How Mondelez Kinh Do boosts corporate culture

Proud of a shared mission

With more than 20 years of experience in finance at multinational corporations, Tran Thu Hien has been with the company since the early days of its presence in the Vietnamese market. For such a long time, what kept her here is the development opportunities, diverse corporate culture, and very progressive talent development policy.

Tran Thu Hien, Associate Finance Director of Mondelez Kinh Do Vietnam. Photo by: Mondelez Kinh Do Vietnam.

Mondelez currently has more than 80,000 employees globally, operates in more than 165 countries, and serves millions consumers daily. Working in the dynamic environment of a multinational corporation with a global scale gives Hien and the team at Mondelez Kinh Do the opportunity to manage and develop long-standing global brands like Oreo, LU, Cadbury Chocolate, Toblerone, Tang orange powder, and famous domestic brands like Kinh Do, Cozy, Solite, and AFC.

With diverse and innovative culture, a flexible and professional working environment, Mondelez Kinh Do is considered an ideal workplace for dynamic young people. Photo taken in March 2021.

"Mondelez Kinh Do people are proud to make and bake delicious snacks with high-quality standards to serve millions of consumers in Vietnam and around the world. At Mondelez, I have had the opportunity to pass many memorable milestones over the past 10 years. In particular, Mondelez International's acquisition of Kinh Do, which can be said to be one of the largest deals in the market ever, is a rare opportunity for a finance person," Hien said.

As a witness to the historic M&A deal while being directly involved in the transition between the two businesses, the event brought a lot of joy and new things to learn for not only herself but the whole team.

"After the transition, almost every member of the company feels happy in the new environment because everyone understands that Mondelez offers a lot of opportunities for employees," she said.

Energy management

Hien believes the secret lies in her ability to channel energy through her leadership style to staff.

"For me, energy management is more important than time management. Always keep your energy high, whether it's in your work or personal life. This energy comes from mental factors, from the way of thinking, patience, and persistence in work... These are the factors that will help bring success."

She always encourages her team to be creative in solving problems, taking action and breaking all limits, being themselves and providing different ideas to show their imprint at work.

Hien in Mondelez KinhDo’s annual"Joy Schools", an environmental program that creates fun-learning playground for students.

Hien added that thanks to its diverse and innovative culture, along with a flexible and professional working environment, Mondelez Kinh Do is considered an ideal workplace for dynamic young people. "Each Mondelez Kinh Do employee carries with them passion, pride and puts their best into their work."

The people behind the numbers

At Mondelez Kinh Do, people are always the most important factor. The progressive gender equality policy applied in recruitment, assessment, and talent development is a significant factor in the company's success in Vietnam. Mondelez Kinh Do Vietnam is recognized by Mondelez International as one of the best-performing markets in the area of gender equality and promoting female leadership.

The female leader of Mondelez Kinh Do believes the art of a finance employee is to keep a balance between controlling regulations, limits, and people, opportunities to ultimately come up with a solution for the business to grow.

To Hien, the balance between "Dare and Care" is also an art in team leadership.

With "Dare", leaders will table challenges and ask the right questions to make employees think, change, and find new ways to solve problems. On the contrary, "Care" is to understand where the problem lies so leaders can get involved at the right time.

Most importantly, leaders need to help their employees see themselves as part of a much larger picture of the organization and how one small action can change an entire company.

Growing together

Hien believes success is being able to learn something new every day to see herself grow and help the people around her grow.

At Mondelez Kinh Do, talents have many opportunities for career development with clear promotion plans and full support from leaders at all levels, from which employees clearly define their career goals.

To maximize the learning ability and comprehensive development opportunities for young employees after being recruited, Mondelez Kinh Do has launched the "My Career Launchpad" program that emphasizes the "Many ways to grow" and thinking broadly about the development and career options available to colleagues at Mondelez beyond simply vertical growth. It bridges the "Many ways to grow" (enrichment in role, lateral move, well-curated projected, realignment and enrichment) with learning on the job, learning from others, and formal learning.

Aside from roles requiring little work experience, the company also introduced its EDGE Program, which is the first-ever flagship early careers program in Southeast Asia. It is intended to build a long-term pipeline of end-to-end and future-ready high-quality local, homegrown young talents for Vietnam, Southeast Asia and beyond.

Mondelez Kinh Do has a rigorous capacity assessment system and brings a lot of value in nurturing and developing talents. The evaluation will be based on all aspects, including capacity and development opportunities that leader can see in the future for each employee. From there, the leader will apply leadership styles suitable for each individual, avoiding a "one-fit-all" approach.

According to Hien, a successful leader must have enough leadership styles to apply flexibly to different individuals at different times and in different situations.