Wednesday--

Today, we went to Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP), which is huge plot of land in which they rent out to major corporations. Companies can join VSIP in order to receive competitive advantages over other companies who are not part of an industrial park. Some of the products made were golf clubs, candies, pharmaceutical drugs, food, as well as a lot of products.

Once we finished our briefing at VSIP, it was time for refreshments. We were in rather large conference room with two tables; one had coffee and water and the other had trays of food covered up. Since it was a very large room, we assumed there was another presentation after us, so the food would be for them. We all took drinks then started to socialize, until John Nguyen, the director of II-VI told us the food was for us. They had Hawaiian pizza, tuna bruscheta, and flan among other stuff. There was an unbelievable amount of food, which was good because I didn't eat breakfast. After we chowed down for a while, it was time for the presentation of II-VI, by John Nguyen, which is a company that makes optical lenses for medical and other purposes as well as very small heaters that can be used in computers and car seats. John's computer would not load so he did not brief us through a powerpoint but just highlighted parts of what the company does.

More interestingly, John described his background. John left Vietnam in 75 and came to Pennsylvania. There he worked at a gas station while going to school to get his degree. After that he worked for AT&T for a few years. His old boss then contacted him to work for II-VI in Pennsylvania. He accepted and was asked to work in the Vietnam plant since he knew both Vietnamese and English. John moved to Vietnam but his family still lives in Allentown, PA and his daughter is in my grade at the University of Pittsburgh. After John told us his story we took a bus tour through much of the VSIP facility and ended at II-VI. We split up into two groups and took a tour of the facility. First we went to the electrical side of II-VI, where they make small heaters or coolers and they described the process in which they construct them. The start with a metal rod and shape it and coat it until it becomes the final product of the heater or cooler. The process was very complicated and required a lot of workers. After this, we took a tour of the optics where they cut glass and polish it for use in laser optics and surgery.

The workers at II-VI are unskilled workers that go through a six-month training process. At first they had trouble retaining their workers because of a two-week holiday at the beginning of January called Tet. Many of the workers would go home but would not come back and then just find another job when their month or two month long break was over. In order to remedy this problem II-VI structured their bonus system so the workers would receive a two month pay bonus when they cam back from Tet. Before this system, only 2/3 of the workers returned but last year every single worker came back. It was interesting to see how the culture of Vietnam weaved itself into the business and in order to be successful, II-VI had to adapt to the culture of its workers.

For lunch we went to E-Town at Monaco Buffet. I have stopped being "adventurous" in what I eat and just had a plate of rice and some watermelon. I like the food at the UEF much better. After that we walked across the street to Glass Egg Digital Media. Dr. Berman had asked us to prepare a lot for this site visit since we were meeting with the CEO and the CFO. Of course we did prepare and I was very interested and had a lot of questions. Unfortunately when we got there, Phil Tran (CEO) and Steve Reid (CFO) could not make it, so two young people gave us a very quick tour and presentation of the company. Charles Speyer, another person on the management team, fielded our questions. He answered very quickly and the site visit to Glass Egg did not last very long. Overall I was pretty with Glass Egg as everyone else was especially since I prepared so much.

After Glass Egg, we got on to the bus and went back to the hotel. I went to lie down and fell asleep until Matt and Kyle came to the door to see if I wanted to go to dinner. I was so tired, I yelled at them to go away and went back to sleep for a few more hours. I slept for most of the night getting up to play games on my computer and talk to my girlfriend. It was finally nice to get some real sleep and I'm excited for tomorrow that I will finally be rested.