Learn about the digital transformation at Home Credit Vietnam that was led by a group of managers from Central Europe and how they overcame technological and cultural barriers.
Implementing radical changes in a culturally diverse corporation is challenging on many levels. Our team experienced this firsthand during the Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) adoption project at Home Credit Vietnam.
“The biggest challenge of this project for me personally was overcoming a lot of communication barriers. I quickly learned that the Vietnamese and European mindset and culture differ quite a lot. After a few initial bumps on the road however, we managed to develop a great relationship with the Home Credit project team.”
Jakub Jan Kučera – Project Manager, Revolgy
Most of the initial misunderstandings came from different values that our cultures prioritize. Vietnamese culture emphasizes maintaining harmonious relationships in the workplace and outside of it. Jakub, Alexandra, Vlasta, and Pavel learned about this firsthand a few times.
“The project manager of the Vietnamese team spent the entire Saturday taking care of us and showing us around the city. He even introduced us to his family. It made us feel very special, welcomed and appreciated. It was hard for me to comprehend that he was willing to devote so much of his own personal time and attention to us. I was told, this kind of hospitality is a big part of Vietnamese culture”
Jakub Jan Kučera – Project Manager, Revolgy
The Revolgy team spent two weeks in Ho Chi Minh City, managing the technical part of the project and leading training for their employees. Our project managers Jakub, Xana, and Pavel expected some cultural and language barriers, so they also asked our colleague Vlasta to come along. She was born and raised in Prague by a Vietnamese family and knows the languages and customs of both countries very well. She became a crucial member of the team who helped not only with translations but also to overcome some cultural differences.
“Vietnamese people are very friendly and would never criticise you or give you negative feedback. This is why our team had to rethink some of the aspects of our change management strategy. It was a truly challenging and humbling experience”
Vlasta Phamová – Change Management Specialist, Revolgy
The importance of maintaining good relationships with people also manifests by avoiding conflict at all costs. For example, our Vietnamese colleagues would never say “no” to our team, as it is considered extremely impolite. This led to a few humorous situations when trying to organize meetings, for example. Thankfully, Vlasta was there, and her insight into mentalities and undeniable people skills proved priceless.
The roots of our Czech-Vietnamese friendship
The Czech Republic and Vietnam have a lot in common, too. Their history goes back to the communist period, when many Vietnamese people, encouraged by their authorities, migrated to Czechoslovakia with the intention of gaining new skills and then returning to their country. However, following the collapse of Communism in Czechoslovakia, many Vietnamese people decided to remain in the country. Today, Vietnamese are the third-largest ethnic minority in the Czech Republic.
Throughout the years, strong business connections between our countries have been built. A good example of that could be seen in corporations such as Home Credit - it was originally founded in the Czech Republic but expanded to Asia, where their business became even stronger than in the country of origin. Home Credit brought their core competence in Consumer Finance, mainly in risk management. It allowed the company to scale fast on markets that were underserved by other financial companies lacking such competence, and therefore, ASEAN countries are risky for them.
Building technological and cultural bridges
With the expansion of their business, Home Credit Vietnam underwent a general digital and agile transformation of the entire company structure. Migration to the Cloud and adoption of online communication and collaboration tools were only a part of a much more complex project.
“The vision was very clear - to let computers do, what they can do better than people, and let people utilise their talents on more important things than repetitive administrative tasks.”
Jiří Maňas – CTO, Home Credit Vietnam
People, in general (of any nationality, gender, age, or beliefs), tend to be reluctant to major changes. This proved to be especially true for the Vietnamese. Their culture values tradition greatly, so any big change is quite difficult for them. At Revolgy, we believe that a successful digital transformation can take place only by shifting people's mindsets. Our projects' change management and project management methodology reflect just that.
Some of its aspects include activating employees themselves and igniting their initiative to search for creative solutions to the problems they face every day in their work.
Our experience has taught us that people feel much more comfortable asking their peers for advice when they need help with new tools. This is the core of the Train the Trainers part of the project, where eager representatives of different departments receive thorough training and guidance and later become ambassadors of change for other employees, or as we call them, “Google Guides.”
Based on their feedback on the most common issues their colleagues were facing, custom manuals, piles of tips and tricks, and best practices have been put together and published on a specially designed website, available to all employees. This website has become a go-to resource center for all current and future team members.
Focus groups with employees across the organization and interviews with stakeholders have been organized. The aim is to understand how the company works and identify possible improvements in departmental collaboration.
Together with the Home Credit team, we deeply analyzed use cases specific to their business and reviewed selected business processes. Then, prototypes and roadmaps of solutions were designed.
Going above and beyond to keep sensitive data safe
Due to the nature of the company, which deals with their clients' most sensitive personal and financial data, there was a strong emphasis on the security of any new solutions implemented. The complexity of their infrastructure required some custom tweaks. One of the requirements was to find a way to enforce tagging each document on Google Drive to ensure compliance with the company's security standards. At the time of the project, this option wasn't available for Google Drive, so we developed a custom Chrome extension that was made compulsory for every user and forced them to tag each and every document accordingly.
To ensure the highest possible security when working remotely, a Mobile Device Management platform has been launched. In order to make the usage of different independent software and tools easier yet compliant with the highest security standards, Single Sign-on (SSO) has been set up.
Collaborating in real-time across the world
Home Credit Vietnam quickly realized the tremendous impact Google Workspace adoption had on their way of working in the following stage of the project. Our team went back to Prague, and the rest of the works needed were managed remotely using newly implemented tools such as Hangouts and Meet and making the most out of real-time online collaboration on project documentation in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.
“We finally have a modern communication tool of the 21st century – easy to use, mobile friendly and allowing for collaboration across the company that truly empower our people. Google Workspace implementation was an important step in the digital transformation of our company.”
Jiří Maňas – CTO, Homecredit Vietnam
