NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

INTERNSHIP REPORT
ONLINE MARKETER
DIEN KHANH SERVICES TRADING COMPANY LIMITED

VO THI THANH NGAN – BABAWE18506

Supervisor: Nguyen Thanh Tuan – Assistant Director
Internship duration: 29th June – 12th September
66 Working days
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................................. 2
Acknowledgement ................................................................................................................................................ 3
I. Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................... 4
II. Company description ................................................................................................................................ 5
1. General introduction .............................................................................................................................. 5
2. History .......................................................................................................................................................... 5
3. Products and services ............................................................................................................................ 7
4. Customers and partners ........................................................................................................................ 8
5. Organizational structure ....................................................................................................................... 9
6. Department responsibilities ................................................................................................................ 9
7. Company performance & its development trends ................................................................... 11
III. Internship activities ............................................................................................................................... 13
1. Business department ........................................................................................................................... 13
2. Intern duties and responsibilities .................................................................................................. 16
3. Department problems & Solutions................................................................................................. 17
4. Company problems & Suggested solutions ................................................................................ 18
IV. An assessment of the internship ....................................................................................................... 19
1. Skills and qualifications learned from the internship ............................................................ 19
2. Responsibilities undertaken during the internship period .................................................. 20
3. Influences on future career plans ................................................................................................... 20
4. Correlation between internship activities and classroom knowledge............................. 20
IV. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 21
Appendices and supplementary materials .............................................................................................. 22
Bibliography......................................................................................................................................................... 22

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Acknowledgement
The internship at Dien Khanh Company was a tremendously valuable opportunity for me to
learn and develop my working experiences. Throughout the writing of this internship report,
I have received a great deal of guidance and support. Thus, I sincerely express my deep sense
of gratitude to all the staff from all of the offices, especially the Business Department at this
firm.

I would wholeheartedly appreciate my supervisor at Dien Khanh Company, Mr. Tuan

Nguyen, the assistant director, whose expertise was invaluable and talent in guiding me to
go through various projects, stimulating the active and creative working environment and
honoring my contribution to the teamwork. On the one hand, his insightful encouragement
pushed me to overcome occurring obstacles during the implementation process of new
ideas. On the other hand, he also assisted me how to apply software in managerial solutions
and became a young model for courageously and actively bringing the wind of change to the
longstanding enterprise.

I desire to acknowledge my colleagues from my internship for their extraordinary

collaboration and helping me to adapt to the new working environment. I would particularly
like to appreciate Mr. Tam Vo, Ms. Tuyen Nguyen and Ms. Thu Nguyen. I aim to thank you all
for their thoughtful assistance and for all of the opportunities I was given to further my
research.

I would also love to thank my teaching instructor, Mr. Trung, for his helpful guidance
throughout my studies. He provided me with timeline reminders carefully, suggested the
directions and solutions during my report writing and finally became a proofreader that I
genuinely need to complete this work.

As of last, my profound thanks come to my parents for their wise counsel and sympathetic
ear. They are always there for me. Finally, I could not have developed this report without the
aid of my friend, Ms Mai Tran, who provided stimulating discussions as well as comfortable
distractions to rest my mind outside of my task.

In conclusion, I believe that the work experience together with knowledge gained from this
internship course, could be utilized to establish a solid background for my future career,
especially regarding the Business Administration field.

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I. Executive Summary
Dien Khanh Services Trading Company Limited (Dien Khanh Co., Ltd) has been founded by Mr.
Nguyen Thanh Lang (also called Michael Lang) since 2001 and later expanded profoundly to various
segments based on market trends. Although the firm initially started in marketing and advertising
fields, Mr. Lang recognized there was not his strength to develop any further and compete with other
companies. Several years later, the enterprise has gradually reorganized to focus on importing
agricultural and aqua-cultural products to trade nationally as a distributor wholesale.

Recently, Dien Khanh Company is honored as one of the leading enterprises in the development and
distribution of biological pesticides to farmers across the country during the past 20 years (Việt,
2020). After the long-standing growth and development, the firm has specialized in distributing and
supplying customers with high-quality fertilizers & pesticides, helping them more convenient and
secure in producing safe and sustainable agricultural and fishery products. Furthermore, not only
possessing more than 100 engineers with the strong agricultural background but also cooperating
with nearly 4000 retailed stores & agencies throughout Vietnam has brought the reliable and
qualified reputation for Dien Khanh company for years.

