If you are warm, sincere, tolerant, and respectful, the
Vietnamese will eventually come to trust you. And they can be
trusted in return. It is simply not the case, as some claim, that they
"only trust family members." Perhaps the Chinese in Vietnam only
trust family, but they represent a monied class that has been persecuted
as an ethnic minority in recent history, and such group ism
can be expected.
Foreign firms generate trust by socializing and by addressing
the often unstated needs of the person with whom they desire to
build trust. The Hash House Harriers is a running club for expats.
Red River Oil Company sponsored a run in 1994 for the Hanoi
chapter of the club, which they held at the headquarters of
PetroVietnam, Red River's client ministry in Vietnam.
"PetroVietnam is a pretty conservative group of guys," says company
man Mel Jackson. "Well-educated, and trained overseas."
Unfortunately, all of the one hundred or so Americans-many
from other oil companies-were acting like they normally do on
a Saturday afternoon "Hash." The Petro Vietnam guys declined to
actually run, but they were happy to participate in drinking beer
and singing songs. "By the end of event," says Mel Jackson, "we
had these conservative guys in the middle of this circle, barely
standing up, making loud proclamations about how we were great
friends. Another guy from PetroVietnam was going on and on
about how we hope we can do this every year!"
Through this socializing, Jackson realized trust was deepened
between Red River and the PetroVietnam officials. "On a
couple of field trips to geological sites, we've visited native villages
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and drunk beer together-and got them to a point where anything
goes with us." Mel knew he had generated bonhomie when the
officials "were finally comfortable telling our driver to stop the car
when they had to urinate. They would just say, 'Hey, stop the car,
I gotta go to the bathroom!'" Jackson says it's worth being up in
Hanoi to develop that kind of close relationship. "The oil guys in
Saigon definitely have a more important operational role with
PetroVietnam, but they probably don't have the more social role
that we have up here. I mean I know the families [of these officialsl."
In the following case, the foreign firm addressed the personal
needs of an official in order to forge what must now certainly
be a bond of lifelong trust, if not obligation. The foreign
party is a U.S. real estate development company (which demanded
anonymity in sharing this story), which focused on developing
an airtight relationship at the earliest stage of its involvement in
Vietnam with the head of the People's Committee in a lesserknown
coastal province of the country. The man suffered serious
heart trouble. The San Francisco-based company flew the man to
Singapore, paid for, and "held his hand through," a heart surgery
operation. The official was so indebted that he granted the firm
the right to act as coordinator of all foreign investment projects in
the entire province-a deal that will undoubtedly pan out handsomely
for the U.S. company.