A large number of female CEOs, from bystanders to “table”, are making strong appearances

Wen/Node Finance

People have always talked about business legends, and the C position always belongs to Jack Ma, Ma Huateng and Musk. They are capital darlings, technology maniacs, business idols of this era, and are highly sought after.

However, as the times change, the narrative on the business stage is changing, and a group of female CEOs have begun to rise.

At the beginning of this year, Yao Weixiong, CEO of Anta Group’s fashion sports brand group, retired after success, and the person who took over was a young female general Jiang Yan. This executive who grew up within Anta has led the ANTAKIDS and FILAFUSION brands to achieve market leadership. In the future, she will take the helm of FILA to further strengthen its market position as a high-end fashion sports brand.

Her appointment is not only a personnel adjustment for ANTA, but also reveals a deeper business trend: female leadership is becoming a key variable in promoting new growth.

In fact, from traditional manufacturing to mobile Internet, from traditional e-commerce to new retail, more and more female leaders are taking the center of the business stage. With their tough willpower, strong empathy and communication skills, and eclectic innovation capabilities, they continue to broaden the boundaries of business.

Is their success accidental or inevitable? Did the times make them, or did they grasp the times?

After sorting out the stories of many female entrepreneurs,”Node Finance” selected five representative CEOs to try to answer: How can these female CEOs use her power to redefine business rules and write them? A chapter of the times that belongs to you?

01 Wang Fengying went from the Iron Lady of the Great Wall to Xiaopeng Breakthrough

Two years ago, Xiaopeng Automobile’s monthly sales were only 5218 units, with a net loss of 1.35 billion yuan that year. It was once criticized and was about to fall behind.

Two years later, it surpassed its ideals with a monthly delivery of 30350 units and reached the top of the January 2025 New Power List.

Behind the reversal, it did not rely on power replacement technology or smart driving, but a woman who parachuted from a traditional car company.

This woman is called Wang Fengying. In the business era when men dominated the absolute protagonists, she used an iron fist to fight her way and became a rare female CEO in the automobile industry.

A media person in “China Entrepreneur” magazine once summarized a 5% trap and a 10% phenomenon: that is, among founders or managers of large companies, the proportion of women is hardly more than 5% all year round, and the proportion of women in senior management is only 10%.

The track of car-building is no exception.

But Wang Fengying, who became president of Great Wall more than 20 years ago, is now gaining a place in the new energy market. In October 2024, she was once again selected into Fortune’s list of the most influential business women in China.

Her strength is not only based on 30 years of experience in the automobile industry, but more importantly, her market acumen and super adaptability.

In 1991, 21-year-old Wang Fengying joined Great Wall Motors and built a sales network from scratch with top leader Wei Jianjun.

At that time, the domestic automobile market was monopolized by joint-venture cars, and domestic cars almost became synonymous with cheap and low-end cars. However, Wang Fengying did not believe in evil. She targeted the SUV and pickup truck market, which was still a blue ocean at the time, and successively created popular models such as the Haval H6, Tank 300, and Oula. Among them, the Haval H6 set a record for 103 consecutive months of SUV sales, becoming a well-invested national wonder car.

The distribution system she established for money first and goods later, the anti-corruption mechanism in the supply chain, and the corporate culture of the wolf and rabbit spirit later became the cornerstone of Great Wall’s continued profitability, helping Great Wall achieve sales of more than one million vehicles in 2016 and a net profit of more than 10 billion yuan.

At that time, whenever Wang Fengying was mentioned, the industry’s evaluations were almost all accurate, strong execution, and understanding consumers.

She and Wei Jianjun also became the most tacit partners. However, faced with the arrival of the new energy wave, the two men had differences on the direction of Great Wall Motor’s transformation. Wang Fengying then left Great Wall Motors, who had served for 30 years, and became the president of Xiaopeng Motors.

The outside world questioned whether her traditional autobot identity could adapt to the organizational ecology of the Internet, but Wang Fengying showed amazing adaptability. With thunderous means, she completed three precise reforms like surgical operations on Xiaopeng in a few months, and she used the sword to kill him.

