Alumni Story | 周婷：有理想而不理想化
Zhou Ting is a female entrepreneur who is not afraid of hard work and difficulties. She graduated from Nottingham University Business School China (NUBS China) with a Bachelor’s Degree in International Business Management in 2008. She founded Ruixin Leisure Products Co., Ltd in 2017 and in its third year the company’s annual output reached RMB 50 million in value.
We interviewed Ting in her company which is located in Linhai, a county-level city in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province situated on the banks of the Lin River in Eastern China.
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点击边框调出视频工具条 https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?width=500&height=375&auto=0&vid=i0947f28omd走近周婷 In-depth with Zhou Ting
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周婷，诺丁汉大学商学院（中国）国际商务管理专业2008届本科毕业生。2017年创立瑞欣休闲用品有限公司，公司运营到第三年产值达到5000万。
走进工厂，只有组装产品发出的规律声响和工人们机器般精准操作的画面，仓库里是堆积如山的货品。这是周婷和她的员工在为即将到来的海外交货日期做准备。
在这之前，她和工人们已经熬了四个通宵。“没办法，我们做的是季节性产品，再辛苦，也要在规定时间内完成订单，”周婷不以为然地搓搓手，带我们进入了她的办公室。
一张办公桌、一台电脑、一把会客椅和一张欧洲地图构成了最质朴不过的办公室，甚至有点简陋。周婷了然于我们的讶异，解释道：“我没有特意去装修豪华的办公室，公司处在创业初期阶段，节省成本，把资金用到该用的地方，生产质量过硬的产品才是最重要的。这也是我想展现给员工的状态，让他们知道自己的老板在工作中也不曾懈怠，享受。”
眼前这个长发飘飘，看着有些瘦弱的女子瞬间变得高大，强壮了起来。注意到她微微隆起的小腹，原来周婷已经怀有5个月的身孕。
全年无休，几乎每天工作到晚上10点，有时候员工已经下班了，她还需要处理后续事宜，这是周婷日常的工作状态。在一个60人左右规模的小型工厂里，她几乎包揽了除产品线工人以外的全部工作：财务、新客户开发、外贸接单员、人事、采购等。有时候，身体虽然疲惫，但她的心却是充实和满足的。她说，自己做得如鱼得水，享受着这种忙碌。随着公司进一步发展，她也在招聘人才、培养下属来分担责任，毕竟自己独自承担大量事务并非长久之计。
周婷所在的行业是台州临海市的特色产业 —— 户外休闲用品。临海地处浙江东部沿海，近三十年的发展壮大，临海已经成为全国户外休闲用品产业集群规模最大、产品链最宽的产业基地，拥有户外休闲用品及配套企业1000多家，产品主要涵盖户外家具，遮阳蓬、太阳伞等。而由她建立的瑞欣休闲用品有限公司就是这其中一家企业，主要业务是销售户外伞到欧洲地区，成立仅三年，却势头强劲，每年的产值以成倍的速度递增，2019年达到5000万人民币。
“哪有什么捷径，我只是不怕吃亏。” 周婷有自己独特的经营理念，很多同类型厂家不愿意做的生意，她都愿意接。有一次，她在展销会上碰到一个德国客户，他们交流甚欢，客户也表示对她的产品很感兴趣，但是自己已经下了大订单，只剩下一笔工艺较复杂的小订单问她是否愿意做，周婷毫不犹豫地答应了。她说：“在公司成立初期，建立良好的口碑比盈利更加重要，我们的眼光要放长远。”这个德国客户如今也成了瑞欣大客户。
对产品质量的追求，周婷可以说是偏执的，“不管市面上大多数产品的质量如何，可是我自己出售的产品必须是标准以上，即使我们需要承担较高的成本。”一把成品户外遮阳伞有80多个零部件，而瑞欣的任务就是生产并采购部分零部件，然后把所有零部件组装起来，并包装好，最后运往国外。其中包装是一个难题，它需要保护产品在颠簸的运输途中不受到任何损害。有次一位外国顾客过来验货，直接把已经包装完成的产品从1.5米处扔了下来，以此作为检验货物是否包装完好的标准。结果自然是不尽如人意，包装策略也只能继续改进。她笑称自己的精益求精得益于一个个“吹毛求疵”的客户。
周婷身上的这一股拼劲儿和追求完美的特质很大程度上来源于家庭的影响，也得益于四年的大学生活。她说：
