Chair Sales Case study

Upon arriving in Saigon after a 27-hour journey, you are struck by the normalcy of it all. Where is the rubble? Where are the poverty-stricken beggars? Instead, you are greeted by a crowd of family and friends awaiting the arrival of their loved ones, dressed in western clothes, sporting fashionable hairstyles and carrying trendy backpacks and ipods. Just like any other developing city. While being driven to our first destination, we couldn’t help take everything in. A sea of scooters, driven by men and women alike, filled the streets. It reminded me of the streets of Karachi where the drivers follow an understood set of unofficial rules that is hard for a westerner to imagine and yet, we only witnessed one minor accident. The cityscape was an eye-opener as well. A line of merchant stalls selling all kinds of goods, restaurants, banks, other small businesses. This was no third-world country.
Vietnam has come a long way since its long and sometimes painful and hard history dating back to 3000BC. Until about 100BC, the Vietnamese culture flourished with little foreign transgression allowing the country to unify as a state. A writing system, language and national identity developed out of these times. Unfortunately, Vietnam succumbed to Chinese occupation that lasted a thousand years leading to the loss of what was gained to be replaced with Chinese culture, traditions, religion and language. Over the following centuries, many unsuccessful revolts were attempted, but a successful one by the Champa nation in the south began to divide the country into two separate areas