In June 2020, I have luckily passed through a 3-round recruiting process to be able to work at the
company under the Business Department. My significant duties during the internship period focus
on building up the online market for the enterprise, cooperating with the management solution
software company, collecting separate datum from departments to prepare for the synchronization
goal of customer’ database, and communicating with retailed agencies. Although this company is old
and works in the agricultural field, whose characteristics look unfamiliar with the online marketing
network, the inherited leader now demands the young generation to catch up with the digital era of
Industry 4.0. Thus, my team and I have a lot of works to do, most of which are recently developed and
challenging to adapt to the well-established enterprise. Nevertheless, thank for this valuable intern
opportunity, I gain so many experiences and open my eyes to the actual working world, especially
regarding management projects for restructuring the firm.

Figure 1 - 20th Anniversary Celebration Company (Me on the right of the photo)

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II. Company description

1. General introduction

a) Company name: Dien Khanh Services Trading Company Limited

Abbreviation: Dien Khanh Co., Ltd
b) Contact:
 Website: https://www.dienkhanh.vn/ |
https://www.facebook.com/CongtyDIENKHANH
 Email: dienkhanhemail@gmail.com | dienkhanhco@vnn.vn
 Telephone: (028) 3811 2002 - 3811 2003 - 3811 2004 - 3811 8750
 Fax: (028) 3811 3483
c) Company location:
 Head office: No. 93, A4 Street, ward 12, Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
 Representative Office:
o My Dong Quarter, An My Ward, Tam Ky City, Quang Nam Province, Vietnam
o P.O. box 32223, Sharjah, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

d) Ownership type: A single member limited liability company

General Director: Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lang
2. History

Dien Khanh Company has been established since 2001 by Mr Nguyen Thanh Lang (also called
Michael Lang). Initially, it operated as an advertising agency and job brokerage center.
Nevertheless, after several years of working, there was not much room for the enterprise to
successfully integrate the market; thus, Mr Lang has decided to switch the business’s

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missions towards the agricultural & aqua-cultural fields as he graduated from the Fishery
Engineer at Nha Trang University since 20061.

The firm has transferred free farming techniques during the first stage of entering new
markets, supplying high-quality food & medicines for shrimp and fish, and offering practical
guidance to farmers on disease prevention and treatment. As many shrimp farmers gained
high profits during the aqua seasons, its brand name became increasingly popular, affirming
its market foothold.

Not only has this firm acquired its name, but it has also become a renowned company in Ho
Chi Minh City and other provinces in the Mekong Delta region since 2001. At present, three
major aqua brands imported by this company are exclusively sold in Vietnam, namely Kaset
Center Fisheries Thailand, US V8 Branded Shrimp Feed, and France Supplement Nutrition2.
Regarding agricultural biological products, various qualified brands of fertilizers and
pesticides have been traded by the company, such as G8 TOP-350SC, France BOOM, Humika,
so on3.

With a broad vision, skilful and flexible application of knowledge and experience, the general
director and Dien Khanh have been honored for multiple national awards, namely Golden
brand (2006), Vietnam Golden Rice (2008), Dat Viet Golden Buffalo (2008-2010), Integration
Cuu Long (2009), Typical Enterprise award at APEC Trade Conference (10/2017)4, and so
on5. This firm has also activated as members of Associations in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), Agricultural Association Vietnam
ASEAN, International Agriculture Organization, Vietnam Pesticide Association & Vietnam
Business Association.

In 2017, Dien Khanh Company participated in exporting agricultural products to Eastern

Europe, mainly exporting Long An seedless lemons to Dubai with an output of more than 300
tons per month, which is also a promising premise for other agricultural products in 2018
and the future6.

Apart from the longstanding business establishment, the General Director has built up his
brand name as Michael Lang based on singing & dancing talents, which also becomes a
competitive advantage for Dien Khanh Company regarding marketing compared to other
agricultural corporations. He composes & sings so many songs related to farming lives,
aiming to befriend with the customers who are intrinsically kind-hearted & genuine people

1
(Kha, n.d.)
2
(Kha, n.d.)
3
(Nông Nghiệp, n.d.)
4
(Kinh doanh, 2018)
5
(Kha, n.d.)
6
(An N. , n.d.)

