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ISSUE NO. 18

TSINGHUA GATEWAYTHE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF TSINGHUA-MIT GLOBAL MBA PROGRAM

Tsinghua GATEWAY 1

Dean Qian Talk with Elon MuskShana Penna, GMBA Class of 2016

Continued on 3

Spring/Summer 2016

Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management welcomed one of its newest advisory board members, Elon Musk, to hold a discussion with the school’s own Dean QIAN Yingyi. Mr. Musk, Co-Founder and CEO of Tesla Motors, CEO and CTO of SpaceX, and Chairman of SolarCity, represents qualities that both Tsinghua University and China esteem, among which are technological innovation and entrepreneurship. Tsinghua has been fortunate to attract a high caliber of world business leaders to its Advisory Board, and Musk is yet another example of the strength of the School of Economics and Management in global business management education.

Musk started his entrepreneurial endeavors

with Zip2, a provider of Internet software to the media industry. He and Peter Thiel, a world renowned economist, subsequently created the online payment platform PayPal. The platform revolutionized how people pay for goods online and strengthened the entire e-commerce ecosystem that was just beginning to mature in the United States. Soon after, Musk turned his focus to electric vehicle batteries and founded Tesla. At the company, Musk oversaw product development and design, with his goal being to transition the market to a sustainable energy economy.

During his discussion with Dean Qian, Musk spoke of the challenges in creating SpaceX. For years he did not know whether the company was going to sustain, and it took a call from

NASA, the United States government’s space agency, to ensure that SpaceX would make it. Employing used rockets from the Russian space program, Musk spoke of being one of the first commercial companies to dock on the International Space Station. However, he made it clear that this accomplishment was reached only after some initial launch failures. He also shared about his personal lack of knowledge in space exploration, emphasizing that people can learn anything that they want, as long as they put the necessary effort into it. In his case, he credited his voracious reading for gaining the requisite knowledge to manage the company.

In addition to Tesla and SpaceX, Musk is

Dialogue between QIAN Yingyi and Elon Musk at the 2015 Tsinghua Management Global Forum

Tsinghua GATEWAY Spring/Summer 2016 3Tsinghua GATEWAY Spring/Summer 20162

ISSUE NO. 18 ISSUE NO. 18

THE GATEWAY TEAM MBA HEADLINESEDITOR’S NOTE

As we conclude the Fall/Winter of 2015, we Editors have a lot to recognize. To begin, for us, it has been an incredible start to the second year of the GMBA program. From getting to know the new first year students to the Advisory Board meetings, we are constantly reminded of the value of our choice in the Tsinghua SEM GMBA program.

The current issue of the Gateway Newsletter is a reflection of our transition into the innovative future. With pride, we welcomed the newest Tsinghua SEM Advisory Board members, Elon Musk and Professor Qiu Yong, the President of Tsinghua University. Musk exemplifies the innovation that Tsinghua University personifies, while President Qiu takes the university into a new era.

As an academic newsletter, the Tsinghua Gateway is here to tout the news of each semester. It is always exciting to read of the current students' travels and the aspects of the program, while also learning of the alumni’s successes. Each semester brings with it learning

THE GATEWAY TEAM

Allison ShiMBA Office Advisor

Rikki ZhaoMBA Office Advisor

Jessica YangMBA Office Advisor

Doris Duoduo XunMBA Office Advisor

in many different facets, including through these articles. We also like to highlight the splendor of the university through the students many pictures, and in this newsletter we show the brilliant beauty of Beijing’s fall.

We are happy to announce that the new Editors of the Gateway, who will soon be taking the

Thanks to

reigns, are Stacey Zhao, Tim Hesler, and Dan Cowen. They are esteemed by their classmates and we are excited to see the evolution of the paper under their leadership.

Yours truly,Shana and ChristinaGMBA Class of 2016

ranked 22!

Musk came to Tsinghua to discuss his passion for the sciences and how that led to a career as a serial entrepreneur. His discussion with Dean Qian touched on the dedication and perseverance that all entrepreneurs need, along with the adaptability that comes from a continuous learning posture. Students were able to ask Musk about his electric vehicles and his own goals in China, in response to which Musk spoke to his growing successes with the Tesla brand. Musk was welcomed to the School of Economics and Management not only by SEM students but also by other Tsinghua students from a variety of departments in the sciences. It is Elon Musk’s model successes that allow these students to dream of how their own passions can lead to something bigger, not only for them, but for the world at large.

the non-executive chairman and principal shareholder of SolarCity, the leading provider of solar power systems in the United States. At one point during the dialogue, Dean Qian held up a placard with the “50 Smartest Companies

William LiuSub Editor

GMBA 2017

YuTong Gu Sub Editor

GMBA 2017

Board of Advisors Tea with Christopher Galvin, Former Chairman and CEO, Motorola Inc

Shana Penna, GMBA Class of 2016

Ben ZengGMBA Class of 2017

Dennis YeGMBA Class of 2017

Daniela Yiting CaiGMBA Class of 2016

Frank FanGMBA Class of 2016

Karnpisith Juke LaorpaksaGMBA Class of 2017

Napol KamthornkittikulGMBA Class of 2016

Oat Sithi NerngchamnongGMBA Class of 2016

Philip MertensGMBA Class of 2016

Paulo LopesGMBA Class of 2016

Qi WenGMBA Class of 2017Roy Kwang Soo InGMBA Class of 2017

Bruce Seung Keon SuhGMBA Class of 2017

Tina Ta-Ting Ja GMBA Class of 2016

Wilson Wu GMBA Class of 2017Wafic MkhallaltiGMBA Class of 2016

2015” ranking by Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Technology Review Magazine; notably, all three of Elon Musk’s companies were on the list, with Tesla ranking number 1, SolarCity number 9, and SpaceX

Shana Penna Editor-in-Chief GMBA 2016

Steven WhiteFaculty Advisor

Christina Chong Editor-in-Chief GMBA 2016

Tim Hesler Editor

GMBA 2017

Dan Cowen Editor

GMBA 2017

Stacey Zhao Editor

GMBA 2017



Daniel Cowen, GMBA Class of 2017

Students Dialogue with Advisory Board Members: Risto Siilasmaa, Chairman of Nokia

that, “there are some who see things as they are and ask why, others see things that never were and ask why not?” Mr. Siilasmaa put this into practice by founding his first company at the tender age of twenty-two, helping people and companies strategically position themselves to take advantage of the nascent world of personal computers. He described making this company succeed in Finland when the country had no venture capital firms, paying himself last each month, sometimes with nothing left for him at all. Following this he enumerated his ten yardsticks of entrepreneurship, and emphasised that it is a way of life, not merely a job, nor a profession nor a role.

The second half of the session focused in great detail on the sale of Nokia’s handset division to Microsoft – a huge departure from Nokia’s traditional business, which had previously represented 25% of Finland’s exports and 4% of its GDP. Mr. Siilasmaa discussed how the deal with Steve Ballmer and the Microsoft team broke down on a number of occasions, but how small gestures like flying to Seattle just for a weekend showed their interest and commitment to a deal. Mr. Siilasmaa offered fantastic insight for SEM students, and we look forward to welcoming him back to future Advisory Board events.

