Always carrying the "national ballpoint pen" TL-027, CEO Thien Long confided: Ballpoint pens that everyone knows are both a source of pride and pain.

CEO of Thien Long Group Tran Phuong Nga. Photo: S-World.

“ Thien Long has many ballpoint pen products that everyone knows. It is a source of pride, but also a source of pain, because there are products that Thien Long has launched but few users know about, ” Ms. Tran Phuong Nga - CEO of Thien Long Group shared in the program “The Next Power” organized by S-World. Some examples listed by the CEO include edible children's play dough, a set of antibacterial erasers and file folders, a pen that can be drawn on fabric for children to decorate their belongings, or even a skin marker used in the operating room. “ I always carry the TL-027 pen that everyone knows. However, this is a quite traditional product. When I go to stores in Japan, the products here are personal and stylish to serve study and work, full of emotions and very beautiful. I always dream that Vietnamese people can access such products ,” she confided.

Ballpoint pen model TL-027 of Thien Long.

This is the beginning of the story about the journey of innovation efforts at Thien Long - a corporation founded in 1981 and accounting for about 60% of the domestic writing instrument market share from 2016 to present. According to CEO Tran Phuong Nga, even when the company is stable, they still try to turn around to reach another goal. “ The later the change, the more difficult it will be because everything is going very well, like the wheels fitting together perfectly. When changing, we are always afraid. However, if we are afraid, we will not dare to do anything. So let's accept and change first. When changing, there must be something new ,” she shared.

According to Thien Long's CEO, the most "scary" change is giving way to the next generation. She admitted feeling insecure when handing over power and work to others because she felt mistakes were likely to happen. " Overcoming yourself, delegating power, accepting to do things that don't have a destination is really difficult ," she said. Host Truong Ly Hoang Phi raised the issue that in the creative process, there are products that are kept, but there are things that have to be "killed" because they are no longer suitable. In response, Ms. Nga said that it is difficult for many businesses and it is even more difficult for Thien Long, because the company has thousands of products, not all of which are successful. “ Every year we have to review to remove some. But consider it normal. There is life, there is death, there is regeneration, then there is an environment to continue. There are many products that I regret when destroyed, it is really painful, but that is the game we have to accept. If we are too careful and perfectionist, we will not have a diverse product portfolio. Our goal is to have diverse stationery products with style and emotion ,” said Ms. Nga. When asked whether the stationery market will ever narrow to make room for more modern technological devices, Ms. Nga said that instead of using products that only cost 5,000 VND like before, customers now prefer products with much more value to have an experience. Therefore, Thien Long's direction is not to focus on quantity anymore but on value. “ Nowadays, most of us read books online, but we still love traditional books. I think traditional products will never disappear. However, that does not mean we do not follow technology. Thien Long has prepared for the long road in the future ,” said Ms. Nga.

According to Market Pulse