What I Do

"So, what do you do?"

It's a simple question and one usually accompanied by a simple answer, such as: "I'm a student," or, "I'm a lawyer."  But my answer this summer is not so straightforward.  So here I go: "I'm a business analyst working for a private-equity firm that specializes in economic development in Vietnam."

Huh?

Yeah... even I'm not exactly sure what that means, so let me tell you what my company does, and how I help them.

My company has a fund worth $20M (which is virtually nothing in the investment world) and we buy a minority stake in other companies (the companies must operate in Vietnam for us to consider funding them).  For example, we became a partial owner of Cafe Fresca, Cambodia's version of Starbucks, and with our funding, we enabled Cafe Fresca to move into Vietnam (where it has done quite well).  Our funding gives Cafe Fresca the money they need to expand, and then they give us a part of their profits from the expansion.  Everybody wins!

Or at least, we hope everyone wins.

Not every investment can be as good as Cafe Fresca.  Our fund, like any other, will undoubtedly make mistakes.

So where do I fit in?

I research every element of the Vietnamese economy.  You want to know the amount of foreign direct investment that comes into Vietnam every year?  I'm your man.  You want to know the trade deficit?  That's me, too.  You want to know which sectors of the economy are growing at the fastest rate?  Count on me.  

From all this information that I gather, I predict what sectors of the Vietnamese economy will do well over the next five years.  (Side note: the answer is tourism!)  I present my predictions to the CEO of our company.  If he agrees with my findings, I then meet with the CEOs of a few companies within that sector to look into investment opportunities.

But we don't find every company - some companies find us.

No fewer than fifteen companies have contacted us within the last three weeks, hoping to set up an investment meeting.  This should not come as a surprise: in each of the last six years, the Vietnamese economy's growth rate has been above 6%, which means that most companies are eager to expand.  

In a future blog post, I'll share a story about one particular firm - but for now, I hope you understand what I do Monday through Friday, 8:00AM to 6:00PM.  The projects I work on change quite frequently, so I'll be sure to keep you posted if my answer to the question, "So, what do you do?" changes.