AT the Grand Prix party held by Puma at Three on the Bund, Jochen Zeitz looked like he was really enjoying himself.

Zeitz, the CEO of Puma, hosted a party on September 26 that shined with celebrities like singer Coco Lee, models wearing Formula One clothes designed by Puma, and a mob of enthusiastic fans.

Zeitz was looking forward to the China Grand Prix, hoping to see "many people crazy for the sport".

He had just succeeded in signing up Ferarri Formula One team's Michael Schumacher to wear Puma's newly designed shoes.

"I am extremely pleased with our new partnership with Michael Schumacher," he said. "After recently signing a contract with Ferrari, we will now also be working with the top driver in Formula One."

Zeitz has led Puma to become a major sponsoring partner of six Formula One teams.

It is an important step for the Puma brand to attract more young people and achieve a greater market share in China.

"We realized that to appeal to a young lifestyle, we needed to get away from traditional athletic looks," he said.

Zeitz is a veritable dynamo. Born in Germany, the former marketing executive at Colgate-Palmolive is fluent in six languages and is an avid amateur pilot.

He was recruited as Puma's marketing chief in 1991 and moved into the top job two years later, becoming the youngest CEO in a German company at the time.

It was a big surprise, but Zeitz says he didn't think about it that much because he had such a huge task on his hands.

"I was really focusing on the business itself and trying to turn the company around together with my team," he said.

"It wasn't something that I felt was special. I sort of blocked out the public aspect and focused on the job itself."

He said the biggest obstacle was that the company had been restructured many times before and employees didn't believe that another restructuring could turn things around.

"Eight years of consecutive losses had de-motivated Puma's people," he said.

The Chinese market is promising, said Zeitz, although Puma has strong competitors here from huge brands like Nike.

But while his competitors are busy attracting young people with local celebrities and sponsoring sports activities among students, Puma seems to have been a bit slow in this area.

"We also would like to sponsor more sports activities in China. We have signed with Ferrari and become their partner. It is a good step," said Zeitz.

"I'm not a fashionista, but I can see the Puma brand has tremendous potential."

Zeitz's goal is to adjust the brand strategy, stressing fashion over sports performance.

To that end, famous designer Jil Sander and model Christy Turlington have been brought in to design and promote new products.

"But we will not have special designs for China's young people. We have a global strategy." he said.

To lure young shoppers, he introduced items such as roller skates with fluorescent wheels.

Zeitz knows youngsters respond well to sports stars, so he signed Serena Williams to a five-year contract, just as she was beginning her ascent to the No. 1 spot in women's tennis.

Asked how to achieve a competitive edge in China's market, Zeitz said the key was to make all the changes as quickly as possible, without having to go back a second time and make further adjustments.

Zeitz thinks his experience working for Colgate-Palmolive helped him a lot in his new position at Puma.

"But it's very different," he quipped. "At Colgate-Palmolive, we didn't spend hours talking about the thickness of a stripe in our toothpaste!"