After more than two decades building a travel business, LuxGroup® founder Phạm Hà continues to study business and leadership while pursuing a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA). The question driving him goes beyond a qualification: How can each company in the group gain the freedom to lead, innovate and grow while working toward a shared vision?
You have led businesses for more than 20 years. Why devote so much time to learning now?
Phạm Hà: Experience tells me what happened. Learning makes me ask why it happened and what I should decide differently next time.
When you run one company, the founder can be involved in almost everything. LuxGroup now spans travel, cruises, hospitality, dining and culture. I cannot lead every business in the same way. I study to understand the limits of my own leadership more clearly.
What have your business and leadership studies at Harvard given you?
Phạm Hà: I want to make better business decisions. Finance helps me ask sharper questions before committing capital. Strategy helps me decide what to pursue and what to stop. Studying power and influence reminds me that a sound decision on paper can still fail if the people responsible for it lack authority, resources or trust.
A certificate marks a stage of learning. Its real value should show up in better decisions and stronger leaders.
Why pursue a DBA?
Phạm Hà: Because experience alone cannot solve the question I now face: how to move LuxGroup from a founder-led enterprise toward A House of Small Giants—a home for businesses with distinct identities and leaders capable of making their own decisions.
The DBA is more than a degree to pursue. I want to use research to examine where decision rights should sit, what support the parent company should provide, and how subsidiary leaders can innovate while maintaining financial discipline and a shared culture. I am studying these questions as I continue to run the business, so every proposed answer must stand up to practice.
That matters for long-term ambitions such as Vietnam Waterways 2045. A vision of that scale cannot rest on the founder’s determination alone. It needs capable leaders, effective coordination and an organization that learns from every decision.
What are the risks of researching a company you founded?
Phạm Hà: The greatest risk is believing my own explanation too quickly. I know the company’s history, but I may also be attached to decisions I made in the past. And when the CEO asks a question, employees may hesitate to say what they really think.
I need to examine decision records, listen across management levels and compare what we say with what actually happens. I want to understand when the founder’s involvement helps work move forward—and when it makes people wait.
How will you measure the success of this learning journey?
Phạm Hà: By good decisions made when I am not in the room. By two subsidiaries working directly together. By a leader who can propose an idea, has the authority to test it and accepts responsibility for the result.
I once learned how to build a business. Now I am learning how to build a system that develops many leaders. If we can do that, LuxGroup will truly become A House of Small Giants.
