Searching high and low for the world's happiest place

Almost everyone has had a spell of dubiety in struggling to convince oneself what would be the right and orthodox career path to tread immediately after graduation.

Alan Ai Tiecheng, WeWork's Greater China general manager, is no exception. He found a place in the sun, and calls his earlier career life a "journey of learning".

After completing his studies at Tianjin University — one of China's oldest established tertiary seats of learning — he joined multi-national consumer goods group Procter & Gamble as a management trainee. In his early career, Ai regarded it as a "trading school", where he taught himself how to define consumer demand, as well as insight, and how to build up a brand and strategy.

At InterContinental Hotels Group, where he led the brand management, marketing and consumer insights division in the Greater China region, he picked up the hospitality trade and built up the branding experience through his valued exposure to high-end clients.

Ai cites entertainment titan Walt Disney Group serving as "The Happiest Place on Earth" that pursues the acme of "experience" in every way. He was, actually, one of the "creators" who helped bring Disneyland to the Chinese mainland two years ago and seeing it grow out of nothing.

"It's enough for you to visit Disneyland up to 10 times each year to find a family recreation location. But, what if your office, in which you spend 10 hours every day, offers you the same happiness? "

"That's exactly what we at WeWork are doing".

Earlier this year, when Ai first stepped into one of WeWork's locations on the Chinese mainland, he found it had already become an "internet celebrity" in the social media by word of mouth.

As a leader, Ai has made every effort to make his team more energetic, passionate and more authentic before getting to know WeWork. A one-day visit to the location led to the determination: "Yes, this is something that I really want to do".

He sees WeWork as something that's changing the world and the way in which people work and live.

Acting as a guide for visitors to a WeWork location is Ai's favorite activity, and knowing that clients appreciate their flexible working office more and more as time goes by gives him the happiest time in the world.

Looking ahead, he emphasizes the challenges in outputting experience in a competitive environment for the co-working industry, and getting into more global markets tops his wish list for 2018.

For Ai, that's a life-time chance to be a part of "changing the world".