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through those songs. Thus, to attain the present position after 20 years of growth, this
company becomes closely attach to the uniquely folk characteristics of Michael Lang.

3. Products and services

Having nearly 20 years experienced in agriculture and aquaculture distribution, Dien Khanh
has partnered with so many foreign high-quality brand names, most of which come from the
US, Israel, France & Thailand. There are three fundamental categories of products regarding
agriculture, aquaculture & veterinary husbandry. Besides, as recognizing the value of
Vietnamese fruits & seafood, the firm has started to export them to Middle East markets since
2017, especially in Dubai. Also, based on market demands, the company has expanded the
service to become an Airline Ticket Agent for two years.

Appeared in the market of fertilizers, pesticides, drugs and aquatic food for 20 years, the
brand G8, V8 of Dien Khanh Company Lang engineer has deeply attached to farming gardens,
shrimp ponds throughout Vietnam. Popular imported high-quality products are bio-fertilizer
Israel NPK, DAX, high-grade foliar fertilizer Humika, True Humic, V8-Boom, soluble NPK,
King of zinc, S-10 France, Boom France, pesticides G8, Lutex. Regarding drugs used in
aquaculture, they are Phosphocal, Peptivit, Spirocy, Oceanic Gold, Climax, De-smectite,
Supercharge, and so on. Besides, in terms of animal husbandry food, Dien Khanh is famous
for Protilac, Bastocit, Vita Plus, Chromamix Ex, and so on, which are well-used for raising
cattle, pig, dairy & poultry farming.

On the market today, the company's products have been used widely and trusted by many
farmers throughout Vietnam, supporting them to achieve optimal productivity and
increasing quality of life. All products distributed by Dien Khanh Company are proved to
contain biological origins, successfully tested before importing and distributing to
consumers. The full use of biological products of Dien Khanh Company will ensure to
produce abundant crops and clean products that do not affect human health and are safe for
surrounding habitats.

Figure 2 - Products at the company

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4. Customers and partners

a) Customers:
 Wholesale & retail agencies: Dien Khanh company mainly distributes products to
subordinated agencies at a wholesale price rather than serve the end consumer of
that merchandise directly. As they always purchase a large number of goods, the
firm annually honors customer relationship by organizing travel tours both
nationally and internationally, to strengthen the relationship with those loyal
clients.

 Foreign markets: Vietnam's import-export activities have made outstanding

achievements for years, contributing significantly to the development of the
country. Thus, grasping the current business' development trend, to help farmers
have a stable output & feel secure in production and farming, Mr Lang has
researched to find out the need & demand of Asian vegetables in foreign markets
since 2017. Then, the Company will export products based on orders, to
Singapore, Dubai, Thailand, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and so on. The
Company has been building up a Vietnamese crab brand both at home country
and abroad. In addition to promoting the export of sea crabs, Dien Khanh
Company also concentrates on other products, such as shrimp, fish, dragon fruit,
passion fruit, banana, mango, sweet potatoes, rambutan, and so on. This activity
promises to bring many advantages to Vietnam's agriculture and is especially
useful for farmers.

b) Partners:

Foreign companies focus on producing and exporting agricultural & aquacultural

products. Five notable brands imported and exclusively distributed by Dien Khanh
Company in Vietnam are UREA Indonesia, Bio Vietnam Israel Corp, Kaset Center Thailand
Aquatic Medicine, American V8 Shrimp Feed, and French Supplement Nutrition (French
Boom, Chivac, Chromami).

As the environment changes harsher every day by the negative influences from human,
worldwide agricultural scientists continuously attempt to figure out the most

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environmentally-friendly fertilizers and pesticides to use in farming. Indeed, many health

issues have been raised centering the exceeding usage of growth stimulants & pesticides
in vegetables7, requiring innovative methods and formula for chemical products that are
acceptable for human health. Thus, Dien Khanh company always try to cooperate with
the most reliable and ethical suppliers through attending international conference and
seminars about farming. The General director recognizes and prioritizes human health
in the first position so that every imported product has already been qualified and tested
to ensure human-safe before applying in Vietnamese agriculture.

