WEBB GLOBAL
Webb’s focus on integrity continues to impact Wang and his global business As it turns out, Olly Wang is often reminded of The Webb School as he applies what he considers “beyond knowledge” that he learned during his two years as a student. Wang ’09 is a graduate of Cornell University majoring in AEM (undergraduate business) and Food Science. He was the top graduate in 2013 and was also a presidential award winner. He joined his family’s seafood business in Dalian, China, in 2013 as plant manager, and in 2016, his mother passed the general manager role to him. He is in charge of all major operations for Dalian Ocean Pearl Foods Co. LTD, Dalian Zhudao FoodStuffs Co. LTD and Dalian Shandao Food Co. LTD. In the last five years, Wang has increased the family’s fish market more than 10-fold and doubled the total business. “I developed the Europe market, with which we had no connection before I came. Now our market covers most of the world.” He added, “Ocean Beauty, Pacific Seafood and Trident are the top fish companies … and Eastern Fisheries is the top scallop company in the U.S. Highliner is a top seafood in Canada. We have close business relationships with all these major players. Our products go to both retailers like Kroger and food services like Red Lobster.” Because one of his majors was food science, Wang said the theme “feeding the world” has been important to him. “I am both happy and proud that I’m making an active impact.” He thinks it’s important not only to combat hunger but also to improve food quality for everyone, especially in the U.S. As a student in the U.S., he became aware of the quality of fish available, which he said was safe to eat, but much lower than his company’s standards. “Feeding the world with high-quality seafood, that’s my passion for my work. I walk into the workshop myself almost every day, as long as I’m not traveling, to make sure we are producing top-quality products that I would find delicious myself.”
Spring-Summer 2018
His customers, especially western customers, say they buy from him “not for a cheaper price but for my business integrity,” he explained. “In economics, we call it a valuable intangible asset. I believe I would never fully understand its true value, especially when I just started working, without writing down the Webb (honor) code over and over again until this western ideology was deeply planted in my mind.
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Olly Wang checking on product quality in the factory
“The code, beyond the simple words, builds the pride of personal integrity inside a young mind. And that had a huge impact on my later work and life.” Wang explained, “I remember when I just started working, one supplier unilaterally defaulted on a contract due to the market price rising, but I decided to buy raw materials elsewhere at a much higher price to fulfill my customer’s orders. It was a tough decision, with over halfmillion-dollar loss, but I know the value of business integrity, which is much more than this loss. My customer has now become my largest buyer