Internship Report Song Con Sugar JSC

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE ............................................................................................................................................
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUTION TO SONG CON SUGAR JSC ........................................................... 1
1.1.

History and development of Song Con Sugar JSC ................................................................ 1

1.2.

Organizational structure ....................................................................................................... 2

1.3.

Overview of Song Con Sugar JSC’s business activities ........................................................ 5

1.4.

Song Con Sugar JSC’s business performance from 2011 to 2013 ......................................... 5

CHAPTER 2: ANALYSIS OF RELATED DIVERSIFICATION STRATEGY AT SONG CON
SUGAR JSC ....................................................................................................................................... 8
2.1. The current situation of application and development of related diversification strategy at
Song Con Sugar JSC ....................................................................................................................... 8
2.1.1. Implementation of related diversification strategy in recent years ...................................... 8
2.1.2. Development of related diversification strategy by formulating new project in capacity
increase .................................................................................................................................... 10
2.2.

Evaluation of implementing related diversification strategy at Song Con Sugar JSC ........... 12

2.2.1. Strengths ......................................................................................................................... 12

2.2.2. Weaknesses and causes .................................................................................................... 13
CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR RELATED DIVERSIFICATION STRATEGY
IMPLEMENTATION AT SONG CON SUGAR JSC ....................................................................... 15
3.1.

Strategic business units’ development orientation .............................................................. 15

3.2.

Recommendations for Song Con Sugar JSC ...................................................................... 16

3.1.1.

Human resources ....................................................................................................... 16

3.1.2.

Accounting system...................................................................................................... 17

3.3.

Recommendations for Vietnam Sugarcane & Sugar Association (VSSA) ........................... 17

CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY OF INTERNSHIP ..................................................................... 19
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................. 21


PREFACE
As one of the investment policies of the Vietnamese government to develop the
economy in Tan Ky, which was a poor mountainous district in the west of Nghe An

province, Song Con Sugar Factory (today is Song Con Sugar JSC) was established to
produce sugar from sugarcane in order to change the scattered, backward, selfsufficient thoughts of farmers and at the same time create job opportunities for local
people. Therefore, the exit and development of the company has not only an economic
signification but also a remarkable social meaning. However, in the present context
when the globalization and integration bring a lot of opportunities and threats to
Vietnamese enterprises, Song Con Sugar JSC has to be more careful to find out the
most suitable direction to drive the enterprise to the common goals. In such case, the
business strategy becomes vital than ever before: “without a strategy the organization
is like a ship without a rudder, going around in circles” (Joel Ross & Michael Kami)
According to the schedule of Foreign Trade University, I spent a five-week
internship at Song Con Sugar JSC, which majors in producing and selling sugar and
microbiological fertilizers. Under the training of my direct instructor, Mr. Nguyen
Khanh Hung, as well as the condescension of the company’s staffs, I have been given a
great opportunity to apply my academic knowledge to practical problems and compare
with the theories I have learned at the university. Based on my background knowledge
and the experience I gained during my internship, I decide to choose the topic for this
report as “Related diversification strategy at Song Con Sugar JSC”.
The report consists of three separate parts:
Chapter 1: Introduction to Song Con Sugar JSC
Chapter 2: Analysis of related diversification strategy at Song Con Sugar JSC


Chapter 3: Recommendations for related diversification strategy at Song Con
Sugar JSC
Due to my limitation of knowledge, skills and experience, mistakes and faults are
inevitable. I welcome all comments, advices and suggestions that help me improve the
quality of the report.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my instructors and Song Con
Sugar JSC’s staffs for helping me complete my mid-course internship.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUTION TO SONG CON SUGAR JSC
1.1.