5. Organizational structure

Figure 3 - Organizational Chart of Dien Khanh company

6. Department responsibilities

Dien Khanh Company organized as functional departmentalization involves more than 100
employees working under the management of one General Director, Michael Lang. Since this
company is a small-sized business, General Director works as the top manager with full

7
(Hương, 2019)

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decision-making power, implementing the company's rights, obligations and directly

controlling company activities to ensure smooth and efficient operations in every single
stage. Furthermore, Michael Lang also has to prepare and manage the organization in line
with its goals and mission, called strategic and tactical plans in the long run.

In the middle level, Vice Director and Assistant Director work collectively to supervise seven
departments, namely Business, Design, Human Resource Management, Supply Chain
Management, Finance, Treasurer and Receptionist.

Vice Director: 1 member. Despite having so many sectors, this Vice Director takes primary
responsibility to manage the Business Department, directly support subordinates and report
to the top manager to fulfil organizational objectives.

Assistant Director: 1 member, working equally with all divisions & centering applying
software on updating the longstanding business.

Business Department: 63 members, including Sales Representatives, Telesales, and Digital

Marketing sectors. This department is the heart of Dien Khanh Company since making
money is explicitly the core element to maintain any small firms. Notably, there are 40 Sales
Representatives, 18 Telesales and five members in the Digital Marketing team. Due to the
agricultural business' characteristics, Dien Khanh Company has a large amount of Sales
Representatives to directly come to local wholesales agencies in farming areas to advertise,
deliver products, collect cash, and implement customer care visits of after-sales program.
Besides, Telesales tasks are caring customer via phone call, approaching new agencies and
also free consulting plants' problems. Lastly, as Digital Marketing has recently been focused
on, the works are incredibly much and not yet figured out entirely. However, our first
implementation is mostly used on Facebook, to gather customer' data and advertise
appropriate audience, and build up online brand recognition for the company.

Design Department: 5 members: in charge of designing products' package, booklet &

catalogue, company images, website, Michael Lang's MV, and customer' gifts.

HR Department: 7 members, being in charge of recruiting, staffing, training and supporting

employees' needs, such as compensation and benefits.

Supply Chain Department: 30 members: Since Dien Khanh Company plays as a distributor
wholesale of all imported products, it demands considerable resources to participate in
inventory-logistics management. Furthermore, taking responsibility for choosing the
qualified suppliers & appropriate customers, the employees under this department have to
understand the fully import-export process. Besides, regarding agricultural characteristics,
some ingredients of pesticides or fertilizers after years will be nationally banned in the

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marketplace. Thus, the Legal sector in Dien Khanh company has been set up within the
Supply Chain Department.

Finance Department: 3 members: in charge of tracking bills, managing all cash flow into
and out of the company, such as money transferred online from customers.

Treasurer: 1 member, taking responsibility for keeping company money and only using
when General Director allows.

Receptionist: 3 members: in charge of managing the call center and meeting customers in
company events.

7. Company performance & its development trends

a) Company performance:

Generally speaking, Dien Khanh company has witnessed a fluctuation in revenue from 2017
to July 2020, in which the corporate earnings tended to climb dramatically during the period
from October to January every year. It implies the pattern of seasonal influences regarding
doing an agriculture-oriented business. Remarkably, after undergoing a slight reduction of
9% in 2018, the revenue of this firm quickly rocketed from 72.78 million VND to 93.34
million VND in 2019, which means increasing nearly 30% of the enterprise income. Thus, we
can recognize the firm did generate a lot of profits within the previous two years.
Nevertheless, during 2020, the unexpected COVID-19 epidemic has threatened and wobbled
so many businesses and services, leading to piling up debts, stagnated business operations
due to lockdowns; thus, some believe that 35% of global enterprises go to bankrupcy8. Dien
Khanh has also experienced those impacts, so its revenue in 2020 declined substantially of
more than 50%, comparing to the first eight months in 2019.

14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

Figure 4 – The revenue of Dien Khanh company from 1/2017 to 8/2020 (billion VND)

8
(Doanh nhân - Doanh nghiệp, 2020)

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b) Company development trends:

Understanding the difficulties Dien Khanh Company has been facing in 2020, the General
director has quickly find out new methods to approach customer’ sources, and attempt to
strengthen the management system in the company. Thus, it leads to two subsequent
solutions, which are applying digital marketing in Business department and cooperating
with software companies to avoid managerial vulnerabilities9. Both approaches illustrate the
future trends of Dien Khanh company will be brighter, as catching up with the digital era and
removing behind the times mindset of the old generations’ company.