The first knife is to attack supply chain corruption

As soon as Wang Fengying took office, she focused on Xiaopeng’s supply chain. She didn’t check and didn’t know it. When she checked, she was surprised that the seat cost was 1200 yuan more than the market price, and the steel purchase price was out of control for two years. Her knife was ruthless and accurate, cutting off 30% of redundant suppliers in nine months, and forcibly cutting the cost of seats for the modified G9 by 20%.

How fierce are her methods? At a meeting, she criticized the team in public for an hour because of false data. Even He Xiaopeng lamented that she was ruthless, but he didn’t expect her to be so ruthless.

But the effect is significant under high pressure. At the end of Q4 2023, Xiaopeng Automobile’s gross profit margin finally corrected from-6.1% in Q3 to 4.1%. After that, the selling price of the modified G9 vehicle dropped by 46,000 yuan, and the order number exceeded 8000 units within 72 hours of launch.

The second knife is the major transformation of sales channels

Xiaopeng’s sales system is a direct sales + authorization model, which has problems such as chaotic channels and high inventory pressure. She directly divided the four regions into 25 war zones, making faster decisions and lighter inventories.

In Q3 of 2024, Xiaopeng’s gross profit margin reached a record high of 15.3%.

The third knife, major surgery on the product line

Faced with problems such as chaos in Xiaopeng’s product line and runaway prices, Wang Fengying cut off non-core projects and concentrated resources on smart driving, battery technology and star models.

She pushed forward two low-priced and high-end models, the P7+ and MONA M03, and even didn’t hesitate to compete fiercely with He Xiaopeng to reduce the starting price of the MONA M03 to 119,800 yuan, opening up the market gap with high-end smart driving + low price.

In the second half of 2024, orders for MONA M03 within 72 hours of launch exceeded 50,000; by January 2025, MONA M03 had delivered more than 15000 units for two consecutive months, and P7+ exceeded 20000 units in two months after launch.

At the same time, she also divided Xiaopeng’s product segments more clearly: G9 targets the high-end market, P7i targets young people, G6 targets home users, and X9 fills the gap in the MPV market.

Today, Wang Fengying, who has just joined Xiaopeng for two years, has become one of Xiaopeng’s iron triangles (He Xiaopeng manages strategy, Gu Hongdi manages technology, and Wang Fengying manages products and sales), which has profoundly influenced Xiaopeng’s development.

Compared with male entrepreneurs in the car circle, such as Wang Chuanfu of the technology class and Li Bin of the user experience class, Wang Fengying’s style is pragmatic, efficient, and ultimate execution.

She made up for the shortcomings of the new forces in supply chain and large-scale management, and at the same time quickly adapted to the Internet’s approach, perfectly integrating the experience of traditional automobile companies into the demand of the new energy vehicle market.

Wang Fengying’s success provides a model for all professional managers in the process of change. The most scarce thing during the industry transformation period is not technology or capital, but the stewards who can bridge the thinking gap.

Only by getting rid of the shackles can we break the situation. Who will be the next one to break the game?

02 Ni Wenling transformed from traditional retail to digital. Can she make Watsons turn around brilliantly?

“Concubine Naohulu Qu from the wool industry really vomited blood for the student party this time”

“Oh, my God, I bought so many good things for my parents on a small budget”

Search Watsons on Xiaohongshu and you will see more than 120,000 notes, including many of the above-mentioned jokes full of young people’s contexts.

This established retailer, which has always been criticized for being outdated, has finally learned how to please young people in China.

In addition, it also launched the Watsons Pink store, which renovated the store from head to toe to bid farewell to the classic green style, with macaron powder as the main color, and opened up scene areas such as a relaxing corner private gym.

Behind these changes is inseparable from the promotion of Ni Wenling, the new head of Watsons.

Ni Wenling joined Watson in 2001 and was promoted to the group’s chief operating director in 2013. In 2019, she began to serve as the group’s chief executive officer in Asia and Europe, and was promoted to CEO of Watson Group in May 2024.

In her 24 years at Watsons, she has experienced Watsons ‘golden age and witnessed its faltering under the impact of e-commerce.

From 2005 to 2015, Watsons opened stores in China at a rate of 200 new stores every year; in 2015, Watsons sales increased by 6% to HK$21.713 billion.