History and development of Song Con Sugar JSC

International transaction name: Song Con Sugar Joint Stock Company
Headquarter: Tan Ky Town - Tan Ky District - Nghe An Province
Tel: 0383 882 214 - Fax: 038 882 200
Song Con Sugar JSC was formerly known as a sugar production workshop of
Song Lam Sugar Factory (Hung Nguyen - Nghe An) established in 1971. After that,
because of war, it was moved to Tan Ky District, merged with Tan Ky alcohol
production workshop in order to build Song Con Sugar - Alcohol Factory.
In 2001, it was renamed as Song Con Sugar Company operating in accordance
with Decision No. 2466/QD-UB dated December 28th 1992 issued by People’s
Committee of Nghe An Province; Business License No. 106713 dated December 26th
1993 issued by Economic Arbitrator of Nghe An Province.
According to Decree No. 187/2004/ND-CP dated November 16th 2004 of the
Government on transformation of state-owned companies into join-stock companies
and Circular No. 126/2004/TT-BTC dated December 24th 2004 providing guidelines
for implementation of Decree 187/2004/ND-CP, People’s Committee of Nghe An
Province issued Decision No. 3724/QD-UBND-DMDN dated October 18th 2006
approving equitization: transforming Song Con Sugar Company into Song Con Sugar
JSC, directly under the Vietnam Sugarcane & Sugar Association (VSSA).
In recent years, Song Con Sugar JSC has expanded its materials area, invested
more capital in local farmers and provided new sugarcane varieties with high yield,
good quality for the farmers.

1

Besides expanding the materials area, Song Con Sugar JSC has also focused on
machine investment in which company increased the capacity of production line
gradually: 15 tons of sugarcane per day at the starting point, 30 tons/day in 1980, 100
tons/day in 1990, and 200 tons/day in 1995. In 1997, Song Con Sugar JSC
implemented the new project constructing a modern production line, using
synchronous equipment with the capacity 1,250 tons of cane per day from Spain,
applying sugar production technology from Cuba which have longstanding reputation
in sugar production. This project was under the program named 1million tons of sugar
per year of Vietnamese Government, using the combination of Spanish ODA and
OECD capital with VND 230 billion of the total initial capital. In March 2001, this line
was completely installed and upgraded every year and has reached 2,500 tons of
sugarcane per day in 2009. This capacity brought high economic efficiency and has
been maintained until now.
Song Con Sugar JSC has developed for 43 years, completed all plans and duties
well and positioned itself in the market. Song Con Sugar JSC’s success has been
recognized through some following significant rewards:
- Vietnam Association of Food Science and Technology (VAFoST) awarded the
Gold Cup of food quality and safety in 2003.
- Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development rated as efficient company
contributing a significant portion to sugar and sugarcane industry of Vietnam
- Song Con Sugar has applied quality management system ISO 9001 - 2000
since 2004 and now switches to ISO 9001 - 2008.
1.2.

Organizational structure

The organizational structure of SONG CON SUGAR JSC is illustrated as follow:

2

Chart 1.1: Song Con Sugar JSC’s organizational stucture
Annual General
Meeting

Board of
Supervisors

Board of Directors

Executive Director

Deputy Director of
Business

Planning
Department

Market
Department

AccountingFinance
Department

Deputy Director of
Materials

Deputy Director of
Technology

Agriculture
Department

Technology
Department

Deputy Director of
Production

Sugar Factory

Human Resources
- Administration
Department

Microbiological
Fertilizer Factory

3


Functions and duties of each department:
 Annual General Meeting: is the highest power position in the company, is held
annually. Sometimes, it could be organized extraordinary meetings in compliance with
the company’s charter.
 Board of Directors: is a body of elected or appointed members by General
Meeting of Shareholders, has 5-year tenure.
 Board of Supervisors: is body that operates objectively, honestly,
independently, and is responsible to General Meeting of Shareholders for its inspection

contents and results.
 Executive Director: is appointed by Board of Directors, is legitimate
representative of the company, manages and controls the company operation since the
appointment decision comes into force; four Deputy Directors assist Executive
Director and are responsible for providing leadership and direction for directly under
departments. These people are five members of Board of Managers.
 Planning Department: is in charge of long-term and short-term business plans
and strategies for the whole company.
 Market Department: is in charge of market research, marketing and deals with
problems arising from customers.
 Agriculture Department: is in charge of sugarcane material areas, supports
farmers by providing them with capital, cultivation techniques, sugarcane varieties…
 Technology Department: is in charge of production line and technology
system which support other departments and factories.
 Sugar Factory: produces cane sugar (sucrose) from sugarcane
 Microbiological Fertilizers Factory: produces microbiological fertilizers from
filter cake (the residual after finishing sugar processing)

