Intrapreneurship is always welcomed by tech giants, where innovations are greatly valued, going way back from when Gmail was born out of Google’s famous 20-percent rule. Mr. Dang Hoa Tran – COO of FPT Software shared his take on making intrapreneurship the key to growing global IT business.

HANOI, Vietnam, April 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — In Vietnam, FPT Software is one of the biggest names in paying close attention to intrapreneurs. Many notable solutions stemmed from this approach: akaBot, akaChain, akaVerse, Deep Clinics and Codelearn…. The reason this global tech firm focuses on building an internal "incubator hub" comes naturally: out of 20 years in the tech business, while they provide service according to the clients’ requests, new ideas always come up in the process in order to do a better job.

"If we pass the chance to transform an idea into a living, breathing product, we lay waste to our own mind," said Mr. Dang Hoa Tran – the Chief Operation Officer of FPT Software, sharing his thoughts on intrapreneurship.

"In my 18 years working at FPT Software, I’ve witnessed many colleagues, my mentees, wanted to leave due to their unfulfilling desire to create their own products. And we had to choose, either to offer a way for them to come up with new things, what they want to do, or watch them go. Intrapreneurship is our way to create both challenge and motivation, pushing our staff to be more creative in the tech playground," Mr.Hoa continued.

The COO is fully committed to boost the startup aspiration, since you can hardly find such a boiling excitement, stand-up-after-failure and never-sleep-on-success attitude in any other place. The youthfulness and dynamic energy swirling within a new startup have always amazed the veteran COO.

In a large company, it is a must to constantly encourage employees’ commitment and increase their enthusiasm. FPT Software took it to heart, weaving it into their human-centric approach of a unique culture. In the middle of it, the potential intrapreneurs are like intense fire: emitting both light and heat, they attract more and more like minded people.

To accompany the intrapreneurs on the bumpy road of startup, FPT Software developed an entire ecosystem of supports, including all the processes that might take up a large portion of your product fit time – which is the most important step at the beginning. If the product does not suffice, you already set yourself back a few steps in the race to get customers and investors.

Hoa further explained FPT Software approach on building the intrapreneurship: "The teams within our "incubator hub" get consulted by the top industry experts – either it’s finance, insurance, aviation, energy, or healthcare – so they get the best insights on any industry’s pain points. Besides horizontal consulting, in-depth, we have no lack of veteran tech experts who have over 20 years’ experience with international customers, for direct advice on the products."

From his operation view, Hoa assessed that the most adoptable products are the ones that can solve the global pain points for companies of all sizes. The incubator group should exercise unbound creativity but shouldn’t fill in too big shoes like those of Google or Facebook.

"We train our intrapreneurs by letting them participate in large-scale "battles" with highly difficult customers as well as joining the major tech markets like The US, India or Europe," Hoa explained.

The incubator is full of room to grow, for teams to mature through constant adjustment according to the customer or end-user request. Reality proves that an RPA-based product – akaBot by FPT Software – has made robotic automation the new breakthrough for banking service, liberating human effort by completing millions of repeated tasks. At the same time, the same technology can be applied to virtual bots for tasks automation, processing automatic invoice or virtual stakeholders meeting. This was especially effective during lockdown, when it helped various businesses operate without interruption on a large scale.

akaBot is also the RPA-based solution which has been ranked in Gartner’s top lists of outstanding RPA solutions multiple times, within the last 3 years since its birth.

"You see, a startup which constantly upgrades and transforms, both in quantity and quality of service, with actual feedback  from end-users, together with direct consulting, can have such an explosive potential. But that is just the first step in the process, the product fit as I mentioned earlier. Naturally, operating a startup requires the founders to be fluent in a lot more other management spectrum," he shared.

It is not easy for any startup to work on all aspects at once, from technology and the human resource, to marketing, sales and branding.

Should founders be able to overcome the beginning period, they would gradually gain more technical and managerial knowledge, which is, according to Hoa, something people must not take the shortcut through.

It takes a lot for a startup to spin off from their native company and break out into a unicorn, Hoa pointed out, in which luck plays no small part. The key to success, however, is that people must have all the elements at the right place: technical power, strong will and flexibility to adapt to any situation, making the impossible possible while keeping the solution’s unique features.

"FPT Software was once a startup too, 23 years ago. At that time, when no one in Vietnam did BPO with foreign partners or even thought of going past the border, we started it. You can say it was not all but being persistent, we faced various failures and must stand up again after each fall. Our people’s startup spirit is forever. Even the engineers, the experts within FPT Software have always nurtured their ideas, shaping and molding them into real-life products, even if the time can be measured by dozens of years," Hoa proudly shared.

FPT Software also spent 8 years incubating to be the first company to design and produce "Make In Vietnam"* IC – Integrated Circuit. Today, the company is taking its first steps to realize this dream: they have founded FPT Semiconductor – the first fabless company under the FPT Software umbrella, and the first hardware product by FPT Software.

From their design house in Vietnam, the company sends the IC designs to its fabrication factory in Korea, where they produce and package the final products then send it straight to clients in Australia. By July 2022, FPT Semiconductor is expected to deliver its first unit, growing to 25 millions units in the next two years, catering to different needs from IoT, power energy, and so on. "I am extremely proud that the entire R&D process takes place right in Vietnam by our very top engineers at FPT Software," Hoa expressed.

"Why do we join this market? You know, there are only a handful of companies producing IC worldwide, and the need always surpasses supply. On average everyone owns at least one IC, and this number can grow 3 to 10 fold in the future," he stressed.

"The key to how we can harness the power to fulfill this dream is the startup spirit, forging our people through the years. We chose the right moment, at our best performance, to bring forward a new change, reigniting the flame in the heart of our organization, pushing forwards for ever growing operation," FPT Software representative concluded.

Note:
* "Make In Vietnam" is a government program to accelerate technology innovation by local businesses.