Regarding the first solution, Facebook has been utilized to promote products, collect
customers’ database and develop brand recognition. Under this perspective, the company
reflects its ambition expanding to the online market, cultivating the long term development
suiting with the society in Industry 4.0. Though there are already Vietnamese giant
agricultural competitors existing in the Internet network, namely Nong duoc hai, Loc Troi
Corporation, Binh Dien, VFC or Hop Tri, Dien Khanh company still possesses its unique
characteristics and products that attract and satisfy customer demand. Furthermore, based
on the founder having music talents, joining social media becomes the competitive
advantage to better spread both his and company’s brand name. Therefore, this online
integrating trend illustrates the company ‘s positive turning point in the long run.

In terms of managerial solutions, two potential cooperating companies have been discussed
lately, namely DMS MobiWork and Omicall. Under the Business department, Sales
Representative and Telesales are key employees help the company earn profits.
Nevertheless, during the past 20 years, the Key Performance Indicator can just only be
measured by the numbers of successful deals. Indeed, just based on one single factor easily
leads to wrong decision-making. Besides, there is the case that Direct Sales, whose
responsibility is visiting and making deals with provincial clients, talk dishonestly, make up
stories and blame for difficult seasons in that local area to sell as target. So does Telesales,
but maybe in other reasons. Hence, we can recognize the big problem relies upon lacking of
tools to measure how much efforts they put into working, whether the Direct Sales say the
truth that coming to 10 agencies on that day, and so many related issues. In the past, to check
how well those Direct sales work, managers randomly call on the working hours.
Nevertheless, it is likely manual activity and will become ineffective when the Company
expands the size and double the employees work from the far distance. Hence, DMS
MobiWork has been signed contract with Dien Khanh Company, to check the work of Direct
Sales, suggest smart routes and locate where they are, whereas Omicall is planned to fulfill
the tasks recording historical calls and assigning the amount of number phones located in
specific areas that Telesales have to talk with. Overall, this change hugely impacts the

9
(An A. , 2020)

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business productivity as strengthening management process, avoiding unethical behaviors

and better updating customer profiles.

III. Internship activities

1. Business department

a) Its roles and activities in the company

This department plays a crucial role in Dien Khanh Company as it mostly generates the
profitability to sustain the business, especially in the small-sized enterprise. It includes three
main divisions, namely, Sales representatives/ Direct Sales, Telesales, and Digital marketing.

 Sales representatives/ Direct Sales’ activities:

Every day, direct sales employees will have to visit wholesale agencies located in the
assigned provinces to take care of the customer, advertise new products, directly support
shops to sell to retailers by consulting the agricultural problems and marketing related
products of the company, and collect cash after successfully wholesale purchasing. In
general, their tasks encompass caring & maintaining the existing agencies with aftermarket
programs, approaching new customers and collecting seasonal information in particular
areas to supply better the products that farmers need in large scale and expand the products’
coverage in the market.

 Telesales’ activities:

Regarding Telesales, these office employees’ main task is to call wholesale customers and
agencies to take care and promote new products at wholesale price. They need to contact
both existing and potential customers to market them about company products to gain close
sales. Besides, recently collaborating with Digital marketing division, outstanding telesales
approach new customer source from Facebook to advice for plant problems, then advertise
relevant fertilizers and pesticides products of the company. Furthermore, sometimes this job
will be rotated, and Telesales need to visit clients in different provinces to build up closer
relationships. In case there are negative feedbacks from customers, Telesales have to handle
grievances to preserve the company’s reputation.

 Digital marketing’s activities:

Not like modern and famous enterprises nowadays, Dien Khanh company known as an old
system has just recently developed online marketing. Furthermore, as particular
characteristics of the business working in the agriculture field, most Direct Sales would

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traditionally have to come and visit clients at their stores to interact and advertise products
rather than operating based on digital campaigns. As the preconception about agriculture
itself, what comes up to our mind is that rural life means less developed and lack modern
technologies. Farmers seem ill-educated and not likely the right users of smartphones. That
is the fundamental reason why the firm has still maintained its traditional approaches to
customers, directly, physically visiting agencies to promote new products on catalogues
despite the tremendous development of the Internet.

