—— A Profile of Cheng Xiaoxia, Deputy Director of the Business Department at Henan Jiaozuo Construction Engineering Group

Cheng Xiaoxia

Straightforward in character, bold in speech and action, upright in conduct, and meticulous, rigorous, and thorough in her work — she is Cheng Xiaoxia, Deputy Director of the Business Department at Henan Jiaozuo Construction Engineering Group and a model in budget management.

Meticulous and Upright, Principles Above All

Because of her forthright personality and decisive style, many people do not see Cheng Xiaoxia as a particularly detail-oriented person, but in fact she is anything but careless in her work. Every time she takes on a project, she tirelessly investigates market conditions and personally visits the construction site for inspections. She is upright, sticks to principles, and neither backs down nor compromises.

Wang Tongfeng, Deputy General Manager of Jiaozuo Construction Engineering Group, is the chief commander of the Mengzhou BT project. He said that the client for the project had pressed material prices very low, and municipal budgeting was a new subject for Cheng Xiaoxia, but she quickly got into the role. While earnestly studying municipal budgeting knowledge, she also actively went out to research market prices, and armed with standards and theory she bargained with the client, arguing her case vigorously; on matters of principle she never gave ground. Through the efforts of all parties, the contract ultimately included the following clause: regarding the Party B's objection to the unit prices of materials in the financial review portion of the lump-sum scope, the finance department shall determine them at the time of the project completion settlement in accordance with the Minutes of the Mengzhou Municipal Government Mayor's Office Meeting and relevant national regulations. This safeguarded the company's interests to a certain extent.

Aid to Sichuan, Showcasing Her Style

The Wenchuan earthquake touched the hearts of the entire nation, and Cheng Xiaoxia, thousands of miles away, left her hospitalized daughter behind and traveled to Sichuan multiple times to take part in aid and post-disaster reconstruction work.

After completing the construction of transitional prefabricated housing after the earthquake in Anchang Town, An County, Sichuan, at the end of 2008 Jiaozuo Construction Engineering Group undertook the Zhongyuan Love Community aid project in Jiangyou, Sichuan — Cheng Xiaoxia's third trip to Sichuan. Because the requirements and standards in the budgeting field vary greatly from province to province, they were unfamiliar with the local quotas, did not know how to use the local Thsware budgeting software, and the local electronic bill of quantities was not provided to bidders, so difficulties abounded. To this end, Cheng Xiaoxia and her colleagues rushed to Mianyang and spent two days familiarizing themselves with the local standards and software, then plunged into the work with only a hazy understanding.

During the three days and nights leading up to the bid, Cheng Xiaoxia barely closed her eyes; the local bill-of-quantities descriptions were strict, and a single punctuation error could disqualify the bid. After the bidding ended, having been under enormous pressure for so long and having gone so long without proper sleep, Cheng Xiaoxia actually suffered from insomnia.

Sparing No Effort in Training Newcomers

As a key figure in the budgeting system of Jiaozuo Construction Engineering Group, Cheng Xiaoxia not only tells the budgeting staff everything she knows and answers every question without reservation, but also devotes most of her energy outside work to training newcomers, truly becoming a mentor and friend to new employees and carrying the group's fine tradition of mentoring to its fullest.

Ren Hualong of the Business Department is a university graduate majoring in engineering cost who has worked in the department since graduating in 2010, but it was not until 2011, when Cheng Xiaoxia was transferred from the Audit Department to the Business Department to establish the Budget Center, that Ren Hualong truly began to engage in the budgeting work he loves. When he took over Phase 1 of the Jiaozuo Vocational Education Park project, he could only do simple tasks, entering quota sub-items into the Glodon software. Later, Cheng Xiaoxia saw that he was a promising talent, so she boldly gave him free rein, gradually assigning him more complex work, giving him careful guidance while he studied and pondered on his own, and promptly and patiently giving him correct answers to his questions. Over time, Ren Hualong learned more complex project budgeting such as rebar, graphic quantity takeoff, and steel structures, and his ability to complete work independently gradually strengthened.

In addition to the enhancement of technical and other work capabilities, what benefited Ren Hualong greatly was Cheng Xiaoxia's vigorous and resolute work style: whenever there is a task, Cheng Xiaoxia never procrastinates and completes it on time or even ahead of schedule with guaranteed quality and quantity, which played an important role in helping him develop good work habits.

Cheng Xiaoxia works earnestly in her budgeting post and has never stopped cultivating budgeting talent. Strengthening the budgeting team of Jiaozuo Construction Engineering Group is also Cheng Xiaoxia's dream.