On April 18th, the 2017 SDPA Annual Meeting for outstanding businesswomen and scholars &the 2^nd Session of Awarding Ceremony of Golden Jasmine was held in Suzhou by Jiangsu Sushang Development Promotion Association, SDPA. Themed Innovation & Reform – Power of She, the event was aimed to identify women role models, commend outstanding women in business and intellectual circles, showcase the business acumen of outstanding businesswomen from Jiangsu Province as well as to improve the leadership, innovation and learning capability of outstanding women in business and intellectual circles in Jiangsu so as to kick off a new round of entrepreneurship and innovation in SDPA. 

At the 2^nd Session of Awarding Ceremony of Golden Jasmine, Sanpower President YANG Huaizhen&KANG Dexin and CEO XU Shuwon the title of SDPA Golden Jasmine Figures for 2016. It was the second time for YANG Huaizhen to receive the honor.

 

To establish a platform for female entrepreneurs in Jiangsu to share and learn from each other for common growth, SDPA and Jiangsu Commercial College jointly opened Golden Jasmine Courses. At the inauguration, YANG Huaizhen and famous financial commentator YE Tan were invited to be tutors. 

In the first lecture in Golden Jasmine Courses, YANG Huaizhen shared experience and thoughts on establishing and reforming Sanpower with more than 300 Jiangsu entrepreneurs. She also discussed how female entrepreneurs can take advantage of their power in corporate management. 

Edited speech of YANG Huaizhen:

In today’s world enterprises will go out of business if they fail to innovate and adapt. It’s simple as that. The real economy is in doldrums and many traditional industries have hit difficulties. Most attendees today are smartly dressed beautiful ladies with broad smiles on their faces. But deep down,I know many of you are worried, about inventory, about how to get new orders and pay suppliers and employees.

 

These are realistic issues. We’ve all been there before.

 

In 1993, Sanpower started as a small company selling computers on Zhujiang Road. Later on, we grew into an IT chain business and many people got familiar with the brand HisapSanpower. We have reinvented our business over the past 10 years and now focus on health and medical treatment.

 

Today both Sanpower’s annual sales and its assets have exceeded RMB 100 billion. We have over 100,000 staff across the world with about 40,000 foreign employees. We have grown from a regional company in Nanjing into a national and evenglobal company. It ranks 132^ndamong China’stop 500 enterprises and 19^th among China’s top 500 private companies. What exactly is behind this great transformation?

 

It all boils down to innovation and reform.

 

There are two stalls selling take-away food right outside the Sanpower headquarters. Previously their sales were pretty much the same.One day all of a sudden one stall’s business began to boom and became head and shoulders better than his competitor’s    because he started to accept digital money. Sometimes customers only bring a cellphone with them instead of changes. In this case, scanning the QR code and buying a meal would be really convenient. This is a simple but telling example. If you don’t hunker down to figure out what the next big thing is, you will be replaced in no time.

 

 

How to Innovate and Reform

 

FU Sheng, the CEO of Cheetah Mobile pointed out the four levels of cognition. 95% of people are not aware of their ignorance and think they know it all; 4% of people are aware of their ignorance and want to learn more; 0.9% of people know what they know and continue to learn; only 0.1% of people do not know what they know, which is the highest level of cognition.

 

The first step to innovate and reform is to be willing to take risks, which is essential to entrepreneurship. But more importantly, entrepreneurs must be able to manage risks. Combine risk-taking with risk management, and you will be able to innovate and reform successfully, otherwise you will only accelerate the demise of your enterprise.

 

To be more specific, I want to make three points.

 

First, embrace reform in good times. The old strategy is to think about change only when one is in extreme poverty. We only started to reform when were already in a difficult position. It’s just like the frog sitting in lukewarm water, when it hots up and the frog feels danger, it’s already too late to leave.

 

All people here are successful, or have had some success. There’s no doubt about that. But success is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it is testament to our capability. On the other hand, it may give us the illusion that we are all capable and all powerful and will always succeed.

 

So we must be proactivein thinking and adapting to get the first-mover advantage. To put it simply, you think about things others have yet to think about; you understand stuff others fail to understand; you move into a sector although others look down on it. One day you will be way out of their league.

When we moved intosenior-care 10 years ago, many people asked, “Are you doing charity?”, “Senior care is not profitable and a lot of hassle. Who in his right mind wants to do that?”

