One key opens one lock: Leo Li’s 12-year journey at Etteplan

In 2014, an acquisition brought Leo Li and his team to Etteplan. At the time, Leo was working as a mechanical design engineer, and twelve years later he is still with Etteplan, even though much around him has changed along the way.

The office location changed. The way projects were delivered changed. Customers, working methods, and responsibilities changed. In July 2026, Leo took on a new role as Team Leader of the mechanical design team in Etteplan's Shanghai office.

Looking back, Leo does not describe the past 12 years as a carefully planned career path. Instead, his story is one of adapting to change, building experience project by project, and gradually taking on more responsibility.

When Leo and his former colleagues joined Etteplan through the acquisition in 2014, the transition brought several changes. The team moved from an office near the Bund in central Shanghai to Etteplan's current location, and the business model evolved as well.

Previously, much of the work had been allocated directly by the headquarters of the former company. At Etteplan, the team began supporting a wider range of customers and projects. For Leo, this meant adapting to new ways of working and gaining exposure to different engineering environments.

One thing remained consistent throughout, the team. Many of the colleagues who joined Etteplan together in 2014 are still with the company today, and that continuity has helped build strong trust and collaboration within the group over the years.

From around 2016 onward, Leo spent a significant part of his working time at customer sites, wherever engineering support was needed. Working closely with different customers exposed him to different products, technical standards, processes, and expectations. Each new project required him to quickly understand a new engineering environment and adapt to the customer's way of working.

It was not always the easiest way to work, but it became an important part of his professional development. Over time, Leo gained experience not only in mechanical design itself, but also in understanding what customers really need, how requirements translate into practical engineering work, and how trust is built through long-term cooperation.

As remote collaboration became more common, some work that had previously required long periods at customer sites could gradually be carried out from the Shanghai office. The working location changed, but the experience accumulated at customer sites stayed with him.

Leo was officially appointed Team Leader of the mechanical design team in July 2026, though the change in responsibility had already started earlier. Before receiving the formal title, he had gradually taken on more responsibility for task allocation, project coordination, progress follow-up, and customer communication.

Earlier in his career, he had also temporarily led a team of 21 people, an experience he remembers as demanding but one that later became valuable preparation for his current role.

As an engineer, the focus is often on making sure your own design and drawings are correct. As a team leader, the perspective becomes broader, and the question shifts from whether he has done his own work well to how the whole team can succeed.

When asked about his approach to team leadership, Leo shares a simple Chinese expression: "One key opens one lock." For him, it means that people are different, and management cannot follow exactly the same formula for everyone.

Experienced colleagues may benefit most from trust and space, while newer team members may need more communication, support, and guidance. In engineering, many technical problems can be solved with established methods. Managing people is different, there is rarely one standard answer.

Many members of Leo's team also work across different customer projects and locations, which makes communication particularly important. Alongside daily project work, Leo sees regular face to face discussions and the annual PDP process as important opportunities to better understand each team member's situation, goals, and development needs.

When Leo talks about his priorities as a Team Leader, one word comes up repeatedly, steady. For him, being steady does not mean avoiding change. Engineering is a project driven business, and customer demand, workloads, project timelines, and team configurations are constantly shifting.

"The real challenge is keeping delivery quality up through those changes, keeping priorities clear, and making sure people have the support they need," Leo says. His attention has gradually shifted from his own engineering tasks toward figuring out who needs support, which tasks should be prioritized, and whether issues are being caught before they turn into bigger problems.

Twelve years is enough time for an industry to change significantly. Competition has intensified, customer expectations have evolved, and engineering projects often move faster than before. Leo sees these changes as part of a wider transformation across the industry.

But when asked what has mattered to him most during his years at Etteplan, he does not talk about titles or individual projects. He talks about balance, being able to do meaningful work while still making room for family and life outside work. That same sense of balance connects to the steadiness he values in his team as well.

Toward the end of the interview, Leo was asked a lighter question: if you had to describe your 12 years at Etteplan as a type of food, what would it be?

His answer was unexpected: ochazuke, rice with tea. "Because it is flexible. You can add different things and make it your own," he says.

In some ways, the answer reflects his journey. An acquisition brought him to Etteplan, and since then, customer projects, new responsibilities, changing working methods, and leadership experiences have all been added along the way. Not everything was planned from the beginning, the experience developed step by step.

Today, after 17 years in engineering and 12 years at Etteplan, Leo is settling into his new role as Team Leader, with the mechanical design team in Shanghai continuing to take on projects across a growing range of customers.