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Entrepreneurial Flair
Over the years we’ve
brought you success
stories about female
a l u m n i w h o h a v e
launched their own start-ups. Now
we br ing you four more. These
outstanding women are making a
difference in the fashion, education and
lifestyle industries here in China. Read
on to learn more about what inspired
their entrepreneurial journey and how
they’re overcoming the many challenges
faced along the way.
By James Kent
Feature
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theLINK Volume 2, 2016
Entrepreneurial Flair
Having to wear multiple hats
is the biggest challenge that
Sue Li f inds with being
an entrepreneur. Running her own
business providing visual and fashion
design services for women, she’s
in charge of brand promotion and
customer communication, as well as
photography and image retouching.
At the same time she also has to think
about big picture strategy. Her work
has been featured in publications
such as Brides , Cosmopolitan and
ELLEChina.com. This year she plans to
launch a bridal and fashion clothing
brand and she wants to expand to
larger studio space to improve on
the services offered to clients. Yet she
worries about growing too fast, which
might compromise quality.
T h e p o p u l a r s ay i n g , “ D o
what you love and success will
follow” perfectly sums up Sue’s
entrepreneurial journey. She began
her career working at one of the Big
Four accounting firms, but always
enjoyed capturing friends, family
and colleagues on camera. Her
enthusiasm for visual art led to her
decision to reinvent herself through
the CEIBS MBA Pro g r amme.
Sue’s WeChatSue Li, MBA2012
Sue's Studio
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theLINK Volume 2, 2016
While she was still in school a friend
asked her to photograph her wedding.
After posting the images on social
media Sue received more requests
for her photography skills, and she
began balancing her hectic MBA study
workload with a part-time wedding
and portrait photography business.
After her MBA, Sue joined fashion
media giant Hearst as Director of
Strategy and Marketing but continued
her photography business on the
weekends. In November 2015, after
four years of this double identity, she
decided to follow her heart and open
her own studio.
“I met many outstanding students
while studying at CEIBS. Their stories
inspired me to realise that “self ”
is the most important word and
represents something different for
each individual,” says Sue. “Listen to
yourself, be confident and strive for a
strong, independent personality and
the ability to manage your own life.
This will motivate you to face and
overcome frustrations and obstacles.”
She adds, “To do something you
YOLOBOO WeChat
love, something that also brings joy
to others, is indeed an extremely
meaningful thing anyone would be
lucky to experience.” Her advice for
other women thinking of taking
the plunge into the tough world of
entrepreneurship: begin with an idea
that you’re really passionate about.
“Only if you love the venture from the
bottom of your heart will you be able to
bear the pressures of entrepreneurship.
If you dedicate your heart to doing a
good job, then profit will follow,” she
says.
The community of women entrepreneurs in China is quite
strong, with some incubators and investors specifically geared
towards assisting the fairer sex, says Denise Pu. She should
know; she’s Co-founder of YOLOBOO, an invitation-only social
media APP focused on food, travel and other lifestyle experiences. It’s
only for women. Denise’s company is based in Shanghai where she’s
found a close-knit group of professional women who provide support
for new entrepreneurs who are often facing similar challenges.
Her business partner Gong Xuan has also noticed some of the
Denise Pu & Gong Xuan, MBA2012
YOLOBOO
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theLINK Volume 2, 2016
differences between China’s male and female entrepreneurs,
and how these impact their companies. Women, she
explains, tend to focus on operations and may therefore
find it challenging to build a technical team when they’re
just starting out. On the other hand, male entrepreneurs are
usually more technical, so they may have problems on the
operational side of things.
For Gong, YOLOBOO has been chal lenging in
every aspect. “Everything was new to me, from writing
recruitment ads to giving employee performance reviews,”
she says. “I remember recruiting our first employee, my
heart was pounding! I didn’t know if she would want to
join a team that only had two members – just us founders;
or mind that she would be working in a living room that
was serving as our office. I was very happy she understood
our philosophy and decided to join us. Over the past seven
months, I’ve seen her grow and everyone is growing together
as a team. It makes me really happy.”
