines, mosquitos nets; and brough back local specialties collected along their travels. In order to do so, they had to be accepted, trusted, as well as respected by all communities where they participated in trading activities. Those merchants were told to build schools, bridges; support local shrines; sometimes help poor families to pay taxes. They wanted to benefit as many of stakeholders as possible, not only the buyer and the seller. the These practices have been considered as one of the main inspirations and origins of the unique philosophy “Sanpo Yoshi”.
The company visit has actually suggested valuable lessons for us, from the perspectives of business administration, as well as added up our knowledge with an overview on the IT industry in Vietnam.
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