[Interview] Dong Hua: Courage keeps us moving forward
Latest update time：2021-04-13
Reads：
As a century-old company, Avnet's growth and development are inseparable from outstanding leaders.
Ms. Dong Hua is an outstanding female leader who was trained and grown up in China by Avnet. She entered the electronics industry in 1994 and joined Avnet in 1999. She has worked in various fields such as sales, product marketing and management. She is currently the vice president of sales and supplier management of Avnet China, and is fully responsible for the business development of Avnet in China.
We are honored to invite Ms. Dong Hua to be interviewed and share with us her experience and insights from 27 years of working in the electronics industry.
Dong Hua
Vice President of Sales and Supplier Management, China
"For us, every day is a new beginning and a new start in the process of moving towards our goal."
Work: How to keep motivated?
Talking about her work experience, Ms. Dong Hua is most impressed by the fact that she has been in the electronics industry for 27 years and has witnessed the earth-shaking changes that technological development has brought to people's lives. The progress and development of science and technology in the electronics field is closely related to all aspects of society and even personal life.
It is the sense of mission to create a better world with science and technology that has led many practitioners in the industry to continuously innovate technology, and to use forward-looking ideas to turn excellent ideas into real products, leading the development direction of demand. It not only satisfies people's desire to improve work and life, but also creates more and higher-level needs. This has inspired Ms. Dong Hua, because she feels that the value of her work is not only reflected in the development of her career at Avnet, but also in the positive impact it has on society.
Dong Hua admitted that she entered the industry by accident. "When I entered the industry, I was a marketing assistant, and I had no idea what a marketing department was." However, she chose to meet the challenge and continue on this path. For her, the motivation to persist comes from the excitement of constantly learning new things every day and the need to quickly update knowledge. At work, she gets a great sense of satisfaction from helping a customer succeed and successfully promoting a product line.
After 22 years at Avnet, Dong Hua, who has become the vice president of China, feels more fulfilled by the heavy responsibility she undertakes. As the decision-maker of the development direction of Avnet China, the China business plan she formulated has been recognized by the board of directors and has become the goal for thousands of colleagues in Avnet China to move forward. This makes Dong Hua excited and feels a great sense of responsibility. But similar to many years ago, Dong Hua is still passionate about new challenges: "I am still very excited to set clear goals and lead the team to strive for them."
More importantly, Ms. Dong Hua deeply identified with Avnet's corporate values, and its complete system and standardized operation had a great impact on her. Dong Hua said, "Looking back on the history of Avnet becoming a century-old company, one of its biggest success factors is to constantly examine itself, learn and move forward, and make adjustments." This made her feel that this company is worth people moving forward with. Looking to the future, whether it is the company's own operations or the external social responsibilities it has to bear, Dong Hua said that she has full confidence in the long-term development of Avnet.
Life: Is it possible to balance
Today, the team at Avnet China is very young. Dong Hua hopes that the communication between these young people is not limited to work, but can also involve more exchanges and sharing of ideas. She feels that on the one hand, Avnet's diverse and inclusive corporate culture can provide a good growth platform for these young people; on the other hand, these young people from different provinces and different backgrounds have also added fresh vitality to Avnet.
In 2020, the sudden outbreak of the epidemic disrupted everyone's work rhythm, and with the rapid recovery of production in the second half of the year, we entered an even busier state. Dong Hua described, "Now everyone is like a race every day. In this situation, how do we consider the balance?
"
Dong Hua said, "Sometimes I really hope that everyone can have more time to relax or adjust at work. But the contradiction is that as an agent, we not only need high-quality service levels, but also the fastest response, because the needs of customers are above all else, and the competition from rivals is also our pressure and motivation. So the industry often makes us unable to stop, but I hope to try to find a way to make a small balance." For example, the torch relay race to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Avnet was held in more than 20 cities across the country. "We hope that employees can maintain a balance between work and life, not only have good work efficiency, but also have a healthy body."
For Dong Hua herself, it is difficult to achieve an absolute balance. But she believes that even in a busy schedule, she can still pursue a limited but relative balance. Even if she is still busy at work on weekends, she will try to shield herself from the external struggle as much as possible, leaving some time for friends, family and herself. Dong Hua hopes, "We should try to avoid being disturbed by the negative energy of the outside world, and it is also important to keep our thoughts peaceful and pure. If the chaotic negative information from the outside world interferes too much with ourselves, it will also affect our work and life."
