The poor experience in meal cost management in aeon mall viet nam

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
-------------------------------

Ho Thi Nguyen Thien

THE POOR EXPERIENCE IN MEAL
COST MANAGEMENT IN AEON MALL
VIET NAM

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2017


UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
-------------------------------

Ho Thi Nguyen Thien

THE POOR EXPERIENCE IN MEAL
COST MANAGEMENT IN AEON MALL
VIET NAM

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
SUPERVISOR: Dr. Pham Phu Quoc

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2017

SUPERVISOR’S REPORT ON THE THESIS SUBMITTED
FOR DEGREE OF MASTER of BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
The

thesis

title:

THE

POOR

EXPERIENCE

IN

MEAL

COST

MANAGEMENT IN AEON MALL VIETNAM
Student Name: HO THI NGUYEN THIEN
Supervisor: Dr. PHAM PHU QUOC
1. General comments:
 Remarks on the student’s attitude:
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………

 Remarks on the assignment’s academic quality:
……………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………
2. Overall assessment:
 Meet requirement for submitting

 Not meet requirement for submitting
3. Other remarks:
 Did the student follow the report schedule?
 Yes

 No

 The Turnitin plagiarism percentage:
Supervisor’s signature:

 Other………………………….


TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXCUTIVE SUMMARY ..............................................................................................1
PART I – BACK GROUND INFORMATION ..........................................................2
1. Company information............................................................................................2
2. Company symptoms ..............................................................................................3
PART II – PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION ...............................................................5
1. Potential problems .................................................................................................5
2. Theory informs and define the central problem ..................................................10
PART III – CAUSE VALIDATION ..........................................................................11
1. Possible causes ....................................................................................................11
2. Theory informs and determine potential causes of the problem .........................15
PART IV – SOLUTIONS ...........................................................................................20
1. The money solutions ...........................................................................................21

2. The money – free solutions .................................................................................22
3. The recruitment new managers ...........................................................................23
PART V – ACTION PLAN ........................................................................................24
1. Plan A: Retain the current managers ...................................................................24
2. Plan B: Recruiting the new managers .................................................................27
3. Comparison and selecting action plan .................................................................29
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................31
APPENDIX 1: INTERVIEW GUIDE .......................................................................33
APPENDIX 2: TRANSCRIPT ...................................................................................34
APPENDIX 3: SUMMARY OF TRANSCRIPT .....................................................53
APPENDIX 4: QUESTIONNAIRE ..........................................................................58
APPENDIX 5: SUMMARY OF SURVEY ...............................................................60


EXCUTIVE SUMMARY
According to economist Milton Friedman, the main purpose of doing business is
maximizing profits for its owners. To do this, it is necessary to minimize the
organization’s cost through cost management and controlling process. If it has some
issues in cost management, company’s situation will be failure to get business
purpose. This thesis provides an analysis and evaluation of current problem about the
poor experience in meal cost management in AEON Vietnam Co., Ltd and to
recommend ways of solving this problem.
The thesis draws attention to the fact that the total number of employees has trend
decreasing in 6 months early of Y2017. Conversely, the average cost per person for
meal is increasing. Further investigations reveal that there are three existing problems:
lack of experience to control situation, the big gap between number of order meals and
the actual meals and the increasing in cost for per meal. Moreover, this thesis also
finds out the factors appear to be the major causes of these problem in AEON Vietnam
Co., Ltd.
This thesis finds the prospects of the company in its current situation are not positive.

The major problems require further investigation and remedial action by management.
Based on analysis, some recommendations discussed include: how to retain
experienced managers and setting up the other regulation to choose the industrial
catering company.
The thesis also investigates the fact that the analysis and evaluation conducted have
limitations. Some of the limitations include: the information is not provided nature and
the reasons cause the problem are not known clearly nor the data limitations as not
enough information is provided or enough detail i.e. the other hidden reasons details
are not known and the old employees, who leaf company already are not present to be
invited the in – depth interviews.

