With her white hair in a bun and clad in a gray samfoo without a spot of makeup, Nguyen Thi Cuc looks like a typical grandmother. However, this 72-year-old runs Banhat Bamboo and Rattan Cooperative, a US$10 million (RM35 million) business that supplies international retailer clients such as IKEA, HEMA and Target.

Nguyen, who was on the executive board of the Women’s Union and a nurse in Binh Thanh district when the Vietnam War ended in 1975, says the war had left many children orphaned, and led to the proliferation of prostitution, drug addiction and robbery. Starting a business was her way of helping to improve the livelihood of the poor and uneducated.

Nguyen looked for a low-capital business model that did not require professional expertise and found it in the handicraft business. There was no need for machinery and raw materials like bamboo, rattan and hyacinth plants were cheap.

She paid VND6 (RM1 = VND 5,000) to attend a handicraft-training course, and eventually trained 60 women as her first batch of employees. She also conducted training courses for teachers and university students to raise funds for the cooperative.

Tight governmental regulations and a closed economy were among the major challenges Nguyen faced in Banhat’s early years. “We had to sell through state-owned companies. We were not allowed to sell on our own,” says Dang Thi Que Phuong, Banhat’s assistant export manager who served as the translator during the interview with Nguyen in June. The duo were in Kuala Lumpur to attend the 1st Asia Women Business Power Conference.

Following the collapse of Eastern Europe in 1988, the Vietnamese government dissolved all cooperatives, causing Nguyen to lose all her investments, stocks and government customers. To settle the cooperative’s debts, she sold her house, then travelled overseas in 1990 to secure new customers and markets.

She motivated her staff with a “Save Ourselves” slogan and distributed free sample products for display at the representative offices of foreign companies based in Ho Chi Minh City in efforts to build awareness about the company.

The turning point came when a Taiwanese buyer signed a US$10,000 contract through a state-owned company. However, as business dealings with overseas markets were still frowned upon, the government ordered Banhat to shut down its operations. But Nguyen continued to fight for the cooperative’s right to pursue foreign business deals.

In 1993, orders from France, Japan and Holland began to pour in, together with advance payments and loan offers from clients. A year later, the embargo on US-bound exports was lifted, and today, the US is Banhat’s biggest market, followed by Europe, South Korea and Thailand.

“When I went overseas (to find new markets and customers), the government asked me why I went. Now it’s easier, the government lets people do business outside the country,” says Nguyen.

Liberalisation has allowed Banhat to thrive. With confirmed contracts until November this year from the US and Europe, the cooperative seems relatively unaffected by the economic downturn. “IKEA has placed more than US$100,000 worth of orders per week until year-end,” Dang says, adding that online business orders have increased.

Asked why the cooperative was successful, Nguyen says Banhat was unlike profit-oriented corporations. “Banhat is like a family. In big companies, those who make a lot of money are made directors but in cooperatives, it doesn’t matter,” she adds.

This article appeared in Manager@Work, the monthly management pullout of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 765, July 27 – Aug 2, 2009