Exclusive Interviews with Alumni || Cai Chunzhi——the Manager of Hubei Province of Beijing Jialin Pharmaceutical
Cai Chunzhi graduated from the MBA Education Center School of ZUEL in 2015.
Around 2011, I encountered a bottleneck in my career development after engaging in the pharmaceutical industry for ten years.
At that time, it was the windfall of the pharmaceutical industry. Many friends of the same field worked as agents of medicine. Some of them took this as a part-time job. A leader once enlightened me, saying that you have great work ability and you can improve yourself at the right time. After sufficient consideration, I decided to go back to university for further study.
Apart from my daily work, I needed to take care of my daughter. I spent two years on preparing for the exams and training my daughter’s independence. A girl under the age of 9 learned to ride the bus alone, cook simple meals, and take care of herself.
In 2013, I was admitted to the MBA Education Center School of the SBA, and started to study with 42 classmates from different industries. I felt full of energy when studying with classmates who are 2-12 younger than me. When my child had classes on weekends, I sent her to school and then went to my class. When she had no course, I took her with me to attend class. I listened to lectures and she did her homework. During the 4 years of her accompany from preparation to graduation, she grew up when I improved myself. In spite of tiring work, I still thought that life is beautiful. Every weekend, I got up at 6 o’clock, made breakfast, and sent my daughter to school at 7:30. I attended classes for 7 hours from 8:30 to 17:00. After returning home, I spent two hours on doing housework and finishing my work. The daily routine helped me strike a balance between doing housework, taking care of my daughter, working and studying.
Most of the courses in the SBA taught by the best and most experienced professors of ZUEL are related to management, finance and economics across a wide range of field. Professor Wang Haisu, also an independent director of several state-owned enterprises, taught me Strategic Management. From the perspective of an independent director, he combined cases to analysis strategic management, asset valuation and industrial economics. In addition, he used multiple languages, including Mandarin, Wuhan dialect and English, which was hard to fall asleep in class. Professor Mei Lixia taught me Asset Valuation. She always cited examples of daily life in class. She said individuals and enterprises need to be evaluated and encouraged me to find disadvantages and ways to improve myself from the comparison with three familiar peers. Professor Hong Luan, who is nearly 60 years old, taught me Business English. From cross-cultural communication to business etiquette, she used cases and stories in an interesting way in class. Professor Wang Shuhong began the class of organizational behavior with a personality test. I also learned a lot from Financial Management by Professor Song Mengli and International Business by Professor. In addition, we also had group talks, case analysis and debates. During the process, I stretched my own circle of working field and realized that knowledge has no boundaries.
Nowadays, I have been engaging in pharmaceutical industry for 20 years. Thanks to the three-year study, I not only receive master’s degree, but also expand my own circle from pharmaceutical industry to the field of comprehensive health. During the study, I met classmates from different industries. As a result, my friends come from different fields. When I have time, I often get together with my friends in small groups to talk about each other’s recent development, the gains and difficulties of work, encourage each other and grow together. After graduation, I also communicate and learn with friends from other universities, such as Wuhan University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and so on, to share the experience of each other’s fields.
I also actively participated in campus activities. For example, I attended the Wenhui Forum of the MBA of the SBA on the 70th anniversary of ZUEL in 2018. On June 19, 2021, I attended the inauguration ceremony of the Research Base of Taxation and Enterprise Value and talked about my recent development with Professor Wang Haisu and Professor Wenhao. On October 17, 2021, I attended the closing ceremony of the Youth Leadership Development Competition for Public Services with my daughter. During the whole activity, she gave the money raised by herself to the organizers of the event. The activity cultivated her sense of responsibility. And we always offer a helping hand to classmates in need. In 2016, we donated money to help a little child with blood disease. From my daughter’s composition, I came to realize that acts of kindness not only affect the people around them, but also help their own children feel the good life.
I applied what I have learned from the professors and classmates at the MBA Education Center School into my work. In the second half of 2015, I started to prepare for my graduation thesis from the purchasing channel management of the pharmaceutical industry I know a lot in order to apply the the theoretical knowledge into my work. In the second half of 2016, I conducted a market survey in my company and proposed that it is necessary to maintain the mature first terminal market (medical market) and the relatively mature third terminal grassroots market, explore the second terminal retail market according to the characteristics of our products, and expand the third terminal market. At the beginning of 2017, the leaders from Beijing headquarters agreed with my proposal. In 2017 to 2019, the retail market I am responsible for made the best achievements in China.
I’d like to extend my gratitude to my marketing teacher, Professor Du Peng. My first class at ZUEL was taught by Prof. Du in the fall of 2013. He invited marketing leaders of companies to interact with us in the later classes. O2O, O2C and B2C were new words at that time. I deeply felt the change of the pharmaceutical industry during the past three years. Each industry is experiencing disruptive changes every day under the impact of the Internet. Professor Fan Shuai, a female doctor born after the year 1980, is my thesis advisor. She devoted great efforts to the selection and framework of my thesis and the beginning and final presentations of my thesis. She always timely replied my emails and corrected my errors from every aspect in detail. Thanks to her high standards and strict requirements, my thesis was appraised as the excellent thesis after the review at the SBA and anonymous review. In 2018, my thesis format was selected as the model of the SBA with the help and careful guidance of Fan.
Every professor I met during my study is very rigorous in their work and happy to giving advice. They show the high character and noble professional ethics of the all professors of ZUEL who carefully spread knowledge and conduct scientific research at the same time. I also contact with my teachers after graduation. I always discuss problems with Prof. Fan, such as the management of online and offline channels in the pharmaceutical industry and the lack of consumer stickiness. Professor Mei Lixia’s students and I often share business analysis reports of different industries. I was invited to attend the graduation parties to share my experience and feelings in the workplace with her new graduates.
I am grateful for the the MBA Education Center School of ZUEL, every professor and classmate. It is the best memory in my life journey.