July 8, 2018. Shanghai – As part of the “CEIBS Insights 2018” series of events aimed at celebrating the 15^th anniversary of the China-EU Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, CEIBS today hosted its third Master Class of the year. The event was headlined by former Prime Minister of France Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who is also the Charles de Gaulle Chair in Global Leadership as well as Distinguished Professor at CEIBS. Mr. Raffarin, well-known by many Chinese people as a “good friend” of China, took the opportunity to share with the more than 400 attendees some reflections on his own personal leadership journey.

In opening the event, CEIBS Vice President and Dean Ding Yuan highlighted Mr. Raffarin’s numerous contributions to Sino-European and Sino-French ties. “A veteran statesman, Mr. Raffarin has paid more visits to China than any other French politician and continues to make efforts to reinforce China-France cooperation. He was also previously appointed as the Special Envoy on China Affairs by French President Emmanuel Macron when the latter visited China,” he said.

In addition to his insights on leadership in general, Mr. Raffarin offered some thoughts on “Chinese leadership”, which he described as a “leadership of wisdom”. Quoting Confucius, as well as Chinese Warring States-period political philosopher Master Han Fei, Raffarin explained that compared with a typical western leader — who positions him/herself at the centre of an organisation with his/her followers surrounding him/her — a wise Chinese leader is more like an orchestra conductor, playing a role which both harmonises and coordinates.

Following his talk, Raffarin was joined by Dean Ding for a discussion and Q&A session on how to improve one’s leadership at the individual level.

July 7, 2018. Shanghai – An audience of about 100 attendees including CEIBS students, faculty, staff and members of the Shanghai-based French business community was charmed today by former Prime Minister of France Jean-Pierre Raffarin during a lecture where the long-time friend of China and its people shared his insights on the topic “The French Approach to Leadership in Business and Politics”. His lecture is part of a series of events being held, this month, in his capacity as Charles de Gaulle Chair in Global Leadership as well as Distinguished Professor at CEIBS. Tomorrow he headlines a CEIBS Master Class that has generated significant interest.

During today’s lecture, in a bid to decode the concept of leadership – seen by many as “mysterious” – Mr. Raffarin began by exploring the difference in the perception of leadership in the US and France. The Americans, he explained, view leadership as a “technique”, a “methodology”, it is seen as “something that can be mastered through training”. In contrast, for the French leadership is about “heroism” and “charisma”. “We don’t achieve anything great without great men, and these men are great because they wanted to achieve greatness,” he said. Expanding on his explanation of the French style of leadership, the veteran statesman quoted General Charles de Gaulle, reviewing the latter’s experience as a leader during the French Resistance and after World War II.

He told the audience that a good leader, in any cultural or historical context, has key traits. He or she:

- is a force to be reckoned with, a strong individual who is passionate about charting his/her own course;

- knows how to position him- or herself in a complex environment, and how to leverage the variables – good and bad – to overcome difficulties;

- is committed to a clearly defined mission;

- is gifted in driving and motivating people;

- has strong morals; and

- embodies a conviction largely shared by followers.

In a world that is becoming “increasingly fractured and challenged” by rising trade protectionism and leaders’ “unpredictability” in some major countries, Mr. Raffarin – known as a firm believer in multilateralism – lauded China’s leadership in driving the world economy and promoting international cooperation across multiple continents with diverse players. Turning his attention to CEIBS – a joint venture between China and Europe – and the efforts the school has been making in educating responsible business leaders for China and the rest of the world, Raffarin quoted the famous French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of The Little Prince: “Love doesn’t mean gazing at each other, but looking, together, in the same direction.”

“CEIBS is where future business leaders are taught to look in the same direction,” he added.

CEIBS Vice President and Dean Ding Yuan moderated the lecture, which was followed by a lively Q&A session.

June 30, 2018. Accra – President (European) of the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), Professor Pedro Nueno, today called on H.E. Mr. John Agyekum Kufuor, Former President of Ghana, at his residence in Accra’s Airport Residential area. Professor Nueno, who is on a three-day visit to Ghana from June 29 to July 1 is leading a delegation of 25 business executives from Spain. Referred to as the “Harvard Group”, they are in Accra to gauge the progress CEIBS has made since its establishment in Africa some 10 years ago, and also to meet with alumni and explore business opportunities.

In 2008, then President of Ghana Kuffuor received the same delegation and gave them his blessings for the establishment of CEIBS in the country. It was therefore very important for the group to meet and update him on the progress the school has made over the years.

In his welcome, Mr. Kuffuor expressed profound gratitude to Professor Nueno and the team for remembering him and recounted their first meeting, a decade ago, at Osu Castle. Mr. Kufuor said he was excited to see that the school had lived up to his expectations of success.