However, as the COVID impacts, the ability for Representative Sales to weekly transport from
provinces to provinces is impossible, which tremendously reduces the revenue and entirely
threatens the company health. Experiencing the challenging period and detrimental impacts
of COVID 19, Mr Lang recognizes how essential to develop online channels besides the
traditional marketing approach. Therefore, the company has started building up Facebook
fan page since March, 4th, 2020 and researched other flatforms such as Shopee to reach more
customers during the lockdown stage.

The key activities of this new division are managing, promoting Fanpage, posting product
advertisements, gathering customers’ problems about planting, cultivating or farming along
with their contacts before sending all data to the Telesales. Also, for the long term, our
mission is enhancing brand recognition, monitoring and improving the company’s online
reputation to attract more and more talent youngsters aiming to work at the company.

b) Performance evaluation

Overall, the Business department of Dien Khanh Company runs quite well, answering why
this small company can still exist in a challenging and competitive environment after 20
years. Particularly stood at nearly 2000 customers in 2013, the number of agencies has been
witnessed a substantial expansion and doubled in recently 2020.

5,000

4,000

3,000

2,000

1,000

0
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Figure 5 – The number of agency customers of Dien Khanh Company from 2013 to 2020

Throughout this period, the total amount of revenue has fluctuated sharply, especially
reached its peak in 2019 and constituting more than 90 billion VND. Comparing to the

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average annual income around 80 billion VND, we can see how effective and profitable the
company make, enhancing nearly 20% the corporate earning in the previous year.

100

80

60

40

20

0
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Figure 6 - The total annual revenue from 2013 to 2020 (billion VND)

Apart from the statistical data, the Business department has continuously improved itself by
various projects, especially the most changing point staying in integrating digital managerial
platform to the daily operation. This trend reflects its positive performance in the long run
as strengthening management process contributes around 52% of the annual increase,
regarding variable productivity concept.10 After three months of implementing MobiWork in
2020, we can recognize the strong relationship between its data and the company revenue.
The more technological application has been implemented, the easier for managers to
understand how Representative Sales finish their tasks and have a general perspective about
the market overall to make decisions better.

Figure 7 - The relationship between applying technology and enhancing revenue in 2020

10
(Jay Heizer, Barry Render)

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2. Intern duties and responsibilities

 Having completed the training course about agricultural products the company does
in business

Obviously, when starting working at any companies, individuals have to gain more
knowledge about how they operate the business, what products they sell, how they earn
profits and pursue corporate mission & vision overall, etc. On 29th, June 2020, my course
had been instructed by Mr Tam Vo, a plant technical consultant & telesales specialist, to not
only learn about different agricultural products’ categories, mainly fertilizers, pesticides, and
spray machines but also portrait the general understanding about the company.

 Building up online marketing channel for the enterprise

My main task is focusing on developing Company fan page and collecting customer data then
sending them all to Telesales to market products. Every day, I posted the caption describing
products, designed their photos before sharing them to multiple agricultural groups. Later,
by surfing newsfeeds of agricultural facebook accounts, I collected customer farming
questions and their crop problems along with phone numbers to send to Telesales. Weekly,
I run ads campaign to promote recruiting information or market products & develop brand
recognition. Surprisingly, after six months of establishing the Fan page, the number of
followers has expanded profoundly and reached 2,000 people in September 2020, which is
the positive sign for a small agricultural enterprise firstly entering the online market.

Figure 8 - Activities performed during internship

 Supporting the recruitment process regarding the online application

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As establishing the Company fan page, there is one more source to post recruiting
announcement and find applicants. Thus, I posted captions attracting people to work at the
company along with answered their wonders, which means support for the HR department.

 Assisting Representative Sales using MobiWork and checking the software operation
Since the project has just implemented for several months, many Sales employees have not
been familiar with using it yet, leading to various conflicts and also impacting their working
productivity. In the past, they only need to pay attention to increase the number of successful
deals to get a higher salary. Nevertheless, MobiWork has recently entered and tracked Direct
Sales’ activities and performance at every client visit. Thus, I have to help these Sales get used
to using the software and demonstrate how benefits that service has, instead of observing
the dark side. Also, frequently checking the operation of the software is also necessary to get
the general picture about business activities and report to superior positions.