 

We just smiled and said nothing because it was hard to explain. Today, Sanpower’ssenior care business is booming and people wonder whether we are well-connected with top-level government officials otherwise how could we predict the industry would be so hot 10 years ago. As a matter of fact, we have no such connections at all. When some are still considering fleecing more sheep we already realize fleece ultimately comes from dogs. That makes all the difference.

 

Second, go out to learn new models. WalMart and IKEA are successful because of their global presence. They are large companies and their global expansion has boosted the development of their home countries. To expand our enterprises and revitalize China as a great nation, we also need to go global. We should know what is best for now and get it with the help of others.

 

Get to our destination faster by standing on shoulders of giants.

 

We started as a retailer and retail is in our gene, so we know a lot about consumption. But currently the sector is being upended. What should we do? I think we have some consensus that scenario-based,house brands, the buyer model and the combination of on-line and off-line are the way to go, but how have we come to the conclusion?

 

In the process of reform and opening-up over the past 30 years, we keep growing mainly because we have learned from advanced experience and models while making indigenous innovation. We acquired a century-old British department store with royal warrants. It has a powerful system because it hasbuiltits house brands and engaged in procurement for 100 years.It also has a mature management system. We use this advanced model to leapfrog our competitors.

 

Third, bring into China advanced experience. We do not go global for the sake of going global. Our aim is not to create jobs for other countries. We pay taxes to the Chinese government and we want to make contributions for Chinese people. We bring into China advanced models and experience from abroad, hoping they will thrive in China.

 

Take senior care. In the first 10 years after entering senior care, An Kang Tong had only 100,000 users. In 2014, we acquired Natali from Israel, which accounts for two thirds of senior care clients in the country. We learn from it about how to build the system, expand the client base and do homecare for the elderly. After replicating the model in China, An Kang Tong has increased its number of users to 4.7 million. 

Power of She

 

A few days ago, I went to an alumni gathering with about 10 classmates, in which I had a small experiment. I wrote down the Chinese equivalent of “she” and asked my classmates to tell me the first word or phrase that came to their minds when they saw the character.

 

One of them said, “Steel roses”; another said “Gentlemen love pretty girls”; but the remaining six of them came up with the same proverb “Of all people, girls and petty men are the most difficult to please”

 

This shows there is still widespread prejudice against women.

 

However, the sheer number of the women entrepreneurs, experts and scholars here proves that women can also achieve big. We have our own sources of power. I don’t like being labeleda strong woman or aggressive woman executive. It’s as if a woman executive has to be aggressive.

 

I believe women can also be strong without possessing the characteristics of men. We should use our own charm to conquer this world.

 

Many men leaders told me they prefer to have women working for them because they are more responsible and reliable and less ambitious. Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady, once said, “If you need someone eloquent, just find a man. If you need someone reliable, make sure to find a woman”.

 

In addition to being responsible and reliable, women also have other unique characteristics. We are sensitive, gentle and kind. If your company is run by a woman, it will feel like a home. Some people might say enterprise is a place where people reason with each other while home is allabout emotions. But with a woman at the helm, an enterprise becomes a place where you can both reason and also resort to emotion. This is our advantage.

 

Young people shouldn’t haste to prove their existence

 

Last year I participated in an activity to train women leaders in the capacity of tutor. I had four students who were highly capable, well-educated and knowledgeable. One of them left me a deep impression. She was so eager to showcase her capability and was always aggressive as if she would be able to get her way in everything. As a matter of fact, she could have been more diplomatic when expressing herself.

 

In that activity, I said, “Nowadays, young people haste to prove their existence. But what is existence?”I believe the genuine existence is no one notices you are there; but everyone will notice if you are not.

 

Sanpower Group has a self-reflection culture. All top executives submit Self-reflection reports to their superiors every month. In these reports, they must only reflect on themselves but not complain or blame others. 

 

I don’t like people in the Group, whether they are new or not, to tell me what problems it has. Of course, Sanpower has problems, that’s why we hire you. I don’t like you telling me about these problems. I want to know how to resolve them.

 

This is why I am a firm believer of the Self-reflection reports. We should always reflect on ourselves and find our weak points so that we couldcontinue to improve ourselves. As we examine and criticize ourselves, we will become more generous and broad-minded.

 

Last but not least, I want to share my motto on how to become successful, that is“Be best informed, study hard and make progress every day.”It is really simple, isn’t it? To achieve big, we should reflect on ourselves and reinvent ourselves. Once you are able to do that, I am sure the most beautiful thing in the world will happen to you, i.eour enterprises have grown up while we are still young. Thank you!