Essay 1: Describe your substantial achievement to date. Explain how you accomplished it, and why you
 
view it as a success. (500 words)
In my opinion, success means turning around negative factors in a situation and changing them into positive factors that lead to an accomplishment. In September 1999 I signed on as the vice marketing manager of CAILUN Pulp and Paper Company, Ltd., which is a trading company dealing with the business of pulp and paper products. Just five months later, In February 2000, I faced the biggest challenge of my career. I needed to win a big pulp supply order contract from the Dongying Paper Factory, a large, state-owned paper mill. This contract would run for three years with revenue of one million RMB per month, which would be the largest order in the company’s history.

As a newly established company, this would mean not only a considerable monthly income but it would also be a solid foundation for the future development of our company – a good reference point for our future business. Although in the beginning we were excited about the possibility of working with such a large, state-owned enterprise, we soon realized that we would face many difficulties. First of all, compared with our competitors, we did not have as much economic strength and extensive experience in pulp operations. Secondly, if we admitted that we had fewer resources and less experience, then the basis of our competitive advantage would need to be a lower price than that of our domestic competitors. But, unfortunately, it was impossible to gain this competitive advantage by means of a lower price simply because all the pulp suppliers in the United States, Canada and South America sell their products to their Chinese agents at the same price. The situation looked hopeless and many of my colleagues suggested that I just give up.

After thoroughly analyzing the situation, I came up with a creative and bold strategy to apply to the situation. Our company had good relationships with many of our customers that had years of experience with the sale of pulp and paper, such as publishing and printing houses. My new idea was to persuade these customers to sign a long-term letter of intent for the purchase of paper products over the next two to three years. In return, our company would agree to give them lower prices based on future market conditions – an agreement that no other tradesman could provide. By linking together suppliers and buyers in the value chain, we were able to win the confidence of Dongying Paper Factory by guaranteeing them a market for their paper products in the future. We not only were able to win the supply contract, but we were also able to set up good relationships with the Dongying Paper Factory and the end consumers. My strategy proved to be correct. My creative thinking “outside of the box” gave us a victory over more experienced competitors. Looking at customers as partners rather than simply purchasers of our products allowed us to optimize our advantages and move forward as a company. I see this as my most substantial achievement to date, which has laid the foundation for more such achievements in my future career.