What better way to finish the year off in 2023 than visiting one of the most successful digital banks in the world? It was both an eye-opening experience and a pleasure to tour the headquarters of WeBank in Shenzhen and have an authentic fireside chat with its Chairman Mr. David Ku. Not only did we get to witness first-hand how WeBank is able to leverage state-of-the-art technology to consistently remain competitive in the industry in a novel manner, explained by WeBank’s Head of Fintech Innovation. We also learned about how WeBank started from scratch and grew into the leading digital bank we see today.
WeBank was the first digital bank in China, established in 2014. David saw an opportunity with huge potential and acted on it. The company’s vision was clear in the beginning, to provide equal financial services for the unbanked and the underbanked. WeBank launches a series of digital inclusive financial products, including Weilidai（微粒貸）and Weiyedai（微業貸），loan services targeting individuals and small businesses. The entire money-borrowing process is purely conducted online with simple-to-use and user-friendly features. The company is strong as ever, equipped with the most advanced technologies including Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Cloud Computing, and Big Data, with over 360 million users served, and is still growing.
David shared many advice and insights with us, of which I remembered the most was his journey before WeBank and when building WeBank. Innovation was something David cared about when he started WeBank. He spent a handful of time at a financial company. He wanted to build something but realized that a huge firm was not an ideal breeding ground for innovation and so he left with an idea and ambition.
Naturally, we would imagine a start-up company to be an all-star team. However, David pointed out that it was not the most important deciding factor in the finance business. Employees need to be smart, but they also need to know how to cooperate with others as well as a system to run the team, which David considered to be the crucial factor for WeBank in its early stages. David had to find a new group of people who were willing and able to function as a team well and discuss openly.
Innovation means tests and failures tried. Sounds odd but David stressed that in order fora company to be innovative and develop an innovative culture, you have to let your employees try even if it could mean failing. David recalled the times when his employees would come up with ideas that were going to fail but for the sake of an innovative culture, he might allow some trial runs so that his employees would be more open and willing to share ideas in the future. This would have gone the other way in other traditional firms.
In a world full of chaos, you would easily lose yourself if you do not hold ontos omething. I still vividly remember what David told us, “regardless of what happens outside, you have to define your own goal, it might not be obvious, but if you work hard, eventually, you will achieve it.” Living in an “elite” society, we are often told that you need to be intelligent to succeed, which is not wrong but we can often get fixated on that. Being diligent is sometimes overlooked and under-appreciated by many. After being admitted to University, not only is the world full of smart people, but it is also filled with people who are more hard-working than you. We cannot change the former, but we do possess the ability to make an impact in the latter. Mr. Ku’s words made me realize I should make an effort to discover what I would like to achieve and work hard towards it.
In the Melo community, one of our unofficial slogans is “Get shit done”. Piling on that, we might have another one. Mr. Ku mentioned that “you can never expect what is coming, you just have to be mentally prepared and be ready that there is going to be shit thrown at you.” I think this applies greatly in all aspects of our lives, especially for all of those perfectionists out there. It is going to be rough, but just like two of the Melo core values state: be resilient and adaptive!
