1 Vol. 3, #10, December 2013, No. 34 Let’s Have A Toast for Happy 2014 ! The 2014 Midea Group Business Management Conference
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Vol. 3, #10, December 2013, No. 34
Let’s Have A Toast for Happy 2014 !
The 2014 Midea Group Business Management Conference
Advances Newsletter, December, 2013
2
ADVANCES Newsletter
Contents
Midea Advances Newsletter is published monthly
by the International Strategy Department of
Midea Group. We welcome all comments,
suggestions and contribution of articles, as well as
requests for subscription to our newsletter. You
can reach us by email at: [email protected]
Address:
ADVANCES, International Strategy Department
Midea HQ
No. 6 Midea Road
Beijiao, Shunde, Foshan, Guangdong
P.R.C. 528311
Tel: +86-757-2360 4714
Web: www.midea.com
Managing Editor:
Sophia Su
Mandy Wang
Regular Correspondents:
Anggie Cai
Alex Cheng
Himani Joshi
Blinda Li
Amber Liu
Crystal Lun
Tony Miao
Sue Ou
Sandra Sun
Yongen Wang
James Yu
Daniel Zhang
Peck Zhao
NEWSLINE
Midea RAC “1 kWh per Night”
Won the Time Weekly
Marketing Award 2013 PAGE 6
Midea New Joint Venture
Inception in the Philippines PAGE 3-4
Laundry Division and a
Finland-based Company
Signed Letter of Intention on
Self-cleaning Technology PAGE 5
Midea R290 Product Line
Earned International
Acceptance PAGE 9
PAGE 20
FEATURE
SNAPSHOT
PEOPLE
Tough Power Cooling Europe PAGE 16-19
Laundry Division Convened
the 2013 Patent & Innovation
Workshop PAGE 12
Try Out New Experience of PD
Portable AC PAGE 11
MCJV Brazil Launches New
Midea Brand Website PAGE 13
Santa Claus Is Coming to
Town PAGE 12
Midea New Konnex
Gateway: Bridge to
Intelligent Buildings PAGE 10
Midea Commercial AC Ob-
tained the First European ErP
Certificate for HPWH PAGE 7
Laundry Division Steps on
the Road towards Excel-
lence for Industrial Design PAGE 8
The 2014 Midea Group Busi-
ness Management Confer-
ence PAGE 14-15
Midea RAC Leads Industrial
Upgrading PAGE 13
Advances Newsletter, December, 2013
3
Midea New Joint Venture Inception in the Philippines
By Matt Smith
M idea has recently expanded its business with anoth-
er joint venture, this time in the Philippines. With its official
inception on November 28th, the new company, officially
known as Concepcion Midea Inc., will very shortly offer a broad
range of Midea-brand appliances to local consumers, from wash-
ing machines and microwave ovens, to water dispensers and rice
cookers.
The shareholders of the company consist of Midea and its
local Philippine partner Concepcion Industrial Corporation
(CIC) and Concepcion-Carrier Air Conditioning Company
(CCAC), CIC’s own local joint venture with Carrier Corpora-
tion, a long-time partner of Midea.
CIC is the market leader in the Philippines in air condi-
tioning and refrigeration, and its highly developed network in
sales, distribution and after sales will allow Concepcion Midea to
enter the market there on a firm foundation.
At the press conference in Manila for the formal an-
nouncement, Raul Joseph Concepcion, CIC’s CEO & Chairman
and CCAC President, praised the joint venture with Midea: “The
joint venture with Midea propels CIC into the global arena as a
premier manufacturer and distributor of appliances. It is an
affirmation of CIC’s organic strength as a company, and of its
core values of product excellence and constant innovation. To-
gether with the company’s public listing in the Philippine stock
market, CIC is truly on the threshold of transitioning into a
NEWSLINE
Advances Newsletter, December, 2013
4
Midea New Joint Venture Inception in the Philippines
By Matt Smith
more globally diverse and sustainable company, with
a value-integration platform not only in the cooling
solutions sector, but also in the wider spectrum of
the white goods appliance market.”
