Lo Hoi Company: Linking Business with Ethics and Law

 “Marketplace is battlefield” with ups and downs, severe competition and challenges requires enterprises to make great efforts and timely changes to survive and succeed. Lo Hoi Trading Limited Company, with its success created by their internal force, the eagerness for renovation along with long-term sustainable development strategies, is the very lively evidence for an enduring effort to build up trademark.

 

Multi level marketing, although being a popular kind of business in the world, is still very new in Vietnam, and it requires a resilient energy along with a great braveness to join this business field as there are a lot of difficulties and challenges. With a desire to bring to Vietnam a high-quality and effective natural product, a woman aged over 50 determined to set up Lo Hoi Company specialising in import and monopolistic distribution of functional food and cosmetic products made by Forever Living Products (FLP), a leading U.S.-based multinational group which has a wide network in 135 countries all over the world, more than 9.5 million distributors and annual revenues of over US$2.1 billion. Lo Hoi Company was established at a time when there was no law on this special kind of business in Vietnam along with specific features of this business model. As a result, in early stage after the conception, Lo Hoi Co. had experienced a lot of challenges and ups and downs. However, with a sustainable development strategy and the guideline “live and work under law” set by the board of directors after the operation, Lo Hoi had bravely overcome the hardship and increasingly become mature and recognised by consumers.

 

In August 2005, the Vietnamese government issued Decree No. 110/2005/ ND – CP on managing multi level marketing operation. Lo Hoi Co. benefited much from this decision as this is legal framework for real multi level marketing firms to operate, develop and do their best under the coordination and protection of the law. With the determination and patience, Lo Hoi has worked in line with the law and proved great progress through impressive business results. Over the past six years of operation, the company gained gross revenues of VND751 billion, paid VND181 billion worth of tax to the state budget, and spent VND300 billion on commission paid to distributors. Lo Hoi – FLP Vietnam was honourably ranked 13^th in the list of 15 biggest companies in terms of revenues in Vietnam in 2008. This is a respective and proud achievement as the multi level marketing is still a young business field in Vietnam and it has experienced ups and downs over the past time.

 

Currently, Lo Hoi is continuously promoting its ability and strong points, striving to be named in the Top 10, so that it can once again affirm Vietnam’s strength in the eyes of international friends. Lo Hoi is now home to more than 235,215 devoted members all over the country who desire to reach new high and do significant things for this life by their heart.

 

Each multi level marketing company in different countries in the world has its specific business features based on national traditions, their common feature is the way to assess employees’ capability through the earnings they make but to ignore business ethic, which is an essential factor contributing much to the success of each employee in particular and the whole company in general. Lo Hoi Company’s General Director Truong Thi Nhi is sensitive and wise in realising that the core of business success secret is the heart. She said that an employee without occupational ethics can not make a sustainable and significant success despite his high revenues. The heart will create the value of human being and the very heart will create profits.

 

On the basis of thorough understanding about the vital importance of business ethics, the company’s general director encouraged her officials to be always active. Apart from sale skills, they also have to strictly comply with all regulations of the company, and they have to be aware of their role as independent business individual responsible for their behaviours before the law. Multi level marketing is naturally a sensitive business field, so a great importance must be attached to business ethics. In order to help distributors understand the guideline “Use business ethics as success measure” and map out correct orientations in lines with the strategies and policies of the state and the company, Lo Hoi constantly organised training courses, propaganda against business ethics for distributors, and taught business ethic rules and related laws to them.

 

Along with the compliance with business ethics standards, Lo Hoi Co. also praised the guideline “live and work under the law” set by the board of directors since its conception. By strictly complying with regulations of the current laws, Lo Hoi wants to become a healthy and effective enterprise in this new business field which is in dire need of the support of the law. With great effort for the target to build business culture and ethics, operate under the regulations of the law, create a healthy business environment and attach great importance on benefits and the health of customers, Lo Hoi has built up a beautiful image, a prestigious and sustainable trademark recognised by customers and international friends.

 

The great success as well as the solid position of Lo Hoi Company today is attributed to the great contribution of its general director Truong Thi Nhi, a bold and devoted woman overcoming difficulties and unsympathetic public opinion to develop a prestigious and successful Lo Hoi trademark. As a sensitive and kind-hearted businesswoman, she also pioneered to build a business environment full of culture and ethics, and run all business activities of Lo Hoi under the justice and lucidity of the law.

 

Born in the difficult time, she has a thorough understanding about the hardship of the poor. Behind her determination and braveness is also a kind heart. Despite a lot of work, she still pays a great attention to unhappy lives. Over the past six years of difficulties and ups and downs, she and her employees have still lent hands to the poor or financed significant programmes with the hope of partly easing their hardship. The company contributed money to the fund “For Agent Orange Children”, funded the programme “For Peaceful Life”; presented bikes to poor children in Ben Tre Province; sponsored the Vietnamese hero’s mother Trinh Thi Hui; organised a voluntary blood donation programme among the company’s employees; relieved flood-hit people in provinces annually. It is difficult to count significant social activities that she and her employees have made. These are considered as indispensable non-profit activities in their business environment.

 

She also gives great help to her inferiors. All employees, although being worker, engineer or division director, receive the encouragement, care and assistance from their director in any circumstance. The faith and devotion of distributors is the most deserving return for her.

 

Entering a new phase with new opportunities and challenges, an action guideline “Solidarity – Cooperation – Principle – Activeness – Effectiveness”, the Law on Completion and a decree on managing multi level marketing operation in Vietnam, along with an improved management apparatus in line with the multi level marketing model under the law, Lo Hoi Trading Limited Company promises a high prospect and prosperity in the future.

 

MN