“选择宁波诺丁汉大学是我最不后悔的决定。那里有非常好的自主学习氛围，大家主动学习的热情高涨，你的身边可能都是一群不仅比你优秀，还比你更努力的人。所以在这样的环境下，我们很难变得懒惰和懈怠，惟有勤奋。”
英式教育严谨的学术态度也潜移默化地影响着她，“我把在大学期间写论文的标准应用到了工作中。在和客户邮件往来的时候，我希望能呈现给他们一目了然的感觉，所以从整个邮件的行文逻辑到字号大小和行距，都有严格的标准规范。我的客户都觉得和我谈工作特别轻松。”
对于创业，周婷认为有理想而不理想化才能成事。
周婷的父母也从事户外休闲用品制造生意，在他们的耳濡目染下，她自小就有一个从商梦。高中毕业后，她毅然选择了商科，在宁诺商学院储备了扎实的商业知识后，她更是坚信自己能够在商场上一展拳脚。大学毕业后，她先在一家国资的进出口集团工作学习了几年时间，然后才开始了自己的创业旅程。
“以前我可能觉得父母不懂得先进的管理知识，都是按照老方法在做，可当我正式创业后才发现他们的工厂已经在现有的条件下发挥了最大的产能。很多的知识，并不能照本宣科，并不是每一个经典的管理学理论都适用于现实，任何经营理念和规则的推进都需要因地制宜。”
安全、质量、诚信、创新是瑞欣的基本发展思路。如今周婷也不急于扩大产量，她认为现有的产值已经接近目前工厂可负荷产能的天花板。除此之外，员工的思想意识和个人能力也需要与工厂同步提升。她会有意识地培养员工，有时候教他们如何与客户交流，如何用英文写商务邮件。她说：“修炼内功比一味扩张更重要。只有员工的自身能力上去了，并与公司步调一致，瑞欣才能稳步发展。”
除了企业负责人这个身份，周婷还是一位6岁女孩子的母亲，也正孕育着二胎。她每周会抽出一天时间和女儿待在一起，母女俩之间有一个极其特别的互动方式 – 为古诗词注释。女儿喜欢画画，周婷首先会在古诗词旁写上自己的理解，然后讲给女儿听，再让她根据自己的理解配上相应的图画。
她告诉我们，虽然自己陪伴女儿的时间不够多，但是女儿还是很亲近自己。当晚上自己在家伏案工作时，女儿总会捧着一本小画册安静地待在自己身边。当向幼儿园的同学们介绍自己的妈妈时，女儿总会非常骄傲地告诉大家妈妈是她的偶像，因为在她眼中，妈妈很能干，什么都会做。父母的一言一行，会化进孩子的意识里。正如周婷所说，“我的女儿将来至少不会是一个懒惰的人。”
在我们结束采访的时候，她指向办公室的欧洲地图，眼神中透露着坚定和自信，“我的目标是希望瑞欣的足迹能够遍布欧洲的每个城市再推向全球。”从今年开始，周婷的丈夫也会加入进来和她一起运营公司。
我们祝福周婷领导的瑞欣如同她腹中萌芽成长的胎儿一样落地生根，继续发展壮大！
Zhou Ting: Ideal but not idealized
Zhou Ting is a female entrepreneur who is not afraid of hard work and difficulties. She graduated from Nottingham University Business School China (NUBS China) with a Bachelor’s Degree in International Business Management in 2008. She founded Ruixin Leisure Products Co., Ltd in 2017 and in its third year the company’s annual output reached RMB 50 million in value.
Outdoor leisure products are the typical industry of Linhai City, a county-level city in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province situated on the banks of the Lin River in Eastern China. With nearly 30 years of development, Linhai’s industrial base possesses the largest scale and the widest product chain of outdoor leisure products compared with other similar industry clusters in China. These products are mainly outdoor furniture, outdoor parasol umbrellas, and awnings, etc. Ruixin Leisure Products Co., Ltd (Ruixin) established by Zhou Ting is one of these enterprises whose main business is producing and selling outdoor parasol umbrellas to Europe and other countries.