Andy Gu, Vice President of Midea Group
commented on the high suitability of the partner-
ship: “CIC and CCAC’s market leadership in air con-
ditioning and refrigeration solutions defines the
brand of business engagement Midea seeks to associ-
ate with as we position our company in the Philip-
pine market.”
At this time, Concepcion Midea’s products are
scheduled to hit store shelves in Q1 of 2014, with air
conditioning products coming first, in January.
NEWSLINE
Advances Newsletter, December, 2013
5
Laundry Division and a Finland-based
Company Signed Letter of Intention on
Self-cleaning Technology By Blinda Li
F rom November 16 to November 17, the 3rd
China (Wuxi) Overseas Intelligence Fair and Oriental
Silicon Valley Program conference were jointly held in
Wuxi. Science & technology teams and research insti-
tutes from 22 countries and regions such as Britain,
Finland, and France came for negotiations. During the
two days conference, 154 projects were successfully
signed. In the afternoon of November 17, Midea Laun-
dry Division and a Finland-based technology firm to
cooperate over self-cleaning technology of dryers.
With major customers from industries such as
materials, electronics, construction, and processing, this
Finland-based technology firm engages in providing
advanced coating materials and surface processing
technologies, particularly for its Avalon® nano fungi-
proofing coating materials well featured with easy to
clean, fungi-proofing, corrosion resistance, and scrap-
ing resistance, which is what Midea
Laundry Division has always been
keeping a close eye on.
The cooperation with well-renown
international technological company
over fungi-proofing and anticorrosion
materials will further accelerate
Midea’s technological industrialization.
Midea Laundry Division will take the
lead in establishing the leading edge
anti-fungi and anti-corrosion technolo-
gy and further improve its product
competitiveness. At present, Laundry
Division R & D Center has discussed
with the Finland-based firm on issues
of detailed cooperation plan.
NEWSLINE
Laundry Division and the Finland-based firm is signing technology cooperation documents on the afternoon of November 17.
Hu Ziqiang, President of Laundry Technology R & D Center exchanged ideas with other companies on the conference.
Advances Newsletter, December, 2013
6
Midea RAC “1 kWh per Night” Won
The Time Weekly Marketing Award 2013 By Crystal Lun
T he 2013 Time Weekly Marketing Awarding Ceremo-
ny was held at Guangzhou Last month. Initiated by The Time
Weekly in 2008, the Time Weekly Marketing Awarding was fa-
mous for listing and commenting the most outstanding market-
ing personnel and events of the year regarding to their innova-
tiveness, popularity and effectiveness. It is a big event gathering
large amount of marketing and media elites across China.
The marketing event conducted by Midea Residential AC won
the Time Weekly Marketing
Award 2013. When the
Midea “1 kWh per night” air
conditioner series firstly
came out to market, doubts
were also brought up re-
garding whether the “1kWh
per night” technology could
really limit power consump-
tion to as low as 1kWh per
night. To ease concerns
from customers, Midea car-
ried out a customer experi-
ence event in March. 500
consumers countrywide vol-
unteered to participate in
this event to test and record
the actual power consumption of this series.
The whole consumer testing process was conducted in a trans-
parent way. The result of the amount of power consumption
turned out to what these series air conditioners promised to be.
Besides, local news reporters from more than 10 cities such as
Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Chongqing, Shenzhen and
Changsha also kept trace of the whole testing process. Facts
speak louder than words. The testing result of "1 kWh per
night" power consumption marketing event won wide recogni-
tion from consumers.
Since the launch of Midea
Eco Series “1 kWh per
Night”, lots of attention
has been gathered
amongst consumers and
the entire industry. Statis-
tics released by China
Market Monitor show that
models with this feature
topped in the “hot sale”
list in China’s retail mar-
ket throughout first half
year of 2013.
NEWSLINE
Advances Newsletter, December, 2013
7
Midea Commercial AC Obtained the First
European ErP Certificate for HPWH By Anggie Cai
H eat pump, as a technology for new energy resource,
by absorbing heat from a cold space and release it to a warmer
one, transferring heat from low temperature to higher tempera-
ture, has attracted increasing attention globally. Along with the
international advocacy of “Low Carbon, Green Environment”,
heat pump products have been receiving compliments from
consumers worldwide.
