Biti's heiress relaunched the fading shoe giant with Hunter and won back young buyers.

Biti's was founded in the early 1980s by Vuu Khai Thanh and built its name on extremely durable rubber sandals, but as tastes shifted from durable to stylish, its edge eroded and global brands and cheap Chinese imports took over the market.

The burden fell on the founder's eldest daughter, Vuu Le Quyen, who had studied chemical engineering abroad and worked her way up. A failed startup of her own, power clashes with her father and the loss of her husband pushed her into an existential crisis before she found her path.

Her turning point was Biti's Hunter, a new brand aimed at young consumers, launched as a way to refresh the company and herself; its success gave her the confidence and mandate to change how the company was run.

From 2018 she worked with more than 10,000 colleagues to transform the rigid, top-down culture inherited from her father, launching the Happy Biti's program to rebuild the organization around a happiness-driven approach while keeping the brand's core values.

Biti's Hunter became a hit with young consumers, letting Quyen reshape the 10,000-person company's culture while keeping its core values.

A separate youth brand protected the legacy name while testing new ground.

Success in Hunter gave the heir credibility inside a sceptical company.

Changing culture — not just products — addressed the root cause.

Keeping core values while shifting strategy won over the founder's generation.

An heir can save a legacy brand by first launching a separate product that speaks to a new generation, before attempting to change the whole company.

Biti's remains one of Vietnam's most iconic companies, and Quyen now speaks publicly about succession, governance and culture change at business forums, presenting the family firm as proof that a next-generation leader can modernize a legacy brand without losing its identity.