For Li Qi, a key word in these years is "change", looking back on the past, it seems that "change" has always accompanied his life path.
However, in the author's view, what has changed is the external environment, work, and region, and the customs and customs of different cities; what has not changed is the original heart and perseverance spirit that is not afraid of the road ahead and has the courage to accept challenges. As his motto goes: "Enjoy challenge, Never give up, Challenge the change!" ”
▲ Li Qi
General Manager, Product Line, DIC Corporation
Shanghai Jiao Tong University Global Innovation Management Class 58 students
Zero out and go again
2021 is a new beginning for Li Qi.
At the beginning of the year, he took over the new business that the company had given him, which meant that he would start all over again. "It is to give up all the workplace resources and contacts in the past 20 years, and there is no one to know." Until then, his work had been related to chemical materials.
Li Qi's company, DIC Co., Ltd., is a manufacturer of precision chemical products with a history of 100 years. With about 200 subsidiaries in more than 60 countries around the world, it has a wide range of business in the fields of printing inks, organic pigments, synthetic resins, and electronic information materials.
Today, Li Qi's responsible sector has shifted to the flexographic printing market, which is also one of the areas that DIC Is working on. If you want to understand flexographic printing, you have to start from the changes in the industry.
In the past, China's ink product structure, as the main printing method of plastic flexible packaging materials gravure printing accounted for a relatively high proportion, gravure ink in about 80% of the products for solvent-based ink, because solvent-based ink contains 50%-60% of the volatile components, coupled with the dilution required to adjust the ink, in the production and drying process of printed matter will emit a large number of VOC organic waste gas, the human health and the environment will cause more serious harm.
With the improvement of people's awareness of environmental protection, the urgent need for "environmental protection" printing process is increasingly rising. Flexographic printing without VOC organic waste gas has become one of the green printing methods and directions recognized by the industry. On the C side, in the global wave of plastic ban and plastic restriction, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé, Unilever, Procter & Gamble and other enterprises are all promoting and practicing the new progress and new trend of environmentally friendly packaging to assume social responsibility that matches the brand.
For the new business, Li Qi admits that he knows very little about whether it is products or customer groups, as well as related processes. But the reason why I am willing to take on this responsibility and lead the team to open up an unfamiliar market, he said, "For so many years, the sense of responsibility has driven me to ask myself to do everything perfectly." Moreover, my personality also has the stubbornness of not accepting defeat and not being afraid of challenges, so I am willing to accept this change and try to do better, because this thing is still meaningful to society. ”
There is something to ask for, something not to ask for
Just as he is willing to take on a field that he has not been involved in before, in Li Qi's growth process, he has not rejected any "strangers". For him, "strange" means more possibilities.
More than twenty years ago, he came to Shanghai from Xi'an alone with his bags on his back, and his parents did not want him to leave his hometown. But he was mesmerized by the stories in the old alleys on TV and the neon on the banks of the Huangpu River, and he wanted to explore the city that combined classical and modern.
After graduation, Li Qi was dispatched by an old foreign-funded enterprise in Hangzhou to open up the market from zero, as a workplace recruit, in two years, he gradually bid farewell to the youth of students, became mature, and helped the Hangzhou office upgrade from a small station to a branch.
Just when the career is booming and thriving. For the sake of love, he chose to return to Shanghai and start again. "Career can be pursued by ability, and life partners can be encountered but not sought!"
During the period of re-finding a job in Shanghai, he learned by chance that The Hong Kong-listed Ye Shi Chemical Group was recruiting a sales manager in East China. Li Qi knows that according to his current industry experience and qualifications, he cannot match the needs of this position, but the opportunity is to rely on his own initiative to fight, rather than passively waiting, he is willing to try to communicate.
After several chats, they talked happily, and under the recommendation of the headhunter, Li Qi finally met the vice president of the company. Although he was not enough to lead the East China team at the time, the vice president was willing to give the young man in front of him a chance to grow.
"Ask about the treatment, I don't care at all, just make a request, the boss took me for a year." Since then, the vice president has also become his lifelong mentor and friend. "At some key point in my life, I will ask for his opinion."
Li Qi worked in Ye's Chemical Group for 12 years, and this listed company also provided him with a broad stage, coupled with the rapid development of China's economy, he quickly grew from an industry recruit to a gold medal salesman, from a single player to a team manager.
Just as entering Ye's Chemical focuses on personal growth and platform, entering DIC is interested in the operating mechanism of the company itself.
"Why in more than ten years of competition, although this company is slightly inferior, it has not been in a hurry to adjust the factory layout and product structure, and even the top talents in the industry who once left have begun to flow back." Market feedback decisions are faster, products are more competitive, how do they do it? ”
In 2014, with questions in mind, Li Qi joined DIC, and in the seven years of DIC, "change" has become the norm.
From the earliest Southwest company sales company, to the management group Marketing, and then to the management of the group VIP customers. The region is changing, he fell in love with the Bashu civilization integration, full of fireworks in Chengdu; identity is changing, he has a deeper understanding of the work of different positions; requirements are also changing, in order to cope with the challenges that ensue at work, he must learn a wide range of language, finance, team management and other knowledge.
From Xi'an to Shanghai, from Shanghai to Hangzhou, from Hangzhou to Chengdu, and then from Chengdu back to Shanghai, although it is out of the need for study and work, in Li Qi's view, life is an experience, knowing a place, experiencing the local humanistic customs and gastronomy, it is also a harvest, a wealth.
Companion with the same window, with knowledge
Entering 2021, with the development of new business, from a blank piece of paper to lead the team through thorns, Li Qi knows that this road is not easy, and needs to have more complete knowledge reserves and network resources to supplement herself. It is based on this consideration that he chose to come to Jiaotong University, and in May, he officially became a member of the 58th class of global innovation management to systematically learn the organizational management knowledge of modern enterprises.
In more than 20 years of professional life, Li Qi has also experienced a lot of training, and even many of them are joint courses between the company and well-known universities, so at the beginning, he did not have great expectations, thinking that the courses of Jiaotong University would be different, just a normal study and training. However, only by calming down can we gain insight into the truth.
"Many of the professors' courses have mature business models, and they have their own originality. In class on the weekend, I basically spent two days without looking at my phone, and I was really immersed in this class. When talking about the specific course feelings, Li Qi said.
"Every time a professor talks about a business case or theoretical knowledge, I will simulate in my mind, if I am in such a state, a practitioner or manager in this industry, when faced with such a problem, how will I do it?" I'll put myself in the shoes of a concrete scenario. For example, when the professor talks about strategy, I will also reflect on how our strategy is done, how big the gap with the teacher's theory will be, and will verify each other, so as to promote myself to form such a thinking mode. ”
Looking back on the past, despite many changes, Li Qi admitted that this road has been relatively smooth, probably because he attaches great importance to the quality of sincerity, "I have always believed that people get along with each other, trust is the premise of everything." You contact a customer, contact a friend, the beginning is from a certain point, if this point you are willing to trust, everyone will have the desire to understand and the next intersection, whether it is with friends, or communication with customers, there are any problems, everyone is frank, face together, work together to solve, so that each other can establish tacit cooperation and sincere friendship. ”
Therefore, at Jiaotong University, in addition to the gains in the course, Li Qi said that it is equally important to know so many social elites. In his spare time, he also exchanged experiences with classmates in the industry and formed cross-class connections. Not only in the professional field, but also in life, he said that he also had a group of friends who were either beautiful, or handsome, or polite.
"Their struggles, their lives, this group of people with wonderful stories, fascinates me!"