Love Letter from "Middle-aged Girl" | MU Group 20th Anniversary

Thirteen years ago, on my way to work from Pujiang to Yiwu (at the roundabout on Zongze Road), there was a tall advertisement for?MU Group, and I thought, "Wow! This must be a huge company! Are they really good at foreign trade?" "Why would they choose such a name? What kind of people work there?"

With this curiosity, our story began.

First Encounter:? Walking from a Billboard

I firmly believe that fate led me to wander around and eventually brought me to MU. At the end of 2016, due to family reasons, I left my job in Yiwu and said goodbye to the big house in my hometown, giving up my princess-like life where I didn't have to worry about food, clothing, shelter, or transportation. I wanted a completely new environment, so I made a bold decision to come to Ningbo to work for the company on that billboard!

Thinking of meeting is better than not, so before the Spring Festival, I contacted the HR department and successfully met with the General Manager?Jeff?Luo. As soon as I saw him, my infatuated heart began to flutter: "Wow... he's so handsome! So young, I want to stay, please let me stay!" With several years of experience in foreign trade and a determined mindset, I was able to receive the notice that I would start working after the Chinese New Year.

On March 3, 2017, I reported to work on time. Because the interview was held in the high-tech square, I had some thoughts when I arrived at the maker space: "What's going on? Isn't this a modern office building? Why am I in the countryside?" "Oh well, it's fine. Maybe this is just a temporary place to stay. I'm a new employee, this is a test!" "Although the external environment is not that of a 'white-collar worker', I can still see myself as a white-collar worker inside!"

Because my previous work involved toys,?Jeff?assigned me to the toy department?of GENERAL STAR DIVISION OF GU. Wow, what a crowded place! Everyone was busy with their own work and no one had time to pay attention to me. But it's okay, I'm a generous lady with social experience! I introduced myself and took the initiative to get to know everyone. I believe that if you close your eyes, you can immediately see my iconic smile as I promote myself!

Heartfelt Connection: Breaking Barriers for Efficiency

Dale Carnegie once said that incorporating one's enthusiasm and experience into conversations is a powerful and essential way to impress people.

In my first year, I managed all of the factory orders for our business clients, but later on, I focused solely on managing orders for a toy client.Three heroes with one helper, the team consists of one salesperson, one purchaser, and one merchandiser. I quickly realized that the business aspect required more time to develop relationships with clients, so I proactively asked them for work that I could assist with. As a result, I gradually gained opportunities to handle client bookings, invoices, packing lists, and shipping arrangements. With practice, I became more efficient and confident in my abilities.

I always strive to create a pleasant working environment. In-person communication is more preferable to me than online communication. However, nowadays, even when colleagues are on the same floor, they tend to communicate via instant messaging instead of talking face-to-face. Every order requires teamwork, and all departments, including merchandiser,?salespeople,?purchasers,?accountants, designers are interconnected. If one person falls behind, it affects everyone's efficiency, so communication is crucial.

I think it's appropriate that in Yiwu, business development is referred to as "interaction." The saying, "one face-to-face meeting is worth a thousand emails," is so true! Sometimes, even after exchanging numerous emails, there is no progress with an order. However, if you personally visit the client and have a simple interaction, you can return with the necessary information to move the order forward and find the right suppliers.

Now, I guide some of the new members in our team to become more open-minded. After all, the company is centered around our clients, and without them, we have nothing. Most of our clients are influenced by European and American cultures, so we must resonate with them to seize business opportunities. If there is no good communication or interpersonal relationship between us, and a client decides to open a new store, they may tell others before they inform us, and we could miss out on the opportunity!

Attention to Detail:? Beyond Success or Failure

Success is not accidental but is formed by a series of small things accumulated. The key to success lies in doing every detail well.?As a?merchandiser, I am not limited to just being a?merchandiser. I pay attention to every detail with care:?

When I see any information related to anyone in the big group, I will take a screenshot and send it to?our GE?group, such as the delivery time, group activities, and duty schedules; I do not allow wasteful paper to be seen by the printer, I will remind everyone to adjust the settings before printing; when I pass by the mailroom to go to the bathroom, I will pick up all the parcels that can be taken; I will also pay attention to and remind new people of the time for the?MU?Academy, and before departure, I will tell them to confidently perform, listen carefully, not be afraid of making mistakes, but also not to repeat the same mistakes...?

However, as someone who pays attention to details, I also have my Waterloo. Once, a client purchased goods worth more than 1 million RMB, and it was an urgent order. We initially contacted a factory?in?Jiangxi,?introduced by a friend, but they could not produce the goods due to the large order quantity. Seeing that the delivery would be delayed, what could we do? We had to quickly find another factory.

