Maries at Planning Bootcamp 38

When Empowerment Becomes the Foundation for a Sustainable Scale-Up Journey

As Vietnamese businesses enter a phase of growth that increasingly demands strong systems and advanced management capabilities, investing in middle management teams has become a strategic priority for many enterprises. For Maries—a premium handicraft company specializing in Lepironia grass products in Huế—this focus follows the broader trend, yet is approached with consistency and long-term vision.

Recently, Maries’ middle management team participated in Planning Bootcamp 38, a Business Planning training program co-organized by BCA and ActionCOACH, under the theme Scale Up – Expanding Business Capacity. The program is designed specifically for business owners and management teams and is held quarterly as a “strategic pause,” enabling businesses to review operations, recalibrate direction, and standardize operational capabilities.

Planning Bootcamp – a strategic pause for growing businesses

Planning Bootcamp is a training program designed exclusively for business owners and management teams, conducted on a quarterly basis (every three months). It serves as a strategic pause, allowing businesses to step away from day-to-day operations to review overall performance, analyze data, and objectively assess business effectiveness.

Unlike theory-based training programs, Planning Bootcamp emphasizes hands-on practice using real business data, under the guidance and critical facilitation of Business Coaches. The ultimate goal is not merely to “produce a plan,” but to create plans that are actionable, measurable, and closely aligned with growth objectives.

Within the program framework, participating businesses go through several core components:

Reviewing overall business performance of the previous quarter based on existing data and systems
Identifying key strengths to leverage and bottlenecks constraining growth
Developing action plans for the upcoming quarter with clear objectives, performance indicators, and resource allocation
Establishing monitoring mechanisms to track progress and optimize resources during execution

A defining feature of the program lies in the role of Business Coaches, who do not merely deliver instruction but accompany, challenge, and support participants throughout the exercises—helping transform ideas into clearly structured actions.

Mr. TheO, 1-on-1 Business Coach working with the Maries team throughout 2025

Maries – when middle management becomes the center of the “Scale Up” process

A notable highlight of Maries’ participation in Planning Bootcamp 38 was the proactive presence of its middle management team. Instead of attending the entire program directly, the business owner placed full trust in the team, empowering them to represent the company, analyze data, engage in discussions, and develop action plans.

This approach reflects a clear management philosophy: empowerment does not equate to relinquishing control, but is the result of thorough preparation in systems, team capability, and a culture of accountability. The participation of Maries’ middle managers was not symbolic; they acted as decision-makers—demonstrating initiative, confidence, and ownership of the plans they developed.

According to a coach involved in the program, this was an uncommon case, as the team confidently occupied the front rows, actively completed all exercises, and maintained a high level of engagement throughout the training. Through this, Maries demonstrated its development orientation—one grounded in collective trust and capability—where the business owner focuses on system design and vision leadership, while creating space for the team to grow and assume responsibility in the next growth phase.

Team Maries at PBC38 – Planning Bootcamp 38
(From left to right: Mai Nhi – Minh Thư – Quỳnh Anh)

Empowerment – a long-term process, not a momentary decision

Sharing this philosophy, Ms. Hồ Sương Lan, Founder & CEO of Maries, emphasized that empowerment within a business is not simply about “delegating tasks” or “assigning authority,” but rather a long-term preparation process that involves building systems, standardizing procedures, and most importantly, cultivating trust.

“Empowerment sounds simple, but it becomes difficult when business owners must dare to step away. Only when owners can withdraw from certain operational roles does an organization truly mature,” Ms. Lan shared. According to her, achieving this requires leaving behind a sufficiently clear system and a strong foundation of trust so that capable individuals can confidently lead the organization.

For Maries, investing in middle management participation in training programs such as Planning Bootcamp is part of a long-term strategy to ensure sustainability—particularly as the company expands its scale and market presence.

From business planning to organizational capability building

Following the program, the Maries team returned not only with action plans for the upcoming quarter, but more importantly, with a renewed approach to business planning and execution. Rather than viewing planning as a formal exercise, middle managers were trained to think analytically based on data, define strategic priorities, and align individual objectives with organizational goals.

Internal assessments indicate that participation in Planning Bootcamp helped the Maries team gain clearer insight into the relationship between revenue growth, system capacity, and human workload—three critical factors that determine a company’s ability to scale sustainably.

Planning Bootcamp 38 may represent only a brief pause in Maries’ development journey, yet it holds significant value in strengthening management mindset and building a succession-ready team. At a time when many SMEs still rely heavily on the role of the business owner, proactively investing in middle management and intentionally “stepping back” may be a challenging choice—but a necessary one.

For Maries, the business journey is viewed with clarity and simplicity: the organization must be strong enough to operate without total dependence on its founder, and the business owner must feel confident and fulfilled in trusting the team. Planning Bootcamp, therefore, is not merely about business planning—it is a lens into how Maries is preparing for a future of sustainable, in-depth growth.