“Right from the onset I was convinced that you have a great deal to offer Ghana and Africa. I believed, particularly, that you would contribute to the human capital of Ghana through the various executive education programmes you offer,” he said. “I am particularly pleased with Professor Nueno’s vision for Africa in seeing entrepreneurship at the forefront of the continent’s growth agenda. We would encourage you to further take advantage of the government’s emphasis on private sector development through entrepreneurship, which is basically the focus of your school, and partner with it for desired results.”

Professor Nueno, on his part, updated the Former President on the school’s activities over the past 10 years and also thanked him for his support in the establishment of its operations in Ghana. “It is indeed a pleasure to see you, once again, after these many years,” he said. “The school has been doing a lot and we have run programmes for many large organisations in many countries across the continent. Currently, we have about 500 alumni across Africa and this has been possible because you believed in us. Thank you.”

On behalf of CEIBS Africa, Professor Nueno made a donation of GHS 10, 000 to the John Agyekum Kufuor Foundation, an endowment fund aimed at sustaining the vision of the Former President. Also present at the meeting was Honourable Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu, Majority Leader of Ghana’s parliament, who encouraged the group to take advantage of the conducive business climate in Ghana and invest in the country.

Earlier in the day, Professor Nueno launched the CEIBS Africa Entrepreneurship Fund in a well-attended ceremony at the CEIBS Accra Campus. Addressing staff, alumni, potential students and senior corporate and business executives from the general public, he expressed appreciation to all who have stood by the school and supported it this far. He paid tribute particularly to the alumni for their strategic role in ensuring the school’s growth and explained that the launch of the $100,000,000 fund was an effort to support alumni from Africa who need financial support to grow their businesses.  

“This is to give back to you,” he said. “The challenge that many businesses face is finance and it is our desire to be there for you in such times of need.”  

CEIBS is a not-for-profit joint venture established in Shanghai in 1994 under an agreement between the Chinese Government and the European Union. Its flagship programmes, the MBA and Global EMBA are currently ranked No.8 and 14 respectively worldwide by the Financial Times. CEIBS has been instrumental in nurturing the kind of leaders that have navigated China's economic transformation with distinction and the conditions in Africa have made the school’s contributions similarly impactful there.

CEIBS began laying the groundwork for its operations in Africa in 2008. Today CEIBS Africa Campus offers a Global Executive MBA where students take core modules in Accra, Zurich and Shanghai, with global electives in New York, Silicon Valley, Sao Paolo, New Delhi and Munich. CEIBS also provides its acclaimed Women Entrepreneurship and Leadership for Africa (WELA) programme that is offered in 4 locations across Africa. Other offerings include the Owner Director Programme (ODP), the Advanced Management Programme (AMP), and Company Specific Programmes (CSP) that are tailor-made for organisations across the continent including those in Nigeria, Cameroun, Ivory Coast, Zambia, South Africa, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya and Morocco.   

June 6, 2018. Shanghai – Professor Jiing-Lih Larry Farh, Distinguished Chair Professor of Management and ABN AMRO Chair in Management at China Europe International Business School, is among the academic elite in the field of economics and business. He is among the top 1% of the most cited 1% researchers. This is based on the impact made by his articles published between 2004 and 2015. 

The results are from an article published in the May issue of Scientometrics that analysed 2,140 highly cited papers in the field, the work of 4,499 authors from 914 universities in 64 countries/territories.  The paper identified a total of 76 top scientists with 5 or more highly cited papers.  Dr. Farh is the only mainland China researcher to make the list. The complete *article, “A bibliometric analysis of highly cited papers in the field of Economics and Business based on the Essential Science Indicators database” is available here.  

Prof. Farh has a track record of producing scholarly work that makes an impact, with over 15,000 Google Scholar citations and over 4,300 Web of Science citations. His co-edited book, with Xiao-Ping Chen and Anne Tsui, on research methodology for Chinese management research (published by Peking University Press) is the best-selling methodology text book in graduate management studies in China. He has also published more than 20 articles in top-tier management journals

Prof. Farh’s current research focuses on management theories as adapted and practiced in Chinese contexts. He is best known for his seminal works on Chinese leadership (paternalistic leadership model), organisational citizenship behaviour in Chinese contexts, guanxi and trust, and how personal values of traditionality and power distance affect employee work behaviour.