I took the high-speed train from Ningbo to Jiangxi, and arranged for the factory owner to pick me up at the train station at 9 o'clock. However, he did not arrive until after 11 o'clock. I dared not sit in the passenger seat and felt something was wrong as soon as I sat in the back seat: he drove with one hand and ate sunflower seeds with the other, and I vaguely smelled alcohol! However, because the car was too messy and dirty, I thought it was his own smell. I accompanied him nervously throughout the journey, fearing that he would fall asleep. Later, I found out that he really was an alcoholic, and I had unwittingly boarded the wrong ship!

As it turned out, this was indeed an unreliable factory that could not deliver the goods. In the end, we had to use our own resources to "help the factory find another factory" and almost missed the delivery deadline. We had no choice but to "cut our losses" and choose air freight. I remember that the air freight for this order alone cost more than 300,000 RMB, but the company did not suffer any economic losses from the payment withheld by the factory.

However, this experience gave me a profound lesson: choice is more important than effort, and choosing a reliable factory is more important than anything else.?The supply chain determines everything! Especially in the early stages of investigation, we must simultaneously investigate the boss's character, reputation, and factory atmosphere. Don't laugh at me, but after the order was completed, the unreliable factory owner often called me at eleven o'clock at night, and I had to endure more than two months of "midnight soul-searching": talking to an alcoholic!

Since then, whenever we cooperate with a new factory, I personally go to the site to conduct a comprehensive investigation, and conduct in-depth research on the actual situation in the workshop.?Although the order is king, there are countless details to pay attention to before and after accepting the order. For example, some suppliers are very small businesses, and unexpected things may happen. Always remember:?any "accident" can affect the order, so we must not make the low-end mistake of "a horseshoe nail lost the empire"!

My concept is this: since the travel expenses have been incurred and the itinerary has been set, these inspections of details are incidental and do not require additional time. So why not do it?

In addition to orders, we also need to improve our taste. This is not to encourage everyone to pursue luxury goods, but because we need to make customers feel that we are people of taste, and that our company is a tasteful company. Only by gaining customers' trust in multiple aspects can our business always be at the forefront of information.?

Unity: Crisis to Opportunity, Reaching Highs

I have always believed that the value you create will definitely return to yourself, and that ultimately, benefiting others is benefiting oneself.?We are not just working in a specific position in foreign trade, but each specific position is just a part of foreign trade that needs to be integrated into a whole. Saying "I am in charge of the factory since I am the purchaser" is a bad phenomenon!

Currently, I am in the team led by General Manager?Stone?Yuan. I am straightforward and always want both customers and factories to be satisfied as long as we cooperate. Therefore, sometimes I speak in the office without considering people's feelings, and do not give face to others, but he can always mediate well. Sometimes, because of urgent orders or thinking from the perspective of customers or the company, I may have conflicts with the factory, but he can communicate and coordinate them skillfully. This is a golden principle that we both follow but do not openly discuss:?I take the role of the "bad guy" and he takes the role of the "good guy", and all efforts are made to avoid affecting the orders.

Merchandiser, salesperson, purchaser, and factories must resonate with each other.?Our team has grown from 3 people to 11 people. In situations where time is relatively abundant, old colleagues will guide new ones fully and follow up on other work besides their own duties, making the entire work chain run more smoothly. Sometimes, I also encourage new colleagues in the group in the name of?Stone?to make them more passionate and make the team more harmonious.

I still remember the panic when the epidemic first came. Because it was a seasonal product, the shipping time was concentrated from November to March of the following year. After finishing the first wave before the Chinese New Year, before we could enter the rest state, the epidemic suddenly became severe. The situation was very critical: there were no ships, cabinets could not be obtained, and factories had piled up goods like mountains. On the sixth day of the Chinese New Year, I rushed to the company early in the morning. It was very inconvenient to enter the company at that time, but fortunately, the group immediately activated the emergency team to ensure everyone's logistics.

In a crisis, I continued to follow up on cabinets, coordinate shipping schedules, and maintain communication with the factory. Due to the control of the goods in the early stage, the final stage was also relatively smooth. Is it satisfying that the final stage is smooth? No, the panic started at that moment: there were no orders from customers, and the factories were also unable to resume work due to being sealed off. What should we do, just wait for death?

Breaking through the uncertainty of the fog, the group began to encourage everyone to shift to epidemic products, and even prepared samples for everyone, calling on everyone to find mask factories. Masks were like gold at that time, and the goods obtained by the group had to be divided among many people. Whenever someone in the group said "The masks have arrived!", colleagues would rush downstairs to "grab" them. When there was free time in the office at that time, we started packaging masks regardless of whose order it was, and sent them out as soon as possible.?Through the united efforts of everyone, MU's masks were sent to various parts of the world in packaging and outer boxes designed by colleagues themselves, which was an unparalleled honor!?

