It started with five women, one shared belief, and a question that echoed through Vietnam’s boardrooms and shop floors alike: What if leadership could feel different? For Nguyen Thi Minh Giang, that question had been building over more than a decade. As a Partner of Talent and Culture at Mekong Capital, she had worked closely with founders and CEOs—from MobileWorld to F88—helping them align people, purpose, and performance. But over time, she saw a deeper need: beyond growth metrics and strategy decks, leaders were longing for clarity, connection, and deeper meaning.
In 2022, Minh Giang and her co-founders—four women who brought their leadership journeys to the table—co-founded Newing, not as a typical consultancy, but as a bold experiment to reimagine how Vietnamese businesses grow from the inside out. Their mission? To translate global leadership wisdom into daily behaviors, aligned cultures, and courageous decision-making across every level of the organization. Not just change—but change that sticks.
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Inside Newing: Leadership, Culture, and the Power of Local Transformation
Q: What inspired you to start Newing, and how did the mission take shape?
A: Newing was founded from a deeply personal calling—rooted in both experience and conviction. After nearly 13 years at Mekong Capital, including my time as a Partner of Talent & Culture, I had the privilege of walking alongside many Vietnamese entrepreneurs. What inspired me wasn’t just their business ideas—it was their drive, integrity, and belief in a better future, even when they didn’t have the most polished credentials or global exposure. I saw firsthand how shared values and aligned vision could lead to breakthrough results—whether at companies like PNJ, Mobile World, or F88.
That became the first seed for Newing: the desire to bring world-class methodologies, frameworks, and real experience to support more Vietnamese businesses—at scale.
The second inspiration came from observing the rapid, uncertain changes of our VUCA-TUNA era. I realized Vietnam urgently needed a bridge—between global best practices and local implementation. We didn’t just need knowledge—we needed people who could translate and embed that knowledge in our culture, our teams, our ways of working. That’s what Newing set out to be: a connector between international wisdom and local transformation.
And finally, the third and most enduring reason is our belief in people. No strategy, no technology, no capital can truly succeed without leadership and team alignment. We saw that the missing piece in many transformation efforts was the human one—the ability to build trust, culture, and behavior change. That’s why Newing was built not just as a consulting firm, but as a long-term partner to help Vietnamese leaders and teams grow sustainably, from the inside out.
Q: What makes Newing’s boutique approach unique in leadership consulting?
A: Newing stands at the intersection of world-class expertise and deep local understanding. Our boutique approach is rooted in the ability to translate global wisdom into local impact through leadership and organizational behavior changes —something we believe is essential in Vietnam’s rapidly evolving business environment.
We apply globally validated methodologies, such as Kotter International’s change model and behavioral science insights from the NeuroLeadership Institute. These aren’t just theoretical frameworks—we bring them to life in ways that are highly relevant and actionable for Vietnamese leaders and teams.
What makes our approach truly unique is the way we tailor each engagement to the client’s business goals and organizational culture. We design practical, context-specific solutions that are not only easy to implement but also deliver measurable impact. From factory floors to boardrooms, our work is always grounded in what matters most to the client—and powered by the kind of insight that only comes from living and working within the Vietnamese context.
In short, Newing is where global practices meet local execution—with care, precision, and a commitment to real transformation.
Q: How has Newing helped redefine leadership for Vietnamese executives?
A: At Newing, we don’t just train leaders—we help them to create a space for them to exercise leadership newly through new ways of making decision, communicating and collaborating.
In the early days, many Vietnamese executives we met were carrying immense responsibility—often as founders or first-generation leaders—with little exposure to modern leadership frameworks. They were visionary, hardworking, but often exhausted and alone at the top. What they needed wasn’t just more information, but a new lens: a way to lead that was both strategic and sustainable, rooted in people and culture, not just operations and control.
Take the case of a CEO stepping into their first term. Brilliant, committed—but overwhelmed by complexity and pressure to deliver results fast. Through our customized journey, we helped them shift from firefighting to foresight. By strengthening their strategic clarity, communication habits, and ability to build trust across levels, this CEO didn’t just “survive” their first year—they united a fragmented leadership team, restored confidence across the organization, and paved the way for a new chapter of growth.
