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TABLE OF CONTENT

INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................2

I. Define the organization ...................................................................................................3-10

1.1. Legal form .....................................................................................................................3

1.2. Size and scope ...............................................................................................................3-4

1.3. Mission, vision and core values ...................................................................................4-5

1.4. Goal and objectives ......................................................................................................5-7

1.5. Stakeholders .................................................................................................................7-10

II. The organizational structure and interrelationships of various functions ...............10-14

2.1. Structure of the company ............................................................................................10-12

2.2. Impact of technology on ICT ......................................................................................12-13

2.3. The interrelationships of various functions and impacts on the company .............13-14

CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................15

REFERENCE LIST ............................................................................................................16-17

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INTRODUCTION

International Investment Construction and Trading Corporation (ICT) has worked since 1999

and known as one of the largest asphalt distributor in Vietnamese market. During the developing

process, the company has enlarged radically and has focus in different business segment which

includes investing in hydropower plants constructions, real estate, tourism and clean food

distribution. However, investing in tourism and clean food is the future plan of the company. In

this report, I will discuss the fundamentals of ICT and how the company operate and structure.

The legal form, size and scope of the company are going to be made clear. Based on the

information which is provided by the speaker from ICT, the vision, missions of the company are

going to be explained and analyzed along with their core values. As far as the company’s goal

and objective, their long-term goal will be mentioned as well. Apart from that, their short-term

objective will be assessed base on the company context. After those things, I will explain the

importance of different stakeholders of ICT along with their interest, power and how ICT satisfy

their stakeholders. In the final part of this report, ICT’s organizational structure and

interrelationship between various function will be broken down and analyzed.

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I. Define the organization of ICT

1.1. Legal form

In order to define the organization of ICT, firstly the legal form of the company should be taken

into account. ICT is a private joint stock company, which means stock is transferable between

the shareholders therein and these people are only liable to the proportion they invest in the

company. One of the biggest advantages of this legal status is that it leads to perpetual

succession. It means the company will continue to exist even a shareholder leaves or does not

invest in the company anymore. The goals and objectives of ICT-ASP are contributing to

community, specifically infrastructure so that by being a private joint stock company, they can

attain those things because they can focus on their contribution instead of satisfying a large

number of shareholders all the time. In Vietnam asphalt market, Petrolimex is the largest

corporation which is owned by Vietnamese government. As a second asphalt supplier in the

market along with high quality product, ICT-ASP may be considered as the competitor of

Petrolimex in this segment. Because Petrolimex obsesses a huge capital ICT company might be

put at risk of being bought by Petrolimex if they were a public joint stock company. However,

staying private helps ICT avoid this threat.

1.2. Size and scope

With the number of staff gains more than 320 people, ICT is considered as a large company in

Vietnam. ICT aims to be one of the best distributors of asphalt and asphalt products in Vietnam.

However, the company has to face with a lot of other competitors, giant Petrolimex is one of

them. Because of this, if ICT does not have innovative technological, they will have to enlarge

the company’s size and scope so as to compete with such companies. However, as ICT does not

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plan to up their size, they want to focus on the quality of their product and create company’s

reputation by themselves as a company who always provides the best quality product to

community. A large company also has its own drawback. The company may find it hard to

manage their own employees, which means the managers have to endure the higher workload.

1.3. Mission, vision and core values

Vision and mission

The vision of the company is being on top of asphalt and asphalt product supplier in Vietnam.

The company is doing business for sustainable development, for society and community

development. And respecting the law as well as contributing actively to developing the country

is the corporation’s business principle. The vision and mission statements define the purpose of

the company which is contributing to community and instill a sense of belonging and identity to

the employees. This motivates them to work harder in order to achieve their goal.

Core values

- Internal and External affairs: “You are us. We are a family”.

- Human: In ICT, human is considered as their most valuable asset and the origin of every

decisions, projects, strategies and plans.

- Manufacture and business: Doing business so as to serve for benefits of society, and follow

ethical standard in business.

- Benefit: Individual’s benefit is the benefit of the corporation.

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These core values reflect features and the culture environment of ICT, which is appreciating

human’s value. It makes employees feel a natural part of the team and motivated. The

motivation of employees is one of the key elements which leads to the company’s objective

achieved.