It is better to use the remaining courage to chase the defeated enemy, rather than selling out for fame to become a scholarly king.?It's like running a marathon race, we have already passed the halfway mark, and the mask market seems to have entered a period of weakness, with prices starting to decline. On June 6, 2020, colleagues received an email from?Tom?Tang, encouraging everyone to keep moving forward, not to slack off, and not to relax for a moment until we achieve the final victory!

Embarking on a Journey:? Moving Forward with Determination

Moving forward is always faster than hesitating.?Foreign trade companies are sometimes referred to as "middlemen" because we do not produce anything. However, with the development of e-commerce, customers and factories want to contact each other directly and bypass this intermediary. However, the foreign trade industry has a characteristic that many factories are small and scattered, and many products, including small toys, have low added value but a surprising number of SKUs. In fact, no large supermarket has so much energy to connect with such a complex range of products. They are destined to find companies that provide package services.

I have always been not limited to "just placing orders with this factory now", but to synchronously evaluate the potential of the factory and see if they can develop more products. Although they may only have orders of $100,000 or $200,000 this year, I will convey the company's philosophy to them and make them feel that MU is a trustworthy and potential partner. If the factory only accepts our orders and is willing to give up many other companies' orders to cooperate fully, to some extent, the factory is our own.

On the one hand, factories need the assistance of foreign trade companies to operate complex procedures such as tax refunds. Many factories actually do not have the ability to independently place orders. On the other hand, foreign trade companies also need the support of factories and need core suppliers. Since we are "brothers in the same trench", there is no such thing as "middlemen". Just like building a moat requires patience and time, in order to prevent suppliers from being tempted by the outside world and not caring about the investment in the early stage of proofing or molds, we also need to spend a long time and a lot of energy.?Foreign trade companies and factories are like fish and water. No one can do without each other. As long as we provide high-quality services and continue to create value for our partners and customers, we will definitely be able to stand undefeated in the long run. I think this is a way to deal with "disintermediation".

Although?MU?Group?is a traditional foreign trade company, their e-commerce operations are still doing well.?Jason?has visited e-commerce customers in the United States. E-commerce has high requirements for response rates, and response time and efficiency will affect big data's evaluation of e-commerce shipments. Within the six years since I joined the company, I have witnessed?GE's growth from $1 million to $15 million, an increase of 15 times!

With the completion of the?MU?Building on the banks of the Yongjiang, on December 4, 2020, everyone received the relocation arrangements for the new headquarters building of the group. On August 9, 2021, they officially moved to Yongjiang Avenue. From small items such as spoons, bowls, plates, umbrellas, and napkins, to large buildings, elevators, and parking spaces, everything has the MU logo printed on it. The details reflect the image, and the details reflect the strength!?

The company places great emphasis on employees' physical fitness. Many companies may think that going to exercise during work hours means neglecting business. However, what we value is long-term value. Exercise can bring physical and mental health, and a healthy body and mental state can lead to better work performance, ultimately benefiting the business itself.

My mother even wants to exchange?Tom?Tang's letter for?MU's original shares after the company goes public. This is the belief of an old lady from the countryside, and perhaps one day it will come true!?

I am just an ordinary merchandiser, a confident and humorous one, and a meddlesome one. I like honor, but I also stay down-to-earth; I like achievements, but I am also cautious and steadfast. As long as everyone can do their best in every detail, no one can break this team. Who do customers and suppliers rely on if not on such a team?

At?MU?Academy, I often attend a class called "Transforming the passive into the active." Dear?colleagues, please allow me to "babble" a few words to you:

1. Please sincerely acknowledge your leader and trust their decisions.

2. Please do every little thing well, as the team becomes stronger by doing every little thing well.

3. Please bravely try new things and don't be afraid of making mistakes.

4. Please behave generously and cautiously, and focus on the task rather than the person.

5. Please actively participate in physical exercise, as dopamine helps keep you healthy.

6. Please pay close attention to every detail of the company's advantages.

7. Please be willing to share and help others, as "giving" is also "receiving".

8. Please remain joyful, appreciate beauty, and maintain your true self with a youthful heart.

This is a confession letter from a "middle-aged girl" to?MU. Sometimes words are not enough to express my feelings, because all language seems so pale and powerless in the face of this love, because I love so passionately and deeply!

The author, Apple Zhu, was born in Jinhua, Zhejiang in 1983. She joined the company in March 2017 and has served as a sales assistant, manager assistant, vice manager, and manager. She has been awarded the title of Labor Model of the Group, Excellent Business Award,?Bronze Medal,??Annual Best Outstanding Pioneer Team Award (collective), and Youth Civilization Award (collective). She is currently the manager of Group A of the GENERAL STAR DIVISION OF GU.?

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