In another story, a manufacturing executive came to us from a very traditional leadership background, and transformation felt out of reach. Together, we introduced Agile principles—not in theory, but through deeply contextualized learning and practice on the factory floor. Within months, frontline workers were managing tasks on digital boards, teams were co-owning results, and the factory started to feel like a place where people mattered, not just production.
Across all these stories, the common thread is this: we help leaders see differently. We create space for them to reflect, realign, and re-lead—from a place of purpose, not pressure. And we do it through global frameworks that are carefully localized, ensuring every insight is relevant, and every shift is real.
Leadership in Vietnam is evolving. It’s becoming more conscious, more courageous, and more collaborative. We’re proud that Newing is not just accompanying that journey—we’re helping to shape it.
Q: What challenges did you face early on, and how did your past experience help?
A: One of the early challenges we faced was the way many Vietnamese companies perceived culture and leadership development. When we talked about organizational culture, some leaders thought we meant branding exercises, slogans, or team-building trips—what we often call the ‘arts and rec’ activities. Few recognized that culture is, in essence, the operating system of the organization—a set of daily behaviors, decision-making norms, and ways of working that must be consciously shaped.
Because of that, many came to Newing expecting a training vendor: someone to “fix” their people in a few workshops. But transformation doesn’t happen by ticking a box. It takes time, intentional design, and above all—a leadership team that’s fully committed to change.
My previous experience in a highly values-driven investment firm shaped how I approached this challenge. I had the opportunity to work in an environment that placed extraordinary emphasis on emotional intelligence, shared purpose, and personal growth—not just for employees, but for founders and CEOs. I saw what was possible when leaders lead with clarity and authenticity, and I learned how to navigate change not just with frameworks, but with compassion and conviction.
At Newing, we were fortunate to meet leaders who shared that mindset—CEOs who didn’t outsource culture to HR, but stood at the frontlines themselves. They understood that real change begins with how they show up, how they listen, how they model trust and accountability. These leaders stayed patient through discomfort, made the hard decisions when it mattered, and allowed us to walk alongside them in a long-term journey.
In the end, our work only succeeds because of them—those rare, deeply committed individuals who believe that leadership is not just a skill, but a lifelong practice of becoming.
Q: What’s your vision for Newing’s future impact in Vietnam?
A: Newing aims to be the trusted partner accompanying Vietnamese businesses in their journey to unlock leadership potential, build high-performance cultures, and elevate organizational capacity to realize their long-term visions.
We envision Newing as the place where top-tier experts with global knowledge and real-world execution capabilities come together—driven by a deep desire to contribute meaningfully to the Vietnamese business community.
We see a future where Vietnamese businesses no longer view leadership or culture as abstract ideals, but as practical disciplines—deeply connected to business outcomes. Where developing people, shifting behaviors, and aligning teams are not side projects, but core strategies. In that future, Newing is the catalyst: the one helping organizations install new operating systems—of thinking, acting, and leading—that unlock clarity, resilience, and performance.
Newing – a place where global practices are embedded with local wisdom, and where businesses grow not just fast, but with depth, with integrity, and with people at the center.
Leading from Within: Newing’s Vision for the Future
Nguyen Thi Minh Giang’s journey is the compass for Newing’s philosophy. From helping a first-term CEO shift from firefighting to foresight, to guiding a traditional manufacturing leader toward teamwork and Agile transformation on the factory floor, her work proves that leadership change is not theoretical—it’s personal, practical, and powerful.
Today, Newing isn’t chasing scale for the sake of it. It’s shaping scale with substance—one CEO, one leadership team, one courageous shift at a time. In boardrooms where culture becomes strategy, and on shop floors where trust turns into ownership, Minh Giang’s quiet influence is everywhere. And as Vietnam looks ahead with bold ambition, Newing remains the partner reminding leaders that true growth doesn’t begin with capital or code—but with who they choose to become.
Highlights
Read the article in Chinese here.