On September 6, 2013, EU officially released the ErP di-
rective with regard to eco design requirements for water heaters
and hot water storage tanks (Article: (EU) No 814/2013), as well
as energy labeling of water heaters, hot water storage tanks,
packages of water and solar device (Article: (EU) No 812/2013)
on the Official Journal.
ErP directive ((EU) No 814/2013) amended the methods
to test the performance of water heaters. It also sets up higher
requirements for performance evaluation of water heaters with
respect to the quantity of hot water, water heating energy effi-
ciency, heat insulation capability of water tank, etc.
As one of the leading commercial air conditioner manu-
facturers in the HVAC industry, Midea CAC has always com-
mitted itself to developing cutting-edge technology, and innova-
tive better products, as well as aimed to obtain authorized prod-
uct accreditations product quality, performance and safety.
Shortly after the release of ErP directive for HPWH, R&D team
and engineers of Midea CAC started working on heat pump
products in compliance with the directive.
Midea CAC successfully developed one type of HPWH
following the ErP directive in December this year. The new
HPWH was awarded the first CE ErP directive certificate and
TÜV SÜD ErP Mark certificate by TÜV SÜD, one of the glob-
ally renowned third-party testing and accreditation bodies. This
award represents a significant step forward in Midea CAC’s
development of highly efficient energy saving HPWH products
and symbolizes a great achievement that Midea CAC has made
on its way to developing greener and superior HPWH products.
NEWSLINE
TÜV SÜD ErP Mark Certificate CE ErP directive Certificate
Advances Newsletter, December, 2013
8
Laundry Division Steps on the Road towards
Excellence for Industrial Design By Blinda Li
A t the 2013 South Korea Good Design Contest,
Midea Vandelo automatic front-loading washer was awarded the
“Award of the President of KIDP” (GD Award), which is one
of the five most famous industrial design awards globally, with
rest of the four are Germany IF Award, Germany Red Dot
Award, America IDEA Award, and Japan G-MARK Award.
Actively Seeking for External Cooperation
Midea design team cooperates with international well-
known design company SEOL on Midea Vandelo automatic
front-loading washer. After confirming the design and timeline
for Vandelo, a team formed by both parties carried out a market
survey to learn about the needs of consumers with respect to
washing machine’s function and design. In the meantime, the
team also interviewed marketing managers and shopping guiders
in markets such as Shanghai, Wuxi and Nanjing to learn about
consumers’ purchasing behaviors
and potential improvements on
products. In addition, surveys
were also conducted in different
families in order to get to know
their using habits and purchasing
motives. Besides, the team also
paid careful attention to and
completed in-depth analysis and
studies in regard to a washing
machine’s size and appearance.
More Advanced Technology and Outstanding Design
Midea Vandelo front-loading washing machines integrate
the advanced automatic washing and drying functions of the
industry. In terms of overall appearance, the product inherits
Midea product family’s tradition. Its large display screen and
window provide users with a feeling of professional and cutting-
edge technology. Details of the washing machine are so exquisite
and user friendly.
Further Improvement
After the cooperation with SEOL, Midea design team un-
derstands better their strengths and drawbacks in regard to de-
sign and technology. Overall, the cooperation with SEOL is a
big success for both parties, in which Midea Laundry Division
further enhances its product quality, design and brand influence.
NEWSLINE
Advances Newsletter, December, 2013
9
Midea R290 Product Line Earned
International Acceptance By Crystal Lun
U nder the trend of low energy efficiency and environ-
mental protection, Midea has played an active role in developing
environmental friendly technology for new refrigerant. On De-
cember 17th, the world’s first R290 demonstration production
line conducted by Midea Residential Air Conditioning Division
and sponsored by United Nations Montreal Multilateral Fund
successfully passed the assessment.
Under the trend of low energy efficiency and environmental
protection, Midea has played an active role in developing envi-
ronmental friendly technology for new refrigerant. On Decem-
ber 17th, the world’s first R290 demonstration production line
conducted by Midea Residential Air Conditioning Division and
sponsored by United Nations Montreal Multilateral Fund suc-
cessfully passed the assessment.