Talking about her personal hobbies, Dong Hua said that running is a habit she has always maintained and has become one of her ways to relieve work pressure. She was deeply influenced by her father in this regard. "My father used to be in the army. He talked about the army's training, which was 50 kilometers. I was scared when I heard it." However, insisting on long-distance running makes Dong Hua feel more self-disciplined and more courageous to face challenges. She believes that people can give themselves some "uncomfortable" states appropriately, jump out of the comfort zone, and perhaps have a broader vision.
In addition to running, Dong Hua also loves reading, especially history and humanities books. Reading history has given her a deeper understanding of work and life. When Dong Hua shared her reading experience, she said that many literary masters in history were also outstanding officials, such as Su Shi and Wang Anshi. Although later generations have different opinions on their policies, from the perspective of an observer, we can see that the decisions made by these ancients at the time were influenced by the current situation and environment, and they were also the best decisions they knew based on the situation at the time. Some results can only be tested and judged by subsequent results.
This also reminded Dong Hua that as a company manager, she was facing a similar situation. "Maybe after 5 or 10 years, when we look back, we will find out which decisions were right and which were wrong. We can't be sure that all decisions will stand the test, we can only make sure that our starting point is for the benefit of the company." Whether it is the sacrifices or concessions made in a certain period of time in the past, perhaps when we look back many years later, we will find that they are the most important reasons for what we have achieved today.
Pursuit: How to keep improving
When asked about the people or idols she admires, Dong Hua prefers to use the words "admire" and "appreciate". To her, the bright spots in everyone are something she can learn from and admire. Her colleagues, friends, parents, and ordinary people all have qualities worth appreciating. She talked about how material things often change over time, but the intangible power of quality is the most lasting and the most motivating.
Dong Hua chose "courage" as the most important quality for an individual. She believes that courage is very important to stick to one's own choices in the face of difficulties and external noise. Taking Tu Youyou as an example, Dong Hua expressed her admiration, "Artemisinin was synthesized in 1972, but she was 85 years old when she won the Nobel Prize. It would be impossible to persist for more than 30 years without courage and determination.
"
In addition,
Dong Hua also mentioned,
"Many of us are really hardworking and can endure humiliation, but we may not easily refuse others. The courage to refuse unreasonable requests and overturn unreasonable prejudices is also a kind of courage.
"
Today, there are more and more female practitioners in the technology industry, and they are contributing their abilities and values to the development of the industry. For a long time, the contribution of women in the technology industry has been obscured by stereotypes - just as the founder of computer programs is Ada Lovelace, a woman, but when it comes to programmers, the first to be admired is men. Now, more and more female technology practitioners are beginning to make their voices heard, and they are cracking the "invisible glass ceiling".
As a senior who has been working in the industry for many years, Dong Hua affirmed Chinese women's emphasis on self-worth and also gave her suggestions.
First, keep learning. "For example, we are an agent, but successful sales is not a simple buying and selling relationship. Being in the high-tech industry, for us, continuous learning and understanding is what I personally think is the most important thing."
Secondly, Dong Hua encouraged women to have self-confidence and courage, not to limit themselves to back-end roles, but to have the courage to think, come up with their own opinions and speak out. She believes that any constructive ideas should be respected.
In addition, the ability to withstand stress is also very important. Continuous progress in the process of career development is inseparable from the regulation of self-stress. "You must learn to guide yourself."
Finally, what Avnet always emphasizes in its corporate culture is tolerance. "At Avnet, we encourage diversity and tolerance. Being different from yourself does not mean it is wrong or unfeasible." Dong Hua said that at work, everyone should respect others' different perspectives and solutions to things, and everyone should have the opportunity to put their ideas into practice to test.
Perhaps it is the attitude of constant exploration and courage to face challenges that allows Dong Hua to see scenery that others have never seen. For Dong Hua, every day she has spent with Avnet is memorable. She said: "Avnet's 100th anniversary is the achievement of the past and the starting point of the new 100 years. I am very fortunate to be able to lead the team in China to continue to move towards the goal and make progress together with this great company."
I wish her and Avnet all the best, and hope they can achieve new success no matter how far in the future.
Review of previous related articles:
Long press to scan the QR code to follow Avnet
Get more exciting content
京公网安备 11010802033920号