But by 2016, Watsons ‘sales in China fell by 4%, and growth was sluggish in the following three years. The reason behind this was the impact of e-commerce.

At that time, the volume of e-commerce transactions in China increased by 25.5%. Beauty brands flocked to platforms such as Tmall and Jingdong, and continued to invent new concepts such as ice American skin care and sour plum rejuvenation to attract young people. In contrast, Watsons appears old and dull,

● Stores are aging. More than 30% of nearly 4000 stores across the country are about to expire, and efficiency continues to decline.

● Member loss. There are more than 65 million members in the China market, but the repurchase rate is low and it is difficult to retain.

● The transformation of e-commerce has been slow, and its own private domain traffic pool has been delayed, and its market share has gradually been eroded.

At the time of crisis in 2019, Ni Wenling was pushed to the front line and took on the lead to regain Watson’s growth.

Ni Wenling knows well that Watsons ‘most valuable asset is its stores and 65 million members across the country. Therefore, her strategy is to promote digitalization and create an O+O (online and offline integration) retail model. To this end, she has vigorously promoted three measures:

On-line Watsons Cloud Store”

In February 2020, Watsons Cloud Store was launched. Users can place orders in Mini programs and deliver them in 30 minutes at the fastest time. The store has become a front warehouse. Only 10 months after Yundian was launched, the GMV exceeded 1 billion.

PowerPromote shopping guides to transform into anchors + community operations”

Ni Wenling promotes the socialization of store shopping guides. Shopping guides not only sell goods in stores, but also do grass + transformation in the community. By 2022, Watsons will have 26,000 shopping guides and 5000+ communities, contributing 80% of private revenue.

Two-line strategy of leading private brand + exclusive cooperative brand

In 2023, Watsons will launch a variety of private-brand products, such as hyaluronic acid masks and antioxidant essence. The purpose is to transform from a pure channel provider to a retail brand with product power and increase profit margins.

After three years of reform, Watsons gradually got rid of the label of an outdated chain store and moved towards new digital retail.

However, challenges remain.

In the first half of 2024, Watsons Group’s turnover increased by 8%, but total revenue in China fell by 23% year-on-year, and gross profit plummeted by 67% year-on-year.

The reason is that the O+O model has made consumers accustomed to placing orders online, and some stores have been left out. As of June 30, 2024, the number of offline stores in Watsons in China has been reduced to 3775.

In terms of internal management, Watsons also has problems such as insufficient professionalism in shopping guides, inadequate services and over-sales.

At the same time, emerging collection stores (such as Coloring Master and HARMAY) and domestic beauty products (such as Perfect Diary and Huaxizi) have rapidly emerged, eroding Watsons ‘market share.

Watsons stood at a crossroads again, and Ni Wenling was once again ordered in the face of danger. In May 2024, she was appointed CEO of Watsons Group, beginning a new round of escape.

Ni Wenling acted quickly. One month after taking office, she announced that Watsons would invest US$250 million within two years to open and upgrade stores in 15 operating markets including Asia, Europe and the Middle East, involving a total of 6000 stores. The Watsons Pink store mentioned above is one of the upgrade results.

The purpose of this is obvious, to attract young people.

However, in the new retail era, the challenges will only increase but not decrease. In addition to people, goods and markets must keep up, otherwise big brands will be eliminated in a matter of minutes.

In October 2024, Ni Wenling was ranked 81st on Fortune’s 2024 list of the world’s most influential women in business;

Her former CEO once commented on her strong adaptability, keen strategic insight and ability to effectively promote corporate growth;

She is also one of the only three leaders of Watsons in 43 years and the only female CEO.

Can Ni Wenling, with so many halos, make Watsons achieve a gorgeous turn? We wait for time to give the answer.

03 Qu Fang uses female insights to support the small red book of 300 million people

Some people look for certainty in uncertainty, and others have already won in certainty.

In October 2024, Qu Fang was listed on the Hurun Report with a wealth of 12 billion yuan, becoming another dazzling female entrepreneur on the list.

Photo source: Qu Fang Baidu Encyclopedia

At the same time, the Xiaohongshu founded by her has 300 million + monthly active users and has become a must-have consumer guide for Generation Z.