4


 Accounting - Finance Department: advises Executive Director on financial
management, is responsible for recording, codifying and processing financial
information, preparing financial statements.
 Human resources - Administration Department: advises Executive Director
on the organizational structure of business, arranges the human resources appropriately
with the company’s business requirements.
1.3.

Overview of Song Con Sugar JSC’s business activities

According to establishment decision, Song Con Sugar JSC was certified the

business license No. 2703000988 by People’s Committee of Nghe An Province. Under
that Decision, there are two main business sectors: producing sugar from sugarcane
what has been deemed as the main raw materials and producing microbiology fertilizer
from the byproducts of sugar processing.
Because sugarcane is one kind of short-term industrial trees, the sugar
production is highly seasonal. Therefore, Song Con Sugar JSC has diversified its
business by producing microbiological fertilizer for both utilizing the byproducts after
producing sugar and creating more job opportunities for the local employees when
finishing crushing seasons. This related diversification also generates more revenue for
the company and the workers.
1.4.

Song Con Sugar JSC’s business performance from 2011 to 2013

5


Table 1.1: Business performance of Song Con Sugar JSC form 2011 to 2013
Unit: VND
No. Criteria
1

Sales

2

Revenue deductions

3

Net sales

4

Cost of goods sale

5

Gross profit

6

Financial activities income

7

Financial activities expenses
in which: Interest expense

8

Selling expenses

9

General&administration expenses

10

Net profit

11

Other revenues

12

Other expenses

13

Other profit

14

Profit before taxes

15

Profit tax expense

16

Profit after taxes

2011

2012

2013

262,574,884,847

265,213,927,640

288,684,812,690

5,250,000

-

37,500,000

262,569,634,847

265,213,927,640

288,647,312,690

238,546,426,670

210,712,101,993

254,913,096,917

24,023,208,177

54,501,825,647

33,734,215,773

1,499,608,808

1,849,840,356

1,416,423,732

13,301,451,924

33,674,340,291

19,221,795,510

-

7,154,070,483

8,391,688,610

2,220,554,198

2,139,998,441

1,040,881,791

7,954,088,270

11,857,060,386

13,236,270,675

2,046,722,594

8,680,266,885

1,651,691,529

194,690,972

1,424,683,218

162,672,201

724,324,601

-

38,053,130

(529,633,629)

1,424,683,218

124,619,072

1,517,088,965

10,104,950,103

1,776,310,601

-

689,585,792

222,038,825

1,517,088,965

9,415,364,312

1,554,271,776

Source: Song Con Sugar JSC’s Accounting - Finance Department

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Table 1.2: Some criteria for evaluating business performance
Changes
Criteria
2011-2012
Total revenues

2012-2013

1.6%

8.1%

-1.7%

11.6%

520.6%

-83.5%

Total expenses
(exclude taxes)
Total profit after taxes

Source: Song Con Sugar JSC’s Accounting - Finance Department
It can be seen that among three years from 2011 to 2013 Song Con Sugar JSC
generated the highest profit in 2012. From 2011 to 2012, because total revenue
increased and total expenses decreased, the profit climbed sharply by VND
7,898,275,347 (520.6%). The main reason of this significant increase was the
considerable reduction of cost of goods sold, which resulted from the following
context: 2011-2012 crushing season was evaluated as the most successful crop in five
recent years thank to high quality and quantity of sugarcane in almost of cane material
areas in Vietnam. Nevertheless, high sugarcane yield lowers the cane’s price in the
market. At that time, in Tan Ky town, Nghe An, two big floods at the end of 2011 and
early 2012 destroyed the sugarcane material areas dramatically, which leaded to the
shortage of sugarcane in Tan Ky where Song Con Sugar JSC has committed to
purchase sugarcane at high price (VND 900,000/ton) from January 1st 2011 to April
30th 2013. Therefore, Song Con Sugar JSC could buy a big amount of sugarcane at
market price from other areas. This helped the company to reduce the cost of materials
remarkably.

