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From Bloomberg online:
Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao made her first million at 21 trading fax machines and latex rubber. Almost a quarter of a century later, she's poised to become Southeast Asia's first self-made woman billionaire known for putting bikini-clad models on her VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Co. planes and calendars.
With the initial public offering of Viet Nam's only privately owned airline, Thao is set to have a net worth exceeding $1 billionTKTK, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making her the country's first woman billionaire. The majority of her wealth is derived from her stake in VietJet and her holdings in Dragon City, a 65-hectare real estate development in Ho Chi Minh City.
"I've never sat down and calculated my assets," Thao, 45, said in an interview. "I'm just focused on how to boost the company's growth. How to increase the average salary for my employees, how to lead the airline to gain more market share and make it number one."
Wait, wait, wait...what did she say? Run that past me again. She's focused on:
- The company's growth (Blah, blah, blah)
- How to increase the average salary of her employees (What?!)
- How to gain more market share and make the airline number one (Blah, blah, blah)
Numbers one and three you hear all the time. I'd like, if I may, to focus your eyes on number two. You simply seldom hear leaders of business articulate increasing the average salaries of their employees as a top, specific, measurable and intended goal and priority.
Leaders will always talk about taking care of their people in a general sense. They have to say that. But when intentions are left general they lack teeth, commitment and sometimes sincerity.
Hers does not.
It's possible that not all of my readers will approve of the "bikini-clad" part of her business. The type of airline she runs may not be your cup of tea. That's ok. (If it helps, her flight attendants do not have to wear bikinis. They can wear them or a more traditional garb. "Whatever makes them happy," Thao says.)
But my guess is you'd very much approve of how she runs her business; how she prioritizes the reasons for pursuing growth. It's spectacular. By saying that the purpose of growth is first and foremost to increase the average salaries of her employees, she in one fell swoop increased every employee's buy-in.
Labor is one of the most scrupulously watched expenditures in business. As it should be. It's one thing to be vigilant and trim waste, however, it's another to skimp.
Too many leaders take the attitude of paying their people as little as they can get away with in the name of watching margins etc. As a matter of fact, lots of companies get rid of good experienced people to keep the average salary down.
That's a shortsighted view. The long view is that if I increase my people's bite in the company's success, they are more likely going to want to work hard for me and do that for a really long time.
If an employee can tie every ticket sold, every happy customer, every calendar distributed to a bump in their own salary, then their enthusiasm soars.
I've said this many times, human beings are motivated by self-interest first. That's not bad, it's simply reality.
So if leaders of business can show that the increased inflow of money doesn't stream into some mysterious bank account somewhere that makes the company more "successful" or that it's not sucked up by ownership or senior management or used solely for egotistical kingdom building, but rather will find each employees' personal bank account, the employee's motivation to be successful and productive every day will increase exponentially.
Now, of course, Thao has to make good on her high-minded intention. If the success of the company does not translate into higher average salaries for her people then the backlash will be, and should be...what's the name of that movie again?...oh yeah...fast and furious.
Making a show of good intentions and then not following through is worse than never expressing that good intention. Hypocrisy is always the most vulgar.
I don't know much about Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao. The internet is not resplendent with information about her...yet. She's 45 years old and has had great success to this point in most of what she's put her hand to.
I can only hope that the goal of bettering the income of her employees will continue to inform and guide her success the rest of the way.
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