Long-t ime board advisor Chr istopher Galvin brought an admirable humility and authenticity to Tsinghua University during his October campus visit. As the former heir of Motorola, he has a longstanding relationship with both China and Tsinghua, and at one point his former company had 100,000 employees in the country. In his afternoon tea session with students, he spoke of perseverance through tough times, discussing his departure from Motorola at length and with a spirit of honest reflection. His perspective on these challenges was unique, and for those students

MBA HEADLINES MBA HEADLINESabout to begin a new phase of their careers, it was a perspective that they will likely find increasingly valuable as those careers unfold. One of the values that he stressed most was living a quality life, which to him meant treating people right and building trusting relationships. He recounted times in his life when he supported people at the sacrifice of his own ambitions, but in the future it was ultimately these small assists that furthered his own development. One of his most central reflections was on the importance of family, as it was his own family that allowed him

the opportunities he captured early on, and throughout life he has continued to ensure that his family comes first. Currently Galvin manages a private equity firm, Harrison Street Capital, which has 9 billion USD in assets under management. Harrison Street invests primarily in commercial real estate in the United States. All told, Mr. Galvin’s unique experiences have led him to maintain a spirit of continuous innovation in his business endeavors while persevering through life’s challenges.

Mr. Risto Siilasmaa, Chairman of Nokia since 2012 and former interim-CEO, credited with saving a company once thought headed for bankruptcy, gave us a thrilling lecture on his life, entrepreneurial philosophy and a unique insight into how a large global business can completely realign its industry sector and associated goals.

Students Dialogue with Advisory Board Members: Jim Breyer,

CEO & Founder of Breyer CapitalBruce Seung Keon Suh, GMBA Class of 2017

Jim Breyer, Tsinghua SEM Advisory Board Member, Founder and CEO of Breyer Capital, Partner of Accel Partners

Jim Breyer is one of the most renowned figures on the global venture investment scene. In 2005, as a managing partner at Accel Partners, he led the early-stage investment in Facebook which fueled the company’s historic success. Investing in a number of ventures grown as unicorns – startups with market valuations of over a billion US dollars – and bridging Silicon Valley with other innovative hubs throughout the world, he has built an unparalleled reputation in venture capital and related industries.

Throughout the dialogue, Mr. Breyer expressed his amazement at the pace of ongoing innovation in such diverse fields as healthcare, finance, and media. According to him, the window of opportunity for global impact has never been more fairly and widely distributed than now since his professional start as a venture capitalist 20 years ago. More specifically, he mentioned the “bottom-up” innovation that the change will occur not only in such conventional knowledge hubs as Silicon Valley but also in rural areas, particularly as information

and knowledge become more accessible due to the emergence of smartphones and other personal devices.

With respect to his investment philosophy, Mr. Breyer stressed the importance of team and vision. He suggested that entrepreneurs’ great vision builds a culture and ecosystem that enable following the success of others and making continuous social impact. For example, he made his investment decision based on the vision of Mark Zuckerberg, a co-founder of Facebook, that Facebook would become a platform linking users with other services/products.

As a venture capitalist, Mr. Breyer started his own entrepreneurial journey in China 11 years ago, and now he actively participates in investment and mentoring activities through his advisory role at IDG-Accel China Funds, Tsinghua SEM and other notable organizations. It was a memorable opportunity to welcome him for his tenth visit to Tsinghua University for the SEM’s annual Advisory Board meeting.

Mr. Siilasmaa opened his session with a long self-introduction in Chinese, and he revealed learning the language is his new hobby. He characterised his passion for entrepreneurship as a “burning feel ing inside you to do something and change the world,” and he also discussed George Bernard Shaw’s observation



MBA HEADLINES MBA HEADLINES

Students Dialogue with Advisory Board Members: Mike McNamara, CEO of Flex

Christina Chong, GMBA Class of 2016

“This is an extraordinary time to be in business … Good luck, think big, and never give up!”

Flex is one of the global leaders in Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) and Original Design Manufacturing ( ODM ) , w i t h 2 0 0 , 0 0 0 e mp l oy e e s and operations at over 100 locations worldwide. In a rapidly evolving market environment, Flex is able to stay ahead by continuously improving its strategy and processes to become more efficient, as well as by innovating new products and design solutions for its customers.

During the classroom dialogue session, Mike McNamara, Flex’s CEO, emphasized that the “Internet of Things will change the world,” and discussed the current trends in the market : increases in regionalization, supply chain complexity, faster product cycles, more disruptive products, and new hardware OEMs. As innovat ion i s on the r i s e , Mr. McNamara suggested, companies should focus on global citizenship to increase the t ransparenc y of t h e c omp any

operations. To do so, Flex is committed to Corporate Social and Environment Responsibility (CSER) to create a better work environment for its employees and improve society.

McNamara also pointed out that there is an extraordinary growth in Asian venture-funded innovation, and he shared four key drivers for the growth of innovation: free and easy access to information; increased connectivity by mobile devices; decreased costs of data storage on the cloud; and the widening reach of audiences via online channels. These drivers have made innovation a worldwide competition.

It was a unique opportunity for students to hear McNamara’s thoughts on the future of the industry and Flex’s strategy to stay in a leading position in the competitive market. I am confident that those present were, like myself, deeply motivated by McNamara’s inspirational summary:

Mike McNamara, Tsinghua SEM Advisory Board Member, CEO of Flex, at Tsinghua MBA classroom

Mike McNamara on his way to the classroom with the teaching assistants

Students Dialogue with Advisory Board Member: Li Rongrong,

Former Chairman of the SASACStacey Zhao, GMBA Class of 2017

Sitting on the edges of our seats, the crowd fell silent as a poised Li Rongrong walked into the small classroom with a warm smile that put us all at ease. Many of the MBA students who attended this event had made careers in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and felt a deep connection to him. They wanted to know about the man behind the myth.

When he was made the founding Chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Counsel from 2003 to 2010, Li Rongrong managed China’s more than one hundred SOEs to achieve tremendous growth while

Li Rongrong, former Chairman of the SASAC, at Tsinghua MBA classroom

at the same time undergoing unprecedented changes. During the decade under Chairman Li’s leadership, crit ical reforms for the massive central government-led Chinese companies were successfully implemented, including securitization of SOEs’ equity and modernization of SOEs’ management practices. Met with both criticism and applause for overhauling entrenched practices during a period of huge economic growth in China while preparing for an economic slowdown and trying to maintain responsibility towards the rest of the world economy, Li Rongrong held his ground. His reforms helped the SOEs to successfully operate in an increasingly

market-based Chinese economy; today, central government-led SOEs hold over 80 (and counting) positions on the Fortune 500 and contribute more than 2 trillion RMB of tax revenue each year.

Li Rongrong exemplifies a combination of visionary and pragmatist, two qualities that rarely coexist. He began by sharing his view of organizations through the eyes of a car engine factory engineer early in his career. Optimization through “lower input and higher output," he pointed out, was a major goal for successful managers. He stressed the importance for managers of tailoring theories



MBA HEADLINESand the importance of appropriate incentive mechanisms for a state-run system, such as the need to offer employees market-based salaries as well as introduction of a performance-based compensation system, an idea that was extremely controversial in his time. “There is much reform work ahead of us,” Li emphasizes. He uses both his educational experiences and his vast range of positions in government to further his hope of nurturing a new generation of professional managers to spearhead these enterprises.

