It has only been seven years since Jie Zeng (BA ’11) graduated from TU, but for the past four years, she has been the president of Yong Yuan Real Estate & Management based in Chongqing, China and the CEO of La Bharive, which is a health and wellness chain of spas throughout China.
After the death of her father, Zeng stepped in to run the companies; and as a young CEO, she has relied on lessons she learned at TU to help her succeed. “TU taught me how to think. I am able to formulate my own thoughts and analyze a situation,” Zeng said. While at TU, Zeng challenged herself with a triple major in political science, finance and business management.
When Zeng returned to China, she had to learn in detail about her new businesses as well as how to manage people. “I had to go through a lot of challenges to really understand how the business is run, how to interact with people and how to motivate people to work for the same goals,” she said.
Now looking back at four years of growth, Zeng recounts three important lessons.
- With her real estate business, Zeng needed to examine the macroenvironment by asking questions like: What is the city planning? How is the economy changing? “When you want to run a successful business, you can’t just keep your eyes focused on one small thing,” Zeng said. “You have to broaden your perspective to the environmental factors around you.”
- By studying the target audience, a company can better tailor its products. “I must really understand what your customer wants because understanding how our product and service can satisfy all customers is the key to success,” she added.
- Learn to place people in jobs according to their skill set. “Sometimes it’s not that the person isn’t doing well, but you aren’t putting them in the right place to excel,” she said.
Zeng balances the needs of her shareholders, customers and employees to move her companies forward. “I think these are critical things to our success — to unite all the people working toward one common goal,” Zeng said.