Who – the protagonist
Daniel Nguyen, founder of Sông Cái Distillery.
What?
Daniel first moved from the US to Vietnam - his parents’ homeland - in 2014 for a consulting job to help a coalition of state-run and private farmers in the Mekong Delta.
After pivoting his focus to the North Central and Northern Highlands of Vietnam and the issue of land-forest allocation and land reform, he started a distillery project to create a market outlet for highland farmers and their native varieties of grains, fruits, flowers, herbs, and wood.
Daniel settled on producing gin, which was both quick and inexpensive to distil and allowed for creative experimentation. He named the company Sông Cái, the Vietnamese term for ‘mother river’, a reference to the country’s ideas that all forces of nature, life, and spirituality stem and flow from a ‘mother river’.
Why?
The COVID-19 pandemic saw the market for alcohol dry up as bars and restaurants shut, and Daniel struggled to keep his company afloat and his employees occupied.
Daniel decided to explore the idea of exporting his product, with a Florida-based importer expressing a willingness to bring Sông Cái gin to America.
The US market, experiencing the take-off of ready to drink cocktails, appealed, but exporting to the US involved high costs and risks. Responsibility for all transport expenditures represented a money-losing proposition for Sông Cái.
When?
It was November 2020 when Daniel received the green light for exporting his gin to the US, as he contemplated pursuing this route.
Where?
If Sông Cái entered the American market, its gin would be placed in restaurants, bars and liquor stores in New York, New Jersey, Florida, and California.
Key quote
“I guess every single market has its own risks and perils associated with it. It’s something you have to accept.”
Daniel Nguyen.
What next?
Daniel had a tough decision to make.
Should Sông Cái gamble with its limited funds and test a foray into the US - a market with its own complex regulations and where Sông Cái might be disadvantaged? Or should the company stay focused on Vietnam, which was sure to return to fast growth once the pandemic ebbed, and where Daniel now felt comfortable navigating the regulatory uncertainties?
On the reasons for writing the case…
Greg said: "I led an MBA study trip (a ‘GST’, or Global Study Trip, which is part of the MBA curriculum) to Vietnam in Spring of 2023. We met with the founder of Sông Cái Distillery and toured the company's production facilities. I thought the founder's story was interesting: as a Vietnamese-American who'd moved to Vietnam to start a business, he was able to make a number of instructive comparisons about the business environment in the US versus Vietnam.”
On the case writing challenges…
Greg continued: “Some of the subjects discussed in the case (corruption in the bureaucracy, for example) are sensitive and it was challenging to figure out how to address these for the audience as well as how to ask the case subject about them. Thankfully my co-author Kathy has a deep background as a journalist and a lot of expertise in asking difficult questions of businesspeople and in getting interview subjects to open up.”
On teaching the case…
He added: “When I taught the case the reception was very good. Students were really engaged with the material, both the more abstract points about the impact of the political environment on business, and in the specific details of the case narrative.
“I used it at the end of a compressed (half-quarter) course on non-market strategy which is mostly US-focused, so this case was both a good change of pace, and made for a pedagogically useful discussion about the scope conditions on the principles we covered earlier in the class.”
On how students react to the case…
He commented: “I think the case subject being an entrepreneur in his late 20s, making an international move to start a new venture in a promising market, made it easy for the students to identify with the protagonist.
“Many of our students intend to be entrepreneurs and the case narrative is something they could imagine themselves doing. That made for an engaged discussion and intrinsic interest in the strategic choice described in the case.”
On case writing tips…
Greg concluded: “I'm pretty agnostic about industry, company size, etc. in thinking about good case subjects. When I happen to come across an example that illustrates well an analytical point I'm trying to make in one of my courses - in this case, the comparative impact of different political institutions in democracies versus non-democracies on business - I jump on it.”
The case
Who – the protagonist
Daniel Nguyen, founder of Sông Cái Distillery.
What?
Daniel first moved from the US to Vietnam - his parents’ homeland - in 2014 for a consulting job to help a coalition of state-run and private farmers in the Mekong Delta.
After pivoting his focus to the North Central and Northern Highlands of Vietnam and the issue of land-forest allocation and land reform, he started a distillery project to create a market outlet for highland farmers and their native varieties of grains, fruits, flowers, herbs, and wood.
Daniel settled on producing gin, which was both quick and inexpensive to distil and allowed for creative experimentation. He named the company Sông Cái, the Vietnamese term for ‘mother river’, a reference to the country’s ideas that all forces of nature, life, and spirituality stem and flow from a ‘mother river’.
Why?
The COVID-19 pandemic saw the market for alcohol dry up as bars and restaurants shut, and Daniel struggled to keep his company afloat and his employees occupied.
Daniel decided to explore the idea of exporting his product, with a Florida-based importer expressing a willingness to bring Sông Cái gin to America.
The US market, experiencing the take-off of ready to drink cocktails, appealed, but exporting to the US involved high costs and risks. Responsibility for all transport expenditures represented a money-losing proposition for Sông Cái.
When?
It was November 2020 when Daniel received the green light for exporting his gin to the US, as he contemplated pursuing this route.
Where?
If Sông Cái entered the American market, its gin would be placed in restaurants, bars and liquor stores in New York, New Jersey, Florida, and California.
Key quote
“I guess every single market has its own risks and perils associated with it. It’s something you have to accept.”
Daniel Nguyen.
What next?
Daniel had a tough decision to make.
Should Sông Cái gamble with its limited funds and test a foray into the US - a market with its own complex regulations and where Sông Cái might be disadvantaged? Or should the company stay focused on Vietnam, which was sure to return to fast growth once the pandemic ebbed, and where Daniel now felt comfortable navigating the regulatory uncertainties?
Author perspective
On the reasons for writing the case…
Greg said: "I led an MBA study trip (a ‘GST’, or Global Study Trip, which is part of the MBA curriculum) to Vietnam in Spring of 2023. We met with the founder of Sông Cái Distillery and toured the company's production facilities. I thought the founder's story was interesting: as a Vietnamese-American who'd moved to Vietnam to start a business, he was able to make a number of instructive comparisons about the business environment in the US versus Vietnam.”
On the case writing challenges…
Greg continued: “Some of the subjects discussed in the case (corruption in the bureaucracy, for example) are sensitive and it was challenging to figure out how to address these for the audience as well as how to ask the case subject about them. Thankfully my co-author Kathy has a deep background as a journalist and a lot of expertise in asking difficult questions of businesspeople and in getting interview subjects to open up.”
On teaching the case…
He added: “When I taught the case the reception was very good. Students were really engaged with the material, both the more abstract points about the impact of the political environment on business, and in the specific details of the case narrative.
“I used it at the end of a compressed (half-quarter) course on non-market strategy which is mostly US-focused, so this case was both a good change of pace, and made for a pedagogically useful discussion about the scope conditions on the principles we covered earlier in the class.”
On how students react to the case…
He commented: “I think the case subject being an entrepreneur in his late 20s, making an international move to start a new venture in a promising market, made it easy for the students to identify with the protagonist.
“Many of our students intend to be entrepreneurs and the case narrative is something they could imagine themselves doing. That made for an engaged discussion and intrinsic interest in the strategic choice described in the case.”
On case writing tips…
Greg concluded: “I'm pretty agnostic about industry, company size, etc. in thinking about good case subjects. When I happen to come across an example that illustrates well an analytical point I'm trying to make in one of my courses - in this case, the comparative impact of different political institutions in democracies versus non-democracies on business - I jump on it.”
