Next Stop: Innovation

What does it take to lead, innovate, and thrive in Asia’s diverse travel market? On this episode of SuiteTalk, Hugo is joined by Jane Sun, the CEO of Trip.com Group, where she shares her remarkable journey from CPA to CEO. Together, they discuss navigating Asia’s complex markets, leveraging AI to enhance customer experiences, and leading through crises, all while reflecting on how travel and curiosity can shape growth, leadership, and perspective.

Comments are edited excerpts from our podcast, which you can listen to in full below.

You’ve had an extraordinary career, spanning law, finance, Silicon Valley, and now leading Trip.com Group. How have those diverse experiences shaped your leadership style?

Jane Sun: Each stage of my career has helped lay the groundwork for the next. I began as a CPA with a law degree, and when I joined Trip.com Group as one of the first women CFOs in the Asian market, the company was still small; our market cap was only about $500 million to $1 billion. Today, it’s more than $40 billion.

When I first came in, few investors understood what we did. I spent a lot of time on the road helping them get to know our business—doing earnings calls near airports, then immediately flying to San Francisco, taking a quick shower, spending a full day on the road meeting investors, catching a red-eye to Boston, repeating the process, and then moving on to New York and Europe.

Through that intense effort in the early years, we built strong relationships with our investor base and earned their respect.

As our operations expanded, my responsibilities broadened beyond the typical CFO scope. In addition to finance, legal, and investor relations, I took on more operational work, and the board of directors gradually entrusted me with COO duties. I also led our team in negotiating global inventory, which led to my promotion to co-president. And in 2016, I stepped into the CEO role.

You were well established in Silicon Valley. What ultimately led you to return to Asia?

Jane: I spent about 15 to 20 years in Silicon Valley, and both of my children were born there. We were fortunate to be part of the early internet era, but in 2005, I asked myself three questions.

The first was: Which continent will see the fastest gross domestic product (GDP) growth? At the time, Asia was expanding rapidly, and it accounted for about 50% of global GDP growth and nearly half of the growth in the travel industry.

The second question was: Which industry do I want to be in? I wanted to be in a fast-growing, green industry that genuinely brings happiness to people. I also love to travel, so the travel industry felt right.

And the third question was: If I want to be in Asia and in travel, which company is best positioned to win? After speaking with the team, I felt Trip.com Group had the right qualities—humility, hard work, and a strong commitment to customers and partners.

Answering those three questions made the decision clear.

Do you assume Asia (especially China) will mirror the United States or Europe in travel habits and spending, or are there meaningful differences that suggest a different growth trajectory?

Jane: Asia is quite similar to Europe in its fragmentation. Each country has its own language, festivals, and marketing needs. There’s no single “Asia strategy.”

So, our approach is to “glocalize”: maintain a global vision while building highly localized teams that understand each market deeply.

Our approach is to “glocalize”: maintain a global vision while building highly localized teams that understand each market deeply.

What are some competitive advantages of an online travel agency such as Trip.com Group?

Jane: We have a few unique strengths. First is our one-stop platform. We can book a first- or business-class flight from Singapore to the United Kingdom, recommend a five-star hotel, nearby restaurants, Broadway shows, and even spa treatments. This makes travel seamless and worry-free for our customers.

Second is exceptional customer service. Calls to our centers are answered within 30 seconds, and in a crisis, we can quickly move customers to safe hotels, provide meals, and help them return home if needed, giving customers peace of mind.

Third is app engagement. Our customers in Asia use apps extensively, so having our products there is a clear advantage. And fourth is scale. Asia’s population allows us to build a highly scalable business model. These factors together differentiate us in the market.

How do you use data to predict consumer behavior?

Jane: We use a feature called Similar Customer to help identify travelers with related habits. When their spending power and family situation align, these recommendations become highly relevant, helping other customers discover experiences they’re likely to enjoy.

We’ve also identified trends we call the three E’s: events and travel, elderly friendly, and emerging markets.

Young travelers love attending major shows, such as a Taylor Swift concert, so we now package trips around those kinds of events. In addition, retirees in Asia often have disposable income and the energy to travel, and we work with destination teams to bring them during slow seasons. Seasonal patterns in emerging markets also guide our planning. For example, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa are popular in the winter, while Iceland and Norway rise in summer. Promoting these long-tail destinations can also help manage over-tourism at the most crowded spots.

So, by combining behavioral insights with trend analysis, we can both respond to what customers want and anticipate new travel patterns.

How important is social media, and do you use it to help predict consumer behavior?

Jane: Social media is a very important channel for promoting our products. Many young people use it to share where they travel, and we love engaging on global platforms to highlight offerings from our destination partners around the world.

It also gives us an initial signal of what’s hot this year or next, but our data goes deeper. Only customers who have booked trips can rank hotels and destinations, and because these rankings come from real travelers who have paid and visited, they’re highly trusted and widely followed.

Has Trip.com Group embraced AI at all?

Jane: We invest heavily in AI, and it’s already helping our team improve efficiency in four key areas.

First is the user interface. In the past, finding a hotel meant entering many queries, but now, users can have intelligent conversations with an agent that understands their travel habits and makes highly personalized recommendations. Second is engineering productivity. AI is dramatically reducing coding time, and we’ve seen productivity gains of 50% to 100% year-over-year.

