Union of Vietnamese Students in Berlin and Potsdam (Vietsoc) together with Startup Vietnam Foundation (SVF), a non-profit organization jointly organized a panel discussion named “Innovation Changes the Game” on September 15th. This event is the second one in a series of events within a program supporting entrepreneurship within Vietnamese community in Germany.
After the success of the first event last month with the CEO of SVF – Mr. Pham Duy Hieu, this time the guest speaker was Mr. Nguyen Duy – COO of SVF and simultaneously CEO of Kova Trading, a part of KOVA Group in Vietnam. Additionally, Mr. Nguyen Bach Viet and Mr. Le Vu Hoang – CEOs and Co- founders of Sejong Vietnam Joint Stock Company (Sejong) – joined this event. They also made their name as two of the members of the 3-person team VioT, known as the winner of Vietchallenge 2018 held in the USA last April for Vietnamese startups around the world.
As a speaker, Mr. Nguyen Duy started the program by introducing SVF to the audiences before moving on to elaborate on “Four types of capital for startups”. SVF is the first socialized, non-profit organization in Vietnam whose mission is to open the gate for Vietnamese startups to step out to the world. Also known as a place where successful businessmen, politicians, experts and scientists come together to fulfill their mission of “giving” to create “value”, SVF does not only bring about several development programs for young entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs-to-be, but also connects startups with important stakeholders, among other things scientists, businessmen, domestic and international distribution partners. With “Four types of capital for startups”, Mr. Nguyen Duy did help the attendees broaden their horizon by extending the use of the word “capital” beyond its common financial definition. Other types of capital also include knowledge, network and trustworthiness, which require time and effort to be built up during work and study. Also, with his first-hand experience as a third-generation leader in his family business – KOVA Group, Mr. Nguyen Duy wholeheartedly answered the questions about managing and leading family businesses, especially ways to preserve traditional values while continuously innovating to adapt to changing socioeconomic landscape in Vietnam.
After a short break, the program continued with a panel discussion joined by Mr. Nguyen Duy and two founders of Sejong – Mr. Nguyen Bach Viet and Mr. Le Vu Hoang. Sejong, also known as VioT, specializes in R&D and manufacturing IoT equipment. Their products employed in industry and agriculture are featured by sensory softwares which collect data for analyzing and optimization, thus offering solutions to improve productivity, enhance quality and value of industrial, agricultural products. With 10-year experience in network administration, Mr. Nguyen Bach Viet and his partner – Mr. Le Vu Hoang, who was once the winner of “Đường lên đỉnh Olympia” in 2005 and won several international prizes in the field of Robotics and IoT, brought about useful information on Vietnamese progress in being part of the Industry 4.0 worldwide.
This program was a chance for Vietnamese students to be inspired by innovative mindset and get to know the challenges when it comes to approaching and implementing new ideas while allowing them to exploit existing advantages of students studying abroad in order to apply innovative approaches to production, business as well as personal development. Having studied oversea and developing their business in a changing environment as in Vietnam, the guests together with their inspirational stories and their experience proved to be highly practicable for Vietnamese students in Germany.