Ob Project Idea 0819

1. Background:  

The AA Consumer Financing Company (“AA”), as subsidiary of PP Lending – China’s first peer to peer lending (P2P) online platform, was established in Aug 2015.  AA offers financing services to offline customers in specific consumer sectors, currently focusing on 3C (Computer, Communications and Consumer Electronics) market.  The target customers are China’s blue collar workers with relatively low income.  AA provides unsecured loans to this new offline channel leveraging the parent companies experience, risk management system and infrastructure.

AA covers over 20 cities in China with approximately 600 employees. The accumulated transaction volume to-date is approximately RMB 300 million with a customer base of over 100,000 people. AA is rapidly growing in the industry; The company’s 2016 target is to reach a transaction volume of RMB 1,200 million.

AA consists of 3 Vice Presidents, Sales & Marketing, Risk and Finance, all reporting to the CEO. Additionally, back office functions of Human Resource and Product & IT support report to the CEO. Our analysis will focus on the Sales Department, where the majority of employees are positioned (over 500).

The organization chart of the Sales Department is as follows;

 [pic 1]

Key contacts:

Mr. Li                    Founder of AA

Mr. Miao                 Vice President of Sales Department

1. Key Issues:

1. Senior management team bottle neck (Organizational structure and design)

• High management burden on the Sales Vice President (1:20 management ratio) due rapid growth in the lower management levels in the sales team
• Lack of management skill and experience within the Senior Sales Managers to promote internally and fill the regional head positions

1. High turnover rate in sales force (Motivations and reward practices)

• Rapid growth targets - staffs are not able to reach the targets
• Low commitment to the company
• Unethical practices such as fraud
• Low base salary with high performance incentives

1. Intended Methods:

1. Conduct 2 interviews with the CEO and the Sales Vice President  
2. Randomly select 10% of Senior Managers and Managers and conduct a survey via telephone
3. Randomly select 20 sales people for a sample study and ask them to fill out a questionnaire online

1. Timeline:

[pic 2]