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Restless year round with having to work until 10 pm almost every day, Zhou Ting explains “Outdoor umbrellas are seasonal products, so no matter how hard it is, we have to complete the order within a specified time.” Sometimes when workers have already left work, Zhou Ting still needs to deal with follow-up matters as part of her life. She takes on most of the work in the company apart from product line work. For example, she is involved in financial affairs, developing new customers, working in foreign trade merchandising and human resources, etc. Although sometimes she is physically exhausted, her heart is fulfilled.
Zhou Ting has her own unique business philosophy. She is willing to do the kind of business which other similar companies may not find acceptable. Once she met a German customer at a commodity fair. The customer expressed interest in her products but had already placed a large order somewhere else. The customer was willing to leave with a small order from Zhou Ting but through a more complicated process. When asked if she was willing to do it, Zhou Ting said yes without any hesitation. "In the early days of the company's establishment, building a good reputation was more important than profitability, and we needed to take a long-term view," she said. This German client is now one of Ruixin's key customers.
Zhou Ting can claim to be unreasonable in her pursuit of product quality, "Regardless of the quality of most products in the market, the products I sell must be above the standard, even if we have to bear higher costs." An outdoor umbrella has more than 80 parts, and Ruixin's job is to produce some, purchase some, assemble all these parts, package them, and finally ship them abroad. Packaging is of great importance as it needs to protect the products from any damage during transit. A foreign client once came over to inspect the goods and dropped the already packaged product from a height of 1.5 meters as the inspection standard. The result was unsatisfactory, and the packaging had to be constantly upgraded. She joked that her attitude towards excellence benefited from "picky" customers.
Zhou Ting's hard work and pursuit of perfection draw heavily from her family and four years of university life. She said: "The University of Nottingham Ningbo China has an atmosphere of autonomous learning, and everyone is enormously enthusiastic for self-study. You may be surrounded by a group of peers who are not only better than you but also work harder than you. Thus, it's hard to become lazy in such an environment." Furthermore, the rigorous academic environment of a British education also gradually affected her. “I applied the standards of how to write academic papers to my work. When I communicate with clients, I make sure my emails are clear and easy to understand. So there are strict standards in emails from text and logic to the font size and spacing. My clients find that it is especially easy and comfortable to talk to me about work” she explains.
In terms of entrepreneurship, Zhou Ting believes that ideals can only be achieved without idealization.
Zhou Ting's parents are also engaged in the outdoor leisure products industry. Under their strong influence, she has had business dreams ever since she was a child. After graduating from high school, she resolutely chose to study business at University. After accumulating solid knowledge from NUBS China, she was convinced that she could compete competently in business.
"In the past, I always thought that my parents didn’t understand advanced management knowledge, but when I started my business, I found that their factory had reached their maximum capacity under present conditions. Not every classic management theory applies to reality, so the promotion of business philosophy needs to be adapted to local conditions."
Zhou Ting is not eager to expand production urgently at this stage. She describes the current output of the company as already reaching maximum production capacity with current resources. Also, employee attitudes and personal capabilities need to be upgraded in sync with the company. She trains employees by teaching them how to communicate with customers, and how to write business emails in English. “Internal strengthening is more important than expansion. Only when employees have capabilities and are in step with the company, can Ruixin develop steadily,” she said.
In addition to the identity of the company leader, Zhou Ting is also a mother of a 6-year-old child. She spends one day a week with her daughter and there is a special interaction between them through the reading of notes to classical Chinese poetry. Zhou Ting firstly writes her
understanding next to the poems and then explains to her daughter their meaning, and as her daughter likes to paint, she lets her daughter draw corresponding pictures.
She tells us that although she spends little time with her daughter, her daughter is still very close to her. When working at home at night, her daughter always has a small picture album of them together by her side. When introducing her mother to her kindergarten classmates, she is always proudly telling everyone that her mother is her idol. It is because her mother is very capable and can do anything in her eyes. The words and deeds of parents will become ingrained into their children’s mind and body. As Zhou Ting said, "At least my daughter will not be a lazy person in the future."
At the end of our interview, she points to a European map in her office with firmness and confidence, and says: "I hope that Ruixin's footprints can be spread throughout Europe and beyond." Starting from this year, Zhou Ting's husband will also join and run the company with her.
Best wishes to Zhou Ting!
文字：DC | 视频：YJ | 图片：周婷
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