Mid-term Review for 2015 Fudan–Tekes iLab and Australia–China Lab Projects

On May 3, the Fudan Valio Team flew to Helsinki to give the mid-term report to the client company named Valio (the largest food and dairy company in Finland). At Valio’s headquarters, the Manager of Infant Products Department, guided the team to visit different departments. The team has been deeply impressed by Valio’s long history with the continuous progress on their researches and developments as well as the Northern simple and comfortable working environment.

On May 5 and May 6, the team attended two workshops held by the teams of R&D and Trophic Structure of the Infant Products Department. The team introduced the taste preferences and nutrition perception of Chinese consumers. It helped the scientists and researchers to get a better understanding of Chinese consumers and also supported them with their researches on the infant products, especially for Chinese.

The team presented the mid-term report in the auditorium of the Valio’s headquarters on May 6. The detailed data as well as the thoughtful analysis of the Chinese market deeply impressed all the audiences and aroused everyone's interest to ask questions. In the end of the presentation, the introduction of Wechat fascinated all the audiences. The team members illustrated the usage of Wechat by showing how it has been used to expand the Chinese market as a sales channel with their own mobile phones.

In the following two days, the team visited some of the scenic spots in Helsinki including the ancient stone street and highly modern plaza sculptures, as well as cruised around the lakes. The team had a better understanding of the Finnish culture with this unique experience. This mid-term review was just a start for the team, as they had a deep discussion with Valio and reached an agreement on the issue of working plan and next steps for the project. All the team members were looking forward to bringing more valuable suggestions to the marketing and channel solutions for Valio.

(By Valio Team I & II)

On May 5, Fudan-Tekes iLab project “Modern Diagnostics” (referred to as “MD”) team successfully presented the mid-term report to the CEO of the client company with accompany of Professor Rongwei Chu in the Science and Technology Park in Turku, a famous city of Finland. The report was highly recognized and approved by the CEO and other audiences. And the team’s performance and achievements also exceeded greatly their expectations. The company also gave advice and preliminary scheme on the basis of analysis and solutions for the next phase of this project. At the same time, the company was looking forward to the team’s wonderful final presentation in July.

For the mid-term reports, all the team members had made lots of researches and preparation. The team had continuously reviewed the project progress every two weeks and visited 16 hospitals in Shanghai to get a better understanding of the market situations and customer requirements. The team had developed not only in-depth knowledge of the macro business culture and network environment for Finnish firms, but also the detailed business model as well as standard operational procedures.

As the only one non-Helsinki project, as well as non-mature start-up project, the difficulty of the MD project could be easily imagined. However, the team insisted on continuous exploration and testing on the market, preparing to encounter all the troubles. How to search for information effectively? How to filter the information efficiently? How to integrate the effective information into a simple model system? These issues were so important that the team must take them into consideration and work them out.

Now the project has been conducted in the first phase. Although the team has achieved initial results and has obtained the recognition of customers, there will be even higher goals and requirements in the next stage. The MD team has to make persistent efforts and make preparation for more challenges.

(By Modern Diagnostics Team)

On May 3, M-Brain team of Fudan-Tekes iLab project visited client company’s headquarters in Helsinki, Finland. The purpose of this visit was to give an interim presentation to M-Brain’s management team for reviewing the process of the project and discussing working plans for the next stage. This project aims to formulate the market-entry strategy to China.

M-Brain is a Finnish information service and consulting company formed by the merger of M-Brain and GIA in 2014, with global office presence in 12 countries. GIA has a branch majoring in providing consulting service for Fortune 500 MNCs in Shanghai.

During the visit, the M-Brain team comprised of Lei Zhang, Xiaomin Shao, Xiao Li, Zhujian Qian, together with industry expert, Weijie Liu, and they delivered an impressive presentation based on solid marketing study from abundant interviews and deep analysis. Under the guidance of Professor Zhao, 5 team members not only showed outstanding communication abilities, but also demonstrated significant capabilities. This team won such high opinion from the president of M-Brain and the team was looking forward to a further step for the successful ending of the project.

(By M-Brain Team)

The trip of Premix Team to Finland for mid-term report can be described as efficiency and enthusiasm. Once the team got out of the airport, the General Manager of Premix was there gave the team a warm welcome. And then, Premix arranged the transportation and catering. In the early morning of the second day, the team started to give their mid-term presentation. Led by Professor Youzhen Zhao, the team not only accomplished the mid-term report, but also had a profound discussion efficiently with the client company and came to a conclusion on the working objects of next phases for the project.

The team deeply felt the professionalism and expertise in technology during the report although they just spent two days in Premix. Through visiting their workshop and lab, exchanging ideas with project manager, the team truly learnt that entrepreneurship is crucial no matter doing business as a company or running projects and it would give the team encouragement to move forward.

Lastly, the team took this opportunity to express their appreciation to School of Management of Fudan University and Tekes for providing them such a meaningful and valuable opportunity. The team was also very grateful to the hospitality and trust from Premix and they hope to make a contribution to the better development of the company in China in the future.

(By Premix Team)

After a total of 1,700 hours of research and preparation, both Fudan and University of Queensland (referred to as “UQ”) teams finally met with each other in person. The mid-term presentation was hosted by UQ in Brisbane, Australia and was sponsored by Place Design Group. The schedule for the mid-term review included giving Place Design Group a presentation in three days, and a two-day culture tour for the teams.

Upon arrival, the Fudan and UQ teams began working on the project presentation. It was a challenging task for two teams working together to present successfully and to be recognized by the client company. The PowerPoint slides and the storyline were revised and redone for so many times. All the team members contributed their best efforts and utilized all of their MBA knowledge to ensure the report a satisfied success.

After the presentation, the teams went out to cuddle the famous Australian icon, the koalas, and feed kangaroos. Besides, they were guided to stretch themselves out on the beach, enjoying the sunshine and the blue ocean.

(By Place Team)