Strategic Analyst, Midway Asia Head Office, Merlin Entertainments Group
Jiang, an MS/Finance graduate, has a broad range of responsibilities at Merlin, where he works in its Hong Kong office. He says this including providing “strategic analysis and support to the Midway Asia senior management on the annual strategic plan, comprehensive business updates, monthly business reviews and consumer analytics initiatives.” Merlin, based in Great Britain, operates 127 attractions, 19 hotels and seven holiday villages in 24 countries worldwide. Jiang met up with other Comets living in China at a Jindal School alumni event held this past spring in Shenzhen, China.
What are some of your current job responsibilities?
I review Midway Asia monthly business performance, ensuring all action plans for local attractions are on track. I also manage key business projects and products with the senior management team of each local attraction and provide financial analysis for attractions on profitability and expense management. In addition, we conduct research on the industry, competitors and sites locations in order to make recommendations on new business opportunities.
What do you enjoy about your current position/profession?
Diversity. This job provides me the opportunities not only to improve my capabilities and the skill sets required to be a future leader but more importantly, to manage or coordinate projects in six countries or regions across Asia. There are different opinions among senior leaders who have different cultural or professional backgrounds. We must stay on track and keep the big picture in mind for the entire group. We build our team to be happy with the diversity of opinion and perhaps learn from the differences in each other’s thinking.
What is a professional highlight of your career, either where you currently work or in the past?
I would say it would be the first strategic project I took after I came to the Asia head office. I was asked to figure out how to improve a continuously under-performing channel of one of our cluster attractions in Asia. After researching and face-to-face sessions, we worked out a series of action plans, including revising the incentive plan, pushing a new training plan, etc. More importantly, we successfully identified the key factor that dragged our business down and solved it. After the action plan was implemented, the business performance of this channel doubled to almost tripled for several months without cannibalizing other channels.
Why did you come to UT Dallas?
I strongly believe that one can be more mature when experiencing the collision and fusion of Western and Eastern cultures. Also, UT Dallas’ Jindal School of Management has a great reputation. So I chose to leave my comfort zone and came to UT Dallas to pursue my graduate degree.
What is your favorite UT Dallas memory?
I enjoyed participating in FACSS (Friendship Association of Chinese Students and Scholars) when I was a student. It was fun to be a part of the student group and help each other, as we were all from abroad. In my second year, I was elected vice president of FACSS. I deeply believe the power of that network could offer great benefits to others so that’s why I have supported establishing our own UT Dallas alumni community in China. This will give us a place to continue to learn from and improve with each other.
Did a UT Dallas professor inspire you? Who was that and how was that person inspirational?
Dr. David Springate’s Private Equity Finance class was known as one of the most difficult courses in my major. What really impressed me was his teaching method. This course is 100 percent case-based study, which meant the class was a real business seminar. We were all encouraged to share our opinions on these business cases, trying to build financial models to tackle each situation. We could challenge the decision made by the management team, using our own analysis. This class provided tremendous value to my education.
Has something about your UT Dallas education surprised you since graduating?
I’m surprised that we are still CONNECTED! I would say that our alumni relationship has been maintained quite well with great support from the university and the alumni. I’m looking forward to the new developments in our regional alumni associations.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
Mostly I go out to catch up with friends who work in different industries. If I had more time, I would love to take long road trips to remote places or have more time to explore things I don’t typically do in the city.