Qu Fang’s entrepreneurial story does not have a counterattack like a divine weapon from the sky, nor does it have the aura of starting with the resources of a large factory. Her only trump card is that she understands users better than others.

In 2013, China’s e-commerce industry surged, with Taobao and Jingdong competing for the online market; at the same time, cross-border shopping gradually emerged, and young people began to purchase overseas goods through purchasing and forum strategies.

Once, Qu Fang and her friend Mao Wenchao went to Hong Kong for a trip and saw female tourists from the mainland frantically sweeping goods in the mall. But after buying, they asked: Is this good?” rdquo;

This made her realize that women’s consumption decisions are far more complex than price-sensitive and impulse purchases, and they may care more about real experiences and word-of-mouth effects.

As a result, Qu Fang, who was naturally fond of trouble, resigned from her well-paid Fortune 500 job and started a business in a residential building in Shanghai.

She seems to have her own innate body of the Internet. From her mind to several iterations of the Little Red Book APP, she has incorporated user insights throughout.

As the first step in starting a business, Qu Fang was not in a hurry to make products, but wanted to find out clearly whether her observations were public demand.

So she first made a PDF document of “Little Red Book Outbound Shopping Tips” and tested it in communities and forums. Unexpectedly, the number of downloads of this PDF exceeded 500,000 in just one month. Many users even left a message: Is there a platform for communication? rdquo;

Qu Fang made a quick decision and launched the Little Red Book App at the end of 2013, focusing on user-generated content (UGC) and encouraging users to share shopping experiences and user experiences.

This is the underlying logic of Xiaohongshu. Users trust people of the same kind more. Compared to reading brand advertisements, users are more willing to listen to the recommendation of a KOL whose living habits are similar to her.

During the cold start period, Qu Fang launched shopping strategies for light users and shopping notes for heavy users without any promotion. However, due to the Spring Festival holiday and word of mouth among users, the number of downloads of Little Red Books within 7 days actually increased by 7 times.

As traffic increased, Qu Fang began to test the water for commercialization, and the first test product, cleaning solution made in Greece, unexpectedly sold out.

So in December 2014, Xiaohongshu launched the Welfare Society’s e-commerce platform, completing the smooth transformation from community to e-commerce, realizing a closed business loop from grass planting to grass pulling.

Qu Fang’s insight not only stays in the shopping experience, but also in her keen sense of consumer trends.

Although Xiaohongshu started out with the Haitao Strategy, user needs go far beyond that.

“Is this lipstick suitable for yellow skin?& rdquo; How does this dress look best?” rdquo; Is this fitness blogger’s training plan really effective? rdquo;

Users want to get real feedback in more scenarios. Qu Fang keenly captures this trend. Since 2015, she has led the team to gradually expand the category, from beauty and skin care to fashion wear, maternal and infant, fitness, travel and other fields. Short Video content was introduced in 2017 to make sharing more vivid.

The outbreak occurred in 2018. One day, star Lin Yun registered an account in Xiaohongshu and posted a non-makeup skin care note, which set off the popularity. Later, Angelababy, Zhang Yuqi and others settled in one after another, and Xiaohongshu quickly became a holy place for stars to plant grass.

After that, Qu Fang, who was promoted from Ali Rong to capital, followed the trend and sponsored variety shows such as “Creation 101” and “Idol Trainee”, which completely broke the circle of Xiaohongshu. In 2019, Xiaohongbook users soared to 100 million from 50 million the previous year.

In addition, she also captured the rising trend of domestic beauty and took the lead in cooperating with Perfect Diary to promote the promotion of amateur grass +KOL. Within a year, the search volume for Perfect Diary soared by 500%, and Zhou Xun’s sales of the same lipstick and small heels exceeded one million pieces.

It can be said that Qu Fang is not simply doing e-commerce, but building a consumption decision-making platform where users influence users. This also determines that Xiaohongshu still prioritizes content between commercialization and content.

In 2018, Xiaohongshu launched its brand account, allowing the brand to enter the community and create it with users, but it cannot directly place advertisements.

In 2019, Xiaohongshu launched a brand partner program to allow KOL and the brand to interact naturally rather than blunt implant promotion.