According to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that
Deplete the Ozone Layer, R22 has been banned to be used in
European Union for years, and it will be gradually eliminated
over the world. As an alternative to R22, R410A is not the best
option as it
still causes
greenhouse
effect. How-
ever R290
with features
of fluoride-
free, low
carbon emis-
sion and en-
ergy efficient
is considered
to be the
most promis-
ing new re-
frigerant for
the industry.
Midea Resi-
dential Air-
Conditioning
Division has been committed to researching and developing
environmental friendly refrigerant including R290. The world's
first R290 production line reconstruction project sponsored by
United Nations Montreal Protocol Multilateral Fund was ap-
proved in 2010, and was formally launched by Midea Air-
conditioning in 2011. The reconstruction project has lasted for
48 months with more than 15 million Yuan investment. It is
preliminarily estimated that the production capacity can reach
up to 250,000 units per year. On December 17th, it finally
gained acceptance by international expert groups.
President of Midea Residential Air-Conditioning Division,
Wu Wenxin introduced that Midea Air-Conditioning owns the
world’s first-class R290 assembly line, which is equipped with
full set of advanced facilities. Besides, Midea R290 got the new
leakage-proof technology patent, as well as other 34 patents, and
it also obtained the TUV safety certification and national anti-
explosion certificate. Mr. Wu said that Midea is actively acceler-
ating the speed of launching environmental friendly products to
the market.
NEWSLINE
Advances Newsletter, December, 2013
10
Midea New Konnex Gateway:
Bridge to Intelligent Buildings By Amber Liu
K onnex (KNX) is a standardized (EN 50090, ISO/
IEC 14543), OSI-based(Open System Interconnection) network
communications protocol for intelligent buildings. It is the suc-
cessor to, and convergence of, three previous standards: the
European Home Systems Protocol (EHS), BâtiBUS, and the
European Installation Bus (EIB).
Midea Heating & Ventilating Equipment Co., Ltd is hon-
ored to be the first Chinese CAC manufacturer to become a
member of KNX China.
In 2013, Midea launched the KNX gateway in China’s
HVAC industry. After passing series of tests carried out by
KNX accredited third party testing labs, Midea KNX gateway
acquired the KNX certificate, which is completely compatible
with KNX/EIB standards and is applicable with other hundreds
of KNX certified products in the same working system.
With this technology, users can access the integrated sys-
tem via PCs or smartphones to control home appliances or oth-
er devices such as lighting, heating/ventilation & air condition-
ing, refrigeration, washing machine, alarming monitoring, audio
& video etc. all at once or separately.
Midea has successfully applied this technology and prod-
ucts in office building of the President in Maputo, capital of
Mozambique. Over 400 sets of VRF indoor units are installed,
among which, 330 sets are connected to Midea KNX gate way.
Users can achieve any operation control via the instabus, the
EIB system of Siemens which has also been connected with the
Midea KNX gate way.
NEWSLINE
Midea product units are installed in the office building of the President in Maputo, capital of Mozambique.
Advances Newsletter, December, 2013
11
Try Out New Experience of PD Portable AC
By Crystal Lun
T he new ErP (Energy Related Products) standard im-
plemented by EU in January 2013 requires energy efficiency to
be up by 5%, and sound power noise level requires to be ≤55 +
2 dB in terms of portable air conditioners. To meet the new ErP
standard, Midea has optimized the air duct structure and the
performance of sound power noise level to build a new platform
of PD portable air conditioner.
Energy Saving -- 0.5W Standby Technology
The new ErP standards require the air conditioner unit to re-
duce standby power consumption down to no more than 0.5W
starting from 2014. The Midea PD portable air conditioner can
fully comply with the new standard with standby power as low
as 0.5 W, meeting the requirements for the next three years in
the European market.
Healthy -- Air Filter System
Midea PD portable air conditioner provides healthy func-
tion in accordance with the "QMK-J11.006-2006 Technical
Standards: limitation of the use of harmful substances in prod-
ucts, and the RoHS directive. Additional functions such as
healthy air filter system of Vitamin C filter, bio filter, 3M HAF
filter, silver ion filter and ionizer etc are also carried out by this
product.