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CHAPTER 2: ANALYSIS OF RELATED DIVERSIFICATION
STRATEGY AT SONG CON SUGAR JSC
2.1.

The current situation of application and development of related

diversification strategy at Song Con Sugar JSC
2.1.1. Implementation of related diversification strategy in recent years
Nearly ten years ago, Song Con Sugar JSC applied diversification strategy by
producing and selling a bundle of products processed from sugarcane such as cane
sugar (the main product), molasses, ethanol and microbiological fertilizers. However,
because of variety of products, company could not manage efficiently; the economic
effectiveness of extra products was very low and affected negatively to the productivity
of sugar production.
In that circumstance, a meeting of shareholders was held and the company
decided to cut down the ineffective strategic business units, maintained only two
divisions: sugar and fertilizers. Song Con Sugar JSC gathered its resources and
capacities to redesign its business operation, concentrated on two independent
factories:

8


Chart 2.1: Song Con Sugar JSC’s Strategic business units

Sugar Factory

Production Shifts

Microbiological
Fertilizers Factory

Production
Teams

Song Con Sugar
JSC

Under the direct control of Board of Management, each factory has their own
specification, technical system, duties and totally is responsible for its operation.
Besides that, these two factories have the interconnected relationship: Sugar factory’s
output becomes microbiology fertilizers factory’s input. Microbiological fertilizers
factory uses products of the sugarcane processing except cane sugar (sucrose) as the
materials to produce fertilizers. The main raw material in microbiological fertilizers
production is filter cake which is the final residual after sugarcane processing.
Moreover, bagasse, the residual dry fiber of the cane juice has been extracted, is used
as fuel source for the boilers in the generation of process steam in sugar plants and for
the dryer in microbiological fertilizers processing.
The combination of these two strategic business units helps Song Con Sugar to
manage its resources effectively, make use of byproducts from cane sugar processing
in order to save the materials cost in microbiological fertilizers production.
The operation results of these two factories in last three years are presented as
follow:

9

Table 2.1: Yields of sugar factory and microbiological factory from 2011 to 2013
Unit: ton
Year

Sugar

Fertilizers

2011

2012

2013

36,000.0

40,441.5

39,342.0

3,690.0

4,627.5

4,707.0

Source: Song Con Sugar JSC’s Accounting - Finance Department
On average, sugar factory operates appropriate six months per year (crushing
season lasts for a period of six months from October of this year to April of the

following year). With the maximum capacity is 2,500 tons of sugarcane per day, it is
impossible to produce more than 45,000 tons of sugar per year. So, it can be seen that
sugar factory have already operated at nearly full capacity.
The yields of microbiological fertilizers factory depends on the amount of filter
cake after each crushing season. The more filter cake produced, the higher yield is. In
the three-year period from 2011 to 2013, the fertilizers quantity increased by 1,017 tons
(about 27.6%).
2.1.2. Development of related diversification strategy by formulating new
project in capacity increase
Despite the fact that the sugar factory ran at high capacity utilization, the
microbiological fertilizers factory’s operation is still disengaged because the filter cake
produced from sugar processing only provides a small proportion of microbiological
fertilizers factory’s capacity.
Furthermore, the current capacity of sugar factory is not great enough to take
advantage of the large sugarcane material areas in Tan Ky district. According to the

