Management Message in the First KMS Vietnam Insider Issue #1
This was the management letter sent to all KMSers in the first KMS Vietnam Insider series, Issue #1.
Dear all KMSers,
If you are reading this, you are holding the very first issue of KMS Insider series. This certainly marks a special milestone for what KMS, as a company, has gone through in the past 2 years. I would like to take this opportunity to share with you a few things.
Flashing back to Jan 2009… At that time, we had 4 members in management team (1 in US and 3 in Vietnam). And we were able to hire the very first full-time technical staff working for Livescribe. The 4/1 ratio for Overhead/Delivery could tell all how small and how early KMS is as a company at that time. Challenges were all around us. The global economy downturn in 2008 had severely impacted to US market. Job cuts were announced day by day, many of them in IT industry. 1000 jobs lost, cutting 500 people, shutting down businesses were among the top lines for media during those days (J I guess that media businesses were doing well either the ways). What did we see at that point? What encouraged us to start building our KMS at that time?
It was opportunity. Such that fierce setting by market condition had widely opened a few opportunities helping US companies to get out of the difficulties as well as sustain their business in the long run. We saw that technology companies in the U.S. had the biggest pressure than ever to find long-term strategic partners to outsource some or all of the technology work. Given the situation of limited budget, go-to-market promises, continuous maintenance of legacy systems, most of U.S. companies were looking for vendors who can be their long-term partners at a better cost structure. Yet more importantly, it was to find vendors who can commit and deliver high quality of software development services to them, which in turn contributed directly to their success of providing their products to market. What we saw was that if we could make it right, we could tap into those needs and win happy customers. It could be a big win-win for everyone.It has been confirmed that we headed the right track to grow KMS from 5 people from that day to 170 people in Vietnam and 30 people in US to date. 200 people – That is an impressing number. As members of KMS, we can be proud of this achievement that we have been through together. Outsiders would be very curious about how we have done this. The very short answer is people. We have successfully built a strong cohesive team. While technology is our strength, it is scaled up to a bigger level of success by our teamwork, our being-together, our dedication to whatever we do, and our commitment to quality.
Well, looking forward to 2011, what do I see? Once again, I am seeing the same thing – opportunity. Now, our strength is our people and with that we can do a lot more in 2011. There are obviously challenges ahead of us. There will be more new faces to become KMSers. And there will be more celebration.
I would like to express my thanks to all of the effort you have put in for your clients, for your team and for the company. I look forward to seeing you all in the upcoming 2010 company trip to Nha Trang. Let us make it a memorable trip and let us celebrate our growth.
And I hope this series would do well its mission of sharing and turning the breath of KMSers in each and every day’s activity into our successes. My special thanks to Yen and the volunteer editors who have started this very first issue. I look forward to your continuous support and contribution to KMS Insider.
Sincerely,
Viet Hung Nguyen