1


PART I – BACK GROUND INFORMATION
1. Company information
AEON is now one of the largest retailing groups in the world with over 179 member
companies both inside and outside Japan. Founded 1758, AEON Group with its
history spanning over 250 years has one of the longest histories as a retailer in Japan.
During its operation, AEON Group has kept the unchanging commitment to putting
“Customer First”. AEON Group’s fundamental principles are the pursuit of prosperous
and stable society and peace through the retail business. Under this corporate
accountability, AEON Group has won the customer’s trust widely and expanded more
businesses not only within Japan territory but also in other countries in Asia for such a
long period of time.
AEON Vietnam Co., Ltd has been presented in Vietnam since 2009, at first under
format of Representative Office (1st Dec 2009 – 10th Jul 2012). On 7th Oct 2011, with
the approval from People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, AEON had set up its
Vietnam Company Limited to invest for construction, organization, managements and
trading of modern shopping malls, General Merchandises Stores (GMS), Supermarkets

as a core business, and to carry out other business activities which links with import,
export, trading, and researches. Until now, the company has been developing with 04
the branches throughout Vietnam. There are AEON Shopping Center – Tan Phu
Celadon in Ho Chi Minh City, AEON Shopping Center – Binh Duong Canary in Binh
Duong Province, AEON Mall Binh Tan in Ho Chi Minh City and AEON Mall Long
Bien in Ha Noi, total charter capital is 192,383,000 US Dollar and total registered
investment capital: 204,648,000 US Dollars. The number of employees in entire mall
is approximate 2,200.
The internal structure one of the branch of company is showed in the graphic as
follow:

2


General
Director

Head of
Human
Resources
Department

Head of
Sales &
Marketing
Department

Head of
Legal
Department

Head of
Administration
Department

Head of
Accounting
Department

Head of
Purchasing
Department

Team 1, 2,
3,…, N

Team 1, 2,
3,…, N

Team 1, 2,
3,…, N

Team 1, 2,
3,…, N

Team 1, 2,
3,…, N

Team 1, 2,
3,…, N

Diagram 1 – Company structure of AEON Vietnam

2. Company symptoms
Meals for company’s employees has an important role. It not only provides energy and
helps them relax and increase their productivity but also is a part of employee’s benefit
that employees are paid. Therefore, the service meal for employees is always paid
special attention by business owners of AEON. In AEON, both of full-time and parttime employees have the right to get this benefit from company.
Everyday, supervisors are responsible for counting and reporting the number of order
meals to admin. After that, leader will summary the figure and order to the industrial
catering company. Based on this number, the industrial catering company will prepare
meals. To control meal cost, AEON Vietnam gives the power to Administration
Department to manage meal ordering progress and Accounting Department to record
the meal cost. A semi-annual, Administration Department will report the situation and
result of controlling meals cost for Board of Directors and the other relavant
departments. In the meeting of the 6 months early of Y2017 about the cost
management in company, the Head of Administration Department already mentioned
the increasing in meal cost for employees in head quarter and 3 branches in 6 months

3


of Y2017. The below table shows the situation of these months in Y2017 compared
with the same period Y2016:
Unit: VND
AVERAGE MEAL AVERAGE MEAL DIFFERENT PERCENTAGE
COST Y2017

COST Y2016

Jan

672,887.32

463,969.24

208,918.08

45.03%

Feb

529,304.25

322,805.51

206,498.73

63.97%

Mar 604,511.10

361,110.78

243,400.32

67.40%

641,765.02

362,979.81

251,785.21

69.37%

May 642,900.49

342,982.74

299,917.75

87.44%

636,161.37

456,326.78

179,834.59

39.41%

Apr

Jun

Table 1 – The average meal cost in 6 months early of Y2016 and Y2017 (The data was provided by
AEON Vietnam’s Administration Department)

Following the report of the Administration Department, it shows that AEON Vietnam

has problem in 6 months of Y2017 in cost for employee’s meal. Based on the
comparision with 6 months early Y2016, the meal cost of Y2017 is higher than its
Y2016. This increasing rate goes up to 87.44%. Specifically, the total number of
employees has trend decreasing in 6 months early of Y2017. Conversely, the average
cost per person for meal is increasing. The chart will show this trend as below:
800,000.00
700,000.00
600,000.00
500,000.00
400,000.00

Y2017

300,000.00

Y2016

200,000.00
100,000.00
1

2

3

4

5

6

Chart 1 - The changing in average cost per one employee in 6 months early of Y2016 and Y2017
(The data was provided by AEON Vietnam’s Administration Department)
4