*Zhang, N., Wan, S., Wang, P. et al. Scientometrics (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-018-2786-7

May 28, 2018. Shanghai – Professor Fang Er’s contribution to the field of marketing has been recognised with a paper he co-authored winning the prestigious Journal of Marketing’s Shelby D. Hunt/Harold H. Maynard Best Paper Award. It beat out six other finalists for the honour of being selected the article that made the strongest contribution to marketing theory and practice in 2017.

The paper, Group Marketing: Theory, Mechanisms, and Dynamics, was published in last July’s issue of the Journal of Marketing. Prof. Fang’s co-authors are Colleen M. Harmeling, Robert W. Palmatier, and Dianwen Wang. 

“I am humbled by this recognition of the work done with my fellow co-authors,” said Prof. Fang in reacting to the news. He also thanked the CEIBS leadership and colleagues with whom he works in the marketing department for their strong support. “This honour is not mine alone, it really belongs to the CEIBS family,” he said.

Nominations for the award were solicited from members of the Journal of Marketing AE and Editorial Review Board. In explaining its selection, the award committee said while all finalists were “outstanding papers, it had been guided by its mandate to select the best among the best”.

The Shelby D. Hunt/Harold H. Maynard Award is presented annually at the Summer American Marketing Association (AMA) Conference.

Prof. Fang is no stranger to accolades. In 2015, the AMA rewarded him with the Varadarajan Award for Early Career Contributions to Marketing Strategy Research and he was the Marketing Science Institute MSI Young Scholar in 2011. 

May 14, 2018. Shanghai – In Roland Berger CEO Charles-Edouard Bouée’s vision of the not-too distant future, we will take back control of our lives by controlling our data, cutting out middle men such as platforms (Uber, Airbnb, Mobike) and digital leaders (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) and there will be no need for advertising. This will all be made possible with artificial intelligence (AI); not the version we know today which he believes is mostly a lot of irrelevant data, but AI that will curate and provide information specific to the needs of individuals. It’s called portable AI. We can take it anywhere with us: in our homes, on our mobile phones, even in a pin on our lapel.

He also believes the next big player in AI – expected to be a US$200 billion industry within the next 10 years – will come from China or Europe and it will not be any of the players whose names are widely known today. This will mean severe disruption for existing traditional companies (digital leaders, start-ups, IT companies, and platforms). “Most of them will disappear in the next 10 years because of the rise of AI,” Bouée told the audience in a packed auditorium on CEIBS Shanghai Campus that turned out this evening to hear his Master Class. His topic was “Own the Future with Artificial Intelligence”, and Bouée did not disappoint. Halfway through his speech he had many in the audience of CEIBS students, faculty and members of the public with an interest in AI, wondering if they were learning or teaching the right material – or if their companies would still exist in the next decade. “It’s not in the interest of the current players to provide portable AI because it disrupts their business,” he said. “Today we don't have control because these players are maximising their profit. The day you get portable AI is the day you take back control of your life.”

Bouée explained that in the future, AI would simply be a commodity, like electricity, widely available. Of course there would be different levels of availability but it would be a commodity at the basic level. Individuals would have private clouds of information, not just mounds of data curated by others who have a vested interest in what information they should see first. In this future, AI will protect our privacy, book our vacations based on our preferences and not the comments/ratings of others. It will be each individual users’ personal “trusted advisor” not a branded product offered by any of the existing players.

He added that there will be new business models that emerge from a world with portable AI, and he urged his audience to visualise what comes next and act quickly as this would be the only way to own their future. “There are implications for everyone. We have never been able to stop technology, good or bad,” he said. “We will have AI, we have to make the best use of it. There are a lot of opportunities for all of you if you see the future.”

In the dialogue that followed with CEIBS Vice President and Dean Professor Ding Yuan, they explored issues including the dark side of AI – what happens if machines achieve a certain level of awareness, AI as a potential cyber weapon, the potential for job losses, and the business model on which portable AI would be based. Bouée believes if machines get to a stage where they are concerned about self-preservation, there can be positives. They would want to protect their source of power, electricity (which would also be beneficial for humans), they would want to protect themselves from the elements and this would mean protecting the environment (also a plus for humans). In terms of job losses he spoke of the need to be prepared to ensure that there is a smooth transition. And on the issue of the potential use of AI as a cyber weapon, he believes that it is “likely that in the next 20 years there will be an official organisation to monitor and track AI, otherwise a high risk is there.” As for the business model, Bouée explained that portable AI would be provided on a multi-fee basis with add-on apps for shopping, financial services, etc.

He also fielded questions from the audience, most of them focused on practical application of AI to specific industries or scenarios. In response to a question about whether portable AI would mean there is no room for new products and small businesses, Bouée said it was just the opposite. “The world is less exciting today because we don't choose anymore (choices are made for us). Tomorrow we will be able to choose again,” he said.

