Fight for Survival: The First Year of the Hongfeng Hanyuan Consulting Company

Shanghai Hongfeng Hanyuan Consulting Company, specializing in providing management training courses, was started in 2003, but was not in operation until 2007. Its founder and president, Sean Jiang, an MBA graduate with rich working experience as a successful training specialist in one of China’s leading companies, together with two of his previous co-workers, decided to restart Hongfeng because he believed he had accumulated sufficient knowledge about management training and the training industry. However, he quickly realized that it was not easy to duplicate his previous success in large training companies. Hongfeng’s total revenue in2007 was only 15 percent of the original target and the firm was losing money. More importantly, Jiang’s general manager decided to leave the company at the end of the year. Jiang needed to work out a strategy for 2008 in order to make sure his company could survive for another year.