PART II – PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
1. Potential problems
Following the information are conducted from in-depth interviews with Head of
Administration Department, team leader, supervisor and accountant, who are working
and have responsibility for meal cost management about the fact of meal cost
management situation in AEON Celadon Tan Phu, AEON Binh Tan, Canary Binh
Duong and AEON Long Bien, there are many potential problems for this symptom
that cause the increasing quantity and price of meal as below:
1.1 Lack of experience to control situation:
In the same period of Y2016, the situation is not like it in Y2017. In the same period
of last year, the cost for meal is suitable with it’s employees. But in 6 months of
Y2017, the meal cost is increasing although the number of employee trends of
decreasing slightly. The average cost per person is from 529,304.25 VND to
672,887.32 VND. These figures are bigger than data of the same period in Y2016. The
highest percentage of changing is up to 87.44%. The current staffs do not have
understanding and experiences to solve problem of Y2017 deeply. And they have not
had any previous experiences to solve when the problem happend. There are not many
managers who have enough ability and experience to control the increasing meal cost.
Following the view of Head of Administration Department, “the number of
experienced managers in AEON is small,…the experience managers quit job more and
more” and “the turnover rate is about 10% per year”.
To solving this problem, the Human Resource Department has to recruit the new staffs
who will be responsible for managing cost in the vacancy in company. Because of this
instability, the new employees have difficulty to find and solve the current problem

which happend in the company now. The new satffs cannot catch up with the the
current staffs. Futhermore, because of not using any machines to control the ordering,
the process of calculating and forecasting meals for employees depends on the manual
working of human absolutely. As a consequence, it cannot avoid inaccuracy
management.

5


1.2 The big gap between number of order meals and the actual meals:
Although AEON Vietnam has the chief teams to cook the food for customers. With the
professional chief teams, there are many delicious and safety food that are sold in
delicatessen. But they are not responsible for cooking the meals for AEON’s
employees. The company hires the third service company to serve the industrial
catering. Before the time for lunch or dinner, each of supervisor store will count and
report the number of employees who will eat daily. After that, the leader of admin
team will summary the number and send it for the third service company to prepare the
industrial catering.
According to the Head of Administration Department of AEON Vietnam, “because of
lacking of responsibility of supervisor store and the leader of admin team in checking
meal’s quantity, it makes the big gap between number of order meals and the actual
meals”. It is able to conclude the reason why it has the big gap between number of
order meals and the actual meals is not exact number of order and actual meal’s
quantity. There are not only lack of responsibility of supervisor store and the leader of
admin team in head quarter and 3 branches but also changing in number of employees
daily that cause the deviation of order meal’s quantity. Because of the characteristics
of the supermarket and retail sector, the rate of part-time employees in AEON's labor
structure is high, it is difficult to predict the number of part-time employees working in
a day exactly. These people are sometimes absent without supervisor store’s
agreement. So that the quatity of part-time employees is variable. The table in the

report of Head of Administration Department in the meeting of the 6 months early of
Y2017 shows the situation of this problem in head quarter and 3 branches in 6 months
in Y2017:

6


CELADON
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
TOTAL
SURPLUS
PERCENTAGE

BINH TAN

Ordering
Actual
17,649
17,314
12,940
13,287
15,560
15,195
14,940
14,249

16,648
14,622
17,487
13,712
95,224
88,379
6,845
63.44%

CANARY

Ordering
Actual
14,546
13,563
12,210
12,029
13,540
12,837
13,410
12,610
13,490
13,580
12,920
12,389
80,116
77,008
3,108
28.80%

Ordering
Actual
13,326
12,758
9,290
9,362
10,510
10,472
10,410
10,237
10,962
10,989
10,271
10,375
64,769
64,193
576
5.34%

LONG BIEN
Ordering
Actual
13,720
13,416
10,445
10,493
11,580
11,448
11,995
11,743

11,875
11,887
11,360
11,727
70,975
70,714
261
2.42%

Table 2 – The number of ordering and actual meals of head quarter and 3 branches of AEON Vietnam
in 6 months early of Y2017 (The data was provided by AEON Vietnam’s Administration Department)

Based on the information from the table 2, it shows that the the surplus in number of
meals in 6 months Y2017 of head quarter - Celadon and 3 brands are 6,845 unit Celadon, 3,108 unit - Binh Tan, 576 unit - Canary and 261 unit - Long Bien. The
surplus number in Celadon - Tan Phu is the highest than 3 branches. It is account for
63.44% in total. And the rate of surplus meals in Binh Tan is higher than Canary in
Binh Duong Province and Long Bien in Ha Noi. It is account for 28.80% totally. The
chart 2 shows the number of surplus meals in each of branch and head quater:

