Home
» City specials
» Hangzhou
Trailing the detective
By Ma Xuehui |
November 4, 2010, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
FORGET the classic film, TV and book representations of sinister sleuths lurking in the shadows on the trail of cheating husbands or callous crooks, Ma Xuehui meets a real-life private eye operating in the business field.
When it comes to private detectives, most people will already have an image in their minds - a man dressed in black and wearing sunglasses, standing in the dark with a serious expression on his face as he thinks about a big case.
However, that's nothing like how Wei Yingjie looks - he is young, handsome and well dressed. With a white Burberry shirt, Louis Vuitton leather belt, Prada shoes and case, Wei looks more like a modern man who has just come back from a business function. But the fact is, he's a detective in the business field, or as he prefers, a "business doctor."
"When I walk on the street, I bet at least 90 percent of people who see me cannot figure out my job," says Wei with a proud laugh. "They'll just think I'm a simple while-collar worker."
Since 2003, when Wei established his investigation company, he has gained a good reputation in his chosen field. Originally, most of his cases were "traditional" ones as he calls them, such as marriage affairs. But in 2005, Wei began to think about transforming his business.
"I've got wonderful experience in traditional investigations but people always have a misunderstanding or prejudice of our profession," says Wei. "What I want to do is to make our job appear normal in common people's minds. I have to do something new."
As a result, his business field has expanded. He began to get involved in business investigations, including enterprise risk control, public crisis disposal, intellectual property rights protection and trade credit research. He also began to call himself a "business doctor," which sounds more positive to most people.
"The difference between my company and traditional private detectives is that we only take business investigation cases from enterprises and social organizations," says Wei.
At work, Wei is a pretty, powerful "doctor." In his mind, once a business hires him, it should take his "medicine" without any doubt and hesitation. But his being powerful is of course because he is good at this "medical care" - his "medicines" have cured a lot of "diseases."
For example, Wei and his company used to be entrusted by Hainan Yangshengtang Corporation to investigate the production of counterfeit goods in Anhui Province. With a huge amount of investigation and evidence collection, they helped local administration departments to locate and shut down the counterfeits production bases quickly. A few months later, they also helped Shanghai administration to shut down four counterfeit Nongfu Spring factories.
In the past, Wei's company has solved hundreds of cases like this. In his opinion, the work involved in fighting against counterfeiters is far beyond the ability of the businesses themselves. They have to hire professional people and institutes to do it.
However, there are also some strict requirements to become a professional "business doctor." According to Wei, the first requirement is that you should be extremely sociable. After that, you should be good at foreign languages, computers and driving. And finally, you need to look modern.
"Since many people we contact for business are senior executives of enterprises, we have to care a lot about our personal image and abilities," says Wei. "In fact, every employee of mine is an ambassador of my company."
So why would such a handsome young man with great personal qualities take this as his career. Those who know him will say that it suits his major - Wei entered military school and majored in detection when he was 17. After that, he served in the army for seven years.
However, people who really know him well will tell you that it's because of his personality. In his heart, he's always seeking excitement and challenges.
"Every day, we connect with different people and deal with different cases. It's a great challenge for me," says Wei. "The greatest joy is to solve a case that is rife with unexpected situations.
"It's just like reading a detective book." says Wei. "It's full of suspense, and you'll never get tired of it."
From another perspective, Wei also knows that doing it as a job is very different from doing it out of interest. In fact, he strongly believes that what he's doing now is a promising career.
According to Wei, the prices of business investigations aren't cheap - 50,000 yuan (US$7,482) is the starting price. For counterfeit investigations, the price will range from 200,000 yuan to 600,000 yuan. Usually an agency like Wei's has about 20 to 30 detectives and every year they'll solve more than 200 cases. The profit margin can reach more than 30 percent.
But while profit is good, the job is not easy. In Wei's eyes, business investigation is very complicated work, and success in cases depends on many factors, such as the accuracy of the information the client offers, the detailed requirement of the client, the situation and working environment of the "object" ? Many things sound pretty simple, but it often gets complicated during the process because of unexpected factors.
But Wei has maintained a positive attitude through the years.
