Elefos is a company that is still very much in its infancy: upon joining the team early last month, the company had just pivoted to an entirely new industry and we were first tasked with looking into everything about it. Competitors, market trends… A lot of writing was done on our part to try and either disprove or approve the thesis that people want what our company has to offer. I’m actually not able to talk about what this offering is, as we were given NDAs at the beginning of our second week, but we made many discoveries that support this thesis. Vietnam is actually one of the largest global markets for consumer loyalty programs, with an 84% rate of people who participate in one or more of such programs. The Asia-Pacific region as a whole is a very great market for such products, and in addition, it’s also easily the most high-tech market with most consumers preferring to have digitally-based programs and points stored on apps or under account names/personal information. The market is definitely conducive to our success, and luckily, there are few competitors in the Vietnam region specifically which are trying to accomplish the same goal as Elefos.
A SWOT analysis of the company is telling of this as well: the strengths of our company are that we have the fastest technology in all of Vietnam, developed entirely in-house, a wide range of products which can make use of this flagship innovation, and it’s positioned in one of the world’s strongest markets. The team also carries several very high-profile developers and technology experts, one in particular who is enabling the company to be the first to partner with a university in Vietnam for more research. Weaknesses are the company’s relatively small size, with only 9 full-time employees, and the company doesn’t yet have enough partners to facilitate the spread of this new product. However, both of these issues are a result of the company’s youth, and I definitely believe they will be alleviated with time. The opportunities are numerous, especially with how well the company is positioned in the Asia-Pacific market and how poised it is to easily shift to the global market once their product has penetrated this region. There are very low barriers to entry, very low competition, and the company is able to carry a significant price advantage that other companies are unable to have with their use of slower proprietary software. The biggest threats facing the company are the larger global competitors, which won’t be a concern until the company tackles the rest of the world longer-term. Overall, I feel the company is positioned very strongly, and I am hopeful about its prospects for success.
The most amazing moment in Vietnam occurred this past weekend at Ha Long Bay. Sitting at night on the shore of a Castaway Island, staring up at the rare sight of stars glistening above and the silhouette of the emerald rocks looming beneath… It was a magical sight, and one I was unfortunately unable to capture on my phone due to the lighting. The island was rather loud on one end, with many visitors crowding the area where we were all staying, but I managed to find a quiet spot with a couple people I really enjoyed being with, and we had a wonderful time. Kayaking between the aforementioned rocks was another incredible event. It’s still hard to believe I was actually in that view, especially since I now only have the memories to prove it.
UF in Vietnam Internship 