10


Decision No. 732/QD-UBND dated 9th March 2009 issued by People’s Committee of
Nghe An Province, until 2015, the total area of sugarcane in Tan Ky is expected to
expand to 5,500 hectares with the average productivity will be 75,000 kilograms of
cane per hectare. However, up to early 2014, Tan Ky have already completed this
planning scheme and continues enhancing the quality of sugarcane in the local
materials areas in order to increase the average sugarcane productivity. The
development of sugarcane material areas requires the upgrade of production system
and the increase of factory’s capacity.
Therefore, Song Con Sugar JSC has a plan to increase the capacity of sugar
factory for taking advantage of the huge sugarcane material areas and maximizing the
microbiological fertilizers factory’s capacity. Now, Song Con Sugar JSC is in the

initial steps of implementing this plan by formulating a new project in capacity
increase. The project is expected to make the sugar factory’s capacity to double (from
2,500 tons of sugarcane per day to 5,000 tons/day). This development is evaluated as a
perspicacious decision of Board of Directors and Managers, which would help Song
Con Sugar JSC to keep on pursuing the related diversification strategy effectively and
efficiently.
In addition, the new project also applies the technology innovation called
“cleaner production” including four groups of solution:
 Good housekeeping: Well-maintaining and immediately repairing all steam
leaking points, substituting all faulty steam traps.
 Equipment modification: Substituting the machinery parts made of normal
steel (which contaminates products) by the stainless ones, regularly checking and
maintaining the strainers, regularly maintaining the rollers, upgrade the filtering
equipment.

11


 Onsite recovery: Installing a recovery system of cooling water, making use of
filtration mud and sludge as composite to provide for the raw materials supplying areas
and sell to the market.
 End-of-pipe: Installing a SO2 treatment system in the production workshop
Song Con Sugar JSC makes a big effort to execute the new project in order to
produce more, cleaner and save costs in the future. This project is expected to complete
in early 2017. It promises a new development stage of company with an effective
related diversification strategy and two strategic business units that are productive and
environment-friendly.
2.2.

Evaluation of implementing related diversification strategy at Song Con

Sugar JSC
2.2.1. Strengths
 Leveraging

competencies:

“Leveraging

competencies

involves

taking

distinctive competence developed by a business unit in one industry and using it to
create a new business unit or division in a different industry” (Charles W. L. Hill &
Gareth R. Jones, 2008: 315). Song Con Sugar JSC leverages its skills in manufacturing
and marketing some kinds of products originated from sugarcane to create a business
unit in a microbiological fertilizers industry.
 Sharing resources and capabilities: In case of Song Con Sugar JSC, the
second business unit (microbiological fertilizers) was created to take the cost-based
competitive advantage from making use of byproducts and existing information
technology system of the first business unit (sugar). Thus, the production costs of
microbiological fertilizers factory would be saved considerably. Moreover, two
factories share and utilize expensive resources or capabilities, such as skilled people,
equipment, facilities, distribution channels… Because Song Con Sugar JSC can share
resources or capabilities across two business units, it lowers their cost structure

12

compared to a company that operates in only one industry and has to bear the full costs
of developing resources and capabilities.
 Utilizing general organizational competencies: Effective organizational
structure and controls of Song Con Sugar JSC create incentives that encourage
business unit managers to maximum the efficiency and effectiveness of their units.
Superior strategic management capabilities of managers are advantage of Song Con
Sugar JSC, which is showed through the ability to diagnose the underlying sources of
the problems of a poorly performing business unit (microbiological fertilizers factory
performed at very low capacity) and understand how to proceed to solve problems.
2.2.2. Weaknesses and causes
 The bureaucratic costs of diversification results from coordination between
strategic business units: An enormous amount of managerial time and effort required
to accurately measure the performance and unique profit of a business unit that is
transferring, leveraging or sharing resources with another. Sometimes, bureaucratic
costs obstruct the performance measurement, so that lead to the wrong evaluation for
the results of each business unit. Furthermore, the coordination between two business
units at Song Con Sugar JSC is not only the simple relationship on production (sugar
factory’s byproducts are raw microbiological fertilizers factory’s materials) but also
complicated incorporation because they coordinate with each other through other
departments such as marketing, human resources, technology… This indirect
collaboration increases the bureaucratic costs that lower the effectiveness and
efficiency of the coordination between sugar and microbiological fertilizers factories.
 Inaccurate performance measurement is due to some shortcomings in
company’s accounting system: Song Con Sugar JSC’s accounting system hitherto is
simplified like when it was in the early stages. Company only applies financial
accounting to calculate the financial indicators and prepare the required financial
statements. However, the financial accounting is still weak and can not describe the