Li Rongrong returned to speak this third time to encourage more student dialogue, revealing an openness to tackling controversial topics. The students held him in high regard when he gave personal and professional advice,

reminding us always to find inner balance when faced with adversity, and to derive happiness from service to others. He compares civil service to “a waitress, whose job is simply to make the customer happy.”

When we look for jobs, he encourages us to look for opportunities in large organizations that could provide expertise and offer a wealth of historical capabilities, rather than to focus narrowly on the job title. As a Chinese American, I left that day feeling extraordinarily grateful for his advice and optimistic about the future prospects of the state sector and its vision as well as the ability of our generation to continue the reform he began while adapting to economic realities we face in the present and the future.

Coca Cola: A 130-Year-Old PromiseTim Hesler, GMBA Class of 2017

did an instantly-identifiable-in-the-dark bottle. A lifelong Coca-Cola employee, Mr. Kent would argue that being tasked with overseeing a brand as ubiquitous as this one is still as much about awareness and forward trailblazing as it is about preservation, and from his vantage

MBA HEADLINES

Class group photo with Muhtar Kent, the Chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola

Ben Zeng, GMBA Class of 2017

Mission, Attentiveness, and Looking Forward: A Lecture in Chinese by Mark Zuckerberg

On October 24, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook and the youngest Advisory Board member of the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, delivered a lecture in Chinese to SEM students. This was the second time that Zuckerberg gave a lecture in Chinese to Tsinghua students, and according to the school’s Dean QIAN

Yingyi, Zuckerberg’s Chinese proficiency has improved tremendously, given his tight schedule as the CEO of the one of the world’s most valuable companies. Zuckerberg oriented his lecture with three stories of why he started a company: narratives of having a mission, of being attentive, and of looking forward.

The first story by Zuckerberg emphasized the importance of having a mission and the confidence of doing something important. “When I founded Facebook, I did not want to create a company. I wanted to solve a very important issue. I wanted to connect people together,” he shared in his newly improved Chinese. Zuckerberg pointed out the parallels

to complex problems in the workplace. I was impressed with his application of Mao Zedong’s analects of Practice and Contradiction to reform, two useful concepts my father often mentioned.

He touched upon motivational leadership

“A brand is a promise. A good brand is a promise kept.”This was the foundation on which Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent’s October 23 dialogue with Tsinghua SEM students was premised. It is also the foundation on which he believes Coca-Cola has been built and will continue to thrive in the future. The dialogue, titled, “Why Brands Matter,” gave an inside look at arguably the most recognizable corporate brand in the world.

Mr. Kent’s presentation at Tsinghua SEM came on the heels of a corporate visit several days earlier by a group of current MBA students to Coca-Cola’s Beijing facilities. In the course of the visit, students were given a view of local operations, engaged in dialogue by Ms. Ling Ping Li, Coca-Cola’s Greater China Director of Government and Community, PAC, and even allowed to snag iconic Coca-Cola polar bear selfies.

As a vivid depiction of Coca-Cola’s brand-consciousness, Mr. Kent shared the once-ambitious goal of having a bottle “that anyone can touch in the dark and instantly know what it is.” He pointed out that while any truly great brand must begin with a particularly distinctive product or service – in Coca-Cola’s case, defined by the unique taste of its original signature beverage – that product alone serves as more of a necessary than sufficient condition.

But what else goes into the “romancing of this proprietary package,” as Mr. Kent aptly characterized it? In his view, the answer both shifts over time and also remains constant. On the one hand, consumers expect

something different – perhaps more – now than they did at Coca-Cola’s founding 130 years ago.

On the other hand, the constant: successful brands consistently tend to be both authentic and responsive to consumer needs, and in the 21st Century, it remains a deep level of responsiveness to those shifting expectations that propels a brand forward. In China, for instance, Mr. Kent says the 500 million-strong rural population is routinely on the forefront of his radar, with an eye to the massive base of both consumers and, simply, people. By 2018, it is expected that Coca-Cola will have invested $9 billion in China, and not a trivial portion of that amount into undertakings like supporting schools through the Project Hope program.

Despite the company’s growth from one beverage to over 500, despite Coca-Cola’s touting a whopping 20 different billion-dollar beverage brands, Mr. Kent still believes there is room both to dream and to be on guard. What keeps him up at night, he says, is the threat facing essentially any highly successful company: the prospect of complacency. In an effort to avoid that pitfall, he says he attempts to maintain a learner’s posture, especially when engaging with retailers and consumers. “Every time I visit a point of sale,” he explains, “I learn something new.”

As for his dreams? “My dream is one day people can drink Coca-Cola from a package and then eat the package, so that nothing is wasted.” It may sound unconventional and even a bit audacious, but so once

point, continuing to meet and especially push the boundaries of consumer expectations is an essential part of fulfilling the promise that is the Coca-Cola brand.



MBA HEADLINES

between notable Chinese f irms such as Alibaba and Xiaomi, which were also driven by missions of their own. When Facebook made a significant change to its social service by implementing “Feeds” to its users’ front page (the Timeline), roughly 10% of Facebook users at that time, or 100,000 people, waged a campaign against the new function and threatened to deactivate their accounts. Zuckerberg’s response, however, was to focus on the company’s mission of connecting people and insisted that Feeds would be an integral part of social media. According to Zuckerberg, Feeds is now a crucial component of the international social media community.

The second story was about being attentive. When Zuckerberg was still a student at Harvard College, he and his friends commenced the first version of Facebook. “I was just a student,” said Zuckerberg. “I thought a large corporation like Microsoft or Google would develop such a product. They have thousands of computer engineers and tens of millions

as connecting one billion people. Because it had never been done before, it seemed to be an immense goal to achieve. However, after the goal was reached, Zuckerberg realized, one billion was just a number, and Facebook should connect everyone in the world. With that mission in mind, Facebook initiated Internet.org to bring together technology leaders, nonprofits, and local communities to connect parts of the world where Internet access may be less affordable. Zuckerberg ended his lecture by encouraging students to continue learning. If you keep on learning, he said, you can innovate in daily life and in business and equip yourself for a diverse range of pursuits; furthermore, before you do anything, ask not only how but why. In closing, Zuckerberg encouraged students to embrace the challenge before them of becoming the next generation of leaders and leveraging the Internet to maximize their global impact.

of users. They should be the ones to develop an international social network.” Even today, Zuckerberg asks himself why. His answer? He believes Facebook’s founders are the ones who are more attentive to users’ needs. When people questioned whether Facebook was a service for students only, whether its user base would diminish, or whether it would have a revenue stream, Zuckerberg and his team responded by refining the social media service and were able to move forward because, he says, Facebook is more attentive. Zuckerberg quoted an old Chinese proverb, “If you work at it hard enough, you can grind an iron bar into a needle.” Zuckerberg attributed today’s 1.5-billion user base to Facebook’s combination of grit & attentiveness.

