Yuwen Hong - Regional Diabetes Business Manager
Name:
Yuwen Hong
Education:
Bachelor degree in Hygiene
Job title:
Regional Diabetes Business Manager
Department:
Sales
What I learned from a colleague who came to Harbin in 1995 on sales:
From watching my colleague, I could see the culture and style of Novo Nordisk, and its emphasis of placing “education first and drug sales second”. I appreciated this, and events proved it to be an effective sales method.
I consider it wonderful that, when compared with companies for which I’ve worked in the past, my work in Novo Nordisk is significant. This is evident from the sense of responsibility that Novo Nordisk feels towards society, customers, patients, and its staff, and also from the trust and recognition of diabetic patents in need. “Our task is not simply work, but a cause.” Because work is the most important part of my life, I feel that my personal value is reflected in it. This is why I take such satisfaction in my job.
Cai Zhanping, my direct manager, is the same age as me. We have passed through many years of thick and thin, and this has given us confidence and a quiet understanding. For the last eight years, he has given me encouragement and support, and taught me practical management methods. He is always advancing with the times, and his tendency to lead rather than follow urges others to push forward continually.
The Heilongjiang team has real character. I view each of its members as brothers and sisters. My attitude to them is both stern and tolerant, and I prefer encouragement and suggestion to criticism. The result is a collegial and harmonious atmosphere where everyone feels free to express his or her opinions, and tries to build consensus through reasoning and persuasion. Our common maturation also makes me want to pursue further studies so as to have more of a theoretical and practical base on which to guide the team and achieve win-win results.
We must be responsible and resolute in the pursuit of perfection. When I first joined the company, China did a generally poor job in diagnosing and treating diabetes. There was only one hospital with a special endocrinology department and its twenty beds were rarely fully occupied. Doctors had improper ideas on the injection of insulin, and it was common for diabetics to fear it and regard it as a scourge. I saw many diabetics who needed to use insulin, but suffered from drowsiness, allergic reactions and lipoatrophy after using animal-derived insulin.
I witnessed the recalcitrance of some patients who “would die before injecting insulin” and even heard the advice some grass-roots doctors gave patients in suggesting that they never take insulin to avoid addiction. Such ridiculous behavior imbued me with a sense of greater responsibility towards educating these diabetics and providing ongoing knowledge on the disease to both doctors and patients. This was necessary to cure such prejudices, and has been reflected in my last eight years of work. Tens of thousands of doctors and diabetics have attended our courses and activities, and such public education is still on-going.
At present, almost all of the physicians in Heilongjiang know of Novolin and human insulin. Public praise of insulin therapy is spreading among diabetics, and it is not uncommon for diabetics to take the initiative in seeking out insulin injections and NovoPen treatment.
Patients and doctors have confidence in Novo Nordisk, and it makes me proud to have exerted such effort to achieve this. At the same time, such confidence is hard to live up to and stirs us on to greater tasks. Members in our Heilongjiang team are all common people: it is my wish that we can work together to do some uncommon good for the vulnerable.