In the same year, Xiaohongshu announced its entry into Live streaming eCommerce, but its live broadcast room style is not a link on 123, but more like a recommendation from Sisters. Dong Jie’s sharing of good things in life is Qu Fang’s idea of bringing goods that is more in line with Xiao Hongshu’s temperament.

This is her long-term philosophy: build a lifestyle community, e-commerce is responsible for making money to support the family, and content is responsible for being beautiful.& rdquo;

However, Qu Fang believes that relying on advertising revenue is not the best destination for Xiaohongshu, and she is also exploring a better combination of community and commercialization.

Her little red potato is called Mulan. She said that leaders should be androgynous, with the same brain, and can not only perceive the subtle emotions of users, but also make decisions on the commercial battlefield.

Qu Fang’s next journey is even more worth looking forward to.

04 She doesn’t stand in the C position if she does not take it off, but she is the strongest trader of knowledge products

“Because of the advancement of AI, it is possible to cure all diseases within ten years (Damis Hassabis)

“Buy three get one free. If you live for three more years based on your own efforts, technological progress will help you live another year.——”

“Live longer than earn more”

On December 31, 2024, at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center, Luo Zhenyu made frequent golden sentences at the New Year’s Speech “Friends of Time”.

During the speech, there was a meaningful link. He sealed the opening remarks of the New Year’s speech for the next 10 years in an envelope, solemnly handed them to the partners, and the CEO would not take them off.

In the 20-year New Year’s speech, more than half of the first 10 years have passed. The protagonist on the stage has always been Luo Zhenyu, but he has always stood in the shadow of the stage.

Many people have remembered Luo Zhenyu’s golden sentences and “Friends of Time”, but people have ignored the efforts of this outstanding woman to become the leading platform in the knowledge-payment industry.

Source: Video screenshot of [He Yanyan Heart-to-Heart Talks]

In fact, before joining, Tuibuhua was already a legend in the corporate consulting world.

At the age of 17, she gave up the opportunity to go abroad and came to Beijing alone with a high school degree. At the age of 18, she began to teach entrepreneurs. At the age of 19, she founded her own consulting company to serve clients such as Mengniu and New Hope.

However, in 2015, under the guidance of the eloquent Luo Zhenyu, she abandoned her consulting company and joined Luo Ji Thinking (her predecessor).

At that time, Luo Zhenyu had accumulated a large number of users through his Weixin Official Accounts [Luo Ji Thinking], and relied on traffic to sell members and books, earning considerable income. But what he always wanted to do in his heart was a respectable business, rather than being addicted to traffic games.

It was Tuibuhua’s joining that made Luo Zhenyu’s dream come true.

Tuobuhua helped Luo Zhenyu introduce Tian Suining, a famous celebrity in the Internet industry in China. Inspired by him, she and Luo Zhenyu jointly established the vision of a knowledge operator and decided to no longer sell knowledge, but to create a lifelong learning platform.

Thus, the App was born.

At that time, information technology was developing rapidly and the pace of life was accelerating. Many people wanted to learn high-quality content but had no time to finish a book. This contradiction of both needs and needs has become an opportunity to rise.

Tuobuhua proposes that knowledge is not content, but product strategy. It has created a unique knowledge learning model-audio + text essence + community Q & A, allowing users to efficiently learn a knowledge system in just 30 minutes a day and promote the creation of Three iconic products:

Knowledge + Super IP”

She promoted knowledge IPs such as Li Xiang’s business insider Xue Zhaofeng’s economics class and Liu Run’s business review, so that knowledge payment changes from selling content to selling teachers, cultivating users ‘trust in specific lecturers, and forming a long-term subscription model.

In 2019, the number of users exceeded 20 million, including 5.35 million paying users, and annual revenue exceeded 600 million yuan.

“Friends of Time” New Year’s Eve Speech

Pioneering a new paradigm for knowledge across the New Year, making knowledge payment not just an online course, but an annual knowledge event with great influence.

“Journey to Civilization” documentary

In 2024, Tuobuhua will lead the launch of “Journey to Civilization”, which combines knowledge with on-site visits and displays history, culture, science and technology and other content through documentaries. It not only attracts more pan-knowledge users for gain, but also allows knowledge payment to expand from audio to a more immersive content form.

