The progression from explaining a device to understanding a buying group

Mandate

Help industrial buying groups examine the proposition and its evidence before making a commercial commitment.

Outcomes

• Commissioned a bounded review of thirty-two stalled buying discussions before another broad campaign.
• Opened six reviewed technical explanations while retaining six controlled annexes.
• Introduced a value workbook that separates measured, estimated and unconfirmed inputs.
• Agreed customer-reference capacity and reported completed, deferred and declined requests separately.

Decisions in context

The CMO appointment placed responsibility for marketing choices across the company with me, while leaving sales, product and delivery authority with their respective leaders. I report to Rongxi Zhen and lead forty-six employees through five direct reports, with fourteen agency personnel separately. My CNY72 million authority for 2026 is a marketing budget; it is not the company's CNY2.6 billion 2025 revenue. The work in this period has involved choosing what a buying group needs to examine, making selected technical reading available and improving the account of assumptions behind a value discussion. I have also had to accept consequences that are less attractive in a simple activity report: fewer contact records from public documents, incomplete customer worksheets and reference requests that cannot be met immediately. Since July 2019 I have presented relevant matters to the board as an executive. I remain accountable for the marketing organisation and have not turned that presentation experience into a claim of serving as a director.

Reason for the move

Current appointment; exploring a compatible first non-executive contribution alongside executive duties.

Mandate

Build a reasoned account of which industrial markets the proposition could serve and what local evaluation would require.

Outcomes

• Separated market hypotheses from account forecasts in planning discussions.
• Brought local buying questions into the preparation of market material.
• Developed four managers responsible for research, proposition and market programmes.

Decisions in context

Market development expanded the problem beyond explaining a product to choosing where its explanation could be relevant. I reported to the chief executive and worked across China and Southeast Asian markets. By June 2019 my team comprised twenty-eight employees through four direct reports, with CNY32 million annual authority. The employer's CNY1.45 billion annual revenue and 1,200 employees provided context for that work but did not describe my budget. I asked colleagues to distinguish an attractive market hypothesis from evidence that a particular account would buy. Local operating priorities, available expertise and the process for considering change could alter the questions a customer needed answered. I worked with sales and product colleagues to reflect those differences in our material instead of applying a translated presentation as though the decision context were identical. The appointment prepared me for the CMO role by making resource allocation and the quality of the underlying market account part of the same responsibility.

Reason for the move

Appointed CMO in July 2019 to lead the full marketing function.

Mandate

Connect product explanations with the different responsibilities within an industrial software buying group.

Outcomes

• Developed distinct technical, operational and commercial explanations with shared context.
• Established specialist review of material intended for public use.
• Built a fifteen-person product-marketing team with three direct management reports.

Decisions in context

Product marketing gave me a way to improve explanations across opportunities rather than solve the same misunderstanding one workshop at a time. I reported to the commercial director and, by June 2012, led fifteen employees through three direct reports with CNY9.5 million annual authority. The company then employed 780 people and reported CNY640 million annual revenue. I worked with technical colleagues to identify what a document could explain reliably and what required a more specific discussion. I also learned to resist shortening material in ways that removed the context a serious reader needed. The role did not give me engineering or contractual authority; a persuasive description still had to be reviewed by those responsible for its substance. Moving into market development in July 2012 was a chance to apply that discipline to the choice of audiences and markets, rather than assume the same proposition would have the same relevance wherever it was presented.

Reason for the move

Moved into market development in July 2012 to broaden responsibility for market choice and resources.

Mandate

Explain proposed software use in the customer's operating setting and record questions requiring further specialist work.

Outcomes

• Connected demonstrations with described operating tasks.
• Recorded unresolved technical and commercial questions for their responsible owners.
• Built a six-person consulting group supporting structured customer workshops.

Decisions in context

Joining Shenqiao in July 1999 moved my application experience into software that affected how work was planned across a customer organisation. By June 2005 I managed six employees through two direct reports and held CNY1.8 million annual authority for demonstrations and workshops. I reported to the commercial director and did not control implementation budgets or sign customer commitments. The company had grown to 410 employees and CNY260 million annual revenue by that date. I saw how different participants could watch the same demonstration and leave with different unanswered questions. My role was to explain the proposed use, record those questions and involve colleagues whose authority matched the issue. I became interested in what customers used to continue the discussion after the workshop ended. That interest led to the product-marketing appointment, where I could work on explanations that travelled beyond a single presenter and reached colleagues who had not attended the demonstration.

Reason for the move

Appointed product marketing head in July 2005 to improve the material used across customer discussions.

Mandate

Prepare application demonstrations and document how proposed equipment use related to the customer's operating conditions.

Outcomes

• Prepared demonstrations grounded in described factory conditions.
• Documented questions that required product-engineering input.
• Learned to separate a useful explanation from an assurance beyond personal authority.

Decisions in context

My application-engineering work began immediately after completing the electrical-engineering degree in June 1995. I joined an eight-person group in July, reporting to its manager with no direct reports or delegated spending authority. Yunqiao Instruments was a Suzhou-based private manufacturer; its 380 employees and CNY90 million annual revenue by June 1999 describe the employer rather than an operation I managed. I prepared demonstrations and listened to the conditions customers described around a proposed use. When a question required engineering judgement, I recorded it for the responsible colleague instead of offering an assurance simply because I was present. This period taught me that an explanation can be technically correct and still fail to address the work a customer is trying to do. I left for Shenqiao in July 1999 because industrial software extended that question into planning and coordination across more people, giving me a wider setting in which to develop the same discipline.

Reason for the move

Joined Shenqiao Systems in July 1999 to work on industrial software and broader planning decisions.