National economics university Neu business school  Le ha minh Sales force competency of Steels Products and Energy Business Division in Mitsui &Co Viet Nam Ltd Hanoi – 2013 National economics university Neu business school  Le ha minh Sales force competency of Steels Products and Energy Business Division in Mitsui &Co Viet Nam Ltd SUPERVISOR: PHD. NGUYEN QUOC DUY Hanoi - 2013 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT In order to complete thesis “Sales force competency of Steels Products and Energy Business Division at Mitsui &Co Viet Nam Ltd”, I got supports from professors at Business school – National Economic University, especially Dr. Nguyen Quoc Duy – my supervisor. During the time for completing my research, he helped me by his best when necessary. He gave me useful guidance and full information so that I can report my thesis on time. He is really a professional supervisor with valuable supports. Moreover, I also want thank to all employees Mitsui &Co Viet Nam Ltd, including: Board of Directors, all managers and staffs that helped me so much during time of studying my research. I would like to express my thanks to Dr. Sato Motonobu, General Director of Mitsui & Co. Vietnam Ltd. and Mr Nagasawa Masayuki, General Manager of Steels Products and Energy Business Division because of their advice for me during my MBA course and research. In addition, I wish to say thanks to Mr. Asaga Minoru, General Manager of Human Resource Division, Ms. Chu Nguyen Thanh Thuy, Manager of Human Resource Division and their staffs to provide me lots of useful information about human strategy, salary policy, human management form, etc. In conclusion, I would like to say thanks to all managers, staffs of EMBA program who helped all EMBA students in studying and research during 2 years. Thank you very much! i TABLE OF CONTENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i TABLE OF CONTENT ii ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF Diagram & TABLES v EXECUTIVE SUMMARY vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Rationale 1 1.2. Research Objectives 3 1.3. Research Question 3 1.4. Research Methodology 4 1.4.1. Research process: 4 1.4.2. Collecting data: 4 1.4.3. Data Analysis 5 1.5. Scope of research 6 1.6. Research structure: 6 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ON COMPETENCY 7 2.1. Nature of competency 7 2.2. Competence model 9 2.3. Components of competence 11 2.3.1. Components of selling competence: 11 2.3.2. Competency assessment method and process 14 2.3.3 Factors affect to competency at an organization 18 CHAPTER 3: SALE STAFFS COMPETENCY IN STEELS PRODUCTS AND ENERGY BUSINESS DIVISION AT MITSUI CO VIET NAM Ltd 19 3.1. Requirement of sales force for sale staff competency in SPEBD at Mitsui Vietnam 19 3.1.1 .Overview of Mitsui Vietnam 19 ii 3.1.2. Sales force job analyze of SPEBD at Mitsui Viet Nam 24 3.1.3. The requirement for competency of sales forces at SPEBD 30 3.2. Current competencies of sales force at SPEBD analysis 38 3.2.1. Current knowledge 39 3.2.2. Current skills 43 3.2.3. Current attitude 50 3.2.4. Overall assessment on the gap of competency 52 3.3. The strengths and shortcoming of sales force’ competencies 53 CHAPTER 4: SOLUTION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 56 4.1. Orientation of Mitsui business in the near future 56 4.2. Solution to improve sales staffs’ competencies of SPEBD 57 4.2.1. Improving Training and Development 57 4.2.2 Improving Non-Training and Development 60 4.2.3. Recommendation to improve sales staffs’ competencies of SPEBD 63 CONCLUSION 68 REFERENCES 70 APPENDIX 1 GUIDELINE FOR IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW GENERAL INPORMATION 71 APPENDIX 2 QUESTIONNAIRES CURRENT COMPETENCIES OF SALE STAFFS AT SPEBD OF MITSUI COMPANY 72 iii ABBREVIATIONS MITSUI VIET NAM MITSUI & Co. VIETNAM Ltd SPEBD Steels Products and Energy Business Division VSA Vietnam Steels Association WTO World Trade Organization iv LIST OF DIAGRAM & TABLES Diagram: Diagram 2.1: Components of selling competencies 11 Table Table 3.1: Structure of the SPEBD 25 Table 3.2: Sales Process of the SPEBD 26 Table 3.3: Results of Mitsui Vietnam Business and Business Division sales of steel in the years 2008 – 2012 27 Table 3.4: Members of SPEBD 28 Table 3.5: Basic salary of the Sales Department’s sales force: 29 Table 3.6: Responder of the deep-interview 30 Table 3.7: Requirement for competencies of the sale staff at SPEBD 30 Table 3.8: Respondent rate 39 Table 3.9: Knowledge on market and industry 40 Table 3.10: Knowledge on company and functions Of the Steels Products and Energy Business Division 41 Table 3.11: Knowledge on Product of the Steels Products and Energy Business Division 42 Table 3.12: Evaluation problem solving 43 Table 3.13: Evaluation assessment skill 43 Table 3.14: Evaluation forecast skill 44 Table 3.15: Evaluation Planning 44 Table 3.16: Evaluation communication 45 Table 3.17: Evaluation negotiation 46 Table 3.18: Evaluation teamwork 47 Table 3.19: Evaluation presenting 47 Table 3.21: Evaluation foreign language 49 v Table 3.22: Evaluation taking responsibility 50 Table 3.23: Evaluation Enthusiasm and quality sellers 50 Table 4.1: The contents of the training courses 58 Table 4.2: Commissions for employees monthly sales 61 Table 4.3: Redistricting bonus for employees 62 Table 4.4: Weekly reports of sales representatives 65 vi EXECUTIVE SUMMARY From the 2000s, Vietnam’s construction industry has been developing rapidly. During sustainable development period, the urban environment is also taken care. It is the reason for the booming of Vietnam construction industry. On the background of the market economy, especially after Vietnam’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), the most important objective of the domestic economy is to enable local enterprises to sustain and develop in such a fiercely competitive market. Enterprises must apply new technology and develops human resource strategy in order to survive in the competitive environment of both domestic and international market. Among important strategies to keep local enterprises alive, policy of the human resource considered as the first and foremost factor to develop. This thesis is written based on the fact of Mitsui Viet Nam is facing with the problem of losing competitive advantage in term of human resource’s quality for its future development to become a leading steel company in Vietnam. This weakness induces Mitsui Viet Nam easily to lose potential business opportunities due to the lack of competent people who do the job in the most effective way. Therefore, the company is trying to overcome this bad situation by improving human resource specially managers that the company did not pay much attention before. In the scope of my thesis, the study was conducted to identify required competencies Mitsui Viet Nam’s sale office and assess their current competencies to determine the gap between requirements and their current competencies, thereby giving some implications for addressing that gap. Based on literature foundation of the competency, competency model, job analysis, synthesis and qualitative analysis of primary and secondary data are used to test. Primary data are collected by in depth interviews and questionnaire survey. Secondary data were collected mostly from the company policies, regulations, reports. From analyzing job performance and interview results, requirement of vii competencies required were identified for the sale staff including: (1) Knowledge; (2) Skills: Personal Skill; Interpersonal Skill; Work Skill; (3) Attitude Basing on given competencies criteria, the survey was conducted to assess the current competencies of the sale staff at Mitsui Viet Nam in Hanoi. In this step, 360o evaluation method was used to identify their current competencies. The questionnaire survey was designed and revealed some key findings as follow: The Score that people give for most of competency criteria were not high such as. It means that the sale staff has some competencies not meet requirements of the company and they should improve these competencies immediately. The sale staff’s evaluation on competencies of themselves is higher than managers and customers. It proved that they are over confident in their competencies. The gap between current and required managerial competencies for project officer of the company was identified. This is a big gap problem that the company is facing and they should consider to taken the right actions for addressing this gap and improving these competencies of the sale staff immediately. Basing on these findings, the thesis suggested some solutions for addressing the gap between the current competencies of sale staff and the company’s requirements. I would like to suggest REST progress, which improves the competencies of sale staffs, included four function need to be implemented carefully, and they are: Recruiting and selection, Evaluation, Succession planning, Training and Development The thesis focused only on two solutions including training solution and non- training and development solution. In training solution, the thesis suggested internal training and external training plan. In non-training and development solutions, the thesis focused on policy of Compensation, Developing Incentive and Bonus term and Conditions, policy of Punishment, Improving Evaluation to explore ways that can help the company achieve effectiveness of the solutions in improving of sale staff as well as human resource’s viii [...]