13


true financial situation of company in detail. For example, today Song Con Sugar JSC
is applying straight-line method to calculate the depreciation of tangible assets. This
method is very simple, easy to computerize, saves time and costs but it doesn’t take
into account the fact that machine and technology will be depreciated more in the first
phases and obsolete soon. Therefore, a big amount of depreciation expenses would be
compute at the inaccurate value by this way, which leads to the inexact measurement of
each factory in production costs, in current situation of machines and so on.
Furthermore, the managerial accounting is virtually disregarded although it is a critical
factor “which is a profession that involves partnering in management decision making,
devising planning and performance management systems, and providing expertise in
financial reporting and control to assist management in the formulation and
implementation of an organization's strategy” (Institute of Management Accountants.
2008.) Now, Song Con Sugar JSC have not reported the business performance for each
kind of product, not focused on clearly making the boundary between fixed costs and
variable costs and not analyzed deeply the origins of expenses occurred and revenues
generated in individual strategic business units. It’s clear that the managerial
accounting in Song Con Sugar JSC is the considerable weakness that need to be
improved as soon as possible.

14


CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR RELATED
DIVERSIFICATION STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION AT SONG CON
SUGAR JSC
3.1.

Strategic business units’ development orientation
In general, the related diversification strategy at Song Con Sugar JSC have

achieved some initial successes which prove the fact that the two strategic business
units under this strategy was an intelligent choice of the company. In the next five
years, Song Con Sugar JSC continues execute this business strategy and expand the
scale of two units:
Song Con Sugar JSC makes much progress in implementing the new project
which increases the sugar factory’s capacity and applies the technology named “cleaner
production”. The company expects that this project will be completed in 2017 and
reach the full capacity in 2020.
On the other hand, Song Con Sugar JSC will continue signing the agreement
with local farmers in sugarcane’s price commitment in order to encourage farmers to
be loyal with sugarcane, maintain the current cane material areas. Besides, the
company also doubles the current fund for agriculture department to enhance the staffs’
knowledge and to guide the local farmers about farming techniques, fertilizers usage or
new varieties cultivation… All of these are forward to the orientation of sugarcane’s
quality development at 5,500 hectares of the current material areas.
Song Con Sugar JSC assigns microbiological fertilizers factory to raise the
productivity and try to operate at 100% capacity when completing the project in sugar
factory. Simultaneously, microbiological fertilizers factory orients to cut down the
emissions to the allowed standard in 2015 in order to ensure the environmental and
social benefits.

15


3.2.

Recommendations for Song Con Sugar JSC

3.1.1. Human resources
It can be seen from chart 2.1 that sugar factory manages its employees by

production shifts while the microbiological fertilizers factory control by production
teams. I recommend Song Con Sugar JSC to combine flexibly these two ways in order
to create a stable number of skilled people that contribute significantly to the
production efficiency in both factories. Specifically, the company should train a group
of employee about basic skills applying in both sugar and fertilizers factories. During
the time of crushing seasons, when the sugar factory has to operate at the peak
production, the work usually tops out at three shifts per day; this group could work at
sugar factory as part-time employees. After six months of a crushing season, this group
should be transferred to microbiological fertilizers factory because it’s time when the
fertilizers factory operates at peak production. This method will help the company
reduce the number of extra labors, who are low-skilled, need to hire every crushing
season. Therefore, Song Con Sugar JSC can maintain the stability of quantity and
quality of workers and improve the productivity of each strategic business unit easily
and timely.
Now, the production activities of both factories are managed by the Deputy
Director of Production, other fields such as marketing, sales, technology of each
factory are executed together by specialized departments. Song Con Sugar JSC should
assign at least one person to be responsible for one field of each strategic business unit
in order to increase the specialization, promote the effectiveness of every single field in
each business unit.

16


3.1.2. Accounting system
As mentioned above, Song Con Sugar JSC has had some problems in its
accounting system both financial and managerial accounting.

