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MBA Student Wo Qian: the Entrepreneur Borne From a Recruitment Fair

Mar 07-2014   




IMG_7203

The recruitment fair is bustling with young job seekers eager to land their first job and get themselves on the first rung of the career ladder. Searching through the multitude of company booths, these young hopefuls submit their resumes enthusiastically but with a certain uneasiness.

Wo Qian remembers this scene vividly. In fact, she has experienced this twice – the first time was as a fresh graduate, armed with her graduation certificates in Law, she entered the job market without much direction or a clear view of what she wanted in a career.

The second time was in 2011, as a student in Australia. Because she had headhunting experience, she was encouraged by her friends to help with a booth during a campus recruitment fair. Seeing the same doe-eyed fresh-faced young job hunters who were as much at a loss as she was all those years ago, Wo Qian decided to return to Beijing with a fresh determination to found her own company. Along with Shi Xiaojia, who was then the HR Director of Longhu Property she co-founded the head-hunting company now known as Wootree.

Targeting the Blue Ocean

At the time she was approached by Wo Qian, Shi Xiaojia had already been in the HR industry for a number of years –own experience with head-hunters was bitter-sweet. She understood exactly how important it is for a company to find a good head-hunter, and how difficult it is to do so.

In starting a business, Shi Xiaojia wanted to bring happiness to her clients. Through the company’s professionalism, she would give acceptable advice to both clients and job candidates. This was in fact the same rationale as Wo Qian, who wanted to create a company different to the company she first worked at, a company that does not compromise quantity to stay competitive. More important than survival was to bring together a team that could rise above this and achieve success in the industry.      

In 2011, when they decided to enter the market, following a period a short-term growth, domestic head hunters were in the midst of a highly competitive market. The reason for this was the low entry point of the industry – the simplest set-up could be just “a person with a phone”).

The result was a large discrepancy in quality of head-hunters and the proliferation of the market, fueled by the high demand (of job seekers). A pyramid structure emerged – at the top were the top level positions, which due to the time required to find a suitable candidate and the need high professional requirements of the candidate, was more suited to those teams with entrepreneurial spirit. At the time, industry competition was not so large and especially as there was no head-hunting company in China targeting executives in the Real Estate industry, it was a true ‘blue ocean’.

After a number of meetings, the image and positioning of Wootree began to take form - a head hunter focusing on executive level in the industry of property. In the labor ‘pyramid’, what Wo Qian and Shi Xiaojia wanted to win was the top section. If normal head-hunting companies are presenting resumes of candidates, what Wootree presents are 3D printed candidates for client companies.

Among this blue ocean, Wootree's first client is the World Trade Corporation headquartered in Shanghai. As Wo Qian recalls, the corporation was under regional transition in 2011. Upon receiving this information, Wo Qian and Shi Xiaojia, who were conducting preliminary survey of the market in Beijing, flew to Shanghai immediately. After meeting the principal of the corporation and many attempts, they began with regional cooperation and finally, by their performance, won the business cooperation nationally. Today, the World Trade Corporation is a long term strategic client of Wootree. In the end of 2013, Wootree was awarded by the corporation the 2nd Top Head-hunter of 2013 amongst the 60 head-hunting companies which it has cooperated.

Acting with a Clear Mind

Both Wo Qian and Shi Xiaojia believe they share a common characteristic: clearly thinking about their motives and targets before acting. This is like their professional instinct: to be good at setting targets, and to be good at making plans for achieving such target.

During the early days of Wootree, Wo Qian and Shi Xiaojia came up with a "five-year plan": horizontally, Wootree was to focus on the B-end business in the first three years, and then expand to the C-end business after accumulating industrial resource; vertically, Wootree was to gradually shift their focus to real estate, and spread to surrounding areas so as to enrich business areas.

At the end of 2013, Wo Qian and Shi Xiaojia selected Shanghai to establish the second office of Wootree. In contrast to Beijing office's attention on real estate, Shanghai office concentrates on real estate financing. They hold that domestic real estate companies are also allocating partial fund to enter financing as China gradually opens finance, which is a great opportunity of expansion for Wootree.