... cross-national comparisons, understanding country -specific and local conditions, describing the current situation 6 1.5 Scope of research Object: The thesis focus on competency of sales force Steels Products and Energy Business Division at Mitsui & Co Viet Nam Ltd through improving sale staffs competency of Steels Products and Energy Business Division at Mitsui & Co Viet Nam Ltd Time: Secondary data: 2... formally information gathering: in- depth interview and questionnaire survey 5 a) Method of in- depth interview with the following key persons of SPEBD: - 01 Director of Mitsui Vietnam - 01 Manager of Steels Products and Energy Business Division Approach ways of in- depth interview are: - Meeting directly key managers in Mitsui Vietnam - Proposing questions based on list of prepared questions - Collecting... succeed in their current job and develop for the future CHAPTER 3: SALE STAFFS COMPETENCY IN STEELS PRODUCTS AND ENERGY BUSINESS DIVISION AT MITSUI CO VIET NAM Ltd 3.1 Requirement of sales force for sale staff competency in SPEBD at Mitsui Vietnam 3.1.1 Overview of Mitsui Vietnam  About Mitsui Global: Mitsui & Co., Ltd (called Mitsui Corporation) was established in 1876 At that time, they engaged in rice... by Mitsui Since then, they enlarged their company by building a wide range of businesses: Iron & Steel products business, Mineral & metal resources business, Infrastructure projects business, Motor vehicles & construction machinery business, Marine & aerospace business, Basic chemicals business, Performance chemicals business, Energy business, Food resource business, Food products & services business, ... supplying source for their business in regional, as well as in Vietnam  About Mitsui Viet Nam Mitsui & Co Ltd Vietnam is the first foreign company in Vietnam permitted to do import trading business according to WTO commitments, however, the commercial certificate issued by the Planning and Investment of Ho Chi Minh city in 28/12/2006 is only partial Mitsui & Co Ltd Vietnam is a subsidiary of the Mitsui. .. projects, Mitsui & Co Vietnam Ltd is the firm established by the Japanese and Vietnamese Government in the form of a 100% foreign capital company The firm starts trading in 2007 and the permitted operating duration is 50 years  The business of Mitsui Vietnam: Mitsui Vietnam focuses on 4 main areas: - Trading business, import and export of steel products for the constructing and manufacturing industries... Business Division Consequently, sales force competences are required as perfect as possible From these rationales, this research topic focus on the issue Sales force competency of Steels Products and Energy Business Division at Mitsui & Co Viet Nam Ltd" , thus generating the limitations of active sales force to provide a basis for finding solutions to improve sales force competences at Mitsui & Co Viet Nam. .. Co Viet Nam Ltd 3 1.2 Research Objectives The goal of the research is to close the gap between evaluated and required competencies Steels Products and Energy Business Division at Mitsui & Co Viet Nam Ltd So I focus on four contents:  Clarify the competency requirements of sales force at Steels Products and Energy Business Division  Analyze the current sales forces competencies and find out the gap... main business of Steels Products and Energy Business Division is that Import/ Export & domestic trading business on Iron & Steel material for various area, construction steel, automotive steel, plate for ship – building, home electronics, stainless and special steel for domestic market The Steels Products and Energy Business Division is working to improve the sales and distribution of steel products. .. annually in the upcoming years Therefore, we can see that the role of the Energy and Steel Product Business Division is very important They take in charge of controlling sales network as well as Carrying out researches, evaluate the effectiveness of sales policies and current service standards to promote sales, improve service quality So the sales force plays a key role in Steels Products and Energy Business . university Neu business school  Le ha minh Sales force competency of Steels Products and Energy Business Division in Mitsui &Co Viet Nam Ltd Hanoi – 2013 National economics university Neu business. SALE STAFFS COMPETENCY IN STEELS PRODUCTS AND ENERGY BUSINESS DIVISION AT MITSUI CO VIET NAM Ltd 19 3.1. Requirement of sales force for sale staff competency in SPEBD at Mitsui Vietnam 19 3.1.1. Director of Mitsui Vietnam. - 01 Manager of Steels Products and Energy Business Division . Approach ways of in- depth interview are: - Meeting directly key managers in Mitsui Vietnam - Proposing questions