More than an individual award, his journey is a miniature image of the innovation ecosystem at TH Group, where innovative thinking is encouraged, people are empowered and have the opportunity to overcome their own limits, together building an effective, inspiring and constantly innovative working environment, under the leadership of "captain" - Labor Hero Thai Huong.
Where to sow creative seeds
Located in the heart of Nghe An - the homeland of President Ho Chi Minh, where "time - land" blends fresh nature and the heart of honest people, TH Clean Fresh Milk Factory is not only a symbol of high-tech agriculture but also a gathering place for young intelligence.
The Pacific Ocean, born in 1992, is one of such seeds. Joining TH in 2017 as an operator, he started like many others: learning work, operating on the machine, handling incidents in the line. But instead of just following the process, he chose to ask the questions: "Why is that?" and "How to be better?" - simple questions but the first "seeds" for a series of improvements later.
In just the first two years, Duong has been honored as "Excellent employee" twice in a row thanks to his groundbreaking contributions: improving the conversion and reuse of the UPS system (industrial power storage in the factory), programming pallet arrangement machines, especially working with his teammates to successfully manufacture automatic spoon-grinder machines - equipment that had to be imported from abroad.
"The ripe rice is the rice that bows at the head, the more I study, the more I will be modest to learn more. For me, if I don't study, I will be behind". Duong shared. That simple ideal has taken him on a journey of real improvement: from programming a promotional card entrance; Programming a spoon- giving machine; Programming a nut milk grinding system; Automatic barrel system.
The biggest turning point came in 2021, when the Board of Directors asked a difficult problem: manufacturing a robot bag removal system - a device that can only be purchased at high costs from foreign contractors. After many concerns, with the trust and encouragement from the leaders, Mr. Duong and the TH team of engineers decided to design this robot themselves.
With a cost of only 2/3 of the lowest bid price, the milk bag removal robot developed by Duong and his teammates has been put into actual operation after months of testing and correcting errors, and most importantly, not giving up.
During the stage of making milk bag removal robots, Duong and his colleagues in the group often had to work up to 13-14 hours/day. I encourage everyone to believe in themselves. Just work hard to explore, research, understand the nature of the problem and then boldly experiment based on theory. If there are mistakes, let's work together to correct and learn from experience. The brothers went step by step, slowly but had to be very confident, never being craving, always having a clear plan before implementing it in practice".
TH-style creative culture: Not afraid to try and always have the right to make mistakes
Behind the technical improvements is a special condition that not every business can create: an environment that allows young people to try and get wrong. At TH, I have the right to try, the right to make mistakes and most importantly, the right to create. No idea is wasted" - Duong shared when receiving the "Excellent Young Worker" award.
That trust is not by chance. That is the result of a human development strategy carefully planned by founder TH - Labor Hero Thai Huong. TH has been creating an ecosystem where every individual, whether an engineer, worker or specialist, can become a leader of change in the field they are responsible for.
That environment has made Duong the Head of the Development Department, with a series of strategic projects: using photo processing technology to detect indate errors, applying AI to control ice cream covers, detecting cloudy water from wells, converting PE film to POF to reduce 260 tons of plastic waste per year, programming CIP past 7 to reuse chemicals. Each project not only optimizes performance and reduces costs, but also reflects TH's sustainable development thinking: efficiency must go hand in hand with responsibility to the environment and the community.
The story of the Pacific Ocean is a typical example of thousands of young people creating innovation in TH, those who silently make a difference from the livestock chain, milk processing, to the distribution and retail system. That is the result of an investment strategy in people: not only nurturing, but also empowering.
Internal training programs, innovation incentive systems, and transparent promotion opportunities are all creating an ideal environment for every young person to fully develop their abilities. In the era of technology 4.0, the difference does not lie in machines, but in humans who know how to control and improve machines. And TH Group, with the mission of "for community health", has chosen the right path: building endogenous resources through innovation in knowledge and creative culture.
Looking back on the journey of the Pacific Ocean, from an operator to an "en change engineer", it can be seen: what creates success is not only personal intelligence, but the ecosystem that nurtures that intelligence. A good person needs an environment to develop. A large organization needs to know how to nurture many good people.
And that is what TH has been doing. Under the leadership of Labor Hero Thai Huong - who not only created a clean milk brand of national scale and reached out to the world, but also created a space for young dreams to be formed and grow up every day - TH is proving a truth: investing in people is the most sustainable way to conquer the future.
