Thirty years of responsibility for what a public message sets in motion

Mandate

Make the insurer's public voice responsive to customer circumstances and the responsibilities of its operating and distribution relationships.

Outcomes

• Stopped a promotional schedule during a fictional flood and retained the unrecoverable cost in the account.
• Replaced a broad intermediary event programme with four working forums.
• Narrowed a service campaign from eleven centres to seven after operating review.
• Changed a proposed customer-story production into fictional service explanations.

Decisions in context

As CMO I am responsible for the decisions that determine when and how our institution seeks public attention. I report to Yanru Xun and lead sixty-two employees through five direct reports, with twenty-eight agency personnel separately. The CNY118 million 2026 authority covers marketing; it does not give me control of claims, underwriting or reserving. My work with Zhewen Gu makes that boundary concrete when a public update depends on information his organisation is still examining. The case record shows decisions to cancel, narrow and redirect programmes, retaining the expenditure already incurred and the consequences for partners. I also began a non-executive role at Qinshao Learning in September 2023, with fourteen annual days committed to it. That appointment has broadened my understanding of a company beyond its communication function. My continuing executive priority is to develop managers who can explain why changing a plan may be the right commercial judgement, while remaining accountable for its cost and the work that follows.

Reason for the move

Current executive appointment; considering a carefully scoped additional non-executive contribution.

Concurrent appointment

Non-executive director of Qinshao Learning since September 2023 alongside this executive role; fourteen annual days committed to that board.

Mandate

Connect a common public identity with the service conditions and local responsibilities behind it.

Outcomes

• Brought service preparation into brand-launch discussions.
• Made the purpose of a public statement explicit in group communication reviews.
• Developed four managers across brand and corporate communication work.

Decisions in context

Group brand leadership made me examine the relationship between a common identity and uneven operating circumstances. By June 2020 I led forty-three employees through four direct reports with CNY67 million annual authority, reporting to the CMO. The insurer's CNY6.1 billion annual gross written premium described company volume, not a revenue objective assigned to my function. I worked with operating colleagues to understand what a proposed campaign would ask their teams to receive and explain. That preparation sometimes made a uniform launch less convenient, because different locations needed different work before they could support it. I learned to make those differences part of the initial recommendation rather than leave them as objections raised after the creative plan was settled. The role also required me to develop managers who could carry a consistent institutional identity without assuming that every circumstance called for the same public statement. The move to CMO extended that responsibility into the wider allocation of marketing resources and relationships.

Reason for the move

Appointed CMO in July 2020 to lead the wider marketing organisation.

Mandate

Make shared promotional material workable across organisations with separate commercial and operational responsibilities.

Outcomes

• Clarified the owners of changes to shared communication material.
• Connected intermediary questions with product and distribution colleagues.
• Developed three team leads responsible for partner communication work.

Decisions in context

Intermediary communication taught me that a common logo does not make two organisations a single operating team. I reported to the distribution director and, by June 2014, led twenty-eight employees through three direct reports with CNY26 million annual authority. Commissions and the management of intermediary business remained outside my budget. I worked on the responsibilities behind shared material: who supplied it, how a proposed change was examined and what happened when an earlier version should no longer circulate. The role required negotiation with independent firms rather than the assumption that a central instruction would determine their work. I learned to listen to the practical reasons behind an adaptation request while keeping the relevant product and specialist owners involved in its resolution. That experience influenced my later view of partner events. Visibility could support a relationship, but some communication problems needed smaller working conversations. The group brand appointment gave me a wider setting in which to apply that distinction.

Reason for the move

Promoted to group brand in July 2014 to connect relationship-level learning with the wider public identity.

Mandate

Develop communication that recognised the different circumstances of prospective customers, intermediaries and people seeking service.

Outcomes

• Connected regional marketing plans with distribution and service teams.
• Brought the purpose and audience context of a message into campaign discussions.
• Built two team leads across local planning and communication delivery.

Decisions in context

Joining the insurer changed the time horizon of my responsibility. The relationship with a customer or intermediary continued after a campaign ended, and my colleagues had to live with the expectations our communication created. By June 2008 I led fourteen employees through two direct reports with CNY9 million annual regional authority, reporting to the regional business director. I learned to distinguish the situation of someone considering an offer from that of someone trying to understand what to do after a loss. A message that suited one could be poorly judged in the other. Working with distribution and service teams gave me a practical basis for those decisions, beyond my earlier experience of producing material to a client brief. I also learned that changing a plan required attention to the relationships and commitments around it. The next appointment followed from that growing interest in the work between the insurer and the intermediaries through whom many people encountered it.

Reason for the move

Moved into intermediary communication leadership in July 2008 after developing regional distribution experience.

Mandate

Support clear client briefs, revisions and delivery while understanding the commitments created by a publication timetable.

Outcomes

• Coordinated revisions between client and production colleagues.
• Learned to identify the practical cost of changes late in a programme.
• Developed an interest in the client decisions that preceded the communication brief.

Decisions in context

I joined Linqiao Horizon in July 1996 after completing my communication-studies degree the previous month. My position was in a five-person client group, reporting to its account director, with no direct reports or delegated spending authority. I learned how a brief became a set of practical commitments among writers, designers, suppliers and the client. Late changes had a real cost, even when there was a sound reason for making them. The agency's eventual CNY36 million annual revenue was employer context rather than financial responsibility I held. As I became more familiar with delivery, I grew interested in the judgement that came before it: why the client wanted to speak, what the organisation could support and how the message affected a relationship after publication. I moved to Hengsuyuan in July 2002 to work inside that continuing responsibility, taking the discipline of agency coordination with me while learning the different demands of an insurance business.

Reason for the move

Joined Hengsuyuan Insurance in July 2002 to accept responsibility for communication within a continuing service relationship.