Zuckerberg’s third anecdote related to moving forward. He started off by quoting Jack Ma, the founder and Chairman of Alibaba, “Compared to fifteen years ago, we are huge; but compared to fifteen years later, we are still a baby.” Zuckerberg stated Facebook’s previous mission

Mark Zuckerberg delivering his second speech in Chinese at Tsinghua SEM

Tsinghua SEM Holds 10th Anniversary Celebration of Stanford-Tsinghua Exchange

ProgramProvided by the International Office, Editor in Charge: Yang Nali

Professor Qian Xiaojun, Assistant Dean of Tsinghua SEM gives a speechduring the 10th anniversary celebration of STEP.

Professor Huang Szu-chi (left), current Academic Advisor of StanfordGraduate School of Business, and Professor Chen Hao, Tsinghua SEM (right), Academic Advisor of the current class of STEP, give speeches.

SEM NEWS

On the evening of November 22, 2015, the 10th anniversary celebration of Stanford Tsinghua Exchange Program (STEP), with “STEP FORWARD” as its event theme, was held at Tsinghua SEM. The event was attended by Professor Qian Xiaojun, Associate Dean of Tsinghua SEM; Professor Zhang Wei, Academic Advisor of the first class of STEP and Associate Professor of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy; Professor Chen Hao, Academic Advisor of the current class of STEP and Assistant Professor of Leadership and Organization Management; Professor Huang Szu-chi, current Academic Advisor of the Graduate School of Business of Stanford University; Mr. Frank Hawke, Director of Stanford Business Greater China; and approximately 40 MBA students from the current STEP cohort of both schools and 10 MBA alumni from the previous MBA classes.

Since its implementation in 2005, the STEP program has witnessed a decade of progress. During the past ten years, with its innovative and unique methodologies, STEP has forged a bond between students from both schools through which they can better appreciate each other’s experiences and vantage points. By the end of 2015, more than 400 students from both sides of the Pacific Ocean had attended and completed STEP. Over that span, they have built real personal and professional relationships, passed important milestones, and shared from their rich academic experiences.

The celebration was opened by Professor Qian Xiaojun, Associate Dean of Tsinghua SEM, who gave a heartfelt welcome speech to the participating guests on behalf of SEM. In her speech, Professor Qian affirmed the great achievements of STEP during the past decade. Professor Qian also articulated the uniqueness of STEP in its fostering of creativity. Every year, STEP students from both schools determine their own program content. Participants draw heavily on their creativity and team spirit to plan, modify, and implement every element of the program. Close cooperation has enabled the STEP participants to broaden their knowledge of the economies and cultures of both countries while developing strong and enduring friendships. It is because of its innovation and uniqueness that STEP has been so invigorating during the past ten years, thus building a relational bond of cooperation between students and faculty from both schools.

After Professor Qian’s opening address, the academic advisors from both schools offered their insights. Professor Huang Szu-chi from the Stanford Graduate School of Business expressed great honor to be the leading faculty of STEP. She noted that STEP was the only

such exchange program to focus on close cooperation between the two leading universities from both China and the U.S. In her speech, Professor Chen Hao expressed her hope that the ongoing cooperation between Chinese and American STEP faculty and students would be far-reaching in its impact for both schools and even both countries in long-term societal influence .



Prof. Qian Xiaojun (the first on the right), Assistant Dean of Tsinghua SEM, gave a ten-year anniversary commemoration present to

Stanford University

All the participants took a group photo together for the STEP 10th Anniversary Celebration

SEM NEWS MBA NEWS

Advisory Board Spin Session: An Afternoon Spent With Mike McNamara and Martin Senn

Daniela Yiting Cai, GMBA Class of 2016

During the afternoon of October 22nd in Shunde 418, a handful of Tsinghua SEM MBA and SEM undergraduate students experienced the incredible opportunity to have an informal conversation with Mike McNamara, CEO of Flex (formerly Flextronics), and Martin Senn, CEO of Zurich Insurance.

“Good luck, think big and never give up!”- This was Mike McNamara’s parting thought to Tsinghua students. He truly believes that the current generation has great potential and many opportunities, and he suggests that students should position themselves as entrepreneurs, because now is the time to be in business.

However, according to the Flex CEO, new entrepreneurs should remain vigilant and cognizant of the forces that are transforming businesses: nowadays information is free and

However, he cautioned against the boomerang effect. One example is presented by the mobile phone, which may in some ways be the perfect tool to keep in contact with people. However, because the tool itself can obstruct emotional components of communication, it is essential to remain mindful of the need to build relationships through face-to-face conversations and the nonverbal communication elements, such as eye contact, that come with it.

Both CEOs expressed their enthusiasm for being at Tsinghua for the Advisory Board Meeting 2015, not only because they had the chance to meet other companies’ CEOs, but also because they had an opportunity to engage with students who bring their own unique brands of energy and points of view.

available in real-time, mobile devices are enabling anyone to interact anywhere and anytime, and online channels are affording immediate access and global reach. Moreover, Mr. McNamara added that remaining agile is the secret to thriving because growing trends such as supply chain complexity, increased regionalization, growth of Asian OEMs, faster product cycles, more disruptive products, global citizenship, and the Internet of Things are materially affecting businesses. Thus, a good leader is able to change, follow these trends, and learn from them.

Meanwhile, as Mr. McNamara encouraged students to start new businesses, Mr. Senn stressed the importance and power of big data and related technologies. As one data point, for instance, it is now possible to transfer, collect and analyse more data in ten minutes than the data collected from the existence of mankind to 2003.

Mike McNamara with Tsinghua SEM students during the conversation

Mr. Frank Hawke, Director of Stanford Business Greater China then shared his own work and life experience in China during the past 40 years. Mr. Hawke suggested that STEP was conducive to promoting cross-cultural communication and cooperation between Chinese and American students and that these qualities between aspiring young professionals from different countries do indeed engender social progress. He described his hope that his own experience in China could help American students participating in the program to understand China more quickly and familiarize themselves with the economic and political environment in China.

After Mr. Hawke’s candid reflections, Professor Zhang Wei, STEP initiator, Academic Advisor of the first STEP cohort, and Associate Professor of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy, followed with some of his own thoughts. Professor Zhang expressed that the creation of STEP exceeded the expectation from both schools. He recalled when the program was first established in the belief that STEP could serve as a bridge for an unwavering friendship and that the program would continue to grow through learning and self-improvement.

Alumni then shared how STEP had influenced and changed them. Liu Xin, an alum from the very first STEP class, noted in particular that company visits in the U.S. gave him the confidence to later enter the venture capital field when he returned to China. Mr. Chen Yuanming and Mr. Zhao Jianhua, attendees from the MBA Class of 2009, reminded current students to cherish this great opportunity, to communicate often, and to be proactive in their exploration of new ideas during the program.

Professor Qian Xiaojun concluded the event on behalf of the school by presenting a ten-year anniversary plaque to Stanford University, commemorating the efforts and hard work of students, faculty and staff of both schools on behalf of STEP during the past decade and the anticipation of close cooperation for decades to come.During the following week, students from both schools held a variety of events, including classroom-style lectures, visits to enterprises, and experiences with local Beijing culture.



