My contribution to a board
I would help a board examine the relationship between what its company says publicly and what the organisation is prepared to support. My experience is especially relevant where partners or dispersed service teams carry the message into situations the central marketing function does not control. I can ask how a public commitment was formed, whose work it assumes and what management would do if circumstances changed after the plan was approved.
At Qinshao Learning I have begun to use that experience within a wider collective responsibility. Since September 2023 I have served as a non-executive director, with fourteen annual days committed to its ordinary board work and no committee-chair appointment. The position requires me to consider financial and operating questions beyond communication, while allowing management to run the company. I would bring that distinction to another board. Familiarity with reputation should not become a claim to decide every aspect of strategy, and an ability to question a campaign should not turn a director into the person approving its artwork.
Judgement in practice
01A cancellation decision that acknowledged the money already lost
When I recommended stopping a promotional schedule during the fictional flood, I retained CNY460,000 of unrecoverable placement cost in the decision account. The alternative communication did not make that expenditure disappear. A board considering a material change needs the same honesty about commitments already made and choices still open. I would ask management to separate the contractual position from the judgement about what should happen next, and to explain which relationships need attention as a result. I would not claim a reputational return that had not been measured or ask the board to direct an incident response. The oversight contribution is to ensure that sunk expenditure does not become the only reason a company continues with a public position it can no longer defend convincingly.
02A common launch whose operating basis differed by location
The service campaign began at seven centres instead of the eleven originally proposed because the relevant operating review did not support a uniform footprint. I accepted a less tidy media plan and kept the uncommitted allocation visible. For a board, the useful question is whether a proposed growth story depends on capabilities that are actually present where demand will arrive. I would ask management how it examined that dependency and what evidence would support extension, without substituting my own judgement for the people responsible for the service. The public presentation should follow the operating account. A director can challenge an assumption about consistency while respecting the executives' responsibility to prepare and manage each location.
03Research that was allowed to change the planned output
Initial work on six customer stories exposed reasons to reconsider a proposed film programme. I chose fictional service explanations and left CNY1 million of the original allocation uncommitted after research and revised production costs. The decision accepted a less emotional communication format. In a board setting, I would ask whether reviews can still change a proposal or have become steps that merely document an intention already fixed. I would also examine whether a selected person's account is being used to imply more than its facts support. That question reaches beyond marketing into the organisation's treatment of information and relationships, with the relevant specialists involved and individual service decisions kept outside the pressure to produce a favourable public narrative.
My first year on a board
At a new board I would begin by understanding the business's income, costs and obligations before concentrating on its public identity. I would read the financial and operating account, meet the executives responsible for the service and examine how partner relationships are governed. Where appropriate, I would visit a service location through an induction arranged by management and listen to the questions that its teams believe the central account overlooks.
I would then discuss with the chair which decisions would benefit from my experience and which require knowledge I still need to develop. The board should understand how a material public statement can be revised, how customer concerns reach it and where responsibility for follow-up rests. I would review the quality of my contribution after the first cycle of meetings, including whether my questions helped the whole board or remained too close to my executive speciality. I am willing to join a suitable committee, but I am not presenting this record as immediate chair readiness.
Conflicts and their management
Hengsuyuan's customers, intermediary firms, agencies and service suppliers create relationships that may be relevant to another appointment. Qinshao Learning also has its own commercial connections. I would disclose the pertinent interests through the prospective company's process, seek employer consent and examine whether the proposed role could be carried out without an unacceptable conflict. A familiar sector is not automatically a suitable sector for an additional directorship.
I would not transfer customer material, unreleased campaign plans or confidential partner information into another boardroom. Nor would I use an appointment to favour an agency or obtain access to a distribution relationship. Where a company principally wanted a detailed communication project, I would distinguish that possible advisory work from a director's wider duties. The arrangement should describe the actual need and be assessed on that basis, rather than use a board title to obscure a commercial engagement.
My independence statement
My current non-executive title should not be read as a declaration of independence for another company. I would disclose the proposed organisation's connections with my employer, intermediaries, agencies and financial interests, and let the appointment-specific review establish the position before proceeding.
Committee contribution
Chair and member readiness| Capacity | Committees |
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| Ready to join | Customer and reputation committee, where one is constituted · Strategy committee with a service and distribution perspective |
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Capacity and preferences
- Time available
- 18 days per year
- Current directorships
- 1
- Sectors
- Insurance-adjacent services subject to conflicts · Professional learning · Distributed consumer and business services
- Company type
- Privately held or investor-backed service business with distinct executive accountability and substantive board discussion
- Company stage
- Changing its public positioning or expanding through partners and service locations
The seat I am pursuing
I am interested in one additional role at a service business whose public reputation depends on relationships across partners or locations. Professional learning and distributed business services are relevant possibilities; insurance-adjacent work would require particular scrutiny of connections. My proposed eighteen annual days would be additional to the fourteen already committed to Qinshao's ordinary board work, with exceptional demands and preparation examined before acceptance. Employer consent remains necessary. I would want the chair to welcome a considered challenge to communication and growth assumptions while keeping executive authority clear. The fit would depend on the board's existing knowledge and the actual contribution required, not on a general ambition to collect another appointment.
Governance learning and readiness
IICA Independent Directors’ Databank: Not yet registered
My current preparation for board work does not include an IICA databank registration. If a proposed Indian role became relevant, I would examine its applicable preparation and eligibility process rather than treat my existing Chinese appointment as equivalent.
- Induction and continuing board discussions at Qinshao Learning covering financial oversight, strategy and executive accountability
- Case-based development on director conflicts and stakeholder communication; no legal or accounting qualification claimed
Board and committee exposure
Served as a director
Qinshao Learning
Full board; no committee-chair appointment
September 2023–present
Non-executive director of a fictional privately held professional-learning business; fourteen annual days committed to its ordinary board work.
Presented to the Board or a committee
Hengsuyuan Insurance
Board discussions on brand expenditure and public reputation
July 2020–present
Presented marketing recommendations and communication trade-offs as CMO; this executive exposure is separate from the Qinshao directorship.