Business for good, seeking the enduring power of women through cycles.
Wed, Jun 03 2026
Business for good, seeking the enduring power of women through cycles.
Business for good, seeking the female power that transcends cycles. Business has its intrinsic values that go far beyond the pursuit of profits. In times of change, innovation becomes the key for enterprises to continue winning in the competition. With the constant upheaval of market rules, modern businesses are increasingly taking on the heavy burden of social responsibilities. Addressing current social and environmental issues while pushing the whole world towards a better direction has become an important measure of a company's long-term competitiveness.
In this context, the "Cartier Women's Initiative" (CWI) has gone through 18 years. This year, it continues with the theme of "collective action for the common good," highlighting its profound meaning and value. The award aims to discover and nurture influential female entrepreneurs worldwide and assist their enterprises to develop with a more kind business philosophy.
In a recent interview, Cartier's President and CEO, Cyrille Vigneron, expressed profound insights: "Female entrepreneurs are leaders, innovators, and pioneers; they are wellsprings of courage and inspiration. They are dedicated to their careers, improve the world through their actions, and inspire us all. We are proud to support them to unleash their potential and expand their influence."
This strength stems from the relentless efforts of women themselves, as well as a community capable of connecting and passing on the spirit. Notably, the 2024 "Cartier Women's Initiative" is set to take place for the first time in the entrepreneurial capital of China—Shenzhen. In this city, which has led China in entrepreneurial density for eight consecutive years, we have witnessed the splendid achievements of 33 awardees.
This year, the East Asia regional award has for the first time welcomed two Chinese winners: Yu Xiaodan, founder of the brand "Jiang Hao," which brings light to breast cancer patients through design, and Du Xintong, founder of "Children's Language Workshop," who helps people with speech disorders reconnect with the world through phonetic learning. These two female entrepreneurs are grounded in their missions, giving a voice to the vulnerable in society and striving to make the world a better place.
Wingee Sin, the Global Program Director of "Cartier Women's Initiative," firmly believes: "The success of women entrepreneurs has a comprehensive positive impact on society, benefiting not only women but everyone."
The consensus of the two Chinese awardees is that female power is both strong, fluid, and sincere, as well as gentle and firm – qualities that not only define them but also reveal the core code of how female power influences the world throughout cycles.
Modern women often seek lingerie that not only showcases personal charm but also meets functional needs. A designer who has bonded with lingerie for more than twenty years has delved deep into this seemingly simple yet profound issue with expertise and passion.
In the 2024 "Cadilla Women Entrepreneur Award" for East Asia, Oceania, South Asia, and Central Asia, a designer who brought confidence and hope to female breast cancer patients was highlighted. She is Yu Xiaodan, the founder of the “Jiang Hao” brand, a fighter who not only relies on her professional knowledge of lingerie design but also dedicates herself to creating exclusive lingerie for post-mastectomy women with a heart full of warmth and genuine intentions.
Yu Xiaodan's career did not initially involve post-mastectomy lingerie; it was an unexpected phone call from an American surgeon working in China seeking help to find suitable lingerie for post-breast cancer surgery patients that brought her in contact with this special group. Although initially knowing little about the field, she was shocked by a series of startling clinical photos, which motivated her to deeply understand the needs of breast cancer patients.
After research, she found that the number of new diagnoses was growing at an alarming rate. The diagnosis of a longtime close friend further triggered Yu Xiaodan's strong desire to do something for these women. Initially, she just wanted to help the people around her, but the happiness and satisfaction felt by a friend after wearing the designed lingerie, along with her husband's encouragement, prompted her to decide to take this cause further.
Yu Xiaodan has designed for famous lingerie brands in the United States and founded her own brand EMILY YU in 2015. Facing external skepticism, Yu Xiaodan firmly believes the path she has chosen is right, because breast cancer patients are not a niche group but rather a community isolated by natural barriers that need help.
The founder of the “Jiang Hao” brand, Yu Xiaodan, and her team have adopted a new strategy to reach more breast cancer patients, by mobilizing the friends of diagnosed patients and using the influence of her previous fashion lingerie brand EMILY YU to promote the philosophy of “Jiang Hao” to the outside world, with the goal of garnering more attention and support for this group.
A compromise promotion strategy has been adopted with the goal of eliminating the barriers between Jiang Hao and its target customers, delivering the product to those who truly need it. This task is currently a challenge that Yu Xiaodan is focusing on. She not only republished the book "Lingerie Course," but she also sometimes personally updates the Xiao Hong Shu account and hosts live events. For her, content creation has become the focal point of Jiang Hao team's work due to its inherent filtering characteristics.