After his lecture, Dean Ding presented the Roland Berger CEO with a letter of appointment to CEIBS International Advisory Board (IAB). The IAB is made up of the Chairmen and CEOs of more than 20 major international and Chinese based companies who advise CEIBS Presidents and Deans on the school's strategy, teaching programmes and research agenda, and support the school in its quest for global impact and recognition.

Bouée’s Master Class is the latest in a series of lectures aimed at providing practical knowledge to the CEIBS community and the wider society. It is also part of the CEIBS Insights 2018 Project which highlights the role CEIBS has played and continues to play as a role model of effective China-EU Co-operation. Roland Berger is the only leading consulting firm of European origin and the Chinese market – where it has five offices with almost 400 consultants – is key to the company’s international presence. Events like today’s Master Class are in line with CEIBS’ goal of fulfilling its role as a platform to further enhance China-EU communication and cooperation, both in business and culture, along with providing a window of China's reform and opening up in the education sector.  

May 12, 2018. Shanghai – China’s service sector now makes up the bulk of the country’s economy and is expected to play an even greater role in the years ahead. But there is still a need for talented professionals – within Chinese firms doing business in and outside of China – capable of offering world-class service across a wide range of industries. The freshly launched Hospitality Executive MBA (HEMBA) is expected to make a huge difference in addressing this talent shortage. The joint CEIBS-EHL programme began classes at the China Europe International Business School’s (CEIBS) Shanghai Campus today. For the next week, 52 executives from a mixture of Chinese companies and foreign firms doing business in China will have classes on Strategic Management in the Hospitality Industry, Organisational Behaviour and Leadership. 

The group includes Hongjie Wang, Board Chairman of H&C Property Management that over the past 12 years has grown from a modest operation in Shandong to become China’s first international property management company. H&C’s 20,000 employees manage residential properties and office buildings around the world. Convinced that the service economy will become increasingly important in today’s China, within the context of a new era that includes a much more global focus with bellwether projects such as the Belt & Road Initiative, Wang encouraged a number of his executives to enrol as well. “I am excited to be part of this new era, ready to create new miracles in the service sector. I hope we can make Chinese service a brand new hallmark of Chinese business around the world,” he said in a speech on behalf of the entire class during yesterday’s opening ceremony. Consul General of Switzerland in Shanghai Alexander Hoffet was among the VIPs at the opening ceremony, which was also attended by leadership representatives from EHL.

The HEMBA programme, a combination of general business education and service management, is a partnership between CEIBS, China’s leading international business school, and Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL), recognised as the best hotel management school in the world. As CEIBS Dean Professor Ding Yuan noted, it took just 10 months to get the programme up and running after both sides inked an agreement last year. “China is transforming its economy to focus more on the service industry and boost domestic consumption. We are in line with economic trends, and so we saw an opportunity for this programme. It will be a win-win for both CEIBS and EHL,” he said.

The first of its kind in China, the HEMBA is also CEIBS’ first dual degree EMBA and first joint EMBA. Another of the HEMBA’s unique features is the global nature of it teaching locations. Along with the opening module and core courses in Shanghai, the 18-month programme will be offered in other locations across Asia including Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong. Midterms and graduation will be in Switzerland. Graduates will earn dual degrees – one each from CEIBS and EHL – and gain entry to both schools’ impressive and influential alumni networks. CEIBS has more than 20,000 alumni across the world while EHL has trained over 25,000 hospitality managers. “Two exceptional partners have come together to form a perfect match and offer a leading-edge programme that will position graduates for executive roles in a service sector that is hungry for the skills the programme will provide participants,” said EHL’s Chief Academic Officer Professor Finbarr O’Mahony, representing EHL Group CEO Michel Rochat during the opening ceremony.

Class participants represent more than 10 different locations across China, including Taiwan, and various aspects of service-related industries ranging from financial services to medical beauty. As CEIBS HEMBA Programme Director Professor Katherine Xin explained, they are seasoned professionals with almost 19 years’ work experience, on average. More than 80% of this very first HEMBA class are top executives, typically with about 15 years of management experience. Females make up 35% of the class, and 44% of participants have a master's degree or above. Nearly a third previously completed other CEIBS courses such as the EMBA and AMP (General Manager Programme).

As other countries before it, China has made the journey from having an economy dominated by the manufacturing/industrial sector to one where the service sector now dominates, accounting for between 52-55%. Over the past two to three years, consumption has replaced investment as the main contributor of GDP growth, and in this new consumption-driven growth model, a lot of the growth is being driven by the new service economy. 

