Hewlett Packard Company in Vietnam
In September 1995, John Peter, a marketing manager of Hewlett Packard Asia Pacific (HPAP) was evaluating the company’s long term strategic investment options for doing business in Vietnam. Hewlett Packard Asia Pacific was a subsidiary of the Hewlett Packard (HP) Company, and its headquarters was located in Singapore. Vietnam had recently adopted an open-door policy after the U.S. lifted its embargo on the country in February 1994. The country had a population of over 70 million, and foreign investment in the country had climbed steadily to reach almost US$12 billion by the end of 1994.
An environmental and market analysis revealed that the information technology (IT) market in Vietnam had potential. John needed to make a recommendation on whether HPAP should enter the Vietnam market in a more strategic fashion, that is, to give a serious consideration of Vietnam as a major market for HP.
In January 1995, John made a business visit to Vietnam to assess first-hand the business climate and investment opportunities. The first stop was Ho Chi Ming City, a bustling city of 5 million people, 1 hour and 25 minutes from Singapore by air.
He had several meetings with various companies:
Meeting with Dr Vo Van Mai, Managing Director of HiPT, HP’s distributor in Vietnam:
Dr Mai expected the IT market in Vietnam to hit US$500 million by the year 2000. The market size had doubled each year for the past few years and Dr Mai expected the IT market to grow even more rapidly in the next two years.
Currently, IT took the form of mainly personal computers (PCs) with some limited local area networks. Vietnam, being an IT Greenfield, looked likely to adopt client-server technology in a big way, bypassing legacy and proprietary systems common in most developing and developed countries. The PC brands available in Vietnam included Compaq, HP. ACER, Wearnes, AST, Digital, Unisys and IBM.
Dr Mai felt that the most attractive segments of the IT market would
An environmental and market analysis revealed that the information technology (IT) market in Vietnam had potential. John needed to make a recommendation on whether HPAP should enter the Vietnam market in a more strategic fashion, that is, to give a serious consideration of Vietnam as a major market for HP.
In January 1995, John made a business visit to Vietnam to assess first-hand the business climate and investment opportunities. The first stop was Ho Chi Ming City, a bustling city of 5 million people, 1 hour and 25 minutes from Singapore by air.
He had several meetings with various companies:
Meeting with Dr Vo Van Mai, Managing Director of HiPT, HP’s distributor in Vietnam:
Dr Mai expected the IT market in Vietnam to hit US$500 million by the year 2000. The market size had doubled each year for the past few years and Dr Mai expected the IT market to grow even more rapidly in the next two years.
Currently, IT took the form of mainly personal computers (PCs) with some limited local area networks. Vietnam, being an IT Greenfield, looked likely to adopt client-server technology in a big way, bypassing legacy and proprietary systems common in most developing and developed countries. The PC brands available in Vietnam included Compaq, HP. ACER, Wearnes, AST, Digital, Unisys and IBM.
Dr Mai felt that the most attractive segments of the IT market would