Li Yifei: Making A Difference in Finance

Li Yifei gives an interview. [cf1234567.com]

When Li Yifei went to the United States in the 1980s for postgraduate studies, she did not call home even once throughout the year. The cost of the call would have eaten up one month's living expenses. She never dreamed then that the Fortune magazine that she saw in newsstands all over this foreign country would eventually put her on the front cover, hailed as one of the next generation of female entrepreneurs in 2001.

In the following ten years, Li has reinvented her professional persona many times, from media whiz to PR maven to advertising executive and now, finally, finance queen. This year, she was ranked as one of China's 25 most powerful women entrepreneurs by Fortune China magazine.

Standing in her new office in the center of Beijing's central business district, overlooking the historic Chang'an Avenue, she admits that compared with other industries, finance is a more challenging game. But she insists that the many smart people in the industry make the challenge enjoyable. "A life without challenges is a boring and lonely one," she said.

While there are many great businesswomen out there, the finance world is still by and large a male-dominated industry. The list of most powerful businesswomen in the United States may include a former CIA agent who sells destroyers to the US Navy and three women vice presidents who control 70% of US security and aerospace company Lockheed Martin's income, but female leaders are still rarely found in finance and investment. For hedge fund companies, 95% of top leaders are men. Li is one of the few 5% of women.

In China, women are said to hold up half of the sky, and this certainly applies to Li.

One of her former colleagues from Publicis Group, a leading advertising company in France where she worked as chairman of Greater China two years ago, praised her as a 'unique' leader.

At Publicis Group, she was expected to develop the Chinese market and overcome internal challenges using her innovative management methods.

One of the first challenges she faced was the discovery that while the CEOs of the group's subsidiaries were good at their jobs, they lacked interaction with each other, making working together unnecessarily difficult. Some of them had not seen each other for three years.

In order to improve communications, Li personally held round-table discussions, even inviting her clients to discuss business issues.

"What my team cares about is not just the advertisements we create, but also how we can make a change in this industry," she said.

With the rise of Facebook, Weibo (China's version of Twitter) and video websites such as Youku.com, Li was quick to grasp the fact that these mediums would need different advertising strategies than the traditional ones. She divided her team into more specialized sub-teams, delivering easier and more targeted advertising solutions to her clients.

Li also asked all the CEOs of subsidiaries to cultivate a better culture of team-work and sharing, which soon trickled down to all levels in the company.

Under Li's leadership, the company's revenue soared by more than 10%. According to the top management at Publicis Group, the company has achieved all its goals in China thanks to her.

Despite her success, Li is constantly searching for ways to add to her knowledge. Recently, she finished reading Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion, written by Robert B. Cialdini. According to Li, what she took away from the book was that whether you are selling a pair of trousers or changing the strategy of a company or a country, the process is always one of influencing and persuading.

Li herself says that she has learned a lot from other people, such as her parents and hedge fund genius Noam Gottesman.

"Learning can be informal as well. I have learned things from even the casual words or actions of other people," Li said.

Li once accompanied a CEO who graduated from the United States Military Academy West Point to buy some souvenirs in a market in Beijing. She hoped to be able to glean some negotiation tips from this West Point graduate.

To her surprise, what she learned was, quite simply, to let something go if she couldn't afford it.

She kept this in mind when making important decisions afterwards. "I am fully prepared for the worst, that's when the opposite usually happens," she said.

At the end of this interview, Li was standing at the window of her new office, stacks of files piled up in the corners, awaiting her attention. There is no doubt that she will make a great impact on her chosen field, and how that happens will surely make for a great story.

(Source: cntv.cn/Translated and edited by womenofchina.cn)