This morning was a very early one. Me and my roommate, Emerson, almost didn’t wake up in time for the bus. However, we perfectly timed the departure of the bus to leave for the UEF building. The agenda we had today was to learn the basics of the Vietnamese language and to broadly discuss flexibility and resilience within the supply chain. For the supply chain portion, we started off with slides just explaining the basics and the meanings behind most situations. How to solve them, what policies to implement, etc. Next, we moved on to a Kahoot. The Kahoot focused mainly on choosing the right options for companies, such as using chronological order to set up a timeline of what to do after a collapse or a problem within a supply chain. It was informative and helped introduce the idea of what a supply chain even is and what jobs can be in the field. After the Kahoot, we got into table groups and had to devise a product that was in the US but not prominent in Vietnam. We had to devise a product to implement into Vietnam that would be successful and that we could do with a budget of 1 million USD. We had a time limit of 15 minutes to devise a plan and even search for a product to do, which honestly took most of my groups time. We had about 5-7 minutes to actually draw and write our ideas on a poster board, which meant we had to work efficiently. We got the board done, and then went around the classroom and presented each groups ideas one by one. My group could have done better, but we didn’t do that bad.
Moving on, we then went straight into the Vietnamese class lesson. We learned phrases like “What is your name”, “what is your nationality”, and “my name is ___”. It was interesting to hear the dialect in every word and how it could sound nothing like it looked. It was interesting to learn their culture and to speak to them in their own language.
The next place we went to was the Hyatt Hotel. It was very luxurious, and was probably the nicest hotel I have ever been to. They have a Michelin rated restaurant, and 15 floors filled with everything from a chocolate room to an outdoor pool with a bar. They had everything imaginable, and everything was done with class and very satisfying elements. They had a golden elevator for gosh sake. We toured all around the hotel, stopping in a room and going throughout all the important land markers. They have the largest wine cellar in all of Vietnam with over 20,000 bottles of wine, which is crazy. I think establishments like this hold on to their brand and their potential by showing that they are the best of the best hotels. They are located in most major cities and have locations in over 80 countries. They keep their brand name by having unique layouts and designs for all of their hotel locations, which helps them stand out from the competition. They were very luxurios, and were also expensive because of it.
Overall, the day was jam packed with many lessons and site visits which leads to opportunities to think about future plans. I enjoyed the day, and hope tomorrow is as much fun.