1.4. Goal and objectives

Developing the habit of using high quality asphalt products for Vietnamese consumers is the

business goal of ICT and it seems to be stick with their vision and mission. ICT company set an

objective of selling 100 000 tons of asphalt in 2018, 150 000 tons in 2019 and 200 000 tons in

2020 so as to support a long-term goal.

Figure1: Objective of ICT during the next three years

In order to assess the objective, the principles of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable,

Realistic and Time-bound) should be applied. The objective of ICT is well-defined, specific

which focuses on increasing selling quantity during the next three years. This objective

emphasizes in the vital role of sale and international staffs who undertake to sell and buy the

product. Number is an crucial part of business so in term of measurability, the company is

successful in putting concrete numbers in the objective so as to know if they are on track.

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However, whether they can attain their objective or not, it depends on various factors: external

and internal factors. Internal factors mean the ability of purchasing asphalt from the suppliers

and selling the product to customer. In particular, it is necessary for members in sale department

to actively find out the new bridges and roads projects, contact to contractors, offer the product,

negotiate and bring the contract to the company. Similarly, the duty of an international trading

staff is creating transaction with the suppliers, ordering the product with a price negotiation and

obtaining the contract of buying. In case the staffs are skillful, motivated and always willing to

bring the value to the company then it is absolutely an advantage which is stimulating the

company in achieving the objectives. In term of external factors, Shell corporation, who is the

main supplier of ICT-ASP is now purchased 70% of stock by Chinese and the rest 30% of the

company has to supply for neighbor countries including Vietnam. It means the supplied source is

now reduced so it would be a challenge for international staffs to bring the contract to the

company. However, according to guest speaker of ICT, the company sees that in the period of

2018-2020, the asphalt market would be hot again thanks to the North-South highway project,

which means the demand for asphalt will be raised again. This is the life-line traffic of the nation

which kept up with a huge number of transportation everyday so that it requires high-quality

road, therefore, ICT would have a great advantage in this aspect. Based on these factors, from

my point of view the company has more chances to attain the objective. As far as the reality of

the objective is concerned, according to information from ICT, the net revenue of asphalt in 2017

is about 90 to 120 billion Vietnam dong (VND), with the selling price is 12 million VND per ton,

the quantity sold last year can lie about 100 000 tons which is similar to the quantity objective of

the company in 2018. As information is mentioned before, the market of asphalt is becoming

heated in the 2018-2020 period combines with the approximate sold number in the previous year,

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the objective seems to be realistic. Time limitations are set in order to enforce the company’s

objective, in which each target correspond with a year. In summary, the objective which ICT-

ASP sets out is following SMART principles.

1.5. Stakeholders

According to Investopedia, a stakeholder is a party that has an interest in a company and can

either affect or be affected by the business. Stakeholders play an integral part of running a

business and its success or failure which bases on their perspectives and influence. A company,

in spite of its type, size and scope needs to have obvious ideas and agreements about: who will

make decision, provide the standard, resources, budget and in case any change happens in the

company, who will take responsibility and deal with it. In order to assess the success of the

company, it is necessary to discover the way ICT classifies their stakeholders, and determine

who is taken into consideration as the most important stakeholder of the company. Stakeholders

in ICT can be divided into two types: internal and external stakeholder. Internal stakeholders are

individuals or groups of people who work within an organization while external stakeholder are

those who outside a business. Based on these theories, shareholders and employees of different

departments are considered as internal stakeholders why customers, suppliers and competitors

are external stakeholders of ICT. They are displayed on a stakeholder map with two domains:

Power – level of their influence on the company; Interest – their concern in the activities and

operation of the company.

Shareholders

In a company shareholders play an integral part in the financing, operations, and control various

aspects of a business. They invest their money in the company in order to run the business. These

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people play both indirect and direct roles in the operation of the company. Shareholders have

right to select directors in order to supervise and assign employees. In ICT, general director and

two deputy general directors are three main shareholders who own the largest stock of the

company. Moreover, each director in the company is a shareholder as well. As they have right in

voting on major decision, shareholders influence directly on the company’s. Additionally,

companies hold frequent meetings so as to receive feedback and concern of shareholders. They

put their interest in the company’s activities and events. In order to satisfy these people, not only

the company needs to achieve business goal but also create profit maximization.