About China Europe International Business School (CEIBS)

China Europe International Business School (www.ceibs.edu) is among the top international business schools in Asia, where it is the only b-school to have simultaneously made it to the Financial Times’ top 30 list of MBA, EMBA and Executive Education programmes. CEIBS’ world-class faculty – from both China and abroad – are experts in their fields. CEIBS, which has provided management education to over 130,000 executives both at home and abroad, has campuses in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Zurich and Accra.

About Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL)

Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL, @EHLnews) is an ambassador for traditional Swiss hospitality and has been a pioneer in hospitality education since 1893. It has created and inspired a unique professional community of over 25,000 hospitality managers, united by the values and the legacy of EHL.

EHL is a leading university that provides learning solutions for enthusiastic, talented and ambitious students from 114 different countries. With undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs, EHL offers its students a range of on-campus and online education opportunities at different stages of their professional journey.

EHL is regularly recognized as the best hotel management school in the world with the highest graduate employment rates in the industry. EHL is a member of EHL Holding SA, a Group dedicated to hospitality management education.

May 9, 2018. Shenzhen – Joo Yi had never heard of QQ or Tencent in 2008, when she was a year into her CEIBS MBA studies. Back then, she was still using MSN to keep in touch with friends and family in South Korea. Tencent only made its way onto her radar after she began looking for a summer internship that would help her reach the very clear goal she had set herself when enrolling at CEIBS: get a job with a Chinese company. Eight years later she is still with Tencent. The job initially took her back home to Seoul but now she works out of the company’s Shenzhen headquarters as Director of Business Strategy in the Mobile Internet Group.

“For the five years I worked in our Korea location, I first focused on game licensing and relationship management with our partners and then set up the team to look at new business initiatives such as entertainment and mobile payment,” she explains. “Three years ago, the VP at HQ Bo Wang – whom I had worked with from the start – was transferring to lead new business initiatives for the mobile internet group. He asked if I’d also like a new challenge, adding that this role would be based in Shenzhen.” It was hard leaving her boyfriend (now husband) in Seoul as they had just started dating, but Joo accepted the challenge. Now she manages two teams, one that focuses on identifying new opportunities and the other that implements the strategy needed to move these opportunities from ideas to reality. One of the projects they have worked on is the recent launch of a voice controlled smart speaker, Tencent’s answer to Amazon Echo or Google Home. “It’s our first in-house developed hardware device, and it’s called Tencent TingTing,” she explains. TingTing took Tencent’s internal innovation award in a closely contested contest.

Joo has come a long way from being ‘Tencent-illiterate’. But for those who have followed her career over the years, her success was not unexpected. Before her CEIBS MBA, she had four years as a Business Analyst at McKinsey under her belt. While at CEIBS, she was VP of the Committee that organised the student-led Being Globally Responsible Conference. That was the kernel from which her interest in social responsibility grew. Today she spends some of her very limited spare time helping friends who run an impact investment company in Korea because she finds it rewarding to help companies that “have a good social mission scale and succeed”. She explains, “Even though I have always worked in the private sector, I believe we as individuals – not just the public sector or the government – have a responsibility to make the world better.”    

Read on for more of Joo’s journey as a foreigner working for a Chinese mega brand that has achieved an almost cult-like status at home and growing recognition overseas. 

Some people may look at your career so far and say you’ve had a pretty successful run. How do you measure success?
Joo Yi (JY): One way to look at success is measuring how others define success for you. The way I like to look at it is the goals I set for myself. I don’t think reaching goals is as satisfying as what I learn along the way. If success is only measured by that one result at the end, you lose too much of the unexpected experiences that helped you grow during the process.

At this point in my life, success isn’t so much about whether I hit a certain KPI or successfully negotiate a certain deal. It’s about whether I am giving the most I can to this job, am I learning something new, am I making a positive impact on my team? If, on that particular day, I can answer yes to all three questions, it is a successful day for me. Success is a continuous process and not a one-stop milestone.

Tell us a bit about your career with Tencent.
JY: My basic goal for coming to China and studying at CEIBS was to get a job with a local company as I thought that would be the best way to really understand the China market and immerse myself in it. So when I was looking for a summer internship, my sole criteria was gaining experience with a local company – no matter what the industry.

As far as I know CEIBS MBA 2009 graduate Billy Zhang was the first official MBA hire at Tencent and he had come back to CEIBS to find interns for their corporate strategy department. I thought my prior consulting experience would give me leverage, so I applied. After a round of interviews they offered me a position in the gaming department. I went through several rounds of interviews, including with our current COO Mark Ren and it was only later that I heard that isn’t the normal practice when hiring interns. But because Tencent hadn’t really hired foreigners before, they were extra careful during the process. They did the interviews as if I was a full-time hire instead of just a summer intern.

