30 years of contribution and making an impact that matters to the audit sector in Vietnam

Ha Thu Thanh
Chairwoman,
Deloitte Vietnam

1. Tell us about your life outside of work – Share about your passion, pride and what keeps you going.
   
   I believe there are no clear boundaries with my life outside of work since Deloitte has become such an integrated part of it. If anyone ever asks me about my working experience, there would simply be two jobs indicated in my resume: worked for Ministry of Finance and working for Deloitte. What I am most proud of throughout my career is being able to witness all the milestones of Deloitte Vietnam since 1991 - almost 30 years of continuous expansion in all perspectives. I am proud to be a member of this leading auditing firm, to be a pioneer in the audit and accounting sector in Vietnam and to spread the Deloitte values to the community.  
   
   Since the very first day working in auditing, I have nurtured the enthusiasm and inspired the next generations through sharing sessions with “Deloitte’s all people”, and workshops with students specialized in this sector. 
   
   At Deloitte Vietnam, our CSR activities focus on helping disadvantaged groups whom are ambitious to change their lives in a better way, specifically youth, women at rural areas, frontline soldier guarding islands borders and their families. It is always our great pleasure to be giving financial support and offering mentorship to the people.
   
   
2. How has working for Deloitte enabled you to pursue your passion/ support your personal life?
   
   During my time at Deloitte, I have learnt the importance of commitment and I have been committed to making an impact that matters. For everything I do, I will ask myself whether it brings any value to clients, Deloitte and the community.  Thanks to this, I also find my true values, which encourages me to be persistent and overcome the obstacles.
   
   Making an impact that matters has always been Deloitte’s purpose and our Shared Values. The new value “Lead the way” means that not only that we are the leader of this profession, but also the visionary. We are committed to create opportunities and lead the way to a more sustainable world.
   
   Being one of Deloitte’s leaders, I wish to implement this shared value in all CSR activities in my community. I also believe that each and every member at Deloitte Vietnam is doing the same – fulfilling their duty to contribute to the communities and leading the way in their daily work and lives.
   
   
3. How has your experience outside of work shaped, influenced or added value to your professional life and vice versa? 
   
   Blood donation: 
   
   An incident in 1997 caused me to be hospitalized and in need of blood transfusion. My family could not offer enough blood, but thankfully, the hospital had to rush to get blood from other sources to save me. After the incident, I have a simple wish to maintain my health in order to meet blood donation requirements and return what life has given me.  I have since donated blood 18 times.
   
   I have brought the good practice to Deloitte Vietnam and uphold the belief in human kindness and gratitude towards love. Before 2010, Deloitte Vietnam joined the blood donation activity with the Ministry of Finance. Since our 20^th anniversary, we have organized our own blood donation event for the past 10 years with the message “a drop of blood saves a life”. 
   
   Deloitte's actions attracted thousands of participants both inside and outside Deloitte as the scale of this activity increased over the years.
   
   
   Wide network is an advantage
   
   As the nature of my business life, I get to travel to many places where I meet and get to know many disadvantaged people that  kept me questioning myself on how Deloitte can help them. Fortunately, I have been in connection with the large network of companies’ and associations’ leaders. Those who have good hearted and we all can take actions to support them in financing or creating more opportunities for them to change their life. 
   
   
   Family is the root of business:
   
   One of my favorites saying is that "Family is an essential cell of society". As the saying implies, if every cell is built on the culture platform filled with love, the society that is made up of these cells will have a healthy development. Especially when I am now a grandmother of a 4 year old adorable granddaughter, this even gives me more “pressure” on how a grandmother can still be a leader, handle work, and at the same time make impacts to surrounded people and the community.  
   
   One of society cells are businesses, where all members are connected by making one true value for a general development goal. In that sense, a business can be named as a big family.
   
   A person born in a family with good culture base will contribute these good values to the business. Culture is values inherited, developed and honored through generations and amongst people. I want to spread my family’s values to Deloitte, bring back shared values and the purpose of making an impact that matters to my descendant.
   
   
4. What is your guiding principle in integrating your personal and professional life?
   
   My life, like many others, is the interaction of four major factors: work, home, community and private life. While it may seem that more time is being spent on work and community, I prefer to talk about work-life integration instead of work-life balance. It is about the quality of the time spent together – I feel productive, grateful, and enjoy every moment whether I am contributing to the community or whether I am at home spending time with my family.
   
   Despite having a busy work life, I have never missed any important family events. I am even the “chair” for the gathering of my old schoolmates – from primary school to my master’s degree course mates. All these meaningful moments with my loved ones and my contributions to the community has fueled me with more energy and passion to pursue my profession at work.
   
   Regarding principles, I can use 2Ps – Persistence and Passion. Persistence to overcome challenges and persistence to pursue passion. In addition, being in a leadership role requires me to have persistence in carrying out Deloitte’s purpose and communicating it passionately to the whole practice. In this challenging world, persistence is needed to lead change. Passion is like the fire from within yourself and when you persist in your purposes, that fire will generate the energy to meet the goals.