As businesses have to survive the Covid-19 epidemic, business philosophies always aim at sustainable development, because only in sustainable development, they can bring sustainable profits to their own businesses and also bring sustainable development to the economy. Economic Forecasting Program of Ho Chi Minh City Television (HTV) had a direct interview with Mr. Phan Khac Long, Chairman of the Board of Manager of Phan Vu Group.
We are very impressed with your firm's determination to reduce up to 1,500 tons of waste annually and a target of 3,000 tons by 2022. Amidst the global Covid pandemic, many difficulties affect all businesses, so why did you make this determination?
Established from 1996 up to now, it has been 25 years since the Phan Vu brand has been present in Vietnam (1996 - 2021). Currently, it is a leading enterprise in the foundation pile industry and is ranked in the Top 500 largest enterprises in Vietnam (NVR500). For sustainable development, not only bring benefits to businesses but also bring happiness to society, workers and our living environment. Sustainable development has many angles (including human resources, technology, finance ...), this is a process of efforts and endeavors of all Phan Vu employees over the past 25 years. Phan Vu always holds the reputation for itself, the prestige of the brand and we also want to keep our reputation in Vietnam when Phan Vu exports concrete piles to the world market.
When conducting business in the market, most of them want to get the best profit, or they can do everything to get the highest profit. In the midst of a very wide picture of the construction industry, how do you consider Vietnamese enterprises balance between profit value and current sustainable development value?
This is a really difficult question for the construction industry! Because the construction industry is very labor intensive and the labor level is not high, a characteristic of the construction industry. The desire to develop and balance between profit and sustainable value for society and company is not simple to fulfilled.
For instance, when Phan Vu introduced the first centrifugal concrete pipe product to the Vietnamese market, the technology changed completely. Instead of solid cast square piles, we have successfully converted into hollow pile technology, and so with one load value it is possible to save about 30-50% concrete. Thus, technology itself has changed, making the environment better in terms of consuming less environmental resources.
Phan Vu has targeted new products that consume less environmental resources from the beginning. At the same time, raise the concrete grade higher, simply to improve the bearing capacity of the foundation pile based on kg / cm2. Previously, the bearing capacity of square piles was only 300kg / cm2 and now Phan Vu has increased to 1,000 kg / cm2 for centrifugal concrete piles. The load capacity is increased by 3-4 times, that is, instead of 3 piles, now only 1 pile is needed. Our philosophy is minimizing the environmental impact, because impact cannot be eradicated completely.
In the process of development, we also focus on balanced development. We have been developing small hydroelectricity since the 2000s that sell emissions while offsetting the release into the environment. From the direction of technology application, I always think about new, better and more sustainable things.
How did the company overcome the Covid-19 difficulty and how previous experience support this time?
Phan Vu has a lot of experience in overcoming crises. The first experience is to predict crisis will occur or not and a 10-year cycle helps us to have this forecast. In 2019, with the scenario that a crisis is likely to happen somewhere in 2019 - 2020, Phan Vu has planned a 5-year plan (2015 - 2020), with a crisis forecast. Our experience in crises is to ensure cash flow. Typically, the crisis of 2008 - 2010, cash flow crisis is very serious and interest rates are very high. But in the crisis we always think about refreshing ourselves, so that when we overcome the crisis, we will have the opportunity to rise.
The Covid-19 crisis presented challenges to people and close bonds ceased to exist, pushed into distant bonds. Five years ago, we implemented ERP (enterprise resource planning) and at this point, digital transformation has started to take effect. This is the digital age, although in the Covid-19 period, we also focused on technological innovation. Technologies that have been cherished for many years in combination with digital transformation raise a new height in production and construction technology of Phan Vu.
When embarking on the digital transformation, many businesses are still afraid of costs and what do you share about this story?
This is also a trade-off for sustainable development, such as the story "The chicken comes first or the egg comes first". For the record, going first is always hard. 5 years ago, Phan Vu started a digital transformation and it was very hard! Enterprises at the same time as us so far have not been successful, we are not really successful but still keep something as the foundation for this development phase.
Up to now, we are very fortunate to accumulate profits in many years and our Shareholders also support the direction of technological innovation. Phan Vu has always been at the forefront of foundation pile technology in Vietnam and is proud that our technology is close to the world's modern foundation pile technology. Phan Vu gets great help from a Japanese partner - Japan Pile Corporation in transferring the latest Japanese technology and training human resources. Each year we have 1-2 training sessions, up to now there have been 4 training sessions in Japan Pile, Japan.
After Covid-19, many companies have seen the role of digital transformation, but that is the story of the present. So why 5 years ago Phan Vu decided to apply digital transformation?
At that time, Phan Vu did not think of words as big as 4.0, but we think that when businesses grow larger, it is clear that the supply chain requires technology to be able to operate effectively. Currently, the Phan Vu factory system stretches from North to South, if we cannot digitize, without management software, we cannot keep up with this change. Phan Vu recognized the problem 5 years ago, this is a view on what to do for the development of the future.
And the last question, how do you forecast the sustainable development trend of the Vietnamese business community in the current context after we have been very heavily affected by the Covid-19 epidemic?
I think sustainable development is a must. If any businesses only think about making profits and do not know about tomorrow, I think that trend will be lost day by day, of course there will still be businesses that think like that! Phan Vu itself, with the product of concrete piles when centrifuging, there is always a huge residual mortar in the pile (from 6-10%) and every year we bring to the market about 1.5 - 2 million tons. In concrete, that 10% is extremely large. Therefore, the thing to do is to pull the excess mortar to less than 1%, to reduce emissions into the environment
During the past 5 years, Phan Vu has succeeded in reducing the amount of waste discharged into the environment by improving the first redundant mortar-free centrifuge line. I am very proud and happy about this! Less resource consumption, no emission to the environment, environmental sustainability is the biggest gain, not for Phan Vu itself but also for society and generations. Sustainable development is a mandatory trend, I think that the vast majority of businesses in Vietnam are also heading towards the trend of sustainable development and reducing emissions into the environment.
When the Government of Vietnam launched on the use of green energy, solar power, and wind power, Phan Vu responded enthusiastically. The entire roof of the two Phan Vu factories in Long An is covered with solar panels and the amount of electricity used is always guaranteed for both production and daily life. I find the encouragement of the Government is very correct and suitable with the expectations of businesses, both the environment and the people. Not only businesses benefit, but it is also one of the criteria for us to aim for sustainable development.
Thank you for your sharing!