Employee

The employees are the ones who create and deliver the products or services that the customers

consume but their power inside the company is moderated. However, the company always needs

to take care of employees because the company will suffer if they lose their best employees. If

we lose or antagonize our best employees then customer service will suffer so we need to look

after them. If the company wants to attract and retain top talent at all levels then we have to offer

terms and conditions that are attractive. In ICT, they focus on human, respect, take care of

employees and concern their expectation. For example, ICT offers appealing salary and bonus

for sales staff. Specifically, the salary of sales staff includes basic salary, commission and bonus.

Apart from that, the company also creates a professional workplace in order to motivate their

employee.

Supplier

In the early 21st century suppliers have become more critical stakeholders. More often,

companies want to build loyal relationships with suppliers. Both trade buyers and sellers can

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obtain benefit by collaborating effectively with each other so as to distribute the best value for

customers. The main suppliers of ICT are Shell and Simosa and they have worked together for a

long time. As ICT has been a partner of them, the suppliers may put their interest in this

company. These stakeholders have huge impact on ICT because they produce and supply asphalt

product with high quality and ICT is always willing to sell qualitative product for Vietnamese

consumer. However, the supply from Shell is now decreased because 70% stocks of the company

were sold to Chinese. In order to buy the high-quality product but limited, ICT has to satisfy the

suppliers by conforming clauses in the contract, offer higher buying price and try to be a loyal

partner.

Customer

The customer is the foundation of any business's success. Identifying and meeting the need of the

consumer is one of the primary goals of any company. Considering customer importance helps

your company to ensure greater customer satisfaction and increase its long-term goal of repeat

business. The main customers of ICT are enterprises and contractors. In order to satisfy these

customers, ICT provides them asphalt product with highest quality and support them in

enforcement process and after carrying out the projects by hiring foreign consultants so as to

give them advices and methods. The company also applies the core values into the interactions

with customers. They follow an external motto:” You are us” in order to benefit the both sides.

As the company’s core values were mentioned before, ICT considers interest of each individual

is also the interest of the company and they also consider every staffs in the company are family

members. ICT can gain benefit from this value but it can also bring to drawback. The interests of

stakeholders are different from each other so that if the whole company does not work together

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supportively, closely and in accordance with their vision, mission, goal and objectives, it may

lead to conflict inside the company.

II. Structure and interrelationships of various functions of ICT

2.1.Structure of the company

Figure 2: Structure of ICT

The structure of ICT is formal and hierarchical model organization, which is illustrated on figure

2.

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A formal organization can be considered as a social system which is structured by arranging

clearly practices, goals and rules based on labor divisions and clearly defined hierarchy of power.

This type of organization is designed in order to attain certain goals through the cooperative

work of the individuals who are its members. They rely on a division of labor and hierarchy of

power and authority to ensure that the work is done in a unified and efficient manner. Within a

formal organization, each job or position has a clearly defined set of responsibilities, roles,

duties, and authorities to whom it reports. Based on the illustration of figure 2, each manager will

receive reports from three or four department then all five managers have to report to Deputy

General Directors and General Director and finally to Board of Director. With the number of

people working in the firm about 320 people, the control system is really wide and the

organizational structure follows flat shape. In a flat organization structure, there are few levels of

management between staff and management employees. Instead of focusing on supervising

employees, the flat organization promotes their contribution in decision-making process. By

following this shape the employees' level of responsibility in the organization is elevated. It does

not only improve the speed of communication but also coordination between staffs in the

company. In addition, fewer levels of management leads to decision-making process between

employees become easier. Apart from that, the company can also reduce organization budget

because of middle management salaries eliminated. However, flat structure has its own

drawbacks. The first drawback relates to lower level employees, which means lower-level

employee work in high positions and it is necessary for them to be skillful in management.

Furthermore, the roles and responsibilities of the managers will much more higher because they

have to cover many aspects. For example, Office manager has to manage four departments in

office department which includes Accounting and Finance and Human resource department. In

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accounting and finance, budget, cost and price are what they have to concern and focus on. In

contrast, human resource department put human above everything else and of course these are

two distinguished fields of operations. In flat organizations, there is no clear in specific job

function of employees. They tend to produce a lot of generalists instead of specialists. The

second disadvantage is limited leadership. The ratio of employee to manager is lower than the

ratio of executive to employee so the amount of leadership is typically limited in a flat

organization. It leads to fewer chances the employees receive guide from supervisor so they may

feel lack of confident in their skill sets or performance.