 Participating in the process synchronizing Customer database

As the company system belongs to previous generations, many tasks are still manual and
lack of a consistent database among departments, leading to a shortage of inheritance value
when someone quits their job. Thus, the most important project I have participated during
my internship is synchronizing all customer information to establish a Customer
relationship management file. Remarkably, my tasks include adding agency location
collected from MobiWork to that data, as well as all contact numbers and relevant notes
about one specific customer into the file.

 Celebrating company 20th-anniversary ceremony with loyal customers in Vung Tau

province
I worked collectively with the event planning team and was assigned to order lottery cage
for the minigame at Company gala dinner. Besides, during the trip to Vung Tau, I tried to
practice job shadowing from multiple employees and supervisor, to understand how to
communicate with customers naturally, which topics we should stimulate and how to be
friendly but stay in professional manners. Also, assisting customers when they have any
problems was my duty as well.
3. Department problems & Solutions

 Problem: Managers cannot control business operations adequately due to lack of

tools quantifying employee’s inputs

Solution: Regarding the first issue, MobiWork has been implemented recently to record how
much effort Direct Sales put into their work. As the technology company provides tools to
manage market sales staffs through monitoring location, time on GPS digital map, managers
now can easily track their activities in specific areas. Regarding figure 7, we can recognize
this stricter management also correlates with the actual revenue. The province has high
MobiWork usage also consumes a large number of company products. Besides, Mr Lang has
planned to cooperate with Omicall, a software company providing smart calling on CRM, to

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better manage Telesales activities, avoid repeated calls for specific customers, and preserve
all data regardless of the existence of that employee.

 Problem: COVID epidemic has impacted the business negatively, led to more than
50% revenue reduction in the first eight months

Solution: As the business operation is traditionally based on visiting clients physically, the
lockdown stage tremendously postpones all activities. Thus, Mr Lang started developing
online channels to support the business, in which Facebook customers contribute 10%
revenue from March to August.

4. Company problems & Suggested solutions

 High turnover rate, facing difficulty in recruitment

Because Dien Khanh company is agriculture-oriented, lacking reputation, highly competitive

workplace, not many employees would stay longer than ten years working, especially
Representative Sales team. Thus, the General Director should focus on enhancing the
company status by developing social skills, better treating employees regarding empathy
and respects.

 Old generation structure, being highly resistant to change and to apply technology
As Dien Khanh company belongs to the previous generation’s owner & employees, it needs
to recruit more young people to catch up with the social trends, notably in terms of
technological application. Otherwise, the sustainable development vision of this firm seems
hard to pursue.

 Lack of systemized and consistent customer database among departments

By applying the software in 2020, every fragment customer data from the separate
department is collected to synchronize in one official database file, tremendously play a vital
role in the long run of the company, primarily benefiting the Business department. We all
know master Customer relationship management will establish a solid foundation to better
develop any firms in the future.

 Consumption of pesticides tends to decrease due to increasing requirements for food

safety

In an agricultural conference talking about how to support Vietnamese enterprises to export

farm products to South Korea in 2017, representatives of two corporations Lotte and CJ
raised a painful situation of Vietnamese agriculture, which is the excess chemical residue in
Vietnamese fruits and vegetables, creating a significant challenge when goods are sold in the
Korean market. Indeed, not only Korea but also the trend of consuming agricultural products

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has substantially reduced in the world.11Thus, to ensure the long term development of the
company, they have to stick into ethical visions and protect human health. Along with this
goal, the General director also needs to join multiple agricultural conferences worldwide to
catch up with social standards, searching for qualified foreign suppliers.

IV. An assessment of the internship

1. Skills and qualifications learned from the internship

a) Skills

As being an intern at an agriculture-oriented small enterprise, I tremendously gained more

technical farming knowledge and experienced so many actual practices in the workplace.
Regarding hard skills, despite having no ideas about planting before, after taking this
valuable intern opportunity, I can widen my understanding deeply about agricultural
products, which ingredients are eco-friendly to grow vegetables safely, how to recognize
which types of fertilizers suiting for different soils, and also the method to prevent aphid
attack our roof gardens in an organic way, etc. Secondly, since my main tasks include
promoting and managing the Company fan page, my ability to write content and run
Facebook advertisements enhance greatly. Besides, as the purpose of generating ads to get
more customers’ attention, my Online marketing team need to utilize different ways to
connect with them and recommend related company products to stimulate their demand.
Thirdly, MS Office or computer skills are highly practised to accomplish tasks, mostly using
Excel to synchronize the customer database taken from different departments..