576

261

3108

CELADON
BINH TAN
6845

CANARY

LONG BIEN

Chart 2 – The number of surplus meal of AEON Vietnam in 6 months early of Y2017 (The data was
provided by AEON Vietnam’s Administration Department)

The Head of Administration Department agreed that the cost managing system causes
the difference between the rate of surplus meals of AEON Celadon Tan Phu, AEON
7


Binh Tan, AEON Canary Binh Duong and Long Bien Ha Noi. The cost managing
system means a coordination of preparation part and quantity checking. He also said
that “No the coordination of these components will lead to an increase in the number
of surplus meals, so the number of meals will be reported untrue”. In the fact, the
effective of this system in AEON Canary Binh Duong and AEON Long Bien Ha Noi
is better than in AEON Celadon and AEON Binh Tan.
To find out the reasons for this problem, it is necessary to collect more information
from the supervisors of store and the leader of admin team in AEON Celadon and
AEON Binh Tan. According to the supervisors of store, the number of employees who
will eat daily is not exact. She said that “the number of employees one day in AEON is
too huge and quantity of part-time employees is not stable. So I cannot ask one by one
person that they eat or not. I usually report the number of employees, who will eat
meals based on the total quantity of current employees. But some of employees
ordered before but after that, they do not eat meals. So it is not a true number. I am not
sure that all of them will eat meals”. Because the daily number of employees in each
store is too big and not stable day by day, it is very difficult and wastes time to count
it. So that, they just estimates. Sometimes, they count employees but there is not
evidence to ensure that these counted employees will eat as predicted. In the the leader
of admin team’s view, there are many employees order but not eating. These reasons

make the the big gap between number of order meals and the actual meals. The leader
of admin team who is responsible for ordering the meals for employees show that the
rate of employees who order but no eating is too high. Following the information are
conducted from interview with leader, this rate is account for over 20% monthly in
Celadon. She agreed that almost employees in store complain about the quality of
industrial catering is too bad to eat. And it is the same food in the meal day by day.
They make them do not want to eat in company. About the meal’s quality, the low
meal’s price is the one of reason why the bad quality. The meal’s quality depends on
it’s price. Some of employees agreed that no refund money if they do not eat meals
makes them feel free to order. Following the AEON's benefit policy, each of
employees who works on a shift will receive a meal allowance. If employees do not
eat, they will not be refunded money. Therefore, the employees order before, they do
8


not eating. The other employees have appointments with their friends or individual’s
problem that they are not able to eat. In additional, the leader of admin team also
mentioned about responsibility of the industrial catering company. The industrial
catering company will count the number of actual meals after lunch and dinner. After
that, they will report for the leader of admin team. The number of actual meal, which
they report to company usually is not true. The industrial catering company’s staffs
want to take the leftovers, so they usually report more meal’s number than actual meal.
In other words, some of industrial catering company’s staffs are cheating AEON to
take more leftovers. As the result, the accuracy of this number depends on the
industrial catering company. But nobody in admin team controls the accuracy of actual
meals.
On the other hand, the number of surplus of Canary Binh Duong and Long Bien Ha
Noi is not too high. They are only account for 5.34% and 2.42% in total. This shows
that the situation in here is not as seriousness as other branches and head quarter in Ho
Chi Minh City.

1.3 The increasing in cost for per one unit of meal:
One of the reasons makes the increasing cost for meal whole the number of employees
decreasing is the increasing in cost for per one unit of meal. According to Accounting
Department’s confirm, the cost for one unit of meal increased slightly in 6 months
early in Y2107. It is from 24,800 VND/unit to 25,000 VND/unit. This price includes
the 10% of Value Added Tax. The reason for this increasing is the increasing in input
material’s cost of the industrial catering company.
To understanding this issue, it needs to discuss with relevant people. The Head of
Administration Department mentioned about the failure in negotiation with industrial
catering company is not solved. So it makes the increasing cost per meal unit. AEON
Vietnam designs only one the industrial catering company by themself despite of
bidding. They do not compare price with the other company in the field. As the result,
the industrial catering company offers the higher price than the other ones.

