Meet NTT DATA People
Dora Zhang
Consultant Team Leader
Dora Zhang is from Shanghai and joined NTT DATA China in 2013 as a project manager. In the time since she started working at NTT DATA, Dora has also worked as a consultant and a User Experience (UX) manager. She has contributed to recruiting initiatives for the client team and has supported user research. Dora is married and has a young family which she balances with a number of hobbies that include cross fit, marathon running, baseball and podcast creation. She is currently working as a consultant team leader delivering digital transformation programs for traditional manufacturing companies.
NTT DATA’s Digital Transformation solutions are game changing in the China market.
Tell us about an interesting project.
In China, traditional manufacturing companies have over the years honed their production and logistics methods. What they are not yet proficient at is how to take their businesses online. Being able to do that is crucial for them because the typical Chinese consumer does a lot of product research and shopping online, even for quite expensive products.
One particular client I have worked with recently is a car manufacturer that fit the mold perfectly. They needed their digital transformation strategy built from the ground up. It was exciting for the team because we had to be in charge of the whole planning strategy, run the project implementation process and assist in the creation of their digital team.
From a personal point of view the project was great because I got the opportunity to work directly on a day-to-day basis with their core management team which included the CEO.
Describe a regular working day.
Recently, I have been able to return to working in the office following the end of a period of home working due to the pandemic. I much prefer working in the office and visiting clients because I feel more productive and can get things completed quicker. I like to have face-to-face meetings and feel that my team and I can be more helpful to our clients if we can meet them.
One other important aspect of office work is that it offers me a great work-life balance. I mentioned that I have a number of hobbies and a young family which might seem like a lot of responsibility but for me balancing everything has become pretty easy because of one essential skill I have developed – time management.
I developed this skill through on-the-job learning while I was on the digital transformation project I just described. I was assigned many different tasks and through learning how to complete them efficiently I became better at managing my time. I have brought the skills I learned on that project back into my regular work and use them every day. I never miss a baseball game or a gym session.
Why do you like life at NTT DATA?
I would say that my experience has taught me that the environment at NTT DATA is very supportive and collaborative. Whenever I’ve needed advice about how to run a project, I have been able to call on people around me or in different project teams who have done similar projects and they give me a lot of useful pointers. I even had the opportunity to work in Tokyo for a few months, which gave me the chance to work overseas and to share my digital transformation knowledge.
Another reason I love NTT DATA is that at the beginning of 2022 I was selected to join the Subject Matter Expert (SME) team due to my knowledge of digital transformation. This team gathers experts to summarize the knowledge of their specialty so that the whole company can benefit when it is shared. Being a member of the team has pushed me to deepen my personal expertise and has made me feel very proud that I can contribute to the development of other people in my region.
