Bao Viet Insurance

Bao Viet is one of the most popular insurance company in Vietnam. It was established in 1964. With a strong and prestigious trademark in insurance industry and a network throughout 64 provinces nationwide, Bao Viet has become the leading financial-insurance group in Vietnam. In 2007, Bao Viet launched its Initial Public Offering and became a multi-business financial group.

I.The mission, values and objectives of Bao Viet enterprise and the influences of stakeholders:

To have a successful business, all companies have to have their own strategies. The first element is that the firm has to show the answer for the question “why do we exist?” or “what do we want to become?”. In other words, each company must have their missions or visions which are considered as a magnetic needle for all the people of company such as manager, workers or officers, etc to follow up. As a result, Bao Viet also has their own vision: “Bao Viet’s vision is to be o-ne of the leading financial groups in Vietnam in life and non-life insurance, investment, securities and other financial services” (Anon., 2008). To achieve this mission, the company wants to set up the high standard in every services that they undertake by innovations in productions and knowledge. In addition, by these activities, Bao Viet will also build up their reputation in Vietnam and have a long-term relationship with the customers, clients and business partners.

All the enterprises need to identify their values which they can believe on it to secure their businesses. There are some values of Bao Viet for their goals and aims which is “innovation”, “growth” and “efficiency”. Principal of innovation for this company can be set up by receiving customers’ comments or feedbacks. After that, the company can renew their products or provide for customers a higher standard of service. Whilst, growth and efficiency can be assessed by basing on the business’s profits. For example, total revenue of the company in 1989 was VND 76 billion, after seven years, in 1996, this number increased rapidly at VND 970 billion.

Bao Viet also should have some obvious objectives to follow. Bao Viet improves their standards of products and services to satisfy the demands of the clients and hope to have more customers and make more profits. For example, due to the success in the first six months of 2008, Bao Viet’s firm has their objective for the last six months: the business will strive to reach the total revenue of VND 3,150 billion in the whole of 2008.

Next, the company should know and recognize the importance of stakeholders towards their business. There are three types of stakeholders. Firstly, we have internal stakeholders such as managers and employees who have immediate influences on the activities of the business. Managers will control all the management of the business, they decide to do or not a project so this position is very important for all the enterprises. Employees are also an major part of a business. They are the people who have the main influences on the success of a company. Employees join in the process of production directly, so if they are received high wages and bonuses to motivate them, the quality of products will improve enormously. On the other hand, if managers or employees do not do their works well, the business may get some loss of profits.

The second one is connected stakeholders. Shareholders invest in the business in return of their dividends. In some cases, their investments can make them become the owners of the company if they have the largest ordinary shares of public limited company. In other words, shareholders can affect on the business by raising capital and even becoming the owners. Another part of connected stakeholders is banker who can lend the firm large amounts of cash to increase the capital.

However, if the company does not make profits to repay their interest, bankers can confiscate the assets and make the enterprise go bankruptcy. Next, Suppliers who supply equipments for the company will expect to be paid and a long term relationship with suppliers can help the business to have more benefits. The last one is customers who need the products or services. For many enterprises, customers are people who decide what is produced or what price is charged. Their behaviors, feedbacks or complaints will influence on the success of the company directly.

Thirdly, we have the external stakeholders. Government has a big position for the success of a business by making the laws and regulations which all the firms have to follow to do the businesses. Local authorities also can affect the business by changing local environment such as increase in road traffic. The next one is professional bodies, who want to ensure that the members of the company comply with professional ethics and standards, also affect the business.

II.The extent to which Bao Viet company achieves the objectives of three stakeholders:

For internal stakeholders such as managers, they are interested in the company’s continuation and growth. They also have some individual interests and goals, for example, a safe and comfortable working environment and skill and career development, etc. Therefore, to achieve the objectives of internal stakeholders, the company needs to increase the revenue and improve the standards of working environment. Bao Viet was held up in 1964, they have 43 years of foundation and growth. In some first years, their revenue only raised a little, turnovers at that time was VND 800,000 with total assets of VND 900,000 because they only served for some state-owned customers.

Now, Bao Viet has widened their nationwide network and developed the business to overseas market. In addition, the income also increase enormously: Its investment income in 2003 reached VND 512 billion from a total portfolio of VND 8,114 billion. These great advances make the company become one of the biggest 25 enterprises in Vietnam. Moreover, on 31st May 2007, Bao Viet was listed on the stock market to sell their shares to the public. After this, the chartered capital of Bao Viet increased at VND 6,800 billion. Bao Viet has 40,000 dedicated agents and 5,000 employees with experienced experts and young, well-trained staff so this company always has a good environment for people to work.

Bao Viet also achieves in the services for customers who represent for the connected stakeholders. Customers always want to receive the best products or services for their demands. They can complain or give comments to the business about the products and their satisfaction is very important for the company’s success. As a result, the firm always needs to listen to the customers’ opinions, this will make major influences on the new products or services in terms of quality or price. Firstly, Bao Viet strategy bases on the customer orientation which means the customers will become the centre of all activities.

