Describe a significant leadership experience, decision-making challenge, or managerial accomplishment. How did this experience affect your professional/personal development?
I led a sales campaign in the heart of China's computer industry that ultimately gave MIB the biggest share of the country's PC market.
Home to most prestigious universities and scientific research institutes in China, Beijing's Zhong Guan Cun (ZGC) area boasts the fame of China's Silicon Valley, serving as a trail-blazer both in product development and marketing. As the most important distribution center of I/T products in China, the ZGC market takes up almost a third of the country's PC business and therefore has a significant impact on the national market. Most PC vendors attach strategic importance to this place. It was here that I fought and won a most memorable battle, which I have come to regard as a milestone in my career.
MIB's PC share in China was second to that of Compaq in the first half of 1996. Not satisfied with that status, the company decided to launch a sales campaign in ZGC. I was chosen to head a task force, made up of managers responsible for distribution, retail and marketing, charged to win back the hearts of major second-tier dealers and increase the company's market share in ZGC by 25%.
We identified fifty dealers who distributed our competitors' PC products and persuaded them to participate in the MIB ZGC program. We also chose three prominent sites in ZGC and set up MIB PC billboards there. To switch a dealer's long-standing allegiance from someone else to oneself is much harder than recruiting one's own new dealers. After tough negotiations, we convinced 25 dealers to act as authorized dealerships for MIB distributors.
Next came the massive advertising I designed. This was to swamp our competitors with our ubiquitous and colorful presence. We had all of our new dealers' shops painted blue. Using mass media of every kind in Beijing, we bombarded the public with slogan: "ZGC: Blue Street".
All was not smooth, though, as the task force was made of people from different functions who could not be readily integrated into a coherent scheme. These people barely knew each other at first, and half of them were new recruits. I quickly laid down the rules: the whole task force should meet every morning and all members should report his or her accomplishment and immediate plans. I also encouraged my associates to offer their input even on matters that they were not directly responsible for. Meanwhile, I made sure that all associates took turns to work with me so that I was able to monitor the progress and solve problems on spot. The result was rewarding. We all felt that we had teamed up in an exciting encouraging effort.
Another challenge was that some major players in the second-tier dealership we thought we converted had backtracked. They were uncertain if selling MIB only would be as profitable as before. They doubted if they had bargained enough when we approached them individually. So they banded together and tried to re-negotiate the terms. I talked with them twice and no agreement could be reached. Then I decided to try a new strategy. I paid a visit to each of the three largest dealers and offered them concessions that I was not able to offer them all at once. The coalition of dissenters was thus crushed and the campaign went on.
The campaign paid off quickly. In three months, amidst the blue sea of signs and billboards and deafening slogans, both the dealers and MIB China both saw that their revenues in ZGC shot up an impressive 35 per cent.
In China's PC market, a winner in ZGC wins all. By the end of 1996, MIB grabbed the top seat in PC market share in China and the campaign I led has come down as the watershed of MIB's expansion in China.
My company's growth has led to my own elevation on the corporate ladder. I received an achievement award from General Manager of PCG in recognition of my leadership ability. Three months later, I was formally promoted to the position of a supervisor with responsibility to lead the entire channel management team at MIB China.
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