From the 12th to the 15th of November, 2013, led by Assistant Professor Cheng-hua Tzeng, a group of the 2013 Asia MBA students of our School were on a visit to four organizations: Infosys, Advantech, Cabot (China) Investment, and MacDonald’s Hamburger University, as part of the study in the course of “Insights into Asian Businesses”.

On November 12th, the students arrived at the Shanghai headquarters of Infosys, a top-notched Indian software consulting company, at the Zhangjiang High-tech Park. The core business of Infosys is business consulting, software services and outsourcing services. Mr. Michael LIU, CEO of Infosys, introduced to the students the operational concepts, core values and infrastructural environment of this Indian company. The students also seized the rare opportunities of having face-to-face exchanges with its executives and learning from their corporate management experiences.

Group photo of the 2013 Asia MBA students on the visit

On November 13th, the students visited Advantech, a leading company in industrial computing and automation in China. Thanks to the introduction and experience sharing by Mr. Mingzhi JIANG, General Manager of Advantech for China, the students had further understanding of the company’s management concepts and operation models.

On the 14th, the students visited Cabot (China) Investment located in Minghang District of Shanghai. The company is a multinationalspecialized in the production of special chemical products and materials. Mr. Ji ZHU, Senior Vice President and Asia-Pacific CEO of Cabot Group, and three of his vice-president colleagues introduced in detail to the students the overall planning, HR, finance and development strategies of the company and answered questions from the students. The students also visited the company’s plant in Shanghai to know more about its products and production procedures.

On the 15th, the students arrived at McDonald’s Hamburger University located on Hongmei Road and were warmly received by Ms. Qi PANG, President of Hamburger University, and her colleagues. The students first had a tour on the campus and learned more about the university’s educational goals. Emily, who has been working at McDonald’s for 17 years, then gave the students a detailed introduction to McDonald’s current development in China and future development plans.

The students interacting with the corporate executives

The whole visit was carefully planned by Assistant Professor Tzeng. Before the visit, he made sure the students were well-prepared and brainstormed with them to come up what they needed to ask and learn from the trip. After the trip, he asked the students to share what they had learned to ensure optimal learning results.

Thanks to the generous support from the Career Development Office (CDO) and its partner businesses/organizations, students who take “Insights into Asian Businesses” each year can have a field trip to different companies and have face-to-face dialogues with their executives.

November 21, 2013