Yu Xiaodan disclosed that more than half of the Jiang Hao team is responsible for content creation. Although the outside world may perceive niche marketing to a specific group of female breast cancer patients, considering the need for a custom service model that accounts for individual customer differences and limits the brand's scalability, she sees a scarce number of brands on the market able to meet these basic needs, and many other needs of this customer group still unaddressed. She found that whether it is a need for lingerie products suitable for different post-operative recovery stages, patients with Poland's syndrome, future nursing mothers, or women with unequal breast size after nursing, there are many needs that remain unanswered.
In Yuxiao Dan's eyes, this job is more like a long-term service and companionship relationship, rather than just treating Jiang Hao as a one-off consumer brand for transactions and purchases. When asked about the longest-serving customer of Jiang Hao, her response was: "It's the customer who has grown up with Jiang Hao."
From the launch of the first "Little Jiang" in 2021, aimed at average-sized women, to the later "Big Jiang" designed for fuller-figured women and those asymmetric post-surgery, and then to the "Little Fat Butterfly" that meets post-operative women's needs while providing better support for the average woman, Jiang Hao's products have gradually matured under the guidance of modular design concepts. After many changes, the Jiang Hao team has also welcomed a stable development period.
"Jiang Hao" brand founder Yuxiao Dan recalled her 20-year career in underwear design: "Whenever I was at a low point, there were always kind people extending a helping hand." This benevolence seems to bring a certain destiny. Before participating in the "Cartier Women's Initiative Award," she found that many people had already recommended and encouraged her to enter. After going through many challenges such as data auditing, due diligence, communication in English, and strict judging by global judges, Yuxiao Dan was grateful to have won the 2024 East Asia Regional Award and expressed her intention to continue recommending the program to other female entrepreneurs, as the benefits far outweigh the costs.
Once indifferent to data, she now finds joy in calculating daily sales. This rational way of thinking has prompted her to abandon the passive promotion methods of media reports and donations, and to start actively using live streaming and Xiaohongshu for promotion. Her financial acumen also makes her focus more on how to sell products and accurately get them into the hands of those who truly need them, "feeling that this is more like an entrepreneurial way of doing things."
For entrepreneur Yuxiao Dan, participating in CWI (Connected Women Innovators) is not just about having a reliable backup but also finding companions on the lonely entrepreneurial journey. In an environment full of skepticism and isolation, CWI provides her with a community where she can seek help and advice at any time. Many times, she has brought personnel selections she faces or technical problems beyond her field to this global network and always finds answers quickly. She believes that there is a mutual aid power among women, and in warm and firm communication, these female entrepreneurs form a unified "field," promoting a benevolent social change that cares not only about the value of the entrepreneurship project itself but also carries the determination to change the status quo.
For all parents, hearing their child speak their first clear words is an immensely happy moment. However, in China, nearly 29 million children face the challenge of language barriers, including delayed language development, articulation disorders, and various other causes. The proliferation of electronic screens, rapid urban development, and long-term wearing of masks in modern lifestyles contribute directly or indirectly to the high incidence of language disorders. Against this backdrop, Du Xintong founded Er Yu Workshop, hoping to help children regain their language skills through more efficient rehabilitation services.
Du Xintong's journey began with a charitable event during her university years, where she used her knowledge to help a child with cleft lip and palate. The child's words, "Sister, will you come back?" deeply moved Du Xintong and inspired her to commit to helping more children with speech disorders. At first, she did not think too far ahead but was determined to solve one child's issues after another. However, under the guidance of a mentor, she gradually realized that relying solely on charity and donations was not a sustainable way to effect change. Thus, she embarked on a journey to address this social issue through a business model.
In the developing speech rehabilitation industry in China, the challenges are not only the various needs of children with language disorders but also the cultivation of professional service providers and the awareness among consumers—parents—of the importance of speech rehabilitation. To effect a change in social awareness, it not only requires time but also the accumulation of education and experience.
To follow the development of the speech therapy industry, the key issue is to create better working conditions, establish industry standards, encourage improvement in lower-level institutions, create a high-quality supply system, and reduce parents' decision-making and costs in choosing institutions. The starting point is to set an example for the industry. The Children's Language Workshop has four flagship stores in Shanghai and more than ten brand cooperative stores nationwide, all of which consistently rank at the top in local reputation rankings. With the rise of the Children's Language Workshop, other institutions have also begun reforming, offering shorter course packages, which significantly reduces the trial-and-error costs for parents of children with speech disorders.
