To improve the poor management in state-owned enterprises (SOE), the government decided to hire CEOs for a few companies as a pilot step. After learning practical lessons from this pilot program, they would apply this plan to other SOEs in the future. However, during the past four years, SOEs still find hiring CEOs a hard nut to crack.
Amongst the first five corporations that applied this policy: Vinamotor Corporation, Shipping Corporation, Electronic Technology Corporation, Constructional Glassware and Pottery Corporation and Song Hong Constructional Corporation, only Vinamotor succeeded in hiring a CEO.
Lack of qualified CEOs
According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Van Anh, Navigos Group’s Regional Director - Executive Search and Selection, the senior human resources in Vietnam lack critical management soft skills like decision-making and organizing skills to be successful leaders. They are even less competent at inspiring and encouraging their staffs. They have insufficient management knowledge and experience to perform successfully in the current global integration period today.
While private enterprises are willing to pay billions of VND for talented CEOs, SOEs still find it painful to hire good CEOs. The problem is not the salary, but how much should CEOs be empowered? How should the old structure be changed? How should the power of the enterprise’s owners and CEOs be defined? A hiring CEO has to boost the turnover for the company, thus he/she must be authorized to make important decisions.
Ms. Van Anh said “In the next 4 years, Vietnam will be facing with the shortage of skilled labor because it will take a lot of time to train sufficient qualified Vietnamese to satisfy the increasing demand for high-quality managers. Hence, Vietnam in the short run must import foreign labor to be more competitive in the new era. Besides, hiring CEOs also creates on-the-job training opportunities for Vietnamese leaders to learn from their foreign partners for improving their management skills.”
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung has recently signed off the project to hire key people for state-owned corporations. The deadline of this project is October 01, 2008. After that, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs will research to prepare the general project for hiring CEO for submission to the government.
At present, most of state-owned corporations have their own plans to hire CEOs submitted to the government. But in the near future, the Prime Minister will decide the general salary scheme for the recruited CEOs.
Source: Vietnam Economic Times