MBA NEWS

Interview of Carlos Ghosn, Chairman of Nissan, Renault, the Nissan-Renault Alliance,

and AvtoVAZWilson Wu, GMBA Class of 2017

On October 23rd, 2015, Carlos Ghosn, who is currently the Chairman and CEO of Renault, Chairman and CEO of Nissan and Chairman of AvtoVAZ, held an interview with Professor Jiao Jie and MBA student representative Wilson Wu, Tim Hesler and Wendy Wang. At the interview, Mr. Ghosn shared his perspectives on the topics of leadership, cross cultural communication and the future of the automobile industry. Additionally, as a member of the Tsinghua Advisory Board of Directors, Ghosn shared his thoughts a b o u t t h e d e v e l o p m e n t o f t h e M BA program and how MBA students could maximize their return on investment from the program.

companies, across three different cultures, all using different languages, totaling for about 10% of the vehicles sold in the world. That's a lot of cars. So how would you describe your leadership style and how you motivate people from such different cultures?

Mr. Ghosn: It’s very difficult for somebody to describe our own leadership style. You can describe my leadership style but it is very difficult for me to describe my style. However, from my experience of managing three automobile companies across different cultures, I think there are two important factors about leading across cultures:

MBA Student representative Wilson Wu, Tim Hesler, Wendy Wang, Professor Jiao Jie and Carlos Ghosn (from left to right)

Professor Jiao gave a brief update on the development of the Tsinghua MBA program this year and how the school now attracted more than 400 top talents from around the world, forming a truly multi-cultural and multi-dimensional program.

Questions on leadership：

Student representative Wilson Wu engages Mr. Ghosn on the topic of leadership

Tsinghua MBA Student Representative Wilson Wu：Thank you for your time here, Mr. Ghosn. My first question would be: you are now running three different automobile

MBA NEWS• the capacity to connect with people who have a completely different culture than you ,if you are not capable to connect and show empathy then people in different companies, they will not consider their leader, whoever it is, as part of them. They consider their leader as a completely outside entity, and this is totally in contradiction with the necessity to motivate and engage people in their own company.

• the ability to drive people towards a common goal – we are in a business, and this is the business of developing cars. So it is important in this case to have common objectives, and the objectives have to be extremely clear. They have to be extremely factual, they have to be extremely business-oriented, because as the values and the cultures are very different, the only thing in common are the goals, and particularly the operational goals have to be in common.

Tsinghua MBA Student Representative Wilson Wu：It is part of human nature to resist change, so it’s really hard to make people change, needless to say to change an entire organization. How were you able to carry out so many successful transformations across different cultures at different multinational companies?

Mr. Ghosn：First, you have to make a very strong case about why change is necessary. Second, explain how you’re going to make change. Particularly in some cultures, it is extremely important to explain how you’re

because a lot of the major companies in the world are represented on the Board, because we all feel the same thing.

The strength of Tsinghua, in my opinion, is the fact that it’s a growing program, and as a growing program, it is eager to learn, and to benchmark, and to look at best practices in the world. This is something which it striking. There is no arrogance in the Tsinghua program or with the leaders of the program. There is a willingness to try to learn, to try to benchmark, to copy the best practices, to invite to the Advisory Board even representatives of some of the major MBAs existing also in the world. I think as long as Tsinghua keeps this strength of being at the top level in China, taking the best practices, following the benchmark but being extremely humble – ambitious and humble, will make Tsinghua SEM go very far.

Tsinghua MBA Student Representative Tim Hesler：From your perspective, what is the one top deliverable in terms of a transferable skill that you think all MBA students should be seeking as one of the most important returns on their MBA investment?

Mr. Ghosn：One of the biggest advantages of the MBA is the network. The network is not only knowing people but knowing their experience – where they’re coming from, what they’re looking for, what are the values, what are the priorities, what you’re expecting, because it is going to open your eyes on completely different expectations – different priorities, different culture. Second, MBA programs are always based on cases, so it’s very interactive, Professor Jiao introducing the student representatives to Mr. Ghosn

Wilson Wu asks Mr. Ghosn about his leadership style

going to do it. In some cultures, the why is more important than the how; in other cultures, the how is more important than the why. Third, the result of the change has to be specific and measurable. It has to show people the outcome would make things better and the process is also achievable. Thus the reason for change, the process for change and the outcome of the change are all equally important factors for successfully carrying out organizational changes.

Questions on the development of the Tsinghua SEM program

Tsinghua MBA Student Representative Tim Hesler： I’ve got sort of a two-pronged question: the first one would be what were some of the distinguishing factors for Tsinghua as you considered the opportunity to serve as a member of the Advisory Board, and then secondly, kind of on the flip side, what would you see – as a Board member – as some of the key areas of potential growth particularly as a program that might be looking to bridge some gaps potentially between ourselves and other global MBA programs?

Mr. Ghosn：Tsinghua is a university – and particularly the MBA program in Tsinghua – is a program which has an intention to address the global market – the world – but which has very specific roots in China, and this is something which is very unique. That’s why I think the Tsinghua Advisory Board is probably one of the most prestigious in the world,



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which means you’re learning by doing. So the network from one side, being exposed to people of different backgrounds, but also the learning through cases and with academics are obviously the things that make an MBA program and particularly MBA program at Tsinghua meaningful, which means that you are talking about business cases which are relative to the Chinese economy or the Chinese situation related to the global economy, which is obviously, as you know, something very actual – very modern, very visible today.

Questions on automobile industry:

Tsinghua MBA Student Representative Wendy Wang: Currently the Chinese economy has slowed down. So how does the economic slowdown in China affect your companies, and have you planned any other strategy to make sure you can achieve in the Chinese market?

Mr. Ghosn：I wouldn’t say the economy in China is slowing down; I would say the growth of the economy is slowing down, which is a different story. But first, it’s not a surprise, because we know very well that when the economy is growing at a certain level, reaching a certain size, growth is going to be more limited. So it is something which was foreseen. Obviously everybody loves growth at double digits all the time, but we know it’s not realistic. So what is happening now is not a surprise even though we would have loved

Tsinghua MBA Student Representative Wendy Wang: Elon Musk is also here these days; do you plan to meet him? Also do you have any plan to develop a new vehicle – a new electric vehicle – to compete with Tesla?

Mr. Ghosn：I don’t consider Elon Musk as a competitor; I consider that he is a kind of partner into the development and promotion of electric cars. When we started the electric cars and bringing back the electric car as a main marketable product at a reasonable price, we were heading immediately for the poor of the market. We didn’t want to do a niche market. We are going to address the mass with our electric cars. That’s why Nissan came with the Leaf and Renault came with Zoe. Tesla went on the niche luxury product, which is fine. We are today continuing to build our presence in electric car into the core market. We have no intention for the moment to go to the premium, because we think that most of the market is at the core. When the Chinese government wants to cut emissions, it is aiming at the core market. You’re not going to cut emissions by having zero emission on a few cars on the margin of the market. You’re going to cut the emissions by addressing the bulk of the market, and you’re going to address the bulk of the market with products like Leaf and Zoe. That’s why we’re concentrating on the core of the market. There are a lot of improvements to be made in terms of range of the cars, in terms of cost of the cars, so you’re going to see us more concentrated on the core of the market. One day, maybe we’ll go to premium, but that’s not our priority.

