My contribution to a board
Boards of consumer companies receive marketing papers full of reach figures, engagement rates and campaign awards, and few directors are equipped to ask whether any of it moved sales. I have spent twenty-six years on every side of that problem: as a survey researcher, an agency planner, a brand manager answering to a finance director and a seller of advertising answering to buyers. I can help a board distinguish evidence from activity and ask for tests that management can run without disproportionate cost. The second contribution is customer data. I have ended a measurement project because it relied on facial information that people had not agreed to give, and I have rebuilt the evidence in a way that identified no one. Many consumer companies are now deciding how much they should know about individual customers. I would help directors weigh what a dataset is worth commercially against what it would cost in trust and legal exposure if handled badly. I am not an accountant or a lawyer, and I would rely on colleagues who are.
Judgement in practice
01Refusing a metric that customers wanted
Two of our largest advertisers wanted camera-based attention figures, and our sales team had already agreed a pilot. Refusing meant losing a campaign worth RMB9.5 million and accepting that a competitor would market the metric we declined. I learnt that a board-level judgement about data cannot rest on a vendor's assurance or on whether the customer is asking. It rests on who bears the consequence and whether they agreed. On a board I would ask management what personal information a proposal requires, who has consented to its use, and what alternative evidence would answer the commercial question. I would also ask what the company would lose by declining, because a refusal presented without its cost is not a serious recommendation. Our holdout tests took six months to become credible, and the board needed to know that in advance.
02Separating a shareholder's interest from the company's
Our majority shareholder manages many of the buildings in which our screens operate. When we introduced fee statements for owners' committees, its residential team wanted softer terms for its own compounds. I insisted on identical terms, knowing that independent property managers were watching for favouritism and that a concession would undermine every other negotiation. The board approved the change with Hexiaolan's nominees present. For an independent director, the lesson concerns related-party arrangements that look commercially harmless. I would ask whether any transaction with a shareholder, or a company it controls, is on terms the business would offer anyone else, and whether the people negotiating it can say no. I would expect management to bring those arrangements to the board openly, not to settle them quietly because the relationship is long-standing.
My first year on a board
Before the first meeting I would ask the company secretary for two years of board minutes and the last three marketing and customer-data papers, and read them before meeting management. I want to see how the board has questioned marketing before, not only what marketing reports. In the first six months I would visit stores, venues or service sites without a guide on at least two occasions and speak with the people who face customers. I would ask the chief marketing officer and the head of data to walk me through one campaign and one data flow end to end, including the evidence of results and the consents behind the data. By the second half of the year I would hope to propose one concrete change to how marketing reports to the board, agreed with the chair rather than imposed. I would ask the chair for a candid review at the end of the year, including where my questions slowed the board without improving its decisions.
Conflicts and their management
My employer sells advertising to consumer brands and their agencies, pays property managers and is owned by a property manager and a growth-equity fund. A consumer company could easily be an advertiser, a prospective advertiser or a client of one of our agencies. Before accepting a seat I would list every such relationship over the previous three years and give that list to the chair and to Xiaruntang's chief executive. I would not join a company that is a significant Xiaruntang advertiser, a competitor screen operator, a property manager or an investee of Shulanmen. If a company I served later began discussions with Xiaruntang, I would leave the room for those matters and tell both boards. I would never pass pricing, audience data or advertiser plans between the two organisations. Time is the other conflict. Twenty days a year must include reading papers, site visits and the occasional urgent meeting, and in a year with a major pricing or partner change at Xiaruntang I would tell the chair if my availability was at risk.
My independence statement
I am a salaried executive of a company majority owned by a property manager and partly owned by a growth-equity fund. Any seat I take must be free of commercial ties to Xiaruntang, Hexiaolan and Shulanmen, and I will describe those ties in full rather than judge my own independence.
Committee contribution
Chair and member readiness| Capacity | Committees |
|---|
| Ready to join | Strategy committee · Board oversight of personal-information protection |
|---|
Capacity and preferences
- Time available
- 20 days per year
- Current directorships
- 0
- Sectors
- Consumer brands sold through physical retail · Consumer services with residential or community channels · Hospitality and leisure
- Company type
- Privately held or recently listed Chinese consumer company with a professional chair and independent audit oversight
- Company stage
- Strengthening marketing evidence or customer-data practices after a period of rapid growth
The seat I am pursuing
I am seeking an independent seat at a Chinese consumer company whose marketing spending is large enough to matter to its results and whose evidence for that spending is weaker than its directors would like. A company that collects customer data through loyalty schemes, delivery apps or physical venues would benefit most from my experience. I would rather join an established board with a strong chair and an experienced audit committee than be one of only a few independent voices in a founder-controlled company, because I need to learn from directors who have done this longer. I do not want to be the board's marketing expert in the sense of approving campaigns. I want to help directors ask whether marketing claims are tested, whether customer data is collected with consent and whether pricing decisions consider the long-term reference they create.
Governance learning and readiness
IICA Independent Directors’ Databank: Not yet registered
The IICA databank serves Indian companies. My board interest is in Chinese companies, so it does not apply to me and I am not registered.
- I attend a peer group of Shanghai executives preparing for first independent appointments, where members review anonymised board papers.
- I am studying the duties and time expectations placed on independent directors of Chinese listed companies, with an experienced company secretary as guide.
Board and committee exposure
Presented to the Board or a committee
Xiaruntang Screen Network
Board of directors
July 2019–present
Presented the 2024 pricing plan, the 2025 residential category rules and partner terms, and annual marketing budgets to a board including nominees of both major shareholders; no director appointment.
Reported to a committee
Xiaruntang Screen Network
Risk and compliance committee
January 2023–present
Reports quarterly on advertising content decisions, complaints and personal-information matters arising from audience measurement.