Then there’s customer service, which is the third key area. AI has helped our team make better recommendations for hotels, parks, and travel products, which improves customer satisfaction. And fourth is content generation. Audio, video, and images can now be produced much more efficiently.

How have the principles and experiences you’ve embraced shaped the way you lead today, especially through major crises?

Jane: Over the past 20 years, we’ve always followed three principles: customer first, partner second, company third. We’ve also been through many crises. For example, during SARS, while many companies laid off staff, we told our employees we would emerge stronger, which we did, with a successful initial public offering (IPO) on NASDAQ. Then came the Asian and global financial crises and the COVID-19 pandemic.

During COVID-19, borders closed, and customers had already paid airlines and hotels, who couldn’t immediately refund them. Our team decided that we had to lead the industry in taking care of customers, and we borrowed about 20 billion renminbi to advance refunds, which earned the loyalty of our travelers.

We also supported our partners, many of whom were short on cash, by creating a 2 billion renminbi partnership fund for small- and medium-sized partners. This ensured they continued listing their products on our platform.

And for our employees, when revenue dropped nearly to zero, the chairman and I volunteered to take zero salary until the industry recovered; many vice presidents and employees accepted pay cuts to keep the company running as well. This collective effort preserved our resources and talent, enabling us to lead the industry’s recovery with the best people in place.

When revenue dropped to nearly zero, the chairman and I volunteered to take zero salary until the industry recovered. Many vice presidents and employees accepted pay cuts as well.

When it comes to decision making, some CEOs are quite instinctive, some are very data-driven, some take their time, and some move very quickly. Where do you fall on that spectrum?

Jane: I’m very data-driven, which comes from my background in finance and law. Internally, we use a framework we call 5-5-4-4-3. A score of three means your performance is at market level, four is above the market, and five means you’re far ahead of any competitor.

The two areas where we consistently aim for a 5 are service and branding. Why? Because if you build a service standard such as Four Seasons or Singapore Airlines, it becomes extremely difficult for others to catch up.

For instance, the highest-priced product we sell is an 80-day around-the-world trip that costs about $200,000 per person. It took just 17 seconds to sell those packages. How many brands would you trust enough to give them $200,000 in 17 seconds? Very few. That’s why service and branding are so important for us.

The next two elements are technology and product, which we score as 4s. Every year, we invest heavily in both. Because once a product is released, everyone can see it, and everyone can copy it. You must keep investing to stay ahead.

The last element is pricing. As the largest player in our market, we have the ability secure competitive pricing for consumers. But we never position ourselves as the lowest-cost option, because that attracts price-sensitive customers, and that’s not the segment we aim for.

So, from that perspective, I’m a very rational, data-driven leader. But outside of work, I try to be a good friend and supporter to our employees. I’m the only female CEO in a major high-tech company in Asia, and I feel a strong responsibility to create better pathways for our women employees.

We’ve implemented progressive policies such as free taxi transportation to and from work for pregnant employees. And when they give birth, we provide 10,000 renminbi per year for five years, and we’ve committed 1 billion renminbi to this initiative.

I’ve seen many talented women, often with Ph.D.’s or master’s degrees, who finish school at 27 or 28. With pregnancy considered higher risk after 35, they have just seven or eight years to build a career and start a family, so we introduced a policy to cover the cost if women choose to freeze their eggs.

Today, more than 50% of our workforce is female, over 40% of our managers are women, and more than one-third of our executives are women. We’re proud of that progress, but we still have a long way to go, and we believe we can continue improving.

Today, more than 50% of our workforce is female, over 40% of our managers are women, and more than one-third of our executives are women.

Was there much resistance when you introduced these policies?

Jane: When we first introduced the egg-freezing policy, I had to stand in front of the media to defend it. But I didn’t want to argue with anyone. I simply said: it’s an option. If you like it, you can take it. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to. But giving women more options is always better than giving them none.

Do you spend a lot of time reflecting on decisions?

Jane: I think about the decisions we make every day and how we can keep improving them. In the past, many of our commercial heads drove the team forward, but now, more and more young people are stepping into leadership roles. We have what we call our “Baby Tiger” programs, which let younger employees lead projects and move things ahead.

How do you approach work-life balance?

Jane: Being a working mother means you must invest twice as much as the average person, but I believe the reward is often twice as great. Being a mother can be a full-time job, and being a CEO can be even more than that.

When my kids were younger, and if I wasn’t traveling, I would start work very early—at 6:00 a.m. or 7:00 a.m.—to handle emails and personal tasks. Meetings with employees, customers, partners, or community leaders would fill the rest of day. And by 6:00 p.m. or 7:00 p.m., I would wrap up work and help my kids with homework.

Later, when they were older, I would work side by side with them. And after they went to sleep, I would catch market updates late into the evening.

When traveling, we promote a “two” concept for employees: two hours each day with family, two days of quality family time each week, and two years of support for women during pregnancy and after giving birth. These guidelines help our team maintain balance during critical periods, especially for women.

As of the date of publication, William Blair Investment Management held positions in the company referenced in one or more of its investment strategies.

References to specific companies are for illustrative purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. The securities identified and described do not represent all of the securities purchased, sold or recommended for client accounts. It should not be assumed that any investment in the companies referenced was or will be profitable.