Wendy Wang asks Mr. Ghosn questions

China to continue to grow at double digits, but we know it’s a dream. It doesn’t exist. No other economy in the world has ever done that.

At the same time, the automobile equipment in China is still very low compared to other countries in the world. For example, you have 800 cars per 1,000 residents in the United States; you have 600 cars per 1,000 residents in Japan and in Europe; you have about 300 cars per 1,000 residents in Russia; you have 200 in Brazil; you have 100 in China. So 100 cars per 1,000 residents in China; nobody believes one second China’s going to stay there. So we’re going to probably move to 150, and then 200 cars, and 250, which means that there is a tremendous growth of the automobile industry coming, except that this growth is going to probably happen a little bit more slowly than what we have seen for the past years. So this is the main consequence.

Tim Hesler asks Mr. Ghosn about his view of the Tsinghua platform

Mr. Ghosn responding to questions at the interview

On the morning of November 15, 2015, current Tsinghua-MIT Global MBA students had the privilege of meeting with alumni mentors at Tsinghua SEM. Ten mentors, from various industries, including finance, insurance, IT, consultancy, medical care, and energy, with an extensive array of work and life experience, attended the inaugural meeting, the first of its kind. To pass the torch to their junior classmates and to give back to their alma mater, mentors set aside time out of their tight schedules to return to campus and share with MBA students about the trends in their industries, their stories at Tsinghua, and, for some, the moments of doubt and momentary failure that were ultimately overcome by persistence in their respective career choices and paths.

The meeting was hosted by MA Pinyu and GU Yu, with ZHU Yidan, Director of the 2015GMBA Class, delivering the opening remarks at 9:30am, followed by the self-introduction and stories from mentors, all under the leadership of LI Yinghong, the director of the mentors’ team.

Ms. LI Yinghong previously worked in bio-pharmacy for 14 years before later deciding to transition to insurance. With years of work experience in the industry, she now works as Assistant Vice President of MetLife. She shared her career path with students, her pursuit of an MBA degree, and the outward bound experience in her spare time. She said that her highest goal was to spread a positive attitude toward life and to offer advice and

assistance to students in four respects: sharing previous experience to enable students to avoid inefficiency, expanding her interpersonal network, offering information and becoming a potential cooperative partner, and discussing life hobbies.

Mr. YU Lijian, Big Data and Analysis Director for Greater China at CSC Technology Co., Ltd., has been working for 20 years in the industry. He introduced to students big data and its implications for the future of various industries within the larger business context. He also shared his personal experience, especially his study at Tsinghua.

Ms. LI Huibin, as the voice of business start-up experience, shared her stories of

Passing the Torch – GMBA Class of 2017 Meeting with Alumni Mentors

Wendy Yue Wang, GMBA Class of 2017

Group photo of GMBA Class of 2017 AMP participants with their alumni mentors, Photo provided by Xiangsheng Yang, GMBA Class of 2017

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starting her own business, for example, how she had provided data analysis service for pharmaceutical companies in the early stages as well as about EDETEK Inc, in which she has been investing her recent efforts. She said she enjoyed the process of setting up a business from scratch and expected to provide assistance to students who would like to found their own businesses. “At Tsinghua, like in a big supermarket, you could pick up anything you want, but at least you should know what you want,” she quipped in closing. For many students, especially those in the stressful information overload of their first GMBA semester, her advice hit the nail on the head, ringing pertinent and practical for their own situations.

Mr. LI X ian kai , work ing in audit ing , accounting and taxation for years, is a model of dedication. His advice is for students to be dedicated to one area because ten years of accumulated experience would make the difference.

Ms. GAO Yan, Partner of Phoenix Century Capital Management Co., Ltd., shared from her previous years of experience in capital management in New Hope Group and provided an in-depth analysis of bankruptcy restructuring, one of her primary areas of interest.

Mr. LI Pandeng, Executive Vice President of Antonoil, who carries himself with an uncommon modesty and sincerity, emphasized the importance of maintaining a down-to-earth approach for each incremental step.

Mr. CHEN Hongwu shared his experience in venture capital and principle of using personnel with years of industry experience. Ms. YU Tong, Vice President of Huaxicun Co.,Ltd. and General Manager of One Village Capitals Ltd., shared insights from the finance industry in which she has been working. She encourages every student to clarify their real interests: whether they genuinely love finance and whether they are truly suited to work in this industry.

Mr. YANG Ning from GE Medical provided an overview of the medical industry and its potential. To promote medical care at the basic level and provide assistance to Chinese patients is, in his eyes, the meaning of and single biggest motivation for his job.

After the mentors’ introductions and sharing, students divided into three groups of finance, IT and consultancy and had more in-depth discussions with their group mentors. Mentors were candid in their responses to students’ questions, which mostly focused on changing

Opening remarks of the Alumni Mentor Program, Photo provided by Xiangsheng Yang, GMBA Class of 2017

careers, making best use of the Tsinghua platform, and mentor perspectives on particular industries.

Although the meet ing has ended, the communication between students and their mentors has just begun. As summed up by the 15G Class’s own YANG Shufan: “I would like to share some of my thoughts after attending the meeting with alumni mentors: in our 30s or 40s, despite the youth and passion fading away, there’s so much more to do. Take the courage to do the things you like, even if it is just for sustaining the vitality of life. Be dedicated and conscientious. You could do it well if you would make the effort. We might be exhausted by the burden of life and work, however, we should still keep our interests and hobbies without turning to be utilitarian. There may not be any guidance for us at work, and we may take a wrong path or may be lucky to find the right way in groping for our own way. However, we should never quaver or quit but remember to give back to others when we are successful. There is still a long way to go and we need to make every step steadily.”

“Be dedicated and seize the moment; be worthy of the heart and give back to society.” All told, these are among the gains students drew from the insights of their predecessors.

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The Tsinghua School of Economics and Management Career Development Center (CDC) is in charge of helping the students of the business school achieve a smooth transition from their studies – be it Bachelor, Master or MBA – towards a successful professional career. Just as the MBA program went through some structural changes over the last few years, so did the Career Development Center, in order to ready themselves for the challenges of the 21st Century.

As the Chinese and foreign students are looking for jobs within China and internationally, domestic & foreign companies are also looking

The SEM Career Development Center (CDC)Philip Mertens, GMBA Class of 2016

for their future leaders. This means that not only new contacts have been established, new services and new events have been developed to match the needs of our ever more diversified student body. Just a few weeks ago, the HR department of a French cyber security company hosted a workshop on how to define your own career path based on your dream job as well as skills and experience. One of our MBA fellows was able to secure her trainee job with this company after attending the event and networking with the company representatives.