In order to obtain more clear recognition for macro economy, Wo Qian finally selected BiMBA after comparing several MBA schools in China. She believes that BiMBA could better inspire her for China's economic trend and future development. "For example, Teacher Yao Yang's industry reviews for academic purpose or for leadership are a great help to us." After studying at BiMBA, Wo Qian is more assured that it is right for Wootree to choose finance as the first field to expand.

As to company development, Wo Qian thinks the most useful knowledge she learned in BiMBA is for decision making, for example, how Wootree shall break down the projects, and make good choice for each step, and ultimately make the decision. The BiMBA learning experience enables Wo Qian to lead Wootree with a more clear understanding of how to make action plan for achieving targets.

 "What I really learned at BiMBA was to understand the economics of a company at both the macro level and the micro level."

"Cooperation is like marriage"

Currently, Wo Qian is responsible for business development and maintenance, and Shi Xiaojia focuses on internal operation and management. Such division is related to their previous experience: before studying in Australia, Wo Qian once worked for Coca Cola China on partnership, while Shi Xiaojia worked for Longhu Property, a local company. Having co-operated in the past, Wo Qian and Shi Xiaojia believed it would be a great choice to become partners. After preliminary communication, they found they share common target. However, only after actual company operation did they realize working with each other is so difficult.

For example, Wo Qian could not get used to Shi Xiaojia's communication manner, which was "too direct, too inflexible". She believed that they both were strict over work, but Shi Xiaojia would appear serious, and never praise others easily, while Wo Qian considers praise as a great way for incentive.

When Wo Qian is describing Shi Xiaojia's stiffness, Shi Xiaojia sitting at the other side behaved very calm:" This is insignificant. As long as we have the same objective, ways of doing things could be changed, as the saying goes, ‘thee only thing that stays unchanged is change itself.’”

During the interview, Shi Xiaojia compared cooperation with Wo Qian as marriage:"You wish to grow old together, but many trivial things in life may always discourage you from continuing." When such times appear, you should observe each other's brilliance, the most important thing in the early stage of entrepreneurship in the eye of Shi Xiaojia.

 "After the first step has been taken, how to keep pace with each other is important. The reason behind my strictness is that I can see hope and future in them," Shi Xiaojia attributes the cause and drive for team to overcome difficulties together to the desire for cooperation with each other constantly.

 

MBA Student Wo Qian: the Entrepreneur Borne From a Recruitment Fair

Mar 07-2014   




IMG_7203

The recruitment fair is bustling with young job seekers eager to land their first job and get themselves on the first rung of the career ladder. Searching through the multitude of company booths, these young hopefuls submit their resumes enthusiastically but with a certain uneasiness.

Wo Qian remembers this scene vividly. In fact, she has experienced this twice – the first time was as a fresh graduate, armed with her graduation certificates in Law, she entered the job market without much direction or a clear view of what she wanted in a career.

The second time was in 2011, as a student in Australia. Because she had headhunting experience, she was encouraged by her friends to help with a booth during a campus recruitment fair. Seeing the same doe-eyed fresh-faced young job hunters who were as much at a loss as she was all those years ago, Wo Qian decided to return to Beijing with a fresh determination to found her own company. Along with Shi Xiaojia, who was then the HR Director of Longhu Property she co-founded the head-hunting company now known as Wootree.

Targeting the Blue Ocean

At the time she was approached by Wo Qian, Shi Xiaojia had already been in the HR industry for a number of years –own experience with head-hunters was bitter-sweet. She understood exactly how important it is for a company to find a good head-hunter, and how difficult it is to do so.

In starting a business, Shi Xiaojia wanted to bring happiness to her clients. Through the company’s professionalism, she would give acceptable advice to both clients and job candidates. This was in fact the same rationale as Wo Qian, who wanted to create a company different to the company she first worked at, a company that does not compromise quantity to stay competitive. More important than survival was to bring together a team that could rise above this and achieve success in the industry.      

In 2011, when they decided to enter the market, following a period a short-term growth, domestic head hunters were in the midst of a highly competitive market. The reason for this was the low entry point of the industry – the simplest set-up could be just “a person with a phone”).

The result was a large discrepancy in quality of head-hunters and the proliferation of the market, fueled by the high demand (of job seekers). A pyramid structure emerged – at the top were the top level positions, which due to the time required to find a suitable candidate and the need high professional requirements of the candidate, was more suited to those teams with entrepreneurial spirit. At the time, industry competition was not so large and especially as there was no head-hunting company in China targeting executives in the Real Estate industry, it was a true ‘blue ocean’.

