Building a successful small business

Mr. Pham Quoc Hung, Founder and Director of Vietnambased Oristar Corp. knows first hand the unique challenges of starting and managing a small business. He learned early that not only is every team member individually critical to the company's performance, but the chemistry between team members is equally as important. Oristar was able to assess. their financial and business management technology requirements and is now a growing company. In an interview conducted by International Metalworking News for Asia, Mr. Hung shared their classic small business challenges beginning from a stringent budget from the government and the lack of basic ingredients. IMNA: Give us a brief background of the company, and why did you specifically start with non-ferrous material? Hung: Oristar was established in February 2002. We are almost eight years now. I have been in the industry dealing with non-ferrous materials for almost 15 years; this is where I got my experience to start on this particular area. I am familiar with the product, I know the market, and I know the potential or future prospects so I decided to set-up the company and run the business myself. When Oristar started in 2002 it was privately owned. I was a 100% shareholder. But in order to expand the company's infrastructure and also to have more manpower, we became a share holding company recently. Majority of the share is owned by the staff and some experienced people whom we invited to work with us. We have around 60 people now.

"I think the success of this company can be attributed to sheer determination and the fact that we constantly brought into the market new products and ensured best quality."

Our factory in Hanoi recently commenced operation, and beginning this year we are offering metal fabrication, cutting and treating. Oristar is still a trading company, but since we opened the factory, we are now a service center. We have been servicing many customers now with value added quality and products. Not only that we have retained our old customers but we have also managed to expand our customer base. IMNA: When you started the company in 2002 and decided to become share holding enterprise, did you encounter any problems? How did you resolve them? Hung: In 2002 when we started the company, our major problem was the size- it was relatively small. We have very minimal capital and manpower and the government was very stringent with the budget, so we were not very strong. We lacked basic ingredients but we tried and worked hard. I think the success of this company can be attributed to sheer determination and the fact that we constantly brought into the market new products and ensured best quality. I believe that if a company is established with a strong, cohesive and determined team even if it's small, the foundation is strong; as in our case, then it can overcome all obstacles, just like we did. IMNA: Who are your main clients? Hung: Our customers are very varied from companies who are manufacturing different products like shipbuilding, civil construction, molding industry, precision engineering, electrical equipment, home appliances and electronics. We are selling copper, aluminum stainless steel bars, sheets and tubes. IMNA: How are your products different from your competitors? Hung: We get the supply very carefully and work with only first class companies in the world. We are now working with the biggest manufacturer AFWA in the world in terms of aluminum, beryllium copper. We also source from another global leader of stainless steel, so we ensure secure quality. We buy from them and we do fabrication and then we supply. We constantly train our staffs. They know not to expect anything but the best. This is an unNike