But between knowing what jobs the students want and securing them, many more steps need to be accomplished. To make sure that all the students with the various backgrounds in the current classes have their CVs tailored to the local HR habits, seasoned head-hunters and corporate HR managers were invited to share their experiences and tips on designing the right CV. Added CV peer review sparring sessions, where students challenged one another and gave concrete feedbacks, were able to help the students prepare a CV that lives up

Career Development Center CV Review Sessions

to the caliber required of these companies.

On top of CV review sessions, nothing compares to face-time with the VP from a leading automobile supplier or the HR director of a mobile start-up who shared direct insights about what kind of employee they are looking for. They also talked about their expectation of new talents, who will be cultivated within the company and reshape their business.

As Tsinghua University gains greater attention due to global partnerships, dual degree programs and the advisory board meetings, the transformational shift towards Asia similarly takes place with recruitment strategies of local and international corporations. While our fellow students fly to their interviews across China, our CDC continues to build upon our ever stronger network across the globe, granting opportunities for the students.

I am personally grateful for the immense progress that has been made by CDC, the class committee and fellow students, and I have no doubt that this momentum will continue.

CDC Career Talk: Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Family Offices

Wafic Mkhallalti, GMBA Class of 2016

As the number of ultra-high net worth individuals is increasing in Asia, the need for wealth management increases, and the opportunities for family offices open up in the region. On 11th January 2016, the CDC, supported by the Family Business Club, organized a career talk event on “PE, VC, and Family Offices” by Mr. Spyros Poulios. Mr. Poulios is the Managing Director at Knights Group, an international family business office, and he has also established one of the first family offices in China, which finds investment solutions for high net worth Chinese families.

In Mr. Poulios’ presentation, he explained the benefits for family businesses to have their own family offices which separate them from regular investment companies, because family offices also include

specialized services, such as succession planning and finding tailored investment services based on the family needs and constrains. Mr. Poulios shared with us his experiences and the dynamics of working in a family office, in which he mentioned that in some aspects, it is a riskier job than working in private equity or venture capital. The family business owners can let go of an office manager based on the investment performance because they are more intolerant to losses. On the other hand, when the return is higher, the office manager can get a good share of the upside, and build a closer relationship with the high net worth families, along with enjoying parts of its luxury life.

Knights Group is also open to provide recruitment opportunities for the



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Tsinghua students. After the Q&A session, students from both first and second year MBA, as well as other master courses, had the chance to meet the team and submit their resumes in person. The talk was a great opportunity for the students to get an insight about the operation of family offices.

About Knights Group

Knights Group is headquartered in New York City with branch offices located in Beijing and Shanghai. It creates a platform that connects global capital network. Founded by the Shanghai branch, Shanghai Saint Knights

Mr. Spyros Poulios, the Managing Director of Knights Group, during the CDC Career Talk

MBA NEWSrecruiting stages also included role plays on good and bad interview practices, and useful details on how to crack the case interview.

The presenters broke formation from the standard McKinsey PowerPoint slides to give examples of where their work had directly brought them into contact with some of China’s leading firms, and the positive impact their work has had on Chinese businesses and society. Top companies all over the world count numerous McKinsey alumni among their senior executives and China is no different.

This event was followed up with a much more intimate session with a Tsinghua IMBA alumnus, Mike Wang, who is the Head of Recruitment for McKinsey Greater China. Mike focused on how to get into management consulting as well as investment banking, where he had also worked extensively.

This gave students a much more personal connection to McKinsey as a company and a clear vision for how the Tsinghua GMBA education can lead to a variety of different careers at a company like McKinsey.

20th October 2015: WGL

David Wong, the founder of WGL, is a seasoned recruiter with 10 years of experience in executive search in Asia for Hong Kong based businesses. With excellent knowledge of the market and a superior response time, David is regarded as one of the leading recruiters in his area. Since 2012, he has held different career talks for undergraduate, master and MBA students in HK, Shanghai, Beijing and the UK. He has highly increased students’ chance of getting into financial institutions.

On 20th October 2015, David Wong held a

seminar on Career Development in Finance Industry for Tsinghua MBA students at Shunde 418. During the 2-hour session, David shared his insights of the banking industry - detailed explanation of the structure and mapping of the banks, the necessary skills set required to get into financial institutions, and how the banks work and cooperate in reality. He also touched on topics such as identifying the differences in banking corporate culture and ways to climb the career ladder in a large multinational corporation.

At the end of the session, the students were able to get a clear roadmap on the availability and options in different job positions, and understand what skills they would need to acquire for future career development in the finance industry.

The SEM Career Development Center (CDC) Event Series

Daniel Cowen, GMBA Class of 2017 & Christina Chong, GMBA Class of 2016

David Wong, Founder of WGL Group photo of event participants with David Wong

Fund Management Company was endorsed by Chinese National Development and Reform Commission to be one of the 43 Chinese institutions authorized to manage the central finance investment.

The SEM Career Development Center (CDC) has been reinvigorated this year with a whole new team dedicated to bringing the best career services to Tsinghua MBA students. In addition to CV workshops, interview advice and job postings, the CDC has arranged a number of sessions with prospective employers to give us a unique insight into post-MBA working life, and for employers to gauge the interest from the new MBA cohort. The great events this semester included two very different sessions with McKinsey and another with WGL.

15th – 16th October 2015: McKinsey

The first CDC event from McKinsey was along the lines of a traditional campus recruitment evening, but with added panache that only a company like McKinsey could deliver. In a packed Shunde Audience room, ten McKinsey China employees, many of them graduates of Tsinghua University, delivered a great presentation on what McKinsey is about, what kind of people they look for and why it is one of the most dynamic and exciting places to work. Information on what to expect in the



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Learning, Teaching, and Leadership: An Inextricable Link

Tim Hesler,GMBA Class of 2017

What is the most essential quality of a great leader? On October 16, Tsinghua SEM welcomed Professor S.H. Lee, a distinguished scholar who teaches jointly at Tsinghua University, Fudan University, and NCCU in Taiwan, to share his perspective on this question. Throughout the evening, Professor Lee synthesized obser vations from his experience as a scholar and corporate executive regarding effective leadership practices.

According to Professor Lee, one of the most critical components of authentic leadership is, in fact, being a great teacher. He challenged students to consider what he characterized as a necessary relationship between leading and teaching by reflecting on the school’s mission: “Advancing Knowledge and Cultivating Leaders for China and the World.” If one is to effectively lead, Professor Lee argued, one must be able to teach something well, and to teach something well, an adeptness at learning is a key prerequisite.

Eastern and Western perspectives alike echo this principle. Professor Lee pointed out the parallels between noted Chinese thinkers such as Confucius, who have posited that the path to greatness consists largely of manifesting virtue, educating one’s people, and striving towards constant improvements, and modern Western business leaders such as Jack Welch, who has famously suggested that, “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”

Professor Lee delineated four different domains in the process of attaining and effectively relaying knowledge, tied in 2 x 2 form to the variables of consciousness and competence. First, he described a zone of “unconscious incompetence,” in which an individual may exhibit a lack of competence but be entirely unaware. In contrast, conscious competence (being competent and aware of it) and unconscious competence (reaching a point at

which a particular dimension of competence has become so thoroughly embedded in one’s decisions and behavior that the knowledge itself may not always be distinguishable to the individual) are both naturally preferable to unconscious incompetence.