Why were you placed in gaming and not strategy? You had experience in growth strategy as a McKinsey analyst and that was the role Billy Zhang was trying to fill when he came to CEIBS looking for talent.
JY: Tencent had already had some initial success licensing online games from Korea so they thought I would be helpful there. A key learning from the CEIBS MBA was to always look at the company’s financials, and I found that games were the biggest revenue driver for Tencent (still is today) so I quickly accepted their offer. The original plan was to have me working from HQ in Shenzhen doing business development for games in Korea, but right before joining I was asked if I could work from Korea as they were quite strapped there. It helped that they promised I would have ample opportunities to come back to HQ on business trips.

How has your role evolved during your eight years at Tencent? Have your goals changed along the way?
JY: In the first five years working in Korea, and particularly when I was in gaming, the objectives were quite clear. It was pretty straight forward: I was only held accountable for high-quality games coming out in that market. My more recent role of trying to find new opportunities was a bit more difficult in the beginning as I was setting my own objectives and had to be creative in getting internal support.

Are there differences between working in the overseas branch of the company and being at HQ?
JY: Working in a branch office is much simpler, in a sense, but you also don’t have as much access to information or people and it is challenging to know the bigger picture. Things do get more complicated and intense at HQ, but I really do feel my overall understanding of the company’s objectives are clearer, my network is broader, and my outlook on business is wider since being based at HQ.

You have a BA in Economics from William & Mary in the US, why did you return to Asia for your MBA? Why China, and why CEIBS?
JY: After the analyst role in McKinsey’s Seoul office, in contemplating my next step I thought about joining a specific industry or heading to business school. By chance, my parents saw an article about CEIBS in one of the major Korean newspapers. They sort of left it on my desk so I could ‘discover’ it, and I didn’t think it would hurt to apply and see if I could get accepted. I wasn’t sure business school was my next path, so CEIBS was the only school I applied to.

During my time at William & Mary I had minored in Chinese, studying at Beijing Normal University during my junior year. That experience was sort of mind blowing as my preconceived notions of China had been shaped by Korean and U.S. influence. I enjoyed it so much that I extended a six-month exchange to a full-year stay. After that I had a craving to return to China in whatever capacity; the CEIBS MBA was my first chance.

Was the CEIBS MBA worth the time and money invested in it?
JY: As mentioned earlier, my specific goal for doing the MBA was to get a job with a local company in China. CEIBS was the reason I got the interview with Tencent, so I am grateful to the school and for the friends, lessons, and memories I got there. For me, satisfaction is closely tied to expectation. The more clearly defined your expectations of an opportunity, the better able you are to manage those expectations and feel satisfied if they are met. At CEIBS MBA information sessions I am often asked if an MBA is worth it. I like to reverse that question and ask the applicant what he or she is expecting out of the MBA. I believe that the more ambiguous the response, the less rewarding the experience will be. Those who get the most out of an MBA are those who have specific expectations and are motivated to reach those goals.

You seem like a very focused individual and your career path seems to have followed a logical track. Was that by design or by accident?
JY: As a Christian I would say it was divine intervention, not by my planning or doing. I have been extremely blessed to work in the consulting industry at its height in Korea and then to grow with an internet company in the world’s most robust economy. I do believe that opportunities come to those that are prepared. For example, having a good command of Mandarin is essential to getting promising opportunities in China – especially if you want to join a local company. With the exception of a very short interview which was conducted in English, all my interviews at Tencent were in Mandarin. I wouldn’t have gotten the job had I not been able to express myself logically, and I would have to credit on-the-job-learning as the secret to my Mandarin improving over the eight-plus years I have been with the company. I would not have been offered the role at HQ had I not spoken Mandarin. More than 95% of my verbal and written communication is done in Mandarin and all my team members are Chinese except those based in the U.S., but they are also of Chinese descent.

Knowing the language has helped me socialise with co-workers and the efforts made to understand them and their culture benefits team chemistry. I don’t feel as if I am treated like a foreigner, rather like an insider; and I think this also allows me to gain access to what’s really going on instead of what someone tells me is going on. That being said, language isn’t the only factor that gets evaluated when decisions are being made about promotions; but I would have to say that my command of Mandarin has opened more doors for me. I know of some foreigners working in China that sort of leave language to the side and I think that’s unwise. Not every job requires Chinese language skills, but it’s best to have that advantage. I look at it this way: no one questions why you need to speak English when you are trying to get a job in the U.S. So if you apply the same principle to China, comprehension of Mandarin should be a basic requirement.