After a number of meetings, the image and positioning of Wootree began to take form - a head hunter focusing on executive level in the industry of property. In the labor ‘pyramid’, what Wo Qian and Shi Xiaojia wanted to win was the top section. If normal head-hunting companies are presenting resumes of candidates, what Wootree presents are 3D printed candidates for client companies.

Among this blue ocean, Wootree's first client is the World Trade Corporation headquartered in Shanghai. As Wo Qian recalls, the corporation was under regional transition in 2011. Upon receiving this information, Wo Qian and Shi Xiaojia, who were conducting preliminary survey of the market in Beijing, flew to Shanghai immediately. After meeting the principal of the corporation and many attempts, they began with regional cooperation and finally, by their performance, won the business cooperation nationally. Today, the World Trade Corporation is a long term strategic client of Wootree. In the end of 2013, Wootree was awarded by the corporation the 2nd Top Head-hunter of 2013 amongst the 60 head-hunting companies which it has cooperated.

Acting with a Clear Mind

Both Wo Qian and Shi Xiaojia believe they share a common characteristic: clearly thinking about their motives and targets before acting. This is like their professional instinct: to be good at setting targets, and to be good at making plans for achieving such target.

During the early days of Wootree, Wo Qian and Shi Xiaojia came up with a "five-year plan": horizontally, Wootree was to focus on the B-end business in the first three years, and then expand to the C-end business after accumulating industrial resource; vertically, Wootree was to gradually shift their focus to real estate, and spread to surrounding areas so as to enrich business areas.

At the end of 2013, Wo Qian and Shi Xiaojia selected Shanghai to establish the second office of Wootree. In contrast to Beijing office's attention on real estate, Shanghai office concentrates on real estate financing. They hold that domestic real estate companies are also allocating partial fund to enter financing as China gradually opens finance, which is a great opportunity of expansion for Wootree.

In order to obtain more clear recognition for macro economy, Wo Qian finally selected BiMBA after comparing several MBA schools in China. She believes that BiMBA could better inspire her for China's economic trend and future development. "For example, Teacher Yao Yang's industry reviews for academic purpose or for leadership are a great help to us." After studying at BiMBA, Wo Qian is more assured that it is right for Wootree to choose finance as the first field to expand.

As to company development, Wo Qian thinks the most useful knowledge she learned in BiMBA is for decision making, for example, how Wootree shall break down the projects, and make good choice for each step, and ultimately make the decision. The BiMBA learning experience enables Wo Qian to lead Wootree with a more clear understanding of how to make action plan for achieving targets.

 "What I really learned at BiMBA was to understand the economics of a company at both the macro level and the micro level."

"Cooperation is like marriage"

Currently, Wo Qian is responsible for business development and maintenance, and Shi Xiaojia focuses on internal operation and management. Such division is related to their previous experience: before studying in Australia, Wo Qian once worked for Coca Cola China on partnership, while Shi Xiaojia worked for Longhu Property, a local company. Having co-operated in the past, Wo Qian and Shi Xiaojia believed it would be a great choice to become partners. After preliminary communication, they found they share common target. However, only after actual company operation did they realize working with each other is so difficult.

For example, Wo Qian could not get used to Shi Xiaojia's communication manner, which was "too direct, too inflexible". She believed that they both were strict over work, but Shi Xiaojia would appear serious, and never praise others easily, while Wo Qian considers praise as a great way for incentive.

When Wo Qian is describing Shi Xiaojia's stiffness, Shi Xiaojia sitting at the other side behaved very calm:" This is insignificant. As long as we have the same objective, ways of doing things could be changed, as the saying goes, ‘thee only thing that stays unchanged is change itself.’”

During the interview, Shi Xiaojia compared cooperation with Wo Qian as marriage:"You wish to grow old together, but many trivial things in life may always discourage you from continuing." When such times appear, you should observe each other's brilliance, the most important thing in the early stage of entrepreneurship in the eye of Shi Xiaojia.

 "After the first step has been taken, how to keep pace with each other is important. The reason behind my strictness is that I can see hope and future in them," Shi Xiaojia attributes the cause and drive for team to overcome difficulties together to the desire for cooperation with each other constantly.