Sun Jie, the new CEO of Ctrip: I was asked to be CEO, and I resigned for nearly a year before accepting it

When Liang Jianzhang (co-founder of Ctrip and chairman of the executive board) asked, do you want to be ceo? I waited ten months before I accepted the challenge. A few days ago, Sun Jie, the new CEO of Ctrip (NASDAQ:CTRP), revealed many details of his appointment as CEO of Ctrip in an interview with Foreign Media (Skift).

"As a female leader, there are many advantages to taking your team to the next level." Asked about her feelings as a female CEO of the world's second-largest online travel company, Sun Jie said that women are usually more team-oriented, and it is this femininity that makes her resign for nearly a year before accepting the CEO position.

Sun Jie also introduced the differences and possible competition between Ctrip and two other international online travel agency giants, Priceline and Expedia. She said that Ctrip's business scope is broader, but at present, Ctrip and Priceline are more cooperative. For Skyscanner, a British online travel booking platform that was just "pocketed" by Ctrip at the end of last year, Sun Jie revealed that Skyscanner will operate as an independent company and may not integrate Skyscanner into Ctrip's search results.

Broader business area than Priceline or Expedia

Already ranked as the world's second largest online travel company, Ctrip will face greater challenges on the international stage in the future. Of course, it is inevitable to face competition with Priceline and Expedia, which are also among the top three online travel companies in the world.

When asked about the differences and competition with Priceline or Expedia, Sun Jie said that Ctrip is still mainly serving Chinese travelers.

"Many countries have lifted restrictions on Chinese visas, which is a great business opportunity for us to explore with our customers." Sun Jie said.

In terms of specific businesses, among the other two global online travel agency giants, Priceline, which ranks first in market capitalization, mainly focuses on the global hotel business; Expedia claims to be a full-service online travel company and is committed to being more international, and Expedia has more than Ctrip in terms of revenue. However, Ctrip has a wider range of services than Priceline and Expedia.

Sun Jie analyzed that Expedia mainly provides two major products: one is the hotel, and the other is the airline ticketing business. "But for us, for example, if we know that users will be going from Shanghai to Paris, we will recommend a Paris hotel." We calculate the distance between the hotel and the airport, we will provide a car rental service, or provide a driver pick-up service. ”

Sun Jie continued to give an example, "Knowing that users stay in hotels in Paris, such as The Ritz-Carlton, then we have to consider what added value can be provided near the hotel, such as is there Tiffany nearby? Can we prepare hermes and LV shopping outlets for them nearby? Is there a Michelin restaurant for them to dine in? ”

The acquisition of Skyscanner may mean that the European market has begun to compete

Although, from the current point of view, Ctrip and Priceline and Expedia have not yet produced much competition because of the different markets occupied, and priceline Group owns 10% of Ctrip's shares, at least in the next few years there will be no direct conflict with Ctrip. However, with the proposal and deepening of Ctrip's internationalization strategy, Ctrip's competition with the other two global online travel agency giants may eventually be inevitable.

In the European market, competition seems to be showing signs. In December 2016, Ctrip acquired Skyscanner, an online travel search platform based in the United Kingdom, for £1.4 billion. This has become one of the ways for Ctrip to accelerate its internationalization process.

Skyscanner, on the other hand, is believed to compete more directly with Priceline's Kayak in the future. Priceline and Kayak are currently acquiring flight search company Momondo Group, a deal expected to close this year. Sun Jie also said bluntly that this acquisition will be quite beneficial to The development of Kayak's business in Europe.

Kayak's CEO, Steve Hafner, has begun to show a keen interest in skyscanner's future. Steve Hafner even predicts that Ctrip will build Skyscanner into a one-stop online travel company, and he believes that at least Ctrip and Skyscanner should try it first.

"It's also something that Kayak is very interested in seeing," Steve Hafner said, "and we've been very concerned about that." ”

So, is Ctrip's intention to turn Skyscanner into a one-stop online travel agency with a broader business, as Steve Hafner predicted?

Sun Jie did not give a clear answer to this question, but Sun Jie has revealed many times in interviews with the media that SkyScanner will operate as an independent company in the future. She also said that Ctrip may not integrate Skyscanner into Ctrip's search results, even though Ctrip will become an important booking option in Skyscanner's search results.

As for whether Ctrip will invest a large amount of money in Skyscanner, Sun Jie's answer is "not necessarily." Skyscanner has been making money since its inception, she said, so they have plenty of money on their own.