Now you are based in Shenzhen while your husband Will, a CEIBS EMBA alumnus, is still in Seoul. What is it like being in a long-distance marriage?
JY: We’ve been married for almost two years now and we try to see each other as often as we can. Us both being CEIBS alumni is quite an advantage; even though our times at CEIBS don’t overlap as he was there from 2015 to 2017, we share common memories of our experience and this strengthens the bond between us. I would say work/life balance is an area where we haven’t done such a great job, both of us are quite the workaholics. But understanding that fact about each other makes the relationship work and creates positive synergy.

You work in a very fast paced environment. What do you do to recharge your batteries?
JY: I have found taking a break every once in a while from technology is necessary for me to revitalise myself, so I will go trekking in Hong Kong or head out to nature for some fresh air with my mobile phone turned off.

In 2010 you were a founding member of the CEIBS Korean Alumni Chapter. Now that you are back in China, how do you engage with the alumni network?
JY: Being in Korea, I was able to stay much more involved by, for example, offering a venue to host information sessions or participating as a speaker. But now in China it’s more about providing moral support and staying in touch with the alumni network in Korea. Technological advances with the smart phone have helped a lot, so I am in both the WeChat and KakaoTalk (Korea’s version of WeChat) groups. They help me to stay on top of events going on and I do my best to meet with alumni when they come to Shenzhen or when I am in Korea.

I’m happy to do this because the CEIBS experience had great professors and the curriculum provided a holistic academic experience with both China depth and global breadth, staying true to the school’s mission. But I have to say I learnt the most from interactions with my super classmates. So I have to give a big shout out to my MBA buddies from the class of 2010.
 

Joo’s Cross-cultural Workplace Tips

What advice do you have for other foreigners, based on the lessons you have learned from being part of a mostly Chinese team?
I would say keep an open, flexible mind. Everybody is unique and has their own working style – even people who share the same culture. So the difference is obviously going to broaden as you cross borders. If you sense issues, make sure to engage in communication early on and don’t wait until a problem explodes as it can be extremely frustrating and takes a lot more time to clean up after the fact. ‘Keeping face’ is important in most Asian cultures, so if you need to provide less-than-positive feedback to your Chinese co-worker or subordinate, make sure to do it one-on-one and not in front of others. Trust is mutual: don’t expect your team to trust you if you don’t trust them.

What advice do you have for Chinese who may have only a few foreigners in their teams?
Quite similar to the answer above, I would encourage Chinese co-workers to also respect the differences that a foreigner might display and make sure to keep an open channel of communication to detect and fix issues early on, rather than after the fact. Kindness goes far, so perhaps taking the extra time to explain some aspects of the culture to the foreign colleague would be helpful and may help avoid misunderstanding. Most people from western cultures prefer direct feedback instead of hearing things in a roundabout way, so express what you mean directly instead of trying to find an analogy as the point might get lost.

What advice do you have for a Chinese boss on how to manage a foreigner, and for a foreigner who has a Chinese boss?
I don’t think this relationship is special just because one person is Chinese and the other is not. In a work relationship, expectations and work scope should be aligned and agreed upon from the start, and the benefits or rewards promised should be delivered. If one side has met the goal, and the other side does not keep his/her word, the trust is broken and that relationship is very difficult to mend. Frequent and clear communication is also key, as it helps to manage and understand expectations and also to understand each other’s working style. Differences in style isn’t a bad thing – more often than not, they create a good balance and lead to better results; but being aware of them makes the process much smoother. I don’t believe there is a certain chemistry created because the two are from different cultures. The relationship is a work in progress, the boss and employee have to collectively figure out a way to stay together. Hopefully they will find common ground that works for both of them.

April 18, 2018. Shanghai – If there is an accident involving an autonomous vehicle, who is liable? Is it the person sitting in the driver’s seat who, it can be argued, is merely a passenger while the car is operating autonomously? Is it the car manufacturer, or the company behind the data being used by the vehicle? As digitisation transforms and shapes the future of the auto industry, and related sectors such as auto insurance, these are issues players will have to face. This was among the points raised by Luz G. Mauch, Senior Vice President of T-Systems' Sales & Service for the Automotive and Manufacturing Industry during today’s talk on the Shanghai Campus of China Europe International Business School.

More than 50 senior executives from the telecommunications and automotive industries turned out to hear Mauch’s thoughts on the future of the automotive industry within the context of increasing digitisation along with the challenges and opportunities that entails. The event was organised by CEIBS Alumni International Chapter (CAIC) in collaboration with CEIBS Alumni Auto Association.