Comfort -- Follow Me
Users can choose the follow-me function of Midea PD
portable air conditioner. With this function, a temperature sen-
sor is built in the remote control. When user gets close to the
remote control, the sensor in the remote control is activated and
replaces the sensor in the indoor unit. The air conditioner then
adjusts the room temperature based on the temperature around
the remote controller instead of the indoor unit.
NEWSLINE
Advances Newsletter, December, 2013
12
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town By Mandy Wang
C hristmas trees and decorations are around the floors
at Midea International Division (MID), indicating the coming of
the Christmas holiday.
When staff are working
hardly on their desk,
nobody knows that a
surprise would come to
them. A Santa Claus
comes to Midea head-
quarters to the MID to
distribute Christmas gifts
and brought best wishes
to MID employees. Even
though this is a western
holiday, it has been inte-
grated to be part of
Laundry Division Convened the
2013 Patent & Innovation Workshop By Blinda Li
L aundry Division R&D Center convened the 2013
Patent & Innovation Workshop in October 25, 2013. Gu
Xianhong, hostess of the
workshop, firstly presented
the achievements of the pa-
tent team this year, proposed
future improvements need to
be implemented, and also
shared the strategy and plan-
ning for the coming three
years. According to Ms. Gu,
achievements regarding to
patents and innovation cannot
be made without the strong
support and unceasing en-
deavors from Laundry Divi-
sion and its patent team. In addition, Ms. Gu briefed attendees
on the work in patent applications, receiving high recognition
from attendees.
Subsequently, three outstanding inventors shared their
successful experience in patent application, and further under-
scored the importance of inde-
pendent R & D and innovation.
When came to the group discus-
sion, attendees were divided into
six groups with topics in patents
and innovation. At the end of
the discussion, each group pre-
sented its discussion results.
At the end of the
workshop, Hu Ziqiang, Vice
President of Technology and Ye
Dexin, Director of R & D Cen-
ter respectively gave a wrap-up
speech. They expressed their
wishes for greater achievements for the coming year.
NEWSLINE
MID’s happy working environment culture. No mat-
ter what holiday it is, giving gifts to employees is just
a way to show appreciation to them.
Advances Newsletter, December, 2013
13
MCJV Brazil Launches New
Midea Brand Website By James Yu
A s the peak season for home appliances market is
approaching, MCJV Brazil launched a new website for Midea
products in December in order to replace the old one which has
been used for 3 years.
The new Brazilian Midea website is on the basis of brand
communication suggested by the brand agency following brand
research conducted in 2013. It also adopted elements from the
new Midea visual identify guidance from Midea HQs. Instead of
using mostly light blue images which the air conditioning prod-
ucts previous did, the new website applies more colorful images
as the company is entering the small appliances market. A lot of
images showing happiness of families’ daily life are also used on
the website to show how Midea products would help our con-
sumers “enjoy every moment of life more”. “Enjoy every mo-
ment of life more” is Midea’s main brand communication mes-
sage to the market. Consumers in Brazil can access the website
by entering the domain of www.mideadobrazil.com.br or
www.midea.com now.
NEWSLINE
Midea RAC Leads Industrial Upgrading By Crystal Lun
S ince the corporate transformation initiated in 2011,
Midea has advocated to be a "consumer oriented" enterprise,
and has taken this as a strong driving force for the development
of the company. Great progress has been made on productivity
and quality improvement in the past years. Midea Residential AC
is one of the examples to show these progresses.
During the course of the transformation, Midea Residential
AC has invested heavily in R&D. Mr. Li Qiang, Director of
Midea Residential AC Research Institute, stated that in 2013
Midea Residential AC recruited many talents to the company,
including a refrigerant expert from the United Nations Environ-
ment Programme (UNEP), 19 foreign experts, 26 R&D staff
with doctorate degree, as well as other 16 professionals. In the
meanwhile, Midea cooperated with other manufacturers to form
joint technology development laboratories in order to further
improve Midea technologies. For example, Midea worked with
Toshiba Carrier on the introduction and transformation of in-
verter technology, and cooperated with IR (International Rectifi-
er) on the application of inverter controlling chips.
The Midea talent pool and its rich social intellectual re-
sources are strong support for scientific innovation and techno-
logical achievements. During the last ten years, Midea AC has
applied for 1,895 patents, among which 497 are invention pa-
tents, accounting for 26% of total.