9


2. Theory informs and define the central problem
Cost management always has a very important role in the success of a business. In
fact, the failure of an organization is not due to lack of financial resources but the
result of ineffective capital management. Cost effective management makes
maximizing and utilizing resources in the enterprise. Good cost management can
overcome the shortcomings in other areas. An unadvised, financially sound decision
can cause great losses to the business. In order to do a good job of managing costs, the
role of managers is indispensable. They are people, who make the decisions to ensure
the continued existence and development of the business and control the
implementation of those decisions. According to Stiner Don E (1992) “First it is
important to note that real cost control starts with an attitude and a philosophy from
executive management”. The role of experienced managers in organizations is like the
cost engineer's role in cost managing project. They have important position in a

company. Stiner Don E (1992) also mentioned that “the role of the cost engineer on
any project is far reaching and includes functions such as estimating, scheduling,
project administration, contracts management, and many others beyond the scope of
pure cost control”. A good cost manager is not only in their individual skills but also in
the experience, which are accumulated from working progress. These experiences will
make it easier for them to make initial judgments when the company has a problem.
These experiences also help managers can make right decisions without the mistakes
comparison with the fresh managers. To determinate who is the experience manager, it
needs to based on some criteria such as how long they work for company, their
contributions, how many people work under thier controlling, information from yearly
assessment of company. In John Dewey’s book (1938), he discussed about the criteria
of experience. There are two important principles of experience are continuity of
experience and interaction.
This thesis does not focus on the two problem are the big gap between number of order
meals and the actual meals and the increasing in cost for per one unit of meal as the
main problems. These above problems cannot be resolved completely. For example,
the price of meal unit goes up is a consequence of economic. According to the general

10


theory of John Maynard Keynes published, it also confirms that price increases are an
unavoidable consequence of inflation. Therefore, it is only one problem of them can be
solved is the lack of experienced managers and it is a central reason for increasing the
cost of meals at AEON Vietnam Co., Ltd in Celadon Tan Phu and AEON Mall Binh
Tan. About the surplus meals problem, it is difficult to solve. The company cannot
prevent employees from not eating. As the result, they are continue to order and still
have the right to eat or not eating. Additional, the number of employees is not stable
daily. It makes complicated for counting the oder meals. Therefore, company will be
in trouble if it still wants to find the solutions for these problems.

PART III – CAUSE VALIDATION
1. Possible causes
Following the central problem mentioned before, it is necessary to find out the causes,
which affect to the current problem. The lack of experience in meal cost management
is due to the fact that most of the experienced managers, who worked for many years
in AEON Celadon Tan Phu, AEON Binh Tan, Canary Binh Duong, AEON Long Bien
and understood the situation left company already. The bad signal for this is the high
turnover rate of senior managers at AEON Celadon Tan Phu and AEON Binh Tan.
This rate is up to 10% per year 2017 and is the highest rate from AEON Vietnam was
built. Comparing to the same period in 2016, it rises from 8% to 10%. The turnover
rate of 10% in 2017 is an unacceptable rate. It means that in ten working employees, it
has one person quit job. Although this turnover rate is lower than industrial retail’s rate
(32.2%), it also is the bad signal for AEON and needs to be find the solution in order
to solve. So the human resource’s situation is not stable. Employees quit job is an
inevitable problem of managing human resource in organizations. However, this issue
is not only one AEON Vietnam have to deal with it. According to experts, the retail
sector is very attractive to candidates because of the nature of work is always
demanding creative and extremely dynamic. But the biggest challenge faced by
employers in this industry is the high turnover rate. Following the result of the recent
survey of Mercer-Talentnet about the turnover rate of organizations in Vietnam, there
are three sectors have the highest turnover rate. They are retail (32.2%), real estate

11


(18.8%), consumer goods (17.3%). In contrast, trading (11.9%), chemicals (9.9%) and
petroleum (5.3%) have the lowest turnover rate. This survey also mentioned that
foreign companies have higher turnover rate than Vietnamese companies in 2017. This
survey also shows that 60% of respondents have average working time at a retail
company is only from 2 to 3 years.