These strategies have made Dedao a well-deserved leading brand in the knowledge-paying industry, leading the development of the industry.

The most valuable thing about Dubuhua lies in her adhesive role in the team.

Today, there is an iron triangle combination that is well known to the outside world:

Luo Zhenyu is good at strategic layout and has a long-term vision.”Friends of Time” has been working for 20 years, and “Journey of Civilization” has been planned for 1000 issues.

Quick Dao Tsing Yi technical control, responsible for product implementation, focus on execution.

Tuibuhua is responsible for team management, commercialization, and resource integration to allow everyone to operate efficiently.

She can accurately disassemble the grand narrative proposed by Luo Zhenyu every time to ensure the implementation of the strategy. In the 10-year New Year’s speech, there were difficulties every year, but they were all resolved one by one with her bone-melting soft palms.

She can also maximize the technical capabilities of Quick Knife Tsing Yi. She proposed the minimum combat unit, which breaks down large teams into small teams, and each team operates independently, greatly improving execution efficiency.

As she said: The best management is not to control, but to put everyone in the right position and operate on their own. rdquo;

Her management wisdom is also reflected in her excellent communication skills and resource integration capabilities.

Internally, she can translate strategy into product requirements, integrate the team into a whole, and ensure the stable operation of the Iron Triangle.

Externally, she can attract investors and find partners for money. For example, she promoted cooperation with the Himalayas to ensure stable growth; she successfully invited top knowledge IPs such as Xue Zhaofeng, Li Xiang, and Liu Run to settle in, raising the level of her acquisition.

Many people start businesses and strive for extreme growth and wolf-like culture, but their success comes from her silent female management wisdom.

This characteristic makes her the most dazzling one in the wave of knowledge payment, but she must be the most indispensable one.

05 Xu Ran went from CFO to CEO. She made Jingdong more stable

In May 2023, Jingdong welcomed Xu Ran, the first female CEO in history.

Compared with Liu Qiangdong, who is vigorous and vigorous, and Xu Lei, who is strongly at the helm of retail transformation, Xu Ran appears particularly low-key. She has hardly expressed her fierce business ambitions in public.

But within Jingdong, she is regarded as the most stable trader. Xu Ran only spent five years on Liu Qiangdong’s most trusted invisible trump card, from vice president of finance, to group CFO, and then to CEO.

The question from the outside world is: At a critical period when the e-commerce industry is entering existing competition and Jingdong’s development shifts from revenue growth to stable profits, why does Xu Ran occupy the position of CEO?

Source: Screenshots of Xu Ran and Zhou Hongyi’s live broadcast

In July 2018, Xu Ran joined Jingdong as vice president of finance. Prior to this, she worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers for nearly 20 years, focusing on the TMT industry (technology, media, communications) and U.S. capital markets, specializing in investment, financing and capital operations.

At that time, Jingdong was in a period of strategic expansion. Jingdong Logistics, Jingdong Health and other business lines became independent and were accelerating the listing process; however, its main e-commerce business was facing siege from Alibaba and Pinduo, and it urgently needed a second growth curve.

In this context, Xu Ran took over Jingdong’s retail finance and was promoted to CFO of Jingdong Group two years later, in June 2020, officially entering the company’s core decision-making level.

During her tenure, she led her team to complete mergers and acquisitions of listed companies such as Dada, Debon, and China Logistics Real Estate, and the business reorganization of Jingdong Technology. She led the secondary listing of Jingdong Group in Hong Kong, and promoted the spin-off of Jingdong Health, Jingdong Logistics and Jingdong Storage Facilities Public Offering REITs, as well as primary market financing transactions such as Jingdong Industry and Jingdong Industrial Development.

It can be said that Xu Ran made important contributions to JD’s extensive layout and business development in the capital market at this stage.

After its successful secondary listing in June 2020, Jingdong also had sufficient funds and began to promote its strategic transformation from high-speed growth to high-quality growth.

