Notes from Kao Sieu Luc’s ghostwriter

Collaborating on Kao Sieu Luc’s business memoir, “Doanh nhân Kao Siêu Lực: Từ một câu chuyện khó khăn đến ABC Bakery – thương hiệu Việt vươn ra thế giới” meant spending hours meeting him and his inner circle “To gain a different perspective from the thousands of articles talking about him.

It was in 2023 that I was ABC Bakery founder – Kao Sieu Luc’s ghostwriter. I spent time with him, his family and his inner circle to question myself: Did you ever think about your future job at a younger age? Perhaps each of us had one and most of us are able to choose the profession we desired even if we veer onto a different path from the original. 

During working with Kao for the memoir “Doanh nhân Kao Siêu Lực: Từ một câu chuyện khó khăn đến ABC Bakery – thương hiệu Việt vươn ra thế giới”, I could see that he was not that lucky. 

When I was assigned by the Chief Editor of Doanh nhân Sài Gòn Magazine to write Kao’s business memoir, I had opportunity to have long and deep conversations with a busy businessman to deep dive into how he started business in the Đổi mới era. Talking with Kao about his youthful days, I sensed a life full of gray color. But his determination was like a strong light shining that led him to today’s success, even though he didn’t know where his first steps would take him.

Kao – founder of ABC Bakery – was once a young nobleman in Cambodia. When Pol Pot advanced into the villages of Cambodia, it was a time when his future became tumultuous. He left Cambodia for Vietnam to escape from this horrifying genocide regime. Kao started Đức Phát 1982 with a small amount of money he had saved. In 2008, he started his ABC Bakery brand, and in 2023, his journey is Go Gelato brand, despite his advanced age.

As I wrote the first words of the book, I wondered what I should write to record the conversations with this successful yet humble businessman. Should I follow my emotions and wander in the world full of the scent of the tiny bakery in a small alley? That was the first place where Kao started his business. But it wasn’t the beginning of a life in hardship. I decided to begin with his days in Cambodia, a land that forged a strong personality that overcame all the storms later on, turning what seemed to be sweeping away a person into making them stronger. 

In this book, I attempted to answer the questions of an entrepreneur, starting a business in extremely difficult economic conditions as well as uncertainty, which he often received. It’s the book of strategies through each stage of business development that Kao has experienced:

1. Funding solutions.
2. Prioritizing stable growth to achieve breakthrough growth.
3. Modernizing production in each business stage.
4. Collaboration in a competitive environment.
5. Preparing capabilities toward the future.

In the closing lines of the book, I summarize the life philosophy of this businessman as “giving to receiving”. Kao commits to this philosophy in every aspect of business and lives peacefully in a competitive market. Now, ABC Bakery has also become a famous international brand in Southeast Asia.

This is a philosophy that anyone who knows him appreciates. It’s the motivation behind his “Red Dragon Fruit Rescue Campaign” spreading throughout the country. It’s the reason why his children return to Vietnam to work with him, even though their own careers abroad are very promising, even though they have to change the mindset of those benefiting from education abroad to return to their father who always shares with the community.

This is the longest “article” I have ever written as a journalist specializing in the business in the startup ecosystem. This book is a collaboration of Kao, Doanh nhân Sài Gòn Magazine that gives me the opportunity to deeply analyze successful business models and contribute to the development of Vietnam’s economy.

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Source: Vietnam Insider