To find out the reasons cause this central problem, it needs information which is
conducted from the interview with the Head of the Administration Department,
accounting staff, supervisors and some employees who are working in AEON Vietnam
in Celadon Tan Phu, AEON Binh Tan, Canary Binh Duong and AEON Long Bien.
There are some hidden reasons as following:
Stress is the main cause of reduced productivity of the employees. Three main reasons
pointential managers are forced to work in AEON Vietnam are overload working,
stress and no career opportunities to get high position in company. Because AEON
Vietnam Co., Ltd belongs to AEON Japanese group, culture of company is followed
by Japanese culture. Japanese culture is the good tool to help employees practice
working skills. But it also has the dark side is overload working and stress. Almost
employees feel that they have to work a lots. According to the survey was conducted
by the Japanese government within 1,743 Japanese enterprises with a staff size of
between 10,000 and 20,000 employees from December 2015 to January 2016, it has
about 10.8% in the total companies said that its employees have to work extra 80 to
100 hours a month. And 11.9% of the companies said their employees worked more
than 100 hours. It means, the time for working is too much. The situation in AEON
Vietnam is similar. 90% senior manager of 10 respondents of survey, who are working
in Celadon Tan Phu, AEON Binh Tan, Canary Binh Duong and AEON Long Bien
agreed that they have to work overtime (can see in Chart 3 – The number of senior
managers have to work overtime in Celadon Tan Phu, AEON Binh Tan, Canary Binh
Duong and AEON Long Bien). The managers at AEON Vietnam are responsible for
doing their work and have to work overtime a lot in order to complete their work on
time. They have too much work to do to keep up the progress of work. Because of the
pressure of time that they are under stress.

12


WORK OVERTIME

NO
10%

YES
90%
YES

NO

Chart 3 – The number of senior managers have to work overtime in Celadon Tan Phu, AEON Binh
Tan, Canary Binh Duong and AEON Long Bien (The data was conducted from survey in 2017)

Morever, in AEON Vietnam Co., Ltd, when one person tries to work to get target and
has some potential strengths, he or she can be promoted to get the higher positions.
But the level of position is limited. The same as usual, Japanese people will be
responsibility for getting the higher positions in company and hold the key role in
Board of Directors. It is very difficult for Vietnamese employees to get these positions.
This is easy to explain that AEON is a Japanese invested corporation so they want to
take control the power. It means that the important positions are not held by the
Vietnamese people. Because of this bad promotion rule of Japanese Board of
Directors, almost of experience managers quit job. The evidence for this is the results
of the survey that there is no opportunity for managers to show their ability and
contribute to work for company. It is the most important factor causes experienced
managers to leave AEON Vietnam.
Based on the above developing, the following initial cause and effect tree has been
developed:

13

The
increasing
price

The failure in
negotiation
with industrial
catering
company

Symptom

No career
opportunities

Overload
working
Experienced
managers quit job
Stress

Central problem

Lack of experience to
control situation

The
increasing
cost for
meal

Lack of responsibility
of admin and
supervisors
Not exact number
of order meals

The
increasing
quantity

Not stable number of
part time employees
daily

The big gap
between number
of order meals
and the actual
meals
Not exact number
of actual meals

Not check the
actual meal
quantity

Employees
not eating

Lack of responsibility
of admin and
supervisors

Have unexpected
individual’s work

Rely on the
benefit

Diagram 2 - Initial cause and effect map

Not good in
meal’s quality

Not diverse kind
of daily food

The low meal’s
price

14


2. Theory informs and determine potential causes of the problem
According to Branham, Leigh (2005), the seven hidden reasons make employees
leave:
 The job or workplace was not what the employee expected. Employees have
unrealistic expectations when they are hired, have misconceptions about the
work or are sometimes misled during the interview process.

 The mismatch between job and person. Those who hire often assume that
because a job is at a lower level, anyone can do it, forgetting that excellence can
be found in all jobs and that it is worth taking time to assess who has the right
stuff to succeed, in every job in an organization.
 Too little coaching or feedback. Way too many managers still practice once a
year coaching at the annual performance appraisal. Many old school managers
adopt a parent to child mindset with their employees, sometimes leading to
behavior that motivates compliance but not commitment. Other managers fear
the confrontations that arise from giving corrective coaching.
 Too few advancement and growth opportunities. This is the No. 1 frustration of
younger top performers. When employees rate today's managers on leadership
competencies, the ability to develop direct reports ranks near the bottom.
 Feeling devalued and unrecognized. These include not being paid fairly, not
receiving a simple thank you for a job well done, being treated with disrespect,
being ignored, being put down instead of valued for being different, not getting
the right tools and resources to do the job, and having to work in an
unacceptable work environment.
 Stress from overwork and work-life imbalance.
 Loss of trust and confidence in senior leaders.
Wu Lisa (1988) also explained some causes affect corporate workers quit. There are
opportunities for advancement such as limited, lack of recognition, unhappiness with
managers, problem in salary and benefit and bored with job.

