Mr. Mai Thanh Phuong (in the middle) is chatting with his colleagues at Plastics Crystal.
(ĐTCK) Straight and open, Mr. Mai Thanh Phuong, President and CEO of Crystal Plastic Manufacturing and Technology Joint Stock Company shared his great ambition and his colleagues when he pursued. to the same technology. “I like pressure and I like to lose power,” Phuong said, not afraid to speak in a conversation with the Securities Investment Review.
Already have a shareholder of the business frankly say that they only care about profits and that they don’t need a big revenue business, keep the profit margins really high. As a Company President, what do you think?
If there is no business scale, a large turnover, we never have the advantage and ability to negotiate with customers. Big sales depend on big customers. In phase 1, we have to sell ordinary goods to achieve stable sales on a certain scale, and then we can identify the commodity groups and plan the proportion of the product lines. High revenue in high-tech group, high cost-to-cost ratio, but with high-tech plastic proportion, we can have high efficiency.
When I have a high turnover I have the opportunity to buy cycles, to control the cycle of materials, if not, just buy now (spot) and eat it.
By this stage, our leaders agreed that it would be very expensive to spend on R&D and plastic technology, depending on the researchers. The sales department has to order the scientist.
In the old days, business was business, production was production. Now scientists must be in business, they must have products, which are highly practical.
Many businesses invest in R&D, do you have to change because of competition or because the leadership thinking yourself grows up? ?
The Company’s previous profit margin was 27%, at that time, Crystal Plastic was formerly a mineral enterprise, just digging the soil up to sell too easily, decrees The government also has no control on deep processing, causing people to scramble to excavate the land, causing huge waste, but it is only short-term by traders pushing prices.
After that, the government planning requires deep processing but it does not specify conditions. To survive, because of rice clothes, the business initially produced common goods. But in the era of advanced technology, it is very easy to imitate and invest in something, when everyone can produce it, the price decreases.
We are one step ahead of people, but not forever. Previously, the cycle for a product line was 3-5 years, the cycle time was only 1.5-2 years. Business want to make a difference. Machines can be purchased anywhere, resources are also available, differing only in scale, so the difference will require investing in people.
Last year, I spent 3% of my revenue on R&D, but I didn’t use it all, the machines weren’t back, some products were being worked on by scientists. . We pay for investment research and treat it as a capital contribution by scientists. They come to the business to contribute capital with wisdom, not with money. In addition to salaries, they receive direct sales as a percentage of the product revenue.
Investing in science and technology is a long way. It seems that this is quite difficult for Vietnamese businesses?
We define right and must go long way. The members of the Board of Directors of Pha Le were also the answer. We have restructured members of the Board of Directors, who are professionals, join the Board of Directors and hold concurrently executive positions in Pha Le and in many other businesses. There are people who specialize in finance, some people specialize in manufacturing, people specializing in trade … This is an advantage. For example, if someone has a financial professional, then the capital work is better. The financial structure in large enterprises is extremely important, technology is the backbone, finance is the blood. I myself am only a geological miner, can not understand and do all well, but make a big team, from the Board of Directors and cloned out under clusters.
Crystal advocates not to cooperate with financial investors. Not that we don’t need the money, but the business needs more than the science of the market. Therefore, we do not have members “BOM” bad, do not invite them to sit there to sit there. Each member is already ambitious and we come together.
Our plastic industry has just stopped at simple products, while the proportion of technology plastics, serving large investors, Global production chains are rare. What is difficult here?
Difficult in that we dare to invest in the first stage. With the current size of Vietnamese enterprises’ equity, it can be said that it is impracticable to not break through. Businesses dare to spend millions of dollars on a tiny testing machine. It is also difficult in building trust and the story of “the chicken and the egg”. We dare to believe but shareholders believe us or not, what if it fails. We have strengths, but we also have weaknesses. Therefore, doing it requires very specific solutions.
I always want to learn and gain more experience. As soon as the shareholders’ opinion at the meeting, if they speak directly to the board, it is also great because we do not want to talk about general things.
What is your ambition as an experienced and lifelong businessman?
It is the name of plastic technology when changing the business name, plastic technology represents our ambition. Plastic technology will change its position, income, life is what we are aiming for.
Does he ever have to consider when making decisions, and has to give up even when he sees a good opportunity?
Yes. That is the concern before deciding to sell raw goods, make profits in a certain period or deep processing. There are mines of ours if only paving stones and making paving stones, at the time of real estate market boom today, the profits will be huge. I couldn’t see it when I saw it.
I like pressure and I like to lose power because it makes society better.
Because if we go like that, it’s not plastic technology but rather building materials. We also now make construction materials but are artificial stones made from plastic. Accept to go slower, transforming the finished product according to the advantage of technology plastic, from its core. Paving stone can be good, but only in stages, this is like we are now proactive in technology, not having to judge what the ground is, if we dig up the stone well then we can sell 10 dong, if it is bad we will only get 3 co.
If you have more wings of strategic investors, you have strengths in market development, technology, your ambition will be How is this done soon?
If you find a strategic investor in 2019 and deploy the project in 8 months, because we have a new land fund, infrastructure, then by 2020, the business will be different in the sense of something. Something is the ambition of our Board of Directors.
There are big strategic investors, many businessmen are afraid of pressure and afraid of losing power, what about you?
I like pressure and I like to lose power because it makes society better. If I look at profit, I don’t try to form this team, I have many investment models to make sure my life is okay. And the big team will have to follow the rule of who is good, he owns. I hope the Board is better than me, the board is better than me. I only study mines so there are many points to learn and I have built up a culture in business. Culture dared to stand up to make room for others. Whoever does it better, they will be the president, and I will accept to sit on a full-time job.
The big game is to keep getting ahead?
There are businesses that they are big because they are really big. But not everyone, in an enterprise population, every element needs to know where their position is fun. If I don’t become number 1, I become number 10, number 10 in the square, the number 10 real. I think so.
Anh Việt