Podcast recorded by Chaorong ZHANG, the student in this GAIA Semester at Audencia.

Q1: Could you please introduce yourself and briefly present your company?

Guest: Hello, I am CHEN Kunyuan. I used to be a soldier in the People’s Liberation Army, and after I got discharged from the army, I started my own business and founded the present company, Jiangxi Soldier Delivering Vegetables Industrial Co. Our company mainly delivers fresh and high-quality vegetables and other agricultural products to customers, focusing on good quality and low price. At the same time, our company also provides various skills training for veterans to help solve their employment problems. We also actively respond to the national call for poverty alleviation, and work to help poor households in rural China.

Q2: What is for you an Entrepreneur who takes social challenges into account?

Guest: China is huge, and while the social system works pretty well, there are still a lot of issues that need to be addressed. As an entrepreneur, we often receive various grants from the government to help us run our business. So I’ve always wanted to give back to society and the government. For me, if the business is running smoothly and there is spare capacity, I want to help the society develop as much as possible and solve some social problems. This will not only enhance the social image of the company, but also is the proper attitude of an entrepreneur who is responsible for social challenges.

Q3: Based on your own experience, why did you choose to set your business into taking the social challenges and how can you recognize this responsible entrepreneurial opportunity?

Guest: Since I used to be in the military, I was lost for a while after I got out. Before I finally started my own company, I tried many kinds of jobs and businesses, but none of them were successful. China’s military has many veterans every year, and I have a similar experience with them, having suffered a lot, which makes us feel a sense of identity with each other. When I was in the army, I carried out a lot of missions and traveled to remote villages that most people have never been to, which made me deeply feel that there are still a lot of things that need to be improved in the society. So I wanted to help them and decided to position my company to tackle social challenges.

Q4: What social responsibilities do you think the company has undertaken, and why do you want to take on these responsibilities?

Guest: Our business has two main social responsibilities. First, we help veterans find jobs through skills training. Being a veteran myself, I understand the difficulties and challenges of transitioning to a new career after discharge. After all, soldiers have trained hard and contributed to the security of our country and us, and they deserve a good place to go after discharge, where they can continue to utilize their abilities. Through skills training, we help them adapt to their new lives faster and integrate better into society. So we take our responsibility to help veterans find employment very seriously. Secondly, our company is also actively involved in poverty alleviation in rural China. Personally, I like to lead a team to do charity work, and I have seen the difficulties of many families and individuals with my own eyes, and their stories are touching, and I have also seen how difficult it is for many people to live a strong life. As an entrepreneur, I really want to use my ability to help these people who are trying to survive, to improve their quality of life and help them get out of poverty.

Q5: What do you think are the major competitors in your main business and how do you improve your competitiveness in the market?

Guest: Our main competitor is the current like some large financial capital plus Internet companies, for example, like Meituan, Pinduoduo, Jingdong ah these. Our industry is actually highly dependent on the industry chain, we have to have a small market share, and then there are more companies like that. So that in our industry to do business needs to have a strong sense of crisis, to go to clearly position themselves in this business model, to go in the industry chain process to set a benchmark, to have a set of high-quality employment, low-risk entrepreneurial awareness, as well as the nurturing process ah, to improve, because you young people understand it, so that the talent has a competitive channel, the company went to have the flow of fresh blood! The company also has a sense of management and supervision plus risk control.

Q6: How do you find people who need help? Is it proactive or reactive?

Guest: This is a very good question. We have an exceptionally large population in China, 1.4 billion people, right, but we have a well-organized country that has basically achieved a national coverage. We know that China advocates rural revitalization and comprehensive poverty alleviation, right? So part of our poverty alleviation and rural revitalization work is coordinated by our government, directly to the corresponding villages, and through their strengths directly to do industrial ah or like that kind of craft poverty alleviation. Then there are also parts of this business is found in the process of cooperation in some of the poorer places, and then we take the initiative to do such a rural revitalization program implantation, or social public welfare directly to help it, and there are also some parts of the enterprise through the internal staff or social groups or organizations, such as trade unions, women’s federation, the Red Cross, and so on, they take the initiative to report such a social Public Welfare Activities Program.

Q7: How relevant is the involvement in solving social problems to the main business and does it have a positive effect on the main business?

Guest: Of course there is a certain correlation, after all, we will also be in the process of doing business to find this we need to help the object. Then the impact, I think that when our enterprise can do a good job in poverty alleviation and rural revitalization, is the foundation of our enterprise in this society, so that we can become a humane enterprise. I personally like this very much to bring employees to participate in public welfare activities, because then we can go to see many families or individuals in such a form of difficulty, can you understand. They have too many helpless or sad and touching stories in order to survive. I take this staff to participate in public welfare activities such as sponsorship of children, care for the elderly, condolences to households in need and so on, and in the process of it I feel the society of many people are not easy, they are brave and strong survival. This also gives me the spiritual motivation to do a good job of the enterprise, because the enterprise to do a good job in order to help people in need, which is also the source of motivation and spiritual goal of our good enterprise. For example, the sales side of our enterprise products in the demand for farmers, that is, we are the supplier, a precise order, so that they can be more effective arrangements for labor, production capacity and efficiency, to do the most optimal program, the supply of optimal products, to reduce costs. How much capacity they have how many orders we will place, to help others at the same time it is also helping ourselves.

Q8: How do you measure your impact on the problem you solve and the impact of your company? And what do you think is the actual effectiveness of the company’s actions in solving social problems?

Guest: If you want to talk about impact I think what we are doing now is to provide what we can to people who are struggling to make ends meet, and from our experience of doing these charitable activities we can make life less stressful for the less affluent, so that they can have more time to enjoy their lives and enjoy their time with their families. The impact on us, and I mentioned this in the last question, is that such a thing is such a source of motivation and such a spiritual goal for us to do well in this business, and I don’t think there’s any way I could do our job without such a link. I myself, including most of my staff, come from a military background, and for us to serve the community is our ultimate goal. And then the actual effect, I think it is good, although we may only contribute a small amount, but to do such a thing, no matter how much or how little, can make this society better.

Q9: How did you manage to make your company economically viable while you are devoting to help the community?

Guest: I don’t think there’s a very good correlation between the two. Helping the community is our obligation and our responsibility, I think, and it has nothing to do with economic benefits. The source of our economic benefits is based on our main business of delivering groceries to the home, right, so helping the community does not bring economic benefits but it gives us the motivation to be a business.

END: Thank you again Mr. Chen for participating to our show. All our podcasts are available on the main podcast platforms.