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Following the result of survey by Talentnet and Mercer in 2017 about the turnover rate
of organizations in Vietnam, the retail industry is in the top three with the lowest
bonus. Specifically, retail (14.8%), logistics (12.5%) and education (9.6%). It shows
the fact that most companies in the retail industry now have low rewards. So the

employees will be convinced when competitors in the industry approached and invited
them to work. They are attracted to another job with higher rewards. For this reason,
the turnover rate in the retail sector is higher than the other sectors in industry.
As the causes make increasing meal cost in Celadon Tan Phu, AEON Binh Tan,
Canary Binh Duong and AEON Long Bien are metioned in above, there are three
possible causes such as no career opportunities, overload working and stress. Besides,
not recognized for contribution, low increasing salary rate, loss believe in management
way, job duties boring/not challenge are also the causes for current problem in AEON.
In contrast, misconceptions about the work and mismatch between job and person do
not affect to manager’s decision leaving. This table below shows the level of influence
of causes. This caculation is based on data conducted from survey with respondents.
The respondents are people, who are responsible for management in AEON Vietnam
Co., Ltd. The caculation of Mean, Standard Deviation and Coefficient of Variation are
conducted from survey as below:
Factors

Mean

Standard

Coefficient of Variation

Deviation
No career

4.5

1.74

0.39

Overload working

3.5

1.50

0.43

Stress

4.2

1.68

0.40

Low increasing

2.9

1.37

0.47

1.7

0.96

0.57

4.3

1.69

0.39

opportunities

salary rate
Loss believe in
management way
Not recognized for

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your contribution
Job duties

1.9

1.04

0.55

1

0

0

1

0

0

2.4

1.20

0.50

boring/not
challenge
Misconceptions
about the work
Mismatch between
job and person
Other reasons

Table 3 – The Mean, Standard Deviation and Coefficient of Variation of causes (The data was
conducted from result of survey in AEON Celadon Tan Phu and AEON Binh Tan)

Based on figures are caculated above (see in Table 3), there are many real causes
make experienced managers quit their job, which affect to lack of experienced
managers in AEON Vietnam Co., Ltd. In all of them, no career opportunities (Mean =
4.5), not recognized for contribution (Mean = 4.3), stress (Mean = 4.2) and overload
working (Mean = 3.5) have the highest mean. It shows four factors affect experienced

managers quit job strongly.
In reality, there are many cases experienced managers left company. It can be
mentioned the Head of Administration Department’s story that she had an old
colleague, whom just quit job in AEON. The reason for his leaving is “he did not find
any career opportunities to get high position in company. In this company, when one
person tries to work to get target and has some potential strengths, he or she can be
promoted to get high position. But the level of position is limited. Japanese people will
have responsibility for high positions and hold the key role in Board of Directors. It is
very difficult for Vietnamese employees to get these positions”. This story tells that
opportunities for high level position is need to be cared by company. Following Daria
Ionova (2016) view “Opportunity for career advancement: growth within an
organization boosts self- esteem and makes a person feel that his efforts are recognized
and appreciated”. The results are presented by Daria Ionova (2016), it also confirms
that promotion opportunity is the factors influencing job satisfaction. Given that a lack

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of opportunity for manager’s growth is one of the leading causes of reducing employee
satisfaction. Reducing employee satisfaction is a signal to recognize that employees
might be frustrated by a lack of opportunities. They do not see any career advancement
and promotions, what managers see as are given growth and development
opportunities.
Besides no opportunities, stress and work overload are also impacts affect the senior
managers do not stick to their company. Both of individual stress and work stress
make employees do not keep balance in their life and their works. However, in this
thesis, it does not focus on individual stress. “Workplace stress can be caused due to
excessive workload, isolation, long working hours, harmful work environments, less
autonomy, complicated relationships among co-workers and management, harassment
by management, annoyance and lack of opportunities or motivation to advancement in

one's skill level” (Banerjee Sudatta and Mehta Payal, 2016). Qureshi et al. (2012)
argued that perceived work overload leads to increased stress and lower job
satisfaction. In AEON’s case, 90% respondents agree that they have to work overtime
and 70% said that they work over 8 hours per day. It means the managers in AEON are
working more time than law’s standards.
One more strongly impacts cause the experienced managers in Celadon Tan Phu,
AEON Mall Binh Tan, Canary Binh Duong and AEON Long Bien left company is not
recognized for contribution. Following Maslow's hierarchy of needs was written by
psychologist Abraham Maslow in 1943 in A Theory of Human Motivation, the
recognized for contribution is in top of pyramid. It is a meta need of people. A person
is in a high position in company, they want to dedicate themselves to the company.
When their talents are given and after that they do not receive any suitble the
recognitions, they will be disappointed. And when there is no satisfaction with the job
or the company, these managers easily leave the job when they have new opportunities
from another company to offer them.
In contrast, AEON Celadon Tan Phu and AEON Mall Binh Tan also have many other
causes for managers to leave the company such as the allowance for employees who
have long time working in company is low. The rate of increasing salary per year is a

