At the age of 63, after completing her term as Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Hau Giang Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (DHG), Mrs. Phạm Thị Việt Nga continues to hold the position of General Director of the Company.

At the EOY Award – Entrepreneurial Spirit 2014, female entrepreneur Phạm Thị Việt Nga made a strong impression on the judging panel with her tireless creativity as a leader with both heart and vision, leading DHG from a local pharmaceutical enterprise to become the leading domestic pharmaceutical brand.

1. The reason for staying on to manage DHG, as shared by Mrs. Phạm Thị Việt Nga, is that the Company is in a transformation phase, with a new factory and new business strategy. The successor leadership team needs time to get acquainted with the new tasks, and she has the duty to “fill in wherever the brothers are lacking.” After nearly 30 years steering the DHG ship to many successes, Mrs. Nga’s mark is deeply ingrained.

At 63 years old, she says she still maintains the habit of walking to the Company every morning and swimming before work to maintain her health. She admits that her swimming isn’t based on any technique but comes from instinct, because “at 14 years old, I joined the Southern Liberation Front, living in the swamps—if I didn’t know how to swim, I would have drowned.”

Reviving Hau Giang Pharmaceutical Enterprise, which was on the brink of bankruptcy, and building it into the country’s leading pharmaceutical brand—with revenue from self-produced pharmaceuticals in 2013 reaching 3,005 billion VND, accounting for 11% of the domestic produced drug market share, and after-tax profit of 593 billion VND—was summed up simply by Mrs. Nga: “Heaven always leaves people a way to survive, as long as one makes effort and has heart.”

Self-described as a woman with a very stubborn mind, Mrs. Nga shared that when she decided to import machinery for capsule production, DHG became the first domestic pharmaceutical enterprise in Vietnam to produce capsules.

In 2004, when DHG was developing smoothly, she was determined to equitize the Company even though it was not yet mandatory. “The biggest benefit of equitization is that I can be more proactive in planning mechanisms and policies for employees, encouraging the creativity and dedication of the staff,” Mrs. Nga shared.

After equitization, Hau Giang Pharmaceutical was listed in 2006 and has always been among the best enterprises on the stock exchange.

The average growth rate of self-produced goods from 2009–2013 reached 16.3%. Not only famous in the OTC (over-the-counter) drug market, the prescription drug segment also brings in 500–600 billion VND in annual revenue for the Company, equivalent to that of a large-scale domestic pharmaceutical enterprise.

2. At DHG, there is a very famous slogan: “Today must be better than yesterday, but not as good as tomorrow.” This is the endless inspiration for dedication and creativity to make the enterprise better every day that DHG’s female general wants to pass on to the company’s staff.

Early this year, DHG inaugurated the new Non-Betalactam factory meeting WHO GMP standards, with a designed capacity of 4 billion product units/year. The Betalactam factory, with a designed capacity of 1 billion product units/year, is expected to be completed by the end of 2014, raising the total capacity to 9.5 billion product units/year in the next 5 years. Mrs. Nga does not hide her ambition to make DHG the largest producer of pharmaceuticals and functional foods in Vietnam, comparable to major factories in the Asian region, reaching revenue of 7,000–8,000 billion VND by 2018.

The Company is targeting emerging markets with large populations and similarities to Vietnam. Initially, the Company has plans to bring products to the regional market, including Singapore. The name change to DHG Pharma is also part of the strategy to expand globally.

These ambitious steps, but Mrs. Nga shares that every business plan is carefully calculated: “From the beginning until now, I only do what I know, resolutely not doing what I don’t understand.” With the careful and meticulous traits of a female leader, she shares that after a workday, upon returning home, she often reviews the day’s work to see if anything was overlooked. More than once, she changed major decisions after just one night, believing that small details could have big impacts on the Company later.

Proud of the corporate culture, as she says “in a crowd, you can pick out a Hau Giang Pharmaceutical person,” Mrs. Nga shares that DHG places great emphasis on creativity in the marketing and R&D departments. She herself is someone who is willing to learn and listen to advice. In 2004, when the Company was already operating well, she earned a PhD in pharmacy, then pursued a Master’s in Business Administration to enhance her enterprise management knowledge.

Mrs. Nga also revealed a detail: when DHG built the Wall of Gratitude, she invited a former sales consultant to sign on it, because “thanks to his advice, I changed the sales method.”

3. Once honored by Forbes in the Top 50 most successful businesspeople in Asia, a woman of innovation, yet DHG’s leader exudes simplicity, naturalness, and utmost sincerity.

When asked what advice she has for the next generation, she shared briefly: First, never surrender to difficulties. Second, know how to mobilize the collective strength and intellect. Third, do everything with heart. And she says, precisely because she is always sincere with everyone, whenever she faces difficulties, many people “jump in to help.”

Imbued with the ideology of “Putting the people first” from her resistance war days, Mrs. Nga always treats employees with humanity and comradeship. She says her success today is thanks to the life-and-death dedication of thousands of Company employees: “While I sit in air-conditioned rooms, many of my employees are out in the 40-degree heat in the Central region selling goods. Thanks to them, I meet revenue targets and receive praise from the Shareholders’ Meeting.” It is this sincerity and closeness to subordinates that makes DHG employees see her as an elder sister, someone they can run to share joys and sorrows.

As the architect of DHG’s development strategy to make it the leading domestic pharmaceutical brand, Mrs. Nga says that if it were for personal benefit, she could leave to start her own business, “taking” the business secrets and key personnel with her, but she would never do that. Because she always reminds herself: so many people shed blood and sacrificed in the resistance for this factory, I have eaten the people’s rice since childhood, been sent to study by the State—how could I turn around and compete with the very place that nurtured me.

Still passionate about the Company’s new plans, Mrs. Nga also revealed that she has prepared for retirement by opening a kindergarten, so that “in old age, I can play with children.”

According to Tintucmientay