Ms. Nguyen Thi Dien – General Director, An Phước Garment Embroidery Shoes company - Creativity and innovation - the key to improving competitiveness

The Global Summit of Women is a major event for women held annually around the world. The conference gathered many delegates who are representatives of senior leaders from countries, women's organizations around the world and female leaders of the world's leading corporations and businesses. Along with the delegation of Vietnamese women entrepreneurs attending Global Summit of Women 2024 in Spain, Ms. Nguyen Thi Dien – General Director, An Phước Garment Embroidery Shoes company had very interesting shares.

As I known, after over 30 years of development, An Phuoc has become one of the top 20 Family companies in Vietnam (according to Forbes). As the founder of An Phuoc, would you please introduce a few more features about the company?

In 1993, An Phuoc Garment Company was established. In 1997, the first An Phuoc - Pierre Cardin store went into operation, starting a new phase of development after An Phuoc became the exclusive strategic partner of Société de Gestion Pierre Cardin in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

It can be said that since 2008, An Phuoc has had a breakthrough development period with a series of acquisitions of domestic companies such as Tan Binh Minh garment company and Tan Viet garment company. In 2010, An Phuoc acquired overseas companies such as GEBR.WEIS Fashion Company (Germany), Tomiya Summit Garment Export Company (Japan). In 2013, we acquired the FLD Vietnam lingerie factory belonging to the French SPATZ group in Nha Trang; and in 2018, An Phuoc acquired ITO CLOTHING Trading company in Japan.

After more than 30 years of operation, An Phuoc currently owns 9 large-scale factories and more than 5,000 employees. An Phuoc Company has produced millions of products each year, supplying domestic and foreign markets. An Phuoc's two largest export markets are Japan and the EU. The domestic market continues to grow with a system of fashion stores branded An Phuoc - Pierre Cardin and Anamai - Bonjour stretching across Vietnam, developing an online channel with hundreds of thousands of visits each month at www. anphuoc.com.vn.

As you have attended the Global Summit of Women (GSW) for years, in your opinion, what are the benefits that Vietnamese businesswomen have when attending GSW?

I started attending the Global  Summit of Women in 2007. After more than 10 times attending the conference, I have had valuable experiences and learned many valuable things.

First, the "dare to think and do" spirit from female entrepreneurs really made a strong impression on me. I myself also start with ideas, then boldly realize them. In 1992, we were just a small garment factory with 60 workers and 40 sewing machines. After 5 years, the enterprise scale has expanded with 3 factories and 1,200 highly skilled workers.

In 1997, the regional economic crisis led to a decrease in processing orders, An Phuoc workers were at risk of unemployment. Faced with that situation, with absolute confidence in the product quality and expertise of the staff, I continued to boldly make the most important decision in my career, which is to buy the license of Pierre Cardin fashion group, thereby helping the company overcome challenges, opening a new path for An Phuoc. From the lessons and experiences accumulated through the entrepreneurial journey, I realize that the spirit of "dare to think and do" is an important factor that helps women overcome all challenges in their business careers.

Second, I see more clearly the importance of human resource management, especially when An Phuoc is the home of many female employees, taking on different roles from production to business. Each perspective of a woman from another country opens up opportunities for me to understand more about women's psychology and learn more ways to explore their abilities. This is the key to building effective strategies to help businesses grow.

Third, the spirit of learning is constantly reinforced and increased when participating in conferences. The motto "Study, study more, study forever" has become a strong motivation, motivating me to strive to improve knowledge and skills to improve myself. I realize that, in a leadership role, self-improvement not only brings personal benefits, but also contributes to the development of the whole team.

Finally, I feel the creativity, determination and vision of young female entrepreneurs. The enthusiastic spirit and new ideas from young people are a valuable source of knowledge and modern perspectives that I can learn from.

In your opinion, in order to be compare with Women entrepreneurs in other countries on the path of international intergration, what factors of Vietnamese women entrepreneurs need?

Today,women need many special qualities to succeed in a rapidly changing and competitive business world. In my opinion, there are 3 very important factors:

Experience and learning: Women entrepreneurs need to accumulate experience from their own experiences and from others. This process requires not only action but also evaluation, revision, and learning from each experience. In this way, we can be confident, develop management and problem-solving skills.

Dynamic, creative and innovative: are the decisive factors that help women create new values ​​and seize opportunities in a constantly changing market. Women need to be ready to adapt to changes and find ways to approach problems from a new perspective. Creativity and innovation not only help us create new products and services, but are also the key to improving competitiveness and promoting sustainable development of businesses.

Continuously update global trends: Women need to continuously update and grasp global trends in their field, because women's success in business requires not only patience and determination; but also need the right skills, qualities and attitudes to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing environment.

Thanks for your sharing.

Saigon New Day

Từ khóa : Bà Nguyễn Thị Điền, Tổng giám đốc, Công ty May Thêu Giày An Phước, Sáng tạo và đổi mới, năng lực cạnh tranh