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small firgure. It is about 5% in total salary if an employee has more than one year
working in AEON Vietnam. One of the hidden causes that employees quit job is loss
of trust and confidence in senior leaders. Japanese managers/Board of Directors have
ways to control the staffs based on their cultural. Nevertheless, almost Vietnamese
managers and staffs have different methods to manage. So they sometimes conflict
with the others and do not have the same ideals to solve problem. The result of this
conflict is almost the employees quit job. The other ones stay at company but their
satisfaction level goes down. However, this thesis does not concentrate on these causes

above, because they do not affect strongly to this problem. Mean of Low increasing
salary rate factor is 2.9 and Mean of Loss believe in management way factor is 1.7
This diagram shows the updated causes the central problem:

No career
opportunities

Overload
working

Lack of experience to
control situation

Experience managers
quit job

Stress

Lack of recognized and
valued contribution

Diagram 3 – The updated causes

Based on the previous initial cause and effect map and the above developing, has been
developed updated cause and effect map as below:

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No career

opportunities
Symptom
Central problem

The
increasing
cost for
meal .

The
increasing
quantity

Lack of
experience to
control
situation

Experience
managers
quit job

Overload
working

Stress

Lack of
recognized
and valued

contribution

Diagram 4 - The updated cause and effect map

PART IV – SOLUTIONS
To solve the current problem of AEON Vietnam, it is necessary to focus on solving
the causes. Therefore, the managers who have experiences quit their job should have
the solutions to improve this current situation. High employee turnover will hurt
company’s health. It costs upwards of twice an employee’s salary to find and train a
replacement. And the new employees have the difficulties to catch up the current
situation in company. So, the working efficient will go down.
Arccording to Cheryl Richardson (2001), “ top performers are of value, not only for
their present value but also as a selection pool from which fixture organization leaders
will be chosen. Tomorrow’s stars and franchise players may be among today’s few top
performers. It is imperative that the organization makes a conscious decision to
determine what needs to be done to retain the top talent in the organization and to
ensure the future of the business is sustained.”. It shows the importance of retaining
managers in organization. She also suggested that the organization should do the
following:

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 Provide promotional opportunities for the successful restaurant manager at the
current level. Structure in grade level promotions, which should involve
additional responsibilities with increased pay.
 Bundle added benefits as attractive motivators.”
In AEON Vietnam Co., Ltd’s case, it can be commented some money solutions, some
money – free solutions and recruitment new managers to replace the managers quit
job. These money solutions mean solutions costly and company has to spend budget

for doing it. In contrast, the money – free solutions are the way help improving current
situation but company will take a little of money. Besides these solutions, recruitment
new managers to replace the managers quit job is also a possible solution to solve the
lack of experience managers problem.
1. The money solutions
As Head of Administration Department commented that “promoted and benefit policy
for employees is a top priority”. Setting the right compensation and benefits is also
important to reward in recognition of their contributions for company. People often
underestimate the power of encouragement, especially with top employees who are
often self-motivated. Everyone likes to be praised and be rewarded, especially those
who are dedicated to their work. Thanks to these rewards, managers who give
contributions, it will motive them keep making better ideas. To do that, it needs to
review compensation and benefits packages at least annually in order to offer the
reasonable increasing salary rate. The current increasing salary rate is 5% per year. It
is too low than the other companies in the industry. Compensation may include hourly
wages or an annual salary, plus bonus payments, incentives and benefits, such as group
health care coverage, short-term disability insurance and contributions to a retirement
savings account. The benefits packages can be the holidays in other countries or the
health check-up packages in international hospital. In pact, retail is the field, which has
the lowest bonus in the industry. Following the data is shown in news of Economic
and Financial University, the retail’s bonus rate is 14.8% but the rate of finacial field is
22.1%. It is a reason why retail’s turnover is the highest in the industry and account for

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