Highly rated booking, "almost no one dares to move"

For Priceline, the world's largest online travel company, Sun Jie's evaluation is very worthy of Ctrip's learning. She even admitted that Priceline's booking.com is almost "no one dares to move."

"Bookinger is an international brand, and in terms of hotels, they make it difficult for their peers to look up to," Sun Jie said. The reason why Ctrip has been able to work well with Bookingor is because we are focused on the travel business in the Asia-Pacific region and provide consumers with a variety of one-stop services, which neither Booking.com nor Expedia do. ”

Although Priceline does not involve much in the aviation business field, from this point of view, Ctrip's business scope is broader, but in Priceline's strong hotel business, Ctrip's scale is only equivalent to a part of Priceline.

"Booking guests have done a great job in terms of hotels," Sun Jie said, "I think they have built a particularly good platform for the hotel business, and they themselves have performed well on this platform, and no one can compete." So this team is also very worth learning. ”

Sun Jie said that Bookinger and Ctrip are now a cooperative relationship to provide users of both sides with richer hotel resources.

Employees come up with business plans, and Ctrip makes investors

Sun Jie also introduced Ctrip's secret of management model in the interview. Its special emphasis is on "decentralization".

Sun Jie said that Ctrip is already a large company with 30,000 employees, which means that you can't rely on the CEO to make every decision. "We're decentralizing and letting each business be its own CEO and take responsibility for its own business resources. You can hire as many employees as you can, as long as that investment is valuable to you, and in a way, it's also a great training ground for developing the next generation of leadership. ”

Ctrip's evaluation of executive innovation capabilities has long been known in the industry. In Sun Jie's mobile phone and the company's BABY TIGER plan (little tiger plan, Ctrip's internal innovation mechanism), cards are marked with each of Ctrip's business units, which are Ctrip's internal start-up business matrix: each project has its own general manager, chief financial officer, chief technology officer, and profit and loss statement.

"Every year we measure their performance through a formula, and they have their own virtual value tied to their business units and bonuses," says Sun Jie, who encourages employees to come up with business plans in quarterly business wrap-up meetings, and we do the role of VCs (venture capitalists).

Sun Jie gave an example of a young employee who wanted to start a bus ticket business, but at that time he suffered a lot of doubts.

"Bus tickets are cheap, so we asked him how you can make money by bus, and you go back and think about it."

Sun Jie said that he later came back with a business plan, "He really wanted to do this business, it was promising, but we couldn't see where the future was from the data, so we asked him to go back to data analysis." The third time he came back, he never gave up, and finally I said, how many resources do you want? He said: 'I want two million dollars, I can afford 6 people for 6 months.' He also said: 'If I can sell 10,000 tickets a day, you let me continue to grow and grow, and if I don't reach it, I will terminate the project.' ”

"I said, 'Okay, let him do it; if it's done, it's fine, and if it doesn't work, it's not a big deal." As a result, a month later, the daily sales exceeded 10,000 copies, so we gave him a palace in the blue area of the app, and they are now a very prominent business. ”

Sun Jie said that this is the bus ticket business on Ctrip's website and app, "At the beginning he made buses, and now he has started to do ferries." ”

Liang Jianzhang asked Sun Jie to be CEO, and she resigned for nearly a year before accepting it

Asked about her feelings as a female CEO at the world's second-largest online travel company, Sun Jie said, "As a female leader, there are many advantages to leading the team to the next level. ”

"I think if we recognize our strengths and use the strength of the team to make up for the weaknesses, then we can build a really good team." Sun Jie said.

In Sun Jie's view, women can bring something different to the board of directors. She revealed that when Liang Jianzhang, Ctrip's former CEO and executive chairman, asked her to become CEO, the feminine nature made her resign for nearly a year before accepting the position.

Sun Jie explained that as far as women and men are concerned, different genders have different characteristics. Women are usually more team-oriented. When Liang Jianzhang asked, do you want to be CEO? I think a lot of people will accept this challenge immediately, rather than waiting ten months before taking up the challenge, I put more emphasis on the team than on personal achievement, I think it's important that the team is strong, if the team is strong, then everyone will have a good chance. ”

"As a female leader, I feel that women's team building skills and leadership skills are very strong, and it is also important that you are willing to make personal sacrifices for the interests and interests of the team. As a female leader, I always try to think differently, and in difficult negotiations, I always try to make everyone have common ground of interest, so even the most difficult business negotiations can be effectively advanced. Sun Jie said.