As a Product Manager at Hong Leong Bank Vietnam, Mr. Nguyên utilized the MBA Talent program as a launchpad to enhance his skills, thinking, and advance his career. Mr. Nguyên’s MBA story promises to inspire those who are seeking innovation and breakthroughs in his work.
First, could you please introduce yourself and your current role at the company?
Hello everyone, I’m Nguyễn Hữu Nguyên, currently in charge of priority customer service and financial products at Hong Leong Bank Vietnam. I have been working at the bank for about two years and have experienced various positions within the company.
Can you share the specifics of your job and the difficulties you have encountered?
My job consists of two main areas. First is priority customer service, where I have to research the market, learn about new services, and find potential partners to bring the best experience to customers. The second area is financial products, where I research and develop new products such as life insurance and investment funds.
The financial market is constantly fluctuating, which poses challenges that force me to constantly change and adapt every day. This requires agility in grasping new trends and finding appropriate solutions to meet those changes. My goal is to provide customers with optimal value by building and delivering superior value propositions, helping them achieve the best benefits.
What motivated you to decide to study MBA Talent 2023?
At that time, I was in charge of two very demanding areas of work. I realized that I needed to further cultivate how to structure and systematize my work. I also needed academic frameworks to help solve challenges at work.
Immediately after researching, I was introduced to the MBA Talent program by Mr. Bùi Quang Tú, Partnership Manager of PSO. I considered it fate and decided to enroll in the program.
Before starting the program, what expectations did you have?
Before enrolling, I had certain expectations for the program. As someone who loves academics, I hoped to be able to acquire new knowledge and practical experience to apply to my current job.
Secondly, a special point that I expected from the MBA program was the opportunity to expand my quality network. I hoped that after completing the course, I would have more friends and new colleagues – people who could share experiences, support me in my work, and help me expand connections within and outside the field.
Tell us about the lecturer who left you with many impressions at MBA Talent?
Dr. Đức Võ, who teaches Financial Reports for Decision Making (FRDM), is truly a lecturer who makes me feel both challenged and excited. Even though he knew I had a background in finance, he still playfully “teased” me from the first session – a subtle way to challenge me. However, behind those jokes was a dedicated and respectable teacher. Not just stopping at the knowledge in the subject, thầy Đức also shared with me many valuable experiences in the field of finance. This made me appreciate him very much, and I still keep in touch with him to this day.
I also cannot forget to mention Mr. Michael Saram, the lecturer of Integrated Business Experience (IBE). This was the first subject and is considered one of the most difficult subjects of the program. Thầy Saram stands out with his highly practical teaching style, like a boss demanding from employees in a real working environment. He sets high standards, which helped me understand more about the pressure and expectations in real work. His professionalism and extensive experience helped me learn a lot about this subject.
How was your MBA Talent selection process?
My journey to apply for the MBA Talent 2023 program was truly a memorable and meaningful experience.
Right from Selection Round 1 – the teamwork section – an experience that made me say “wow”. In this round, I got to work with people from many different fields, from Marketing to Operations. When solving a case study together, I was exposed to new perspectives that I would never have thought of if I had only looked at it from my financial perspective. Each person with their expertise and approach helped me learn a lot of interesting and useful things.
In Selection Round 2, I was extremely impressed to meet Ms. Lê Thanh Nguyên An – Chief Human Resources Officer, VinaCapital. With just 2-3 interview questions, Ms. An quickly pointed out my weaknesses and things I needed to improve. Moreover, Ms. An also gave direct advice right in the interview, she especially emphasized that to study for an MBA, not only need to clearly define the goal but also be ready to harmonize between study and work.
The Final Selection Round was equally attractive as I continued to meet people with diverse experience in areas such as Sales and Legal. Each exchange, each situation posed brought a sense of competition and challenge, but at the same time extremely useful.
What is your impression of MBA Talent?
What impressed me the most about the MBA Talent program was the creativity in the teaching methods. It is difficult for any MBA program to seamlessly combine the teaching of academic knowledge with practical case challenges. These challenges are truly beneficial with the participation of industry experts, who directly teach and share practical experience. This is what I appreciate the most when participating in MBA Talent.