A 12-day road trip together across Iceland sparked the
idea for YOLOBOO. Denise and Gong were moved by the
beauty of the country and wanted to share the magnificent
sights so they could be appreciated by others. After all,
they thought, ‘You Only Live Once, BOO!’ which became
the name for their APP – YOLOBOO. The timing of their
trip coincided with some entrepreneurial stirrings. “I’d
been traveling quite often over the past five years both for
business and leisure,” recalls Denise. “I noticed that almost
every woman I know was traveling much more frequently
and their travel was evolving from hopping on tour buses
to independent travel and exclusive experiences. I also saw
the rising trend of ‘womenomics’ in China.” Gong had
also noticed the increasing numbers of economically and
psychologically independent Chinese women, and saw
YOLOBOO as a platform that could shine a light on quality
of life for a community of like-minded women.
At the time, she was working at Microsoft having joined
the company’s MACH Programme after her MBA. Denise
was working in banking in Hong Kong. After their Iceland
trip, Denise remembered a bit of advice that Professor of
Marketing Lydia Price had shared with her MBA class:
“You’re bound to make tough decisions. You will only find
out later whether some decisions were wrong or right.
But you just have to make a decision. The worst is being
indecisive.”
Now that she has her own business, Denise has a
few words of advice herself for women interested in
entrepreneurship. She suggests that they get as much
practical experience as possible. “If you work in a large
organisation, try to gain exposure to a start-up atmosphere
to see if it suits your personality,” she says.
It also helps to have strong support, and Denise is
grateful to friends and family as well as their early clients.
“They have endured many testing bugs and have not given
up on us,” she says of YOLOBOO’s initial users. “This gives
me confidence that the community we are building and the
content we are creating is worth the time and effort we’re
putting in. We just need to make it the best it can be!
The YOLOBOO APP became available through iTunes
App Store in the first week of April.
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theLINK Volume 2, 2016
Lily Li, MBA2015
GAP Education
Lily Li was in the second year of her CEIBS MBA when she became
pregnant. Like most expectant mothers she began reading up on
child development and baby care. An article about education in
Shanghai made her suddenly realise that her child’s career path would
actually begin at kindergarten. Talking to other new parents she found
they shared many of the same worries about their children’s education.
Finding a way to alleviate these anxieties led Lily to start her own business,
GAP Education, which provides consultancy services for Chinese families
exploring international education options for their children.
“Every day our company answers questions from households such
as, should my child study abroad? Should he/she go abroad for his/her
bachelor’s degree, or go for high school? Is it really the right thing to do for
my child? How do you select the best school for further studies abroad?” Lily
explains.
Originally she had planned to use her MBA studies to engineer a
career shift that would leverage a decade of work experience in market
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theLINK Volume 2, 2016
Now she has an easy to manage fitness
routine. “Slowly I became more fit, and
I would often go back to work after a
session feeling revitalised and ready to
tackle the challenges that lay ahead,”
she says.
Aspiring women entrepreneurs
need to remember the importance of
a healthy work-life balance says Lily.
“Before I became a mother I would
easily clock 170 hours of overtime per
month. With a family, this balance is
unsustainable.”
EntrEprEnEurship Focus
Su e , D e n i s e , G o n g a n d L i l y
are part of a growing global trend
of MBA students with a f lair for
entrepreneurship and/or an interest
in making it the focus of their MBA
study. CEIBS has responded to these
needs and the MBA Class of 2016 was
officially the first to offer students
the option to choose a concentration
in entrepreneurship. In addition
the school launched the MBA eLab
incubator last year, which helps student
entrepreneurs flesh out their business
plans and attract VC funding. CEIBS
has also organised overseas study
tours that give MBA students a first-
hand look at entrepreneurship cultures
abroad. Among the current batch of
CEIBS MBAs, 30% said they plan to
start their own business, and several
have already had a successful start-up.
research towards a new career in
charity or public welfare. “At CEIBS
my knowledge of publ ic welfare
was brought to a new level. There
are many opportunities to improve
society’s problems; charities are only
one option,” she says. As President of
the MBA CSR Club, she led efforts to
host the 8th annual Being Globally
Responsible Conference, where the
topic was sustainable education.
“Looking back, it was the perfect
opportunity to gain experience and the
contacts I made have helped steer me
along my entrepreneurial path,” she
says.
To provide the very best service to
her clients, Lily dedicates a tremendous
a m o u n t o f t i m e to re s e a rch i n g
international education policies and
communica t ing w i th numerous
stakeholders. But she knows the value
of having a life outside the office. That’s
why the most valued object on her
desk is not her laptop or her phone
but a Frisbee. Running a business
requires putting in long hours at work,
leaving her with little time for exercise.
Her husband solved this problem for
her with a thoughtful gift – Ultimate
Frisbee lessons in nearby Century Park.
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theLINK Volume 2, 2016