The two Deputy General Director have right to command directly the people who under their

position and in their area of expertise even impact the General Director. The relationship among

the managers, two Deputy General Director and the General Director is a functional relationship.

ICT-ASP which is the subsidiary of ICT follows a hierarchical model of organization as well, it

includes a director at the top who manage the company and two managers support him in

managing the company. However these two managers only take responsible in one department

which is international trading department. There are four smaller departments working under

supervision of this department. One of them is project management unit (PMU) and three others

market surveillance for different regions in the country. Focus on PMU and three market

surveillance, the roles and job of each head of market surveillance are going to be showed. He

has to deal with sales force and the stations. A manager who is representative of each project

management unit has the role of supervising three departments which include accounting and

finance, administrative and foreign trading.

2.2.Impact of technology on ICT

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Over the years, technology has revolutionized our perspective of the world. Technology has

created amazing tools and resources, putting each person’s most useful information at their

fingertips. Modern technology has made it possible for the discovery of many functional and

utility. With all of these revolutions, technology has also made our lives easier, faster and better.

The innovations of technology may result in a momentous impact on the organizational model of

enterprises which includes ICT. In ICT, technologies are used as the tool to support people in

managing finance, observing transportations and stations. For example, in ICT when a tank truck

is about to leave, the security guard will put an equipment in a wheel of the tank truck to monitor

the activities of it and make sure the driver goes the right way and follows the route. By using

technology, ICT saves time and resources in working and managing the company. However,

using technology in management process sometimes leads to consequences as well. One of the

drawbacks is dependence on new technology. Man no longer needs to think. Even if the

calculator is a good invention, man no longer makes mental calculation and no longer works his

memory. The decline of human capital implies an increase in unemployment. As most

technological discoveries aim to reduce human effort, it would imply that more work is done by

machines. This equates to less work for people: the human is becoming ever so obsolete by the

day, as processes become automated and jobs are made redundant.

2.3. The interrelationships between functions and its impact on ICT

Four departments in office department have close connection with other departments in the

company. For example, the relationship between finance and the sales department. The product

of ICT-ASP which is asphalt is sold mostly to enterprises or contractors instead of individual.

The product is used to build infrastructure like bridge and road so the buyers always need to buy

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a large quantity of the product. The cost of this product is quite high so that if the enterprises

want to buy asphalt product with a huge quantity they have to sign a contract with ICT after

negotiating appropriate price and debit balance. The negotiating stage has to be adopted by

accounting and finance department and they will consider if the price is ideal or not.

Another example of relationship between functions in the company is the Human resources (HR)

department. This department has to handle many crucial functions of the business. It is

considered as a tool in providing relational assistance, labor law compliance, hiring and training,

compensation as well as helping with handling specific performance issues. In order to do these

things, human resource department has to interact and communicate with all staff in the

company. However, there is a problem with this department in ICT. It is about the number of

staff in the department compares with the total number of staff in the company. In ICT, human

resource is a small department in office department but they have to work with more than 320

people in the company and motivate all of them so it would be stressful for people who are

working in human resource department. As a large company, it is necessary for ICT to recruit

more employees in human resource department in order to manage business easier.

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CONCLUSION

In summary, in the first part of this report, I have point out the legal form of ICT which is a

private joint stock company and its pros and cons. The company proposes a significant mission,

vision and long-term goal which focus on contribute value for community. In term of company’s

long-term goal, it is support by the objectives which follows SMART principles. Moreover, the

main stakeholders, including: shareholders, employees, suppliers, customer and their interest

along with the ways ICT satisfies them are explained in this part. The second part of this report is

the explanation and analysis the organizational structure of the company which is formal

structure combines with flat structure and its advantages, disadvantages in the context of the

company. In the final part of the report, I find out the close connection between various functions

in the company in order to come to a conclusion that despite distinguish in expertise and position

in the structure of ICT, departments in ICT still work closely together.

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