In a bid to bring sustainable economic growth to remote areas of Western China, Carol Chyau created Shokay in 2006 with business partner Marie So. The company produces children’s clothes and accessories, home furnishings and yarn using yak fiber purchased directly from the region’s herders. Many of the items are hand‑knit by women in rural areas. Building on the 2008 opening of the Shokay flagship store in Shanghai, Carol and Marie are working with Esquel, the world’s largest cotton spinner, to develop yak/cotton blend yarn to sell to major fashion labels.

How did you meet your business partner, Marie So?

Marie and I studied together at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. She’s from Hong Kong, I’m from Taiwan. We both wanted to jumpstart the growth of enterprises that address a social or environmental need in Western China. It’s such a blessing to have a partnership where we can really challenge each other and develop an idea.

So how did the two of you come up with the idea for Shokay?

In 2006, when we were still students, we became interested in starting a social enterprise in Western China. We decided to visit the region for inspiration. In Yunnan, we came across an organisation that was using yak’s milk to make cheese. That led us to do more research on the yak. We learned that 80% of the world’s yak population is in Western China. We also discovered the UN’s handbook on yaks, and one sentence really stood out: “The fiber of yak down is extremely soft.” We wondered, “If the fiber is so soft, why don’t we see it on the market?” And that’s where it all started.

What social need does Shokay address?

We’re looking to alleviate poverty among herders in the region. We’ve trained 2,600 herders from the Hei Ma He Village of Qinghai Province to collect the yak fiber. We then buy the fiber directly from these herders, which brings them a sustainable income.

After our manufacturing partners have made the fiber into yarn, we sell some of it and send the rest to our knitters. We have trained over 40 women on rural Chong Ming Island to hand-knit our products. This gives them long-term employment and stable income.

You moved from working as a consultant for the United Nations Development Program to running a textile company. What was the hardest part about making the switch?

Marie and I didn’t know much about textiles to begin with, so we had a steep learning curve. We’ve really had to rely on a lot of outside expertise. The Bureau of Animal Husbandry helped us understand how to recognize the best yak fiber; industry experts taught us the details of the textile business.

As female entrepreneurs, have you and Marie come across any particular challenges?

Being a woman can either be a positive or a negative thing—it’s never neutral. We work in social enterprise, which has two sides: the social impact side, and the for-profit side. It’s easy for women to be persuasive when they’re talking about giving back to the community. In fact, it can be an advantage: sometimes people are less guarded because they believe you have more integrity. But in business negotiations, I think it’s often hard for people to take us seriously firstly because we’re young and secondly, we’re women. But it really can go both ways.

We’ve been very much inspired by the women in our fiber-collecting communities and knitting collectives. Their perseverance is what keeps us going.

Three years after creating Shokay, you have products in 100 stores worldwide. What are the secrets to your remarkable success?

• Love what you do and persevere. I learned the quality of perseverance from my mother. She’s an entrepreneur herself, so I grew up watching her come up with new ideas and put them into practice.
• Remember to build a really good team. One of the most rewarding things about this project has been seeing our idea grow, expanding from the two of us to an entire team of people passionate about our work.
• Don’t be afraid to go out on your own. A lot of people think that you need to be a lot older and have a lot more experience. But we’re proof that isn’t true.

Carol works with Martin Gatins, Senior Vice President Wholesale Department Cartier North America, on how to tap into the corporate and retail market in China, and with Grace Hu, Associate Principal McKinsey Germany/China, on how to scale to become a US$5 million or US$10 million company.