The vision of the Children's Language Workshop is for China's language-disabled population to conveniently access rehabilitation services. Du Xintong is aware of the limited capacity of the academic field and public hospitals, as well as the price parents pay for rehabilitation treatments. To achieve this goal, the entire industry must progress. She realizes that service quality and brand reputation are more important than short-term profits, and she maintains a value orientation that "children always come first."
The rehabilitation course system, at the Children's Language Workshop, is based on language education theories from East China Normal University, Taiwan (China), and the United States. It has developed the CDS (children's language development services) training curriculum system, which is divided into nine specific intervention stages for seven types of children. Through personalized matching, each child is equipped with the most suitable speech therapist and a personalized intervention plan. Unlike traditional long-term intervention models, Children's Language Workshop's intervention is broken down into multiple small nodes, each with a clear quantitative target, making the process transparent. Parents participate in supervising the intervention, increasing the sense of security.
Recruitment and training, the pace of recruitment and structure of training for speech-language pathologists are central to the Children's Language Workshop's adaptation to market demand growth. Unwilling to compromise on recruitment quality, even job seekers with years of experience must undergo training to meet Children's Language Workshop standards. Currently, among the four stores in Shanghai, three are experiencing queues of waiting parents, reflecting the mismatch between supply and demand in the entire industry. Faced with a speech-disabled population of over 20 million, China has only about 10,000 speech therapists, many of whom have not received professional training.
In the Children's Speech Workshop, addressing the mismatch between supply and demand is an urgent matter. So far, the Children's Speech Workshop has successfully trained over a thousand speech therapists and served more than 8,000 patients with speech disorders from over 20 provinces and cities nationwide, with over 100,000 services provided and a successful recovery rate of 98%. As an energetic entrepreneur, Du Xintong is determined to become a leader in the industry. However, she realizes that becoming an industry leader is not the end goal; rather, it is the starting point to set higher industry standards, aimed at ensuring that every patient with a speech disorder can receive more convenient rehabilitation services.
For many startups, pursuing an initial public offering (IPO) may be a milestone, but for Du Xintong, an IPO is just one of many possible paths. She emphasizes that it is wrong to pursue an IPO for the sake of going public alone. In her view, sincerity is key in language rehabilitation therapy, not the exchange of consumer goods. This involves giving great empathy and help to children's needs throughout the service period, which aligns with her advocated values.
As a female entrepreneur, Du Xintong believes she has more empathy in this industry than her male counterparts. She has felt genuine support in the CWI community and understands that even women entrepreneurs from different backgrounds and fields can understand each other and create change together. Du Xintong firmly believes that the confidence and strength displayed by women entrepreneurs gathering together is itself a force that signifies a belief that the world is made better by our presence.
Moreover, these values are not only prevalent among female entrepreneurs, but can also influence the entire business world. As the Global Program Director of the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards states, she believes that modern capital can be driven by values.
This is a fundamental belief that the world can become a better place because of us.
Companies dedicated to addressing significant social needs are seen as an important force in "doing the greatest good." Through the allocation of capital, businesses realize a vision of social and environmental change. A female leader with 15 years of capital market experience realizes the lack of female perspectives in a vibrant and innovative business ecosystem, where products and services often overlook the needs of female consumers. Therefore, she is committed to building an ecosystem that supports female entrepreneurship.
Over time, she has transitioned from her initial role as an executive coach to becoming the leader of a global project. The project aims to support female entrepreneurs with an increased total prize amount, as well as low-interest loans and other forms of support. This includes awards specifically set up to highlight female pioneers in technology and technical fields, as well as loan supports designed to help women overcome financing challenges.
The project continues to expand its scale and impact, with the number of awards increasing from the original 5 to 33, and adding prizes for different regions. Establishing a community of female entrepreneurs, introducing business training, and collaborating with international exhibitions are all initiatives that support the comprehensive and sustainable development of the project.
These measures not only provide financial support to female entrepreneurs, but also offer them networking and knowledge skills assistance, powering their businesses towards more sustainable development.
The entrepreneurial journey is filled with challenges, but it is not always a solitary one. When we are committed to making the world a better place, like-minded individuals will join our ranks.
As Xian Yingzhi shares, "To fulfill this mission, we provide the award-winning entrepreneurs with the necessary financial, social, and human resource support. We hope that by supporting these businesses, we can create a wider positive impact, inspiring more people to support female entrepreneurs. In this way, their businesses can become a positive force, growing strong with support." Just like the rewards reaped from kindness, good deeds can carve out a new frontier.
When these women, brave enough to lead change, gather together under the value of goodness, a force both tender and strong ensues, continuously flowing and being passed down in the never-ceasing engine of the business world.
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