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| Mr. Nguyen Duc Tung supporting the brand design team |
Returning to Hue for being creative
The digital era has opened up an opportunity for businesses to accelerate their development, while at the same time, giving wings to the creative ideas of young people. And Nguyen Duc Tung is one of them.
After graduating from International University, Ho Chi Minh City National University, majoring in marketing, Tung founded and developed an enterprise operating in the field of content creation. After a period of development, X10 Digital has become a partner of many large businesses such as BigC, Metro, Mercedes, etc. Not only building major communication strategies for these businesses, X10 also implements large-scale sales programs, model designing, product packaging, booths building and promoting practices for businesses on e-commerce platforms.
Despite his success, Tung has never ceased to nurture a dream of returning to Hue in order to make use of his “brainpower” to contribute to his homeland.
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| Nguyen Duc Tung and his team of colleagues |
Nguyen Duc Tung said: “Returning to Hue is something I have always cherished, not only because I was born here, and I want to contribute to Hue, but also because I feel that Hue has changed a lot over the years. Hue has built a very open innovation startup environment and policy for businesses to unleash their creativity. In addition, this land owns rich human resources, with high creativity not inferior to those in large southern provinces and cities. However, what is found lacking is an environment to promote creativity. That’s also the reason I chose Ho Chi Minh City as a place to start a business instead of returning to Hue from the beginning. Therefore, I really hope that when I return to Hue, I can contribute to inspiring and building an empowering environment for young people in my hometown so that they won’t have to leave for other places to learn.
And fate brought Tung meet Permanent Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Phan Ngoc Tho (Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee at that time); Director of the Institute of Research and Development, Mr. Cung Trong Cuong at the program “Meet Hue” in Ho Chi Minh City. Empathizing with the provincial leaders’ sharings about his dedication to building and developing Thua Thien Hue, as well as feeling the changes in Hue, Tung was motivated to to return to his hometown to establish his career.
It has been shared many times by Director of the Institute for Development Studies Cung Trong Cuong that attracting young Hue expatriates of high caliber to return to this land to contribute to promoting its further development, especially in the fields related to technology and creativity will not only contribute to making Hue more dynamic but also contribute more to the budget, creating a creative environment to attract technology businesses to Hue.
In early 2020, Mr. Nguyen Duc Tung officially started his journey of returning to Hue to establish his business. However, very few people know that Tung had to sacrifice a lot of things so as to return to Hue to realize his dream of “building his own empire”. Tung’s biggest trade-offs when leaving the prosperous land of Ho Chi Minh City include “replacing” the entire staff, building a new business network, etc.
Tung said that he returned to Hue exactly when the COVID-19 pandemic began to break out, so business activities were very difficult and he could not directly approach businesses in the area. At that time, he only had 6 employees, so the first thing he did was to start building a new staff from scratch. In addition to the core staff, he encouraged students to participate in supporting ongoing projects to help them acquire practical experience and hone skills that have not been trained in the classroom setting.
From an initial number of 6 employees by the end of 2020, the company’s staff has reached 60. Besides, major partners still maintain cooperation, new partners are constantly being developed. Orders for marketing activities to bring these products to domestic and foreign e-commerce platforms, branding, packaging, and new designs are still being developed. In addition, taking advantage of the “pain points” of Hue businesses in accessing and doing business online, X10 has begun to support many businesses in conducting and promoting business on e-commerce platforms domestically and internationally.
“Even though there were initial difficulties, leaving Ho Chi Minh City for Hue to start a business has brought me new opportunities and valuable experiences,” confided the Director of X10 Digital.
Making changes with technology
Working in the field of content creation and always dreaming of creating unique products and services that can change people’s lives, Nguyen Duc Tung has realized the endless potential of e-commerce platforms. “The constant change in technology forces content creators doing business on e-commerce platforms to constantly change.” That is the lesson Nguyen Duc Tung drew after returning to Hue.
Tung said, TikTok Shop began to grow strongly in early 2022. However, I missed many opportunities in a brief moment of “distraction”. While many other businesses have seized the opportunity and leveraged the power of TikTok Shop to increase revenue, I still didn’t do anything. As a result, after just a few months, I was left behind by my competitors. 3 months later, the revenue from the investment segments of the business decreased significantly. At that time, I truly “woke up” and started learning by joining my team to penetrate this new market. Thanks to that, I regained balance and inspiration in business in less than 2 months.
“In creating business content, if we lose the spirit of learning, we will become losers” is Tung’s conclusion about his own startup story. Tung said that each person must continuously update their knowledge and approach new trends in order to be successful in this field of content creation. Ignorance and inertia in a split second can cause your business to fall behind in a very long time.
And the dream of establishing a creative factory
Not only does Tung create a successful business environment, but he also actively contributes to the community. He regularly participates and organizes seminars, sharing knowledge and experience about creativity and entrepreneurship with other young people. Tung always encourages other young talents to pursue their passions and bring creative ideas into reality.
Talking about his dream, Tung shared that he was focusing on investing in a center to produce videos, images, and online sales spaces, etc. It is expected that the project will be completed early next year, and it will be the place where the combination of creative passion and modern technology to create unique and attractive works can be seen. The products produced here will not only meet the advertising goals of the business but also bring a unique experience to customers.
“I call it a creative factory where an ideal model of a space that encourages each individual to be creative appears when the customer opens the door. It will be designed with open spaces, creative meeting rooms, recording studios, flexible work areas and professional equipment. These, altogether, will create favorable conditions for the production team to create unique and high-quality videos. In addition, the creative factory will also serve as a training and talent development center, organizing courses and workshops to impart knowledge and skills in the field of video production."
With this dream, Nguyen Duc Tung hopes to attract more young people, creative businesses, technology businesses, etc., to Hue, turning Hue into a creative center and creative factory of the country.