Kelly Zong, daughter of Zong Qinghou, Chinese mainland's richest man in 2010 and chairman of beverage industry giant Wahaha, is putting her bilingual and cross- cultural strength to good use by leading the efforts to create tea drinks aimed at cracking the international markets.

The company is currently developing Chinese tea drinks that may hit the supermarkets in Europe and the United States as early as this year, she said in a recent interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of a forum of business women organized by Forbes in Singapore.

It is now in the process of trying to get the organic food certification as well as the United States Food and Drug Administration's approval for the products, said Zong, currently president of Hangzhou Hongsheng Beverage Group and general manager of Hangzhou Wahaha Import & Export Co., Ltd.

"I am hoping to bring the Chinese tea drinks to the world," she said. "Hopefully they can be available at the supermarkets in Europe or the United States (by the end of) this year."

Zong said she is targeting mainly the high-end market with the Chinese tea drinks.

She said she was not sure if the overseas consumers would accept the tea drinks to be launched yet, but "at least we will know how good it is or where we can still improve ourselves."

Zong was one of the five Chinese mainlanders who made it to the list of 15 powerful business women to watch released by Forbes Asia last week. Speaking in panel discussions in fluent English, She was also one of the guests that attracted the most attention at the forum.

OVERSEAS EDUCATION

Zong spent several years in the United States receiving her high school and university education, before joining her father's company in 2005 as an assistant to a mid-level manager. She is now in charge of about one-third of the company's production capacity as well as the import and export arm.

Zong said the overseas experience gave her an advantage when she was placed at the helm for the company's international operations.

"Basically my father took care of the operations for the domestic market and I don't take part in his part of the business. I run the international part, which he does not take part in, either," she said.

Zong showed her profound knowledge of the overseas market, saying that it is actually "not as complex as it looks" to crack the overseas market, which comprises several major sections such as carbonated drinks, juice and coffee.

What it requires are sales channels like the supermarkets, the targeted positioning of the products and the marketing efforts, she said.

Her overseas experience, however, also makes it a bit challenging for her to handle the communications process with some of the staff at Wahaha, especially when she first came back from the United States.

"I tend to accept the straight forward way, whereas it is often more acceptable in the Chinese culture not to be that straight forward," she said. "Sometimes they would feel that I was being too blunt."

She said she was making efforts to change the way she communicates with her employees.

Obviously hard working, Zong spent most of her time working and traveling on business trips, but would go on tours to different places if she has the time.

She said she was trying to avoid exposure to the media so as not to be affected by the public seeing her as only the daughter of one of China's richest man. One can only find a few images of her over the years on the Internet.

HEIR APPARENT OR NOT

Zong spoke frankly of her identity as the heir-apparent to the family business, too, though her father is only 67 years old.

"I think anyone who wants to pass a business on to the next generation or implement a change should first take a look at what is the desired future direction of the business and then decides who should be the one to take over," she said. "I definitely do want to take over the work just because I am his daughter and I would have to do the job."

The young woman has spoken openly of her difference from her father in terms of the way they manage the company.

She said her father tends to give orders for his people to execute.

"I think I would favor a system (of decision making). I don't want everybody to come and ask me what they should do everyday. They should have their own ideas and their own sense of job duty," she said.

Zong is overseeing about 5,000 of the company's over 30,000 staff.

She said she would like her employees to work and grow their managerial expertise together with her.

YOUNG GENERATION

Speaking at the forum organized by Forbes recently in Singapore, Zong said she wants to stay independent and think independently.

She said her generation and her father's generation have " different missions".

His father was born in 1945 before the founding of the People's Republic of China and experienced the starvation and the Cultural Revolution in China. He made a fortune by setting up his own business in the 1980s after China started the reform and opened up to the outside world.

In 2011, the Wahaha group had a total revenue of 67.8 billion yuan (10.8 billion U.S. dollars) with strong cash positions, making it one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world.

Zong said her father's generation once had to feed their families and create a better environment for them. Her generation, however, has all the necessities and are aspiring to improve their lifestyle.

"My mission is to create better food and beverage to show the world that we do much more," she said.

Wahaha put the international operations under the import and export arm in 2010 and put them under the management of Zong.

She said it was now the right time for Wahaha to expand into the international market.

"If you look at it from another perspective, it is time to think about what we can bring to other countries. I think there are actually quite a lot of things we can do in the food and beverage industry," she said.

She said she was looking beyond the tea drinks to the other parts of the food and beverage industry, too.

As for the food quality scandals that affected the reputation of Chinese food in recent years, Zong acknowledged the impact but said she would do what she can to improve the image of Chinese food.

"I think we should try our best to prove it to the world that we can produce quality products, too. I won't evade the question, but just make my own efforts to change people's perception of us," she said.