Midea rewards its talents for their achievements. For instance, in
this year’s Midea Technology Month, the R&D team responsible
for Eco series project of “1 kWh per night”, won a reward of 5
million RMB, which is the highest of single reward amount in
Midea’s history.
Besides investments in talent base and technology improve-
ment, Mr. Wu Wenxin, president of Midea Residential AC Divi-
sion pointed out that more than 1 billion Yuan was invested in
the field of product quality improvement. All possible unsatis-
faction of customers guides our efforts for product improve-
ment.
Advances Newsletter, December, 2013
14
The 2014 Midea Group Business
Management Conference By Sophia Su & Mandy Wang
FEATURE
O n December 25th and 26th, the
2014 Midea Group Business Management
Conference was held in Beijiao, Shunde,
China, where Midea Group Headquarters
are located. Agendas were intensively
planed among the two-day conference, in-
cluding presentations from external profes-
sionals and entrepreneurs, management
reports from 13 business units, annual re-
views from Midea Group functional depart-
ments , as well as the 2014 plan of Midea
Group. During the conference, Heads of
business units also signed the 2014 KPI
performance evaluation management agree-
ments.
At the first day, speakers from re-
nowned universities, consulting companies
and enterprises discussed the strategies of Huawei, the develop-
ment and importance of e-commerce, and corporate transfor-
mation or change management undertaken by companies such
as IBM, GE,
Lenovo,
Samsung,
LG, etc. The-
se cases pro-
vided insight-
ful infor-
mation and
experiences
of the devel-
opment of
other multi-
national
companies,
which is very
helpful for
the ongoing
corporate
transfor-
mation as
well as the future globalization of Midea.
The second day business review session showed the
achievements of 2013 - sales revenue of Midea Group increased
by 19% year-on-year, and gross margin increased even more!
This re-
assured all
Midea peo-
ple’s belief
in the cur-
rent corpo-
rate trans-
formation
which leads
to Midea’s
accomplish-
ment this
year. This
conference
restated the
importance
of Midea’s
strategic
focuses on
Advances Newsletter, December, 2013
15
The 2014 Midea Group Business
Management Conference By Sophia Su & Mandy Wang
FEATURE
“Leading products, Product efficiency and Global operations”.
Fang Hongbo, Chairman of Midea Group gave a speech
in the conference to give guideline for Midea’s business growth
in 2014. He underscored the importance
of continuing corporate transformation
and pursuing further sales growth while
improving current profitability. Mr. Fang
indicated that in 2014 Midea Group shall
still be customer-oriented and focus on
producing good products. In addition, Mr.
Fang stressed that for the purpose of
maintaining continuously growth, we need
to be open-minded, be brave enough to
deny ourselves and be flexible to make
changes in way of our thinking, organiza-
tional structure and corporate cultures.
Besides, regular review and self-criticism
of what we have done in past years is nec-
essary. In the meanwhile, Mr. Fang
stressed the requirements for improving
management style, optimizing organiza-
tional structure and deepening cultural
changes etc.
Finally, Mr. Fang summarized that the key works for
the coming 2014 are to make good products, and to keep
changing with and adapting to the always-changing world. All
management executives must have sense of re-
sponsibility and sense of mission for the compa-
ny, and all work together closely in order to
achieve our business objectives.
Mr. He Xiangjian, founder of Midea Group, also
joined the second day dinner. He confirmed the
achievements Midea Group has made in this
year and encouraged the management to stick to
the principles of the corporate transformation
and to make greater success in the next year!
