Chairman's Interview
- At A Glance
- Chairman's Interview
- Our History
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Navigator YE ZHI and His Three Breakthroughs
New Generation, New Energy.
Reformative, Innovative.
Backbone force in the innovation and entrepreneurship
amid the economic transformation.
YE ZHI
Chairman of Maple Leaf Shipping Group
Vice President of Young Entrepreneurs Association of Taizhou
Vice President of the Board of The Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce, Shanghai
Standing Vice President of Zhejiang Young Entrepreneurs Association, Shanghai
Vice Chairman of Zhejiang Young Talents Union, Shanghai
Vice President of Shanghai Pudong Young Shipping Talents Union
Taizhou Young Entrepreneur Star Award in 2008
New Force of Zhejiang Entrepreneurs in Ocean Exploration in the Year of 2011
Top Ten Outstanding Young Talents of China Shipping Industry in the Year of 2018
NPC Member of Jiaojiang District, Taizhou since 2013
Ocean Shipping, it sounds cool but when diving in, is full of bitters.
This fortyish young man has been steering Maple Leaf Shipping Group for more than a decade and knows exactly how it feels from deep inside. Maple Leaf started from the southern Zhejiang Province and is now sailing at full steam into the “Age of Exploration” of her own under the guidance of Mr. Ye’s internationalized development strategy.
It is known to his friends that meeting with Ye Zhi is not an easy thing. He travels between countries and cities all year long. Roughly speaking, there are 200 days in a year when he is “on the road”.
When he took over the job of General Manager from his father in 2005, Mr. Ye started to carry out his plan of deepening the internationalization of the Group with business map expanded to many countries. To better cater for the foreign business, he set up office in Singapore, Hong Kong, etc. and move the headquarters from Dalian to Shanghai.
Many people cannot see why this “workaholic” works so hard, given his already affluent life. He himself sees shipping as innate responsibility since the day he was born in his shipping family. Both his grandfather and father once worked for a state-owned shipping enterprise. His father worked as a decker at the age of 13 and later on took over that state-owned shipping enterprise during the period of the state-owned enterprise stake system reform.
Ye Zhi was deeply influenced by his grandfather’s and father’s passion for shipping. His forefathers’ efforts laid a solid foundation for him to further develop. In 2004, Maple Leaf was mainly engaged in domestic/coastal shipping with a fleet of 30 vessels including bulker, tanker and containers. He believes he was given a mission “to defense forefathers’ foundation and explore uncharted waters for new opportunities”. This status of “defense while defeat” requires full energy and strong will from him.
No. 1 Securing international market share against the tides
No.2 Sailing out of grounding and furthering of internationalization
No. 3 Steering in wider waters and reaching for farther stars
In modern history, navigation is the key to open the new world. It links the world, bridges global trade and drives the opening-up of many countries. Opening-up is the way to long and sustainable development. This is also especially true for shipping.
If Maple Leaf wants to go further and stronger, she has to sail towards internationalization. At the same time, shipping is a cyclical industry. The exposure to international market can help mitigate the influence from domestic economic fluctuation.
Given the above, the young “helmsman” started a radical reform:
The Company sold many vessels and built up a internationally recognized modern fleet with bigger tonnage. Later on, offshore and foreign companies were incorporated to facilitate the development of ocean going fleet.
Furthermore, the Company united with a shipbuilding company to provide full packaged service for clients. The shipbuilding company is also well recognized worldwide with high calibre investment. This helps the Group to seize more opportunities and market share by raising the bar of competition.
The obstacle that impresses him the most is the mismatching between the rapid expansion and lack of processionals and management system. When the main business transformed from coastal to international, the problem of lacking systematic experience started to emerge. More departments and more detailed responsibility division make the overall management even harder. Moreover, many strategic cooperation opportunities are waiting aside. There were a thousand things to attend to at the same time.
Mr. Ye was in unprecedented suffering at the moment, but his forefathers’ never-give-up spirit kept him up: when encountering great difficulties and unspeakable sufferings, you shall be fearless in your action and always move on. As the British former prime minister Winston Churchill once said: “I have no way, but I know the way forward. ”
To overcome the obstacle, Ye Zhi actively tapped his resource to look for professionals to join the team on one hand and engaged external consulting team to upgrade the then management system while practicing, streamlining and improving on the other hand.
The Group started to run in the right track gradually. “It sounds easy when I talk about those times now, but it nearly broke me up at that time”, Mr. Ye said.
In that crisis, almost all shipping companies are facing the test of life or death. Many domestic and oversea shipping companies were closed or bankrupt, which jeopardized the performance of charter parties and caused Maple Leaf to lose large amount of investment. Worsening market and exhausted liquidity, all sorts of bad news battered him everyday. He sighed: “I felt like drowned in the darkness, no light, no air and no end.”
However, when he saw silver-hair father were still persevering, Ye Zhi knew he had no reason to retreat. He pulled himself together and worked even harder from sunrise to sunset.
In the end, Maple Leaf turned into better when restructure were completed.
After careful assessment, Mr. Ye believes Maple Leaf’s future is positive. Firstly, the Company has a clear positioning: handysize and product/chemical tankers. By deepening these two sectors into core business, Maple Leaf is able to hedge the risk thanks to the different features of the two sectors. Secondly, Maple Leaf has already established reputation after transform from coastal to international. With the economic recovery of global market and the implementation of “One belt one road” plan, Mr. Ye believes market demand will be released out gradually and thus bringing in more opportunities.
Ye Zhi is very low profile and hardly mentions his bigger ambitions. He was born in shipping family and his icon is Zheng He who sailed seven voyages to the west. He sees European shipowners especially the Greek, many matured Japanese and Korean shipowners as his business competitors. Last but not the least, his ambition is for Maple Leaf to be the company of a century's standing.
He also knows that he has to enrich his knowledge reserve to realize his ambition. With successful enrolment and study experience in the EMBA course of Zhejiang University, he got to think about how to implant Big Data into decision making the daily operation in order to achieve a more accurate and consistent business status.
The EMBA also gives him an unexpected bonus - marathon. Inspired by his classmate, he now regards marathon as his favorite thing. When he runs, the mind starts to be released, the mood be relieved and the train of thought be clearer.
Ye Zhi said: “some lessons in class might have already been forgotten, but the long-distance running habit benefits me for a lifetime.” Due to his love for running, he took part in the Gobi Challenge organized by global business schools wherein he trekked 116 kilometre in the northwest Gobi in three days. To him, both long-distance running and trekking are sports in need of stamina and willpower. It also applies to the shipping industry: “good or bad, one step forward is one step closer to success.”