A seasoned professional in the technology space for the automotive industry, Mauch pointed out that cars are now sold as smart devices with a built-in service component, as opposed to the plain vanilla mechanical vehicles they used to be a few decades ago. He argued that upcoming trends in the automotive industry are brought about by three game changing technologies: connectivity, electro mobility, and autonomous driving. The challenge now facing bigwigs in the automotive industry is how to generate business from data, he said. Mauch told the audience that it is incumbent upon industry players to turn data into insights and insights into new business strategies – including those that would address the issue of who is liable when a machine is in control of a vehicle.

He predicted that the role of auto OEMs will evolve from manufacturer to mobility service provider, which in turn will change their very DNA. The new services under industry 4.0, such as tracking and tracing and autonomous driving, calls for a lot of data analysis. Actual data from devices (transport boxes, vehicles, machinery & equipment, etc.) needs to be recorded, and then processed at the hub, which is usually a cloud system. To put in place a modern day data processing centre, the necessary infrastructure includes networks, cloud based ecosystems, and the IoT (Internet of Things) – all of which need to be secured, he added.  

This is why the telecommunications industry is vital. “The future of telcos strongly intersects with cloud solutions and IoT applications, including verticals such as connected health, smart logistics, predictive maintenance and condition monitoring, connected home, connected cars or even smart cities solutions,” he said. “Already in 2015 we launched a dedicated digital business unit that delivers scalable cloud, IoT and security bundles.”

About CAIC

The CEIBS Alumni International Chapter (CAIC) is the home base for English-speaking CEIBS Alumni and provides a platform where all interaction is in English. The CAIC continues to give voice to CEIBS’ internationalisation by building an international alumni community through a variety of regular activities. It invites CEIBS alumni around the world to join in order to strengthen the international CEIBS community.

About CAAA

CEIBS Alumni Auto Association (CAAA) is one of the professional associations within CEIBS Alumni Association. As of 2018 the association has over 700 members coming from various fields in the auto industry such as parts supplier, car maker, dealer, after-sale services, research centre and related government agencies. They are all playing key roles in the development of China’s auto industry.

April 13 & 14, 2018. Shanghai – Dominique de Villepin, the former Prime Minister of France who CEIBS is now honoured to have as a member of its faculty, has stressed the importance of the 15-year-old China-EU Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, especially at a time of trade tension between the US and China.

“I think it’s a key partnership. In a moment of tension among the world community it's more important than ever,” he said. “I believe that the Europeans are committed to trying to find answers and peaceful solutions, through cooperation with China.”

He was speaking, on April 13, during a video interview with CEIBS Marketing & Communications, after wrapping up a roundtable discussion with a group of the school’s MBA students. This is the first of several visits planned throughout the year, during which the statesman will engage in high-level discussions and lectures on topics ranging from the China-led Belt & Road Initiative, art and culture, to the new global economic competition. He was appointed Distinguished Professor at CEIBS in January. The exchange of knowledge that will be facilitated by his visits is an excellent example of CEIBS’ role in fostering the China-EU Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

Mr. de Villepin also touched on the importance of EU-China ties during his keynote speech at the April 14 CEIBS MBA graduation ceremony (related story). Convinced that Europe and China can work together in “reshaping globalisation”, he said graduating students will have a role to play in building bridges between nations and continents. “Since 1994, this school has been striving to gather excellent people showing interest in Europe and China. I do believe you’ll be the voice of this long and fruitful friendship,” he said. Pointing to the US$500 billion of annual trade between China and Europe, he spoke of the inevitable need to strengthen existing economic bonds while collaborating on new ones in “dynamic sectors like smart cities, transport, green energy and Artificial Intelligence”. He also stressed that economic partnerships are the best way to stave off “commercial war”, and spoke of the need to “build an alternative to the escalation currently taking place between China and the United States with growing tariffs on both sides”.

Mr. de Villepin’s visit also included April 13 afternoon interviews with the Chinese media and a morning visit to sewing machine manufacturer Shanggong Shenbei Group (SGSB) where CEIBS EMBA alumnus Zhang Min is Group Chairman and CEO. A number of other CEIBS alumni from a range of industries including culture, technology and investment, also got an opportunity to engage with Mr. de Villepin during dinner later that day.

Mr. de Villepin’s visit is part of a wider CEIBS initiative to mark the 15^th anniversary of the China-EU Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Throughout the year, there will be knowledge exchange – through events inside China – with other European and Chinese leaders from the world of politics, academia and business. There will also be major forums in five European cities as CEIBS embraces being a role model of effective China-EU cooperation by providing an economic and cultural bridge between both sides and act as a window of China’s reform and opening up in the education sector.