Advances Newsletter, December, 2013
16
By Mandy Wang
Marianna Zhao
General Manager of Western Europe,
Overseas Sales Company of RAC
Marianna Zhao started her first job in Midea within the sales sector in 2004. With her hardworking, passionate, proactive, self-motivated and independent attitude, she gradually advanced her career within this organization. She took the position as the General Manager of Western Europe for Residential Air Conditioning Division Overseas Sales Company in early 2013, leading a team of passionate colleagues. Even though she is busy with her work and her MBA class, she still enjoys playing instruments, going to concerts and visiting museums. ADV: You joined Midea Living Appliances after your graduation from college and you currently work in the sales sector in Midea. How have your past experiences influenced you and developed you into such a good sales person? Marianna: I graduated in 2004 and worked at Midea Living Appliance for one and a half years. From that initial experience, I have three key learnings; independent thinking, systematic thinking and hard working. Why are these three elements important? When I first entered Midea, the overseas company was set up on a very small scale. At that time, support from the factory was very weak, so you had to handle everything by yourself. This experience really trained me and taught me how to handle things independently. A diligent and energetic perspective for a sales person is essential because you have to work very hard and be very persistent in seeking increased sales results. We not only care about the final sales result, but more importantly learning how to improve efficiency and productivity are also paramount to us. ADV: You believe there are three traits that make you a good sales person---independent thinking, systematic thinking and diligence. What other attitudes or personalities can help you to succeed? What’s your attitude towards work? Marianna: First and foremost is being passionate. As a sales person, you have to be very passionate and proactive. Secondly you need to have a very strong knowledge of the market and customer insights. Besides that, a strong sense of responsibility is also very important, not only to the work and your colleagues, but also to your customers. That is how we sustain and maintain good relationships with our customers.
ADV: Do you try to enforce those attitudes on your team members? Marianna: Yes because if you are a team leader with experience and knowledge which you think are good for your team, you would like to encourage those beliefs. If it is just a small team, it is very easy to influence others with your thinking within your team. However, when the team gets bigger, it is harder because people are very independent. They have their own personalities, their own way of thinking and work ethics. I’m trying to influence them, because I do believe those attitudes I mentioned are essential and I believe that my team has this mind-set too. ADV: Besides good attitudes, what other aspects do you ensure your team has in meeting your sales goals?
PEOPLE
Tough Power Cooling Europe
Advances Newsletter, December, 2013
17
By Mandy Wang
Marianna: Definitely we need some management tools. We have the weekly working plan and monthly business review. This is very basic. For our business review, which we started from this year, we break down the sales target periodically. Sales people have more specific sales target every month. So it is better to review and discover problems at early stage and thus reduce any potential large problems. Therefore if you really do a good job in the initial period, that will help you in sustaining your work in the future. Secondly is high autonomy to team members, empower to those who are capable to cope with various issues. Thirdly team spirit is essential. Personally I believe in this so much. I read a book on management 2 years ago. The main concept of this book is about corporate culture. There is a sentence that was very profound, but at that time, I didn’t understand that clearly. It said that “All performance is resulted
from corporate culture”. In Chinese it is like, “所有的业绩都
是企业文化的表现”. I do believe that having an open-
minded and pleasant team spirit with transparent regulations and rules can really lead to good sales performance. That’s also the direction I really want to develop deeper into. ADV: I heard that you are taking the MBA class. Have you found any management tools that you learned in class which you think you can apply to your work? Marianna: Yes. I have taken two modules already. The first was O r g a n i z a t i o n a l Behavior (OB). The s e c o n d w a s S t a t i s t i c s a n d Decision Making. These had very interesting tools, especially for OB. It delivers principles about how you can organize people and make the team work more efficiently and effectively, and how you can motivate people. During classes, we debated and held discussions regarding ways to motivate colleagues. Our current team
consists of the 80s and 90s generation. Most of them are single children, so they don’t care about the salary that much. You need to make them satisfied through their emotions, to really motivate them, to provide them with greater platforms to learn from and to help them discover their potentials. ADV: As the GM of one region, you need to lead a team of people. What’s the secret to developing strong working relationships with peers, and leading a team to achieve and maintain excellence? Marianna: To be very honest, the relationship is not strong enough at the moment but we are trying to build a team endowed with purpose and determination. Moreover we are in the process of harnessing a friendly team environment in which team member’s respect, appreciate and would like to work with each other. Foremost, to build a strong sales team, we need to set up very clear sales goals and rules and regulations and to make sure that your team knows that. If you achieve good things, you will get rewards. Rewards and punishments should be parallel. Secondly is to build team spirit. We need to share information more frequently than before and to communicate more freely. Even though I am the GM and they are my peers, we can discuss more candidly.