"Nowadays, more and more foreign capital business are starting to develop in China, while business investigation in our country has just started," says Wei. "It definitely has a bright future and I'll keep on."
(Compiled by Pan Zheng)
When it comes to private detectives, most people will already have an image in their minds - a man dressed in black and wearing sunglasses, standing in the dark with a serious expression on his face as he thinks about a big case.
However, that's nothing like how Wei Yingjie looks - he is young, handsome and well dressed. With a white Burberry shirt, Louis Vuitton leather belt, Prada shoes and case, Wei looks more like a modern man who has just come back from a business function. But the fact is, he's a detective in the business field, or as he prefers, a "business doctor."
"When I walk on the street, I bet at least 90 percent of people who see me cannot figure out my job," says Wei with a proud laugh. "They'll just think I'm a simple while-collar worker."
Since 2003, when Wei established his investigation company, he has gained a good reputation in his chosen field. Originally, most of his cases were "traditional" ones as he calls them, such as marriage affairs. But in 2005, Wei began to think about transforming his business.
"I've got wonderful experience in traditional investigations but people always have a misunderstanding or prejudice of our profession," says Wei. "What I want to do is to make our job appear normal in common people's minds. I have to do something new."
As a result, his business field has expanded. He began to get involved in business investigations, including enterprise risk control, public crisis disposal, intellectual property rights protection and trade credit research. He also began to call himself a "business doctor," which sounds more positive to most people.
"The difference between my company and traditional private detectives is that we only take business investigation cases from enterprises and social organizations," says Wei.
At work, Wei is a pretty, powerful "doctor." In his mind, once a business hires him, it should take his "medicine" without any doubt and hesitation. But his being powerful is of course because he is good at this "medical care" - his "medicines" have cured a lot of "diseases."
For example, Wei and his company used to be entrusted by Hainan Yangshengtang Corporation to investigate the production of counterfeit goods in Anhui Province. With a huge amount of investigation and evidence collection, they helped local administration departments to locate and shut down the counterfeits production bases quickly. A few months later, they also helped Shanghai administration to shut down four counterfeit Nongfu Spring factories.
In the past, Wei's company has solved hundreds of cases like this. In his opinion, the work involved in fighting against counterfeiters is far beyond the ability of the businesses themselves. They have to hire professional people and institutes to do it.
However, there are also some strict requirements to become a professional "business doctor." According to Wei, the first requirement is that you should be extremely sociable. After that, you should be good at foreign languages, computers and driving. And finally, you need to look modern.
"Since many people we contact for business are senior executives of enterprises, we have to care a lot about our personal image and abilities," says Wei. "In fact, every employee of mine is an ambassador of my company."
So why would such a handsome young man with great personal qualities take this as his career. Those who know him will say that it suits his major - Wei entered military school and majored in detection when he was 17. After that, he served in the army for seven years.
However, people who really know him well will tell you that it's because of his personality. In his heart, he's always seeking excitement and challenges.
"Every day, we connect with different people and deal with different cases. It's a great challenge for me," says Wei. "The greatest joy is to solve a case that is rife with unexpected situations.
"It's just like reading a detective book." says Wei. "It's full of suspense, and you'll never get tired of it."
From another perspective, Wei also knows that doing it as a job is very different from doing it out of interest. In fact, he strongly believes that what he's doing now is a promising career.
According to Wei, the prices of business investigations aren't cheap - 50,000 yuan (US$7,482) is the starting price. For counterfeit investigations, the price will range from 200,000 yuan to 600,000 yuan. Usually an agency like Wei's has about 20 to 30 detectives and every year they'll solve more than 200 cases. The profit margin can reach more than 30 percent.
But while profit is good, the job is not easy. In Wei's eyes, business investigation is very complicated work, and success in cases depends on many factors, such as the accuracy of the information the client offers, the detailed requirement of the client, the situation and working environment of the "object" ? Many things sound pretty simple, but it often gets complicated during the process because of unexpected factors.
But Wei has maintained a positive attitude through the years.
"Nowadays, more and more foreign capital business are starting to develop in China, while business investigation in our country has just started," says Wei. "It definitely has a bright future and I'll keep on."
(Compiled by Pan Zheng)
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