About financial accounting, Song Con Sugar JSC should modify some methods
in the current accounting as follow:
- Replace the straight-line depreciation method with productive-output method
of depreciation in order to have the better overview of tangible assets such as
machines, facilities, factories…
- Separate health insurance, unemployment insurance, social insurance should
be separated into three accounts in order to monitor the deductions and other
entitlements explicitly instead of gathering in only one common account as currently.
About managerial accounting, I emphasize that company has to keep an eye on
constructing a full managerial accounting system. First of all, Song Con Sugar JSC
should recruit a skilled managerial accountant who is in charge of managing the
business team and at the same time having to report relationships and responsibilities to
the accounting - finance department. This accountant would work as a strategic partner
and provider of decision based on financial and operational information. The activities’
managerial accountant provide inclusive of forecasting and planning, performing
variance analysis, reviewing and monitoring costs inherent in the business are ones that
have dual accountability to both finance and the strategic business teams.
3.3.

Recommendations for Vietnam Sugarcane & Sugar Association (VSSA)
VSSA operates in producing, processing, consuming, importing and exporting

sugarcane and sugar, coordinates effectively the business activities in Vietnam and
overseas. In other words, VSSA is practically concentrating on the sugar production
and sugarcane consumption activities of members and ignoring other activities of all its

17


members. In fact, VSSA has not supported and helped Song Con Sugar JSC’s

microbiological fertilizers factory to develop producing and selling fertilizers. I
recommend that VSSA should pay attention on other related business units of its
members in general and on microbiological fertilizers factory of Song Con Sugar JSC
in particular. Of course, VSSA is not able to cover all strategic business units of all
members but it should spend a certain proportion of time, money and efforts in
different business units related to sugarcane. In case of Song Con Sugar JSC, VSSA
ought to be the connection among members which also produces fertilizers in order to
create the opportunities for them to help each other enhance production technologies,
improve product quality, prevent risks, expand market and promote the relations. Thus,
VSSA can accomplish its responsibilities entirely.

18


CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY OF INTERNSHIP
I have had opportunity to research the business strategy at Song Con Sugar JSC
thank to the schedule of mid-term internship. It’s hard for me to understand deeply
about an abstract term like “strategy” but 5-week internship helped me improve my
knowledge in strategic management and gave me a chance to practice at the same time
apply my knowledge in writing report.
During my internship, I was assigned to do the following tasks:
- Entering data of absent days of staffs and employees
- Recording other expenses from bills such as electricity, water and telephone bills in
June and July 2014; bills incurring in the business trip from 10th July to 13th July 2014
of Board of Managers
- Translating weekly reports of foreign engineers who are formulating the new project
about capacity increase in sugar factory
- Making photocopies
It was very hard for me to do the translation job because the documents are
relating to technical issues that are unfamiliar to me. However, the interpreters of the

company have helped me a lot in finishing my work. They give me suggestion on how
to translate complicated sentences and some special terms. This job helped me a lot in
improving my English and broadening my vocabulary.
Making photocopies was hard for me for the first time because I had never used
a photocopy machine before. However it was not a complicated task, I have now
known how to do it skillfully. Other tasks such as entering data or recording fees from
paper into the computer were not difficult but they took time and easy to make
mistakes, so they required me to work hard, patiently and carefully.

19


Finally, the whole internship gave me an exposure to the working environment
and condition. It helped me improve my soft skills and understand what I have learnt at
Foreign Trade University deeper. In addition, I know how to get on well with
colleagues, how to dress appropriately, how to communicate properly.
In conclusion, the internship was a good experience for me and helped me to be
well-prepared for the future.

20


REFERENCES
Charles W. L. Hill & Gareth R. Jones, 2008, Strategic management: an integrated
approach, 9th edition, Mason: South-Western Cengage Learning
Institute of Management Accountants, 2008, Definition of Management Accounting,
available at [accessed 20 July
2014]
Ly

Hoang

Anh

Thi,

2013,

Bao

cao

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