Ying’s Blog

The book that made the most impact on my business thinking is ‘The world is flat’ by Thomas L. Friedman. During almost 20 year of moving between four different continents and working in international corporations, I have experienced and witnessed the increasing interactions across boarders of countries and cultures, but my mindset about the world had not been flat until I read this book. As a result, my vision for LA YIN was a global one from the very start. The flatness goes in every level of my conducting business. I see the incredible business benefits in thinking and operating in a flat manner.

Autobiography of Estee Lauder has inspired me most: to be an entrepreneur, to be persistent on pursuing dreams, and to make many other women feel good with beautiful products. I’ve read it twice and certainly will read more down the road.

‘Build to last’  by James Collins & Jerry Porras . I was working for Motorola Australia when I first read the book. It got me intellectualizing the roads to a sustainable business. I never agreed with the mentality of maximizing profit at any cost to society and environment and etc. Profitable and sustainable are my business goals. I’m sure many women will agree with me. The analysis of the book gave me good insights on how to achieves those goals.

The latest good business book I read and am using is ´Blue Ocean Strategy´ by Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. Most are competing in the existing industries and in old manners. That space is called a red ocean, i.e. full of bloody competitions! Now the smart thing to do is to look at the needs and wants of the market at a very differnt angle and create a market space with new parameters. This space becomes a blue ocean. Most importantly, this blue ocean makes the competition irrelivent. Many examples given in the book help greatly gainning understanding of why and how. For me it is just what I need at this point of time. I’m using its framework to make sure our hard work is at the right track!