Among the case challenges that I have participated in, the case of thầy Lâm Nguyễn in Financial Reports for Decision Making left a deep impression on me. Although I had a background and studied a lot about finance, this was the first time I actually participated in a detailed project related to mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
Thầy Lâm not only gave enthusiastic guidance but also shared practical experience from M&A projects that he had participated in. The special thing is that after the course, he still keeps in touch with participants, gives useful advice, and creates a premise for me to continue to develop in the field of finance.
What challenges did you face on the MBA Talent journey?
The biggest difficulty I encountered when participating in the MBA Talent program was in the first few days. I did not anticipate the heavy workload of the program. The two main parts of the program – case challenges and theory – both require a lot of time and effort.
Initially, I thought the program would be light, like previous courses, but it wasn’t. The participating industry experts set very high requirements, and the doctors in charge of the subjects also set strict standards. In addition to studying in class, I had to self-study, search for documents, and research more to apply to exercises and projects.
What I realized is that the knowledge in the program is not only academic but can also be applied in practice immediately. However, to do this, a solid mental preparation from the beginning is extremely important. This can be considered the biggest obstacle that I encountered.
How have you applied the knowledge learned from MBA Talent?
The knowledge from the MBA Talent program has helped me a lot in my work, especially in the area of priority customer service. For example, from the IBE subject, I learned how to analyze business resources and how to effectively use those resources to capture opportunities in the market.
After completing this course, I immediately applied it in practice by performing an analysis of the bank’s customer data. I also conducted customer surveys to gather more information. From there, I made a “map” of the company’s budget this year compared to the available resources and proposed a number of new initiatives to meet market demand.
In addition, the knowledge from the Marketing subject is also extremely useful, especially concepts like 4P, which help me improve the value proposition for customers.
Besides practical knowledge, what changes in thinking/skills have you gained?
Before participating in MBA Talent, I often focused on completing each task one by one, in a clear order of priority. Now, with the large workload and assignments, I have to gradually change my thinking and get used to multi-tasking. This helps me realize that doing many tasks in parallel not only does not reduce productivity but sometimes helps to achieve goals faster. This is a significant change in thinking, helping me to be more flexible in both work and study.
The course also helped me improve my time management skills. Along with studying MBA Talent, I also had to take on work at the bank, and even had a new scope of work. The increased workload forced me to apply time management skills strictly. The experiences learned from the brothers and sisters in the program helped me arrange my work more reasonably and overcome pressure effectively.
What is your impression of the participants in MBA Talent class of 2023?
My first impression of the participants is that everyone is wonderful and talented. In particular, the participants are all very result-oriented individuals, always putting results first.
As a rather introverted person, in the first subject, I did not really connect with you. However, when participating in the case challenge, I met Mr. Tâm Nguyễn – Head of Commercial at Samsung, who helped me “open up” more and connect with everyone.
In the subject of Financial Reports for Decision Making – one of my strengths – I had the opportunity to support and exchange more with the brothers and sisters in the class. Thanks to that, I started to connect with the class more. Besides, meetings and conversations outside of class also helped me understand more about the brothers and sisters through very sincere sharing.
When working in practice, if I encounter problems that need to be consulted, such as those related to Marketing or Sales, I will actively make a private appointment and ask some brothers and sisters to learn from their experience. Everyone is always willing to share sincerely, and I appreciate that.
Do you have any advice for those who are considering studying MBA Talent?
The first thing that participants in the next courses need to keep in mind is to prepare a solid mindset. Studying MBA Talent is very different from studying at university. A strong mindset will help you not be discouraged throughout the learning process.
Second, you need to pay attention to balancing work, life as well as time management. Most MBA participants are working and have a heavy workload. Therefore, you need to learn how to balance to make the learning experience more complete.
Thank you for sharing interesting experiences in the MBA Talent journey. Wishing you continued good study and work, achieving more achievements on your career path.
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