The company has taken over the feedback of customers and pay a large amount of money for the customers who bought their insurance. For example, Anh N of Vietnamnet (2004) said that Bao Viet had paid VND 1,000 billion for people who had got accidents or disasters in 2003. Bao Viet also issued more types of insurance such as personal insurance, river boat insurance or fishing boat insurance, etc to serve the customers’ demands. These types will help the customers in many careers to have more choices and make more benefits for the company. Secondly, because of a huge system of nationwide network over the country, Bao Viet has some difficulties to keep contacting with the clients in some parts of Vietnam.

Therefore, the company decided to establish more offices and more officers to improve the quality of services for the customers : “Bao Viet Da Nang built four regional offices in Thanh Khe, Lien Chieu, Hoa Vang, Son Tra – Ngu Hanh Son and a line-up of 120 people who are willing to guide, provide insurance services for the clients everywhere at every time.” (Ha T., 2004). Moreover, Bao Viet associated with some company to develop the quality of services for the customers such as HSBC Vietnam company. By this communication, Bao Viet might provide products for their customers through branch houses of HSBC Vietnam company. Overall, Bao Viet is improving more and more their system of products and services to serve the customers.

Besides the benefits for internal and connected stakeholders, Bao Viet also satisfies the requirement of government, an external stakeholder. Government has some main roles such as passing laws to protect workers and customers, collecting taxes or subsidizing activities, etc. Mr Hoan, Chief executive officer of Bao Viet headquarter stated that in 2003, Bao Viet paid VND 189 billion for the government, increased by 8.2% in comparison with the amount in 2002 (Anh N., 2004). Therefore, Bao Viet achieved the responsibility with the government. Meanwhile, the expansion of Bao Viet will increase the chances for people to have jobs, this activity will help the government to solve the problem of unemployment.

In conclusion, Bao Viet succeed to achieve the objectives of all the stakeholders which includes internal stakeholder, connected stakeholder and external stakeholder.

III.The responsibilities of the company and strategies employed to meet objectives of stakeholders:

The first responsibility of the company is social responsibility. Bao Viet has some responsibilities for the government. For example, Bao Viet must pay tax for their income, in other words, the company must follow all the regulations and laws which the government have issued. Besides, they also make benefits for the local communities such as reducing the ratio of unemployed people in the area. Secondly, we have the ethics and business. Obeying the law is that the company must follow the laws and regulations to do the business. Furthermore, the company has to respect the rights of competitors. The firm has not to criticize or attack the rights of competitors or do everything which can harm the competitors. Business ethics also includes that the organization should protect the employees and consumer from danger of the business. In addition, the company also must not do some illegal activities such as bribery or gifts.

The next one is the management responsibilities. The company should have good relationship with all their stakeholders. Now, Bao Viet has their IPO, so they will have more shareholders. In addition, the business has the responsibility to maximize the profits for shareholders. As a result, they will continue to invest in the company and the business will make more benefits. Second one is the employees who keeps the organization in operational existence. They contribute for the company by joining in the production directly so their position is also very important and they should be received a suitable treatment in terms of wages or salary, bonuses, etc.

Moreover, the firm also should give the employees a coherent career and a training structure to make them become better and work more efficiently. Meanwhile, the company needs to make a good environment for workforce’s lifestyle and make a good condition for them to express all their talent. Next, I will talk about the responsibility for customers. For Bao Viet, the enterprise has to listen to every feedbacks of the customers, develop the quality of services and keep contacting with them to provide enough information which the customers want to know. For the suppliers, the firm must not delay payment or use the power unscrupulously.

In addition, having a long-term relationship or giving new supplier the chance to win new business also makes benefits for both sides. The business also have some responsibilities for the competitors such as the laws of competition about fair trading, monopolies or mergers, etc. The last one is responsibilities for the Community. Each area has their own social and ethical values, so that the firm has to respect these values. Moreover, when the Community needs more capital to hold up an event or charity, the business also should sponsor for them. This way will also make benefits for the company because they have a chance to spread their brand. In addition, the last one is that the enterprise has to respond to complaints for local residents.

In this part, I will give some strategies which Bao Viet has followed to meet the objectives of stakeholders. The first strategy is to become o¬ne of the leading financial groups which has an ability of international competitiveness, providing a wide array of financial services from life and non-life insurance, securities, investment to financial services. This expansion will help the business to widen the market for more consumers. The second one is to become the corporation which is the most popular in Vietnam towards the customers.

This strategy will be useful and important for a customer orientation company. Next, the company wants to “become an organization that can maintain and enhance the “Prestige” “Reputation” and “Honesty and Integrity”, having the “Loyalty” of customers, and BAOVIET members” (Business Environment textbook, 2008). All of the strategies are based on three gold principles of “innovation”, “growth” and “efficiency”.

Reference

http://www.vietnamnet.vn/xahoi/doisong/2004/10/340859/