By Ou Zicheng (IMBA Student Assistant)

Mr. Tang Ning, CEO of CreditEase, was appointed to be the Industry Advisor of Tsinghua-MIT International MBA (IMBA) program in Shunde Building, School of Economics and Management (SEM), Tsinghua University on April 25th, 2012. During the ceremony, Tang delivered the long-awaited speech “Entrepreneurship & Innovation: A Lifestyle”.

Tang, with the renown as “Muhammad Yunus’ Chinese disciple”, founded CreditEase, the first and the largest P2P microfinance platform in China in 2006. Tsinghua-MIT International MBA program is a collaborative program between Tsinghua SEM and MIT Sloan School of Management. It’s been a tradition to invite prominent business leader such as Tang Ning to be industry advisors. Also this program retains long-term intimate relationship with industry advisors’ company and according to investigation 11 Tsinghua MBA alumni is now working in CreditEase.

Based on his experience as a business angel and entrepreneur, Tang put 3 key words forward about surviving and prospering in China’s business world: competition, continuous innovation and double bottom line.

The first key word is competition. “Competition is everywhere, and it is more serious and fierce in China. I myself have some competition this evening, with several big names in the business community lecturing simultaneously here at SEM. I need to do a very good job to be able to bring you back next time making this relationship a long lasting one.” Tang managed to activate the students with his natural instincts humor.

Continuous innovation is the second key word. CreditEase was once a mere P2P platform, and then extended to the area of B2P (business to person). Today its business model is “inclusive finance + wealth management”. This is evidence of CreditEase’s striking to gain and retain competitive advantages by combining with China’s actual situation and continuous innovation.

The last-but-not-the-least key word is “double bottom line”. “Commercial success needs to be combined with corporate social responsibilities,” said Tang, “We are now enjoying a win-win-win situation. Our clients are satisfied, we are earning success and needy people get help.”

The 1-hour Q&A session after the speech was a highlight of this evening. IMBA students were thrilled to meet their industry advisor Tang and were greatly inspired. They raised questions such as how to view copycats of CreditEase’ business model, influence of default rate on CreditEase, how to deal with the relationship with government, managerial philosophy, expectations towards IMBA students and recipe on a better work-life balance. Tang exchanged ideas and opinions with IBMA students and expressed his longing to further communication with them in the near future.