PEOPLE
Tough Power Cooling Europe
Advances Newsletter, December, 2013
18
By Mandy Wang
ADV: I heard that the team building activities of sales teams are always so interesting. Are there any team building events that your team participated in which you would like to recommend to other teams? Marianna: I’d like to give you a small example. Two weeks ago, our team made a small video as a gift for 2013. “Why do people have strong connections with each other?” The most important reason we found is that they share the same memories. They have something to remind each other of especially all the good times or tough times they experienced together. I think everybody can’t wait and are very excited to see the video. We have also done something for Christmas. Yesterday, we had a small event in which all team members exchanged gifts with each other. This is a Western tradition called “Kris Kringle” whereby people are chosen at random to exchange gifts with another colleague. We have prepared for this event for two weeks. Activities like this will help to create and maintain work relationships Also, we have some experience sharing events often led by team members who share their wisdom and know-how. ADV: You worked in regions such as Europe, and in Venezuela in South America. Which regions do you find the most
interesting and most challenging? Have you ever encountered any difficult times in sales? Marianna: I should say all markets are interesting. That’s also the reason why I like this job as sales person. I love my job which is people orientated and you can always experience different things. For instance, Latin America is interesting. The customers working style is casual, passionate, and you can really make friends with them; while European style is more professional, cool and rigorous. My current job is somewhat challenging because European market is challenged by upgrading regulations and stagnant economic conditions. We need to compete with A brands face to face after upgrading on energy efficiency. The competition situation changed, from local Chinese manufacture to world-class Japanese and Korea brands. At the same time, price war is getting fierce. The traditional importers or brand owners are losing the competitiveness. Thus, we have to think about how to break through, no matter on business model, sales channel and other value-added services or products we could deliver to the market. We need a new mind-set, also need to take the advantage of the overseas branches approach to the market and to find the shortest way to increase the operation quality.
PEOPLE
Tough Power Cooling Europe
Advances Newsletter, December, 2013
19
By Mandy Wang
ADV: Do you have any plans for your 2014 strategy? Marianna: As mentioned, the profit margin is not as good as before, we shall broaden the sales channels, such as enforce more on the retailing channel. We also have plan to set up an after-sales service network in Europe to provide more services to customers. Meanwhile, we focus more on productivity. In coming year, there will be new platforms launched, relying which we expect to get more sales in 2014. ADV: When facing some problems or challenges, how do you ensure that a solution is implemented? Marianna: Whenever I meet a problem, I will divide them into smaller pieces. When you see a problem as a whole, it is like a mountain, but when you split it, it is just like a small rock. It’s much easier to handle. ADV: When you first joined the sales team, did it feel like a boys club? How did you advance in a male-dominated field? Marianna: Sure. I think it is the boys club. But girls always have some privileges, such as support and respect from your colleagues. Women are always very easy going, sensitive and have good communication skills. We know how to build a relationship with people. That’s the advantage. But at the same time, there are some disadvantages. Women sometimes find it difficult to make decisions, easily in a dilemma. One reason I was able to advance in this organization is through the support I received from my bosses and colleagues, who o p e n e d u p g o o d opportunities for me, and they trusted and supported me always. I am thankful for the chances I got in Midea. Another reason may be due to my own personality. I am a self-motivated person and passionate for the job. ADV: Besides that, do you have any general advice for women, or how to balance their work and family life?
Marianna: (laughing) Actually, I am not the best example of how to balance between work-social and life because recently I put too much focus on work. ADV: But as long as your family members support you. Marianna: Yes, they support me a lot. So I think the general suggestion is just “be yourself”. Time management is very important. You need to allocate your time properly and enhance efficiency otherwise you won’t even have time for work, family or for fun. ADV: What do you usually do have after work to wind down? Do you exercise or hang out with friends? Marianna: Yeah. I like parties. I like playing instruments, such as the piano. Several days ago, I bought a Ukulele. It is a very happy instrument. Playing Ukulele is a good way to release your stress from work. I like classical music and concerts. I also love shopping like all ladies. One of my colleagues told me that when I work I am like a man, but when I am off work, I am a little girl (laugh).
PEOPLE
Tough Power Cooling Europe
Advances Newsletter, December, 2013
20
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