Ruijin Company: The Puzzle of Talent in Business Growth

This case discusses how a firm achieved strategic competitiveness from the perspective of organizational development and talent management. Ruijin was established as a fashion magazine in 2005, and by 2014, it had launched its own brand and expanded into media, retail, industry exhibitions and many other businesses. Entrepreneur Yue Zheng developed a five-year medium-term strategy for Ruijin that would integrate all its businesses to form a platform allowing the China fashion industry to spread, lead and create fashion. Implementing this strategy required the integration of resources of all businesses represented by the media and retail businesses operated by the company, as well as coordination and integration of professional talents in varied fields to generate collaborative and innovative organizational capability, which Yue felt had been lacking. He first turned his attention to collaboration and changed the organizational structure from an SBU to a line-functional structure; he also improved the communication system and added a synergy coordinating team. In addition, he considered the development of talent strategy from the perspectives of salary, performance, incentive, etc. However, market opportunities were fleeting — would the initiatives in the company’s organization and human resources work?