Jingdong’s past growth model was inseparable from the strategy of exchanging high investment for growth. Liu Qiangdong once said that Jingdong has not made money for ten years, but this style of play has become difficult to continue after the rise of new models such as Pendmore and Live streaming eCommerce.

In 2022, JD’s revenue growth rate fell to 9.9%, the lowest year in history. In the same period, Dianduo’s revenue growth rate reached 39%, and its market value surpassed Jingdong.

At this time, JD no longer needs a tactical CEO, but a steady leader.

In 2023, Liu Qiangdong launched a low-price strategy, requiring Jingdong to return to cost-effective competitiveness while emphasizing profitability. Jingdong needs to increase profit margins while ensuring growth, and this is Xu Ran’s advantage.

As soon as she took office, she set fire to three fires.

The first priority is to improve profitability

Xu Ran promoted supply chain optimization, reduced unnecessary inventory hoarding, reduced low-margin SKUs, and improved single product profit margins.

In Q3 of 2023, in the first quarter after Xu Ran took office, JD’s net profit increased by 38% year-on-year to 8.2 billion yuan.

In the first three quarters of 2024, JD’s net sales margin also increased from 2.74% a year ago to 4.16%.

The second priority is to deepen the low-price strategy and reshape competitiveness

Faced with the price war of Pinduo, Xu Ran promoted the long-term subsidy of 10 billion yuan. However, unlike Pinduo’s extreme low price, Jingdong’s subsidy strategy is more targeted:

● Improve supply chain efficiency and allow price advantages to be based on optimization of performance costs, rather than simply relying on subsidies to spend money.

This adjustment has stabilized JD’s user growth while avoiding the trap of excessive burning money.

The third priority is to control costs and improve free cash flow

Before 2017, Jingdong’s cash flow management was not ideal, with inventory backlog and high performance costs. After taking office, Xu Ran optimized supply chain turnover and improved inventory management capabilities, increasing free cash flow by approximately 55% from 2021 to 2023.

These measures by Xu Ran have enabled Jingdong to maintain stable profitability despite slowing revenue growth.

In the eyes of many Jingdong employees, she is Liu Qiangdong’s chief of staff. Through data analysis, she can tell Liu Qiangdong the core issues patiently, rationally and calmly.

As former CEO Xu Lei said: She is professional, younger than Lao Liu and I, and more combative. She can lead Jingdong to a period where it pays more attention to business health and development quality.

The 2006 era shaped them, and they are also shaping the times

Looking back over the past 30 years, the role of women in the business world has indeed changed profoundly. From former supporting roles in the workplace to now corporate leaders at the helm of hundreds of billions of companies, they are no longer bystanders of business legends, but have become creators.

This is not just an individual breakthrough, but also an opportunity given by the times.

In the past 30 years, China’s economy has experienced transformation from manufacturing-driven to Internet-driven, to digitalization and intelligence-driven. Every technological upgrade has brought about the reconstruction of business models and created growth space for new leaders.

In the 1990s, entrepreneurship was more of a survival type with the goal of improving economic conditions. Market competition relied on scale and resources, and female leaders were often at a disadvantage. However, in the Internet era, business logic has changed, user needs, data decisions and content ecology have become dominant, and women’s empathy, social connectivity, and refined operation capabilities have begun to become important factors in business success.

A group of female entrepreneurs seized the opportunity of the times and rose strongly.

Not only Wang Fengying, Ni Wenling, Qu Fang, Tuobuhua, Xu Ran, but also Dong Mingzhu of Gree, Wang Laichun of Lixun Precision, Dai Shan of Alibaba, Zhang Nan of ByteDance, etc.

Their success is a gift of the times and a necessity for them to dare to venture and fight hard.

The business world is constantly changing, and many people are following the trend, but very few can truly break the situation. What these female CEOs have in common is that they can not only seize opportunities, but also adjust course in crises and find the next growth pole of the company during the painful period of industry change.

It can be said that they stand on the tuyere and are also shaping the tuyere. They break the ceiling and are also redefining it.

In the future, with the rapid development of AI, big data, intelligent manufacturing and other technologies, scientific and technological women represented by Li Feifei and Xiaomi’s talented girl Luo Fuli will also demonstrate greater women’s power in high-tech fields such as AI.

* The title map is generated by AI