26 Fudan students of the S3 Asia MBA program, in four groups, had a great experience in the Asia Business Insights courses this November. The project, consisted of 6 sessions, focused on field research and practical knowledge of company management and operation in the Asian market.
Methodological Analysis
In the first class, Dr. Cheng-Hua Tzeng, Assistant Professor of Strategic Management from Fudan School of Management, delivered a lecture to the students, explaining key methodologies useful in analyzing company strategy.
Dr. Tzeng introduced the 7S framework of McKinsey, an organizational analysis tool to assess and monitor changes in the internal situation of an organization. Through the case study of Danone and Wahaha, Dr. Tzeng guided the students to consider on some specific problems concerning company strategy.
Dr. Cheng-Hua Tzeng and the students in his class
Tours to Local Companies
After the class, the students went on a trip to four industry giants: Cabot, Advantech, 3M and Lego, which allowed them to jump out of the textbook and explore practical operations at these companies that are leading in their respective fields.
According to Wang Jinkai from China, a participating student, what impressed him most was the tour to Cabot, a leading global specialty chemicals and performance materials company. At the event, senior staff from the company’s greater China region, including the President of Cabot China, Vice President of Finance, Vice President of Human Resources, as well as manager at the Research and Development department introduced to the students the company’s strategy from different dimensions, ensuring that the students gain an all-around understanding of the development plan of a big company.
Wang said, at Cabot, he learnt the feature of Chinese market and the smarter way of how foreign investments entered the Chinese market.
At Advantech, Chunsheng He, one of the founders of the company introduced the company history, the productions and the downstream market of the company. He also explained the company strategy on transforming from a manufacturer to a solution-provider for IoT. From the tour, the students got to know the process of a company developing as a startup and also the future plans the company had formulated.
General Manager at the Lego factory in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province talked on the manufacturing and operating situation of the factory, from which the students learnt how manufacturers optimize their operations. The students were excited to find that the manufacturing process at the Lego factory was so well-organized that the machine could even pick up defective goods automatically by weighing them with exquisite scales.
The Asia Business Insights Team taking a group photo at Lego factory
At 3M, senior managers gave a talk on how the company had developed tailored products suitable for the Chinese market, as well as how a good corporate culture could uncover employee’s potential.
The Asia Business Insights Team taking a tour at 3M
What have you learnt from Asia Business Insights?
Yashvardhan Agarwal from India, one of the participating student, said that the most interesting part was the way the managers answered some sensitive questions about the company. “The knowledge imparted by the managers of respective companies included not only that on the company operations but also management concepts which I feel will be very useful in our MBA program,” said Yashvardhan.
JoongKyu AHN, a student from South Korea, said that the business insight tour was a valuable experience through which the students could better understand how the companies were doing successful business in China and the obstacle they were facing.
“Most of all, we had a great chance to actually communicate with the company’s executives,” JoongKyu said, “by listening to their thoughts and ideas we could have a close view about what we will experience when we graduate from S3 Asia MBA Program.”
The S3 Asia MBA program, launched jointly by School of Management at Fudan University, Korea University Business School and NUS Business School, prepares students for senior leadership positions in major business locations in Asia and the world. As part of the program, the Asia Business Insights project allows the students to learn the overall business landscape of Asia through in-class lectures and company tours. As the students said, Asia is a huge market consisting of many pieces of diverse cultures, so it’s important to keep paying attention to what’s going on across the region.