In terms of soft skills, I truly experienced how interpersonal skills play a crucial role during
my internship, especially to adapt to the new environment, and better get along with others.
For instance, after collecting phone numbers from customer database on Facebook, I need to
send them all to the Telesales department for consulting and introducing Company products,
in which I can practice my internal communication skill and teamwork within the large
Business department. Besides, I also have chances to learn the problem-solving ability, based
on solving multiple MobiWork problems appearing on Representatives Sales’s phones and
explaining to them how to use the software..

b) Qualifications

I did learn a lot from other colleagues and my supervisor. Firstly, as joining teamwork to
market online, we have to discuss various viewpoints, such as how to attract viewers and
promote Company fan page on a large scale. My supervisor possesses a robust can-do

11
(Nguyên, 2017)

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attitude; thus, we can try diverse methods, and the more we do, the better we learn. Besides,
because Dien Khanh company is agriculture-oriented, I had more chances to gain technical
knowledge about farming. Furthermore, since working in the Company for six days per week,
I can practice job shadowing from various departments, try to learn and adapt to the
corporate culture as a whole.

2. Responsibilities undertaken during the internship period

As I prove myself to the colleagues and supervisor, there are more crucial tasks I am
entrusted to be assigned. For the job to function, I had to perform in compliance with
responsibilities which were grouped into job responsibility and self-responsibility.

Job responsibility: As being an Online marketer, catching up social trends and advertising
company products in appropriate ways is prioritized. Besides, supporting other employees
to accomplish tasks is also a requirement for an intern. Besides,

Self-responsibility: Regarding transparency, I had to be in charge of all my actions.

Furthermore, always completing tasks on time with wholehearted enthusiasm in working
make me trustworthy and highly responsible.

3. Influences on future career plans

As taking the internship course, I gain experiences significantly that hugely impact my future
career. Indeed, successfully carrying out intern responsibilities will become the fundamental
background in building up a full skillset. First of all, I can cultivate more both my soft and
hard skills, as this company works in the agricultural sector. Secondly, this intern brought
me a perfect opportunity to apply my current educational knowledge at the university and
identify my interest in a particular job before starting a permanent position. Furthermore,
as operating under the small private enterprise, I am inspired to be an entrepreneur as well,
regarding opening a coffee shop myself.

4. Correlation between internship activities and classroom knowledge

The main contributing factor of my success of the internship is the knowledge and skills
learned from VNU - International University. I had a solid understanding that could be
applied to the work thanks to subjects such as introducing to business administration,
business communication, management information system and organizational behaviour.
Also, my computer skills learn from the business computing skills course gave me a
significant advantage when doing tasks. Lastly, taking this intern stimulates ideas to develop
into graduation thesis topics.

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IV. Conclusion
This internship has significantly enhanced both my skills and specialized knowledge of
business management, specifically, marketing area. I was inspired by the job of promoting
brand recognition and turning them into an exceptionally qualified workforce with great
passion. I also was eager to experience the real working environment in which I could apply
my lessons in the classroom to the job. Besides, working under a small-sized agricultural
business did cultivate my technical knowledge about farming and better understand the
organizational structure in a company as well as how to behave nicely in the workplace. Dien
Khanh company has become the place to help me gain experiences, learn different things and
build up a valuable relationship with many talented people. Also, as during the intern, I
receive large tasks that sharply helps me improve my time management skill and enhance
responsibility at work, both of which play a vital role when accessing career opportunities
after graduation.

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Appendices and supplementary materials

Figure 1 - 20th Anniversary Celebration Company (Me on the right of the photo) .......................................................... 4
Figure 2 - Products at the company ........................................................................................................................................................ 7
Figure 3 - Organizational Chart of Dien Khanh company .............................................................................................................. 9
Figure 4 - Revenue of Dien Khanh company from 1/2017 to 8/2020 (billion VND) .....................................................11
Figure 5 - The number of agency customers of Dien Khanh Company from 2013 to 2020 .........................................14
Figure 6 - The total annual revenue from 2013 to 2020 (billion VND) ................................................................................15
Figure 7 - The relationship between applying technology and enhancing revenue in 2020 ......................................15
Figure 8 - Activities performed during internship .........................................................................................................................16

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