VietNamNet Bridge - The founder of Pho24, Ly Qui Trung began life in the restaurant trade as a waiter but now he’s the head of an international chain with eyes on conquering a global market. Hong Nhung discovers his recipe for success.

Looking back Ly Qui Trung remembers that his childhood dream was to become a tennis champion. Later on in life, juggling his studies and tennis became a problem. Time management was not his forte.

As a result, the young man failed his university entrance exams in 1984. To most Vietnamese, especially at that time, going to university was considered the only way to ensure a good career in the future.

Refusing to be discouraged, Trung put his plans for university aside and applied to work as a waiter in De Nhat Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.

“Waiter was pretty much the lowest position in the hotel,” recalls Trung. “But if things had gone smoothly for me, I wouldn’t have learnt that much. Whatever problems happened, I had to bear in mind that the customers were always right!”

Then one of Trung’s Australian friends offered to help him to go to Australia to study. On June 28, 1999, with $200 in his pocket, the young Vietnamese man landed in Sydney.

There he did he best to improve his English while working part-time as a bartender at Travelodge Hotel. He had no experience but plenty of motivation.

“I needed to work to survive,” he says simply.

His studies didn’t exactly start so well. His first paper on economics earned him a paltry single mark out of a possible 10.

“Economics was not taught in high school in Vietnam but all my classmates were just revising what they already knew during our first year,” he says. “My first paper was hand-written, two-pages long and no references! Meanwhile my classmates’ presented nicely typed pages which were organised into tidy folders with a long list of references. I felt like a real loser.”
Making presentations was another humbling experience.

“I realised pronunciation was one of the biggest issues for me. Every time I said something in front of my classmates and the lecturers, I was not confident at all. I wished I could just disappear,” he says.

But Trung didn’t give up. He read books on public speaking skills and started to learn to organise his ideas before every speech in front of his class. Soon, he began to feel more confident and relaxed when making presentations.

Amazingly one year later, Trung was not talking in front of his classmates any more, in fact he was making speeches in the faculty of tourism in the University of Western Sydney.

His next accomplishment was to be appointed senior residential student on campus thanks to his deep understanding of community policies. The greatest perk was that he then had free accommodation. This allowed him to cut down on his part time jobs and put his leadership and management skills into practice.

After five years living and studying in Australia, Trung graduated with a bachelor of hospitality in 1994, before taking a masters degree in hospitality management in Griffith University in March 1995. Later that year he returned to Ho Chi Minh City to be with his family.

“I’d always dreamt of coming back to fulfill my dream of managing a hotel. I’d always wanted to come back to share the knowledge that I’d learnt, the experiences I’d had with other young people but most of all, I just wanted to live in my homeland with my family,” says Trung.

After a few years working across the hospitality industry, including a five-year stint as General Director of the three-star Saigon Star Hotel, Trung decided it was time to open his own business.
Trung and his family were already involved in the restaurant business running the highly successful Nam An restaurants on Dong Khoi and Suong Nguyet Anh street, Tan Nam on Dong Du street and An Vien on Ha Ba Trung street in Ho Chi Minh City.

But when he was in Australia, Trung realised that pho was easily the best-known Vietnamese food. No one he knew would reject a bow of pho. He saw that this popular and flexible dish had great potential perfect for a chain of restaurants. After completing his PhD research in administration management at Kennedy Western University in 2002 Trung set about opening the first Pho24 restaurant, which happened in June 2003.

“But franchising was such a new business concept in Vietnam at that time and it was not easy to persuade my wife to believe in the business,” says Trung.

“She wondered why we didn’t just keep on doing what we were doing with our restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City,” he says. “I explained to her that, although it’s considered a food for commoners and can be found easily, even on the streets, pho has the potential to be the most popular Vietnamese food.”

Pho24’s first restaurant on Nguyen Thiep street in Ho Chi Minh City was an instant hit and by the end of 2005, Pho24 had expanded its chain to 22 restaurants throughout Vietnam.

Currently there are 62 Pho24 restaurants in Vietnam (40 in Ho Chi Minh City, 10 in Hanoi and others in Binh Duong, Vung Tau, Nha Trang, Danang and Hue), three in Indonesia, as well as restaurants in Singapore, Australia, Philippines and South Korea. Ly Qui Trung also plans to franchise Pho24 to China, Japan, Europe and the US in the near future.

“Successful franchise brands such as McDonald’s and KFC have motivated me. I’ve learnt about their franchising experience and apply some of the good points,” he admits. “The most challenging thing is to make cooking pho a simple procedure and easy to learn.”

Trung and his family spent months testing various ingredients to get the best recipe for pho before opening the first restaurant in 2003.

Trung does not hide his admiration and gratitude towards his mother and his family who heeded him to be practical. The result of their labour was a comprehensive recipe for cooking pho with 24-ingredients - hence the name Pho24.

“With the Pho24 recipe, the cooking procedure is simplified and standardised which means anyone can learn to cook pho after a short time,” he says. “I’d solved the problem of most restaurants, which depend hugely on the hands of the cook and paved the way for our franchising plans.”

“When I went to Australia, everything was so new and so strange to me, but I was not afraid, why should I be scared now being a seasoned businessman to face competition in the world market,” muses Trung. “Pho is so popular and unique at the same time. All locals and foreigners I’ve met love pho and they have already made a huge market for Pho24 to step into.”

“But franchising a brand is as tough as giving your hand in marriage. You have to put a lot of effort into understanding each other, making the relationship work and maintaining the healthy of the relationship for a long time.”

Trung admits there have been times when he was not happy with some restaurant’s performances, but he could not be the one to fire staff or tell the franchise-owner exactly what to do.

“I am very reasonable and patient when sitting down with them to address problems and together we work them out,” says Trung. “Just like you do with your wife when you cannot agree on which school for your children to go to!”

“Luckily, no marriage in the Pho24 chain has failed yet. We are all living happily ever after.”

(Source: VIR)