Professor Lee spent much of the evening’s dialogue, however, teasing out the value of a fourth domain: conscious incompetence. He argued that movement from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence – developing an awareness of one’s own deficiencies – is also one of the most essential elements of successful leadership. For example, he shared, leaders can’t know everything, but if a leader recognizes what he or she doesn’t know and as a consequence hires the right people, that leader is more likely to respect those subordinates, value their advice, and give them the appropriate power. If, on the other hand, one is in a state of unconscious incompetence, he or she may be unlikely to make the right hires, and even if through some stroke of coincidence the right hire is made, the manager is unlikely to appropriately value or empower talented subordinates.

An anecdote that Professor Lee shared summarized well the thrust of the evening’s key takeaways. He relayed the insight of one “manager”, an owner of a successful enterprise, whose employees were observed to perform at exceptionally high levels and in particularly impressive capacities. Upon being credited as a wonderful manager, the leader shrugged off such applause: “I’m not a good manager. I didn’t manage them; I only educated them. I’m only a good educator.” In parallel, Professor Lee suggested, the student who aspires to leadership should not primarily aspire to be a good manager, but instead, indeed, to become “only” a good educator.

Professor S.H. Lee delivering a lecture on effective leadership practices

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McKinsey and Company – Leadership of New Organizations

Philip Mertens, GMBA Class of 2016

Just a few weeks ago it was time again for Dominic Barton, Global Managing Director of the world’s leading consulting firm, McKinsey, to begin the course on Leadership in a New Era. The school had opened their invitation to a wide network such that the great Auditorium in Weilun was lined with students, alumni and professors, who all came to listen in to the latest thoughts on how the world is shifting by the man who advises the world’s leading governments and corporations. Some fellows were even seen watching the lectures through the windows or listening in via WeChat to make sure they did not miss this opportunity, because they were too late to find space inside the sizable auditorium.

Since my classmate Paulo had written a great piece on the opening lecture last year for Gateway Issue #16, I would like to bring up some new aspects of the lecture that have sparked discussions among the students who had the chance to be there two years in a row: In contrast to some professors who only prepare one set of slides and taught the same stuff year after year until their retirement, we could see the many updates and changes

in the focal areas of the lecture through Dominic’s new presentation. Just as the world is constantly changing around us, Dominic has been adapting to the changes well - by using examples of successful applications of management practices and leadership among global companies – both from the developed countries and the emerging ones.

The audience gathered inspiration from the 12 most impactful technology disruptions over the next ten years, while others were looking for the necessary competence they need to develop by listening to the quotes from Jeff Immelt, leader of GE on information business. There were also some that were looking for new goals to aim for and found their inspiration from the “tri-athlete” – the leader who is successful in business, political and non-governmental roles. In the end, everybody left the lecture room full of inspiration and excitement.

Two weeks later, we headed into the second lecture with Kevin Sneader, Chairman of McKinsey Asia, and Jeff Hsu, former US Marine, current Chief Innovation Officer of Far

Eastern Group, also the youngest C-suite ever to host a leadership lecture in the program. They picked up the storyline were Dominic had left off - over the organizational differences between Haier, the Chinese company that is restructuring to become an “organization of the future” with more than 2,000 independent business units for an 80,000-person workforce, and Apple, the company in which 17 team leaders and managers directly report to Tim Cook, their CEO, while on the other hand, the smartest people in McKinsey are dealing with only five or so. Kevin and Jeff, however, did not talk with us using a series of presentation slides to compare the pros and cons of one organizational structure over another like the traditional teaching method, instead, they first shared some of the fundamentals on agility, empowerment and (infra-) structure, before they started an interactive session and opened the floor for questions from the audience. Where Dominic had given us the “birds eye view” on the whole world, Kevin and Jeff really broke it down to the personal level of leadership and team management in the context of a modern, connected enterprise as well as its role in our fast-paced world.

Dominic Barton, Global Managing Director of McKinsey, at Global Leadership classroom



Family Business Club Series Part 1: Learn Super Selling Skills by Mr. Eric Sim

Stacey Zhao, GMBA Class of 2017

Despite the freezing temperatures, students braved their way to SEM on November 25 and staked their spots in the crowded room, eager to gather insights about how to become smarter salespersons. Eric Sim, UBS Investment Bank managing director, family man, ex-bartender, engineer, mentor, and friend, has worked across multiple sectors of M&A, IPO, Bonds, and Derivatives. He offers his clients throughout Asia expertise in risk management and financial solutions and teaches MBA students at campuses throughout the UK and China.

Sim related his professional experience to his summers as a teenager selling durians for his aunt in Singapore. When a mother and son approached his aunt’s shop, he built rapport with the crying boy rather than the mother. The mother focused her attention on the durians while Eric played with the boy, and Sim even managed to encourage him to try the pungent fruit. This is how Sim sets the stage for the most important work of selling. He starts a conversation not about his product

but to build a relationship and gain trust from his customer.

The first step in the process of selling, Sim highlights, is to identify the target customer. The key is to understand not only professional but also personal priorities, which usually come first. The next step is to build rapport and trust, as Sim did with the mother with child. When we have identified the need, we present a solution to overcome all objections. Most importantly, the solution should sell benefits rather than particular features. For luxury products, we should build a story around the personal success of the customer while using this product rather than describe generic qualities customers already expect. Take, for example, a “Car Shoe” pitched as a conversation starter and complement to the target customer’s luxury sports car.

Sim also describes the importance of execution, closing a deal before it gets cold. Successful business requires four types of salesmen: the executioner who delivers the service, the

closer who brings in the deal, the wine-and-diner who does the relationship building, and the consultant who solves problems, with review and follow-up equally important. Sim builds lasting relationships with his clients, emphasizing that 15 good clients is better than 100 shallow ones. From weekends socializing with each other’s families to jogging and giving college advice to their kids, Sim’s relationships with clients extend beyond mere business transactions.

Sim’s analogies were especially relevant to our generation, in which overuse of technology and social media platforms has far exceeded our most basic interpersonal inst incts reinforced by real-life situations. While Sim shared basic concepts, he highlighted the key attributes of successful business leaders, ones that distinguish “wine-and-diners” from executioners. Start, he says, by paying attention to the details; ask for very little first and then sell much more; and prioritize by first reducing decisions and distractions. He uses the example of convincing a buddy to

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Mr. Eric Sim, Managing Director of UBS Investment Bank, sharing his super selling skills with Tsinghua MBA students

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stay at a bar with him for an extra hour by asking for only 5 minutes, then using his next move to sell the entire night. Similarly, in our daily lives, we must sell to our employer

Family Business Club Series Part 2: Eric Sim Demystifies Personal Branding, with Special Guest

from LinkedIn

Eric Sim, recently recognized as one of the “top bankers” in Hong Kong on Efinancial Careers, is a prolific commentator on LinkedIn and frequent guest speaker at top universities around the world. Mr. Sim covers topics ranging from derivatives to professional and personal branding.

Sim’s reputation precedes himself as a career guru, as he draws relatable advice from all areas in life. His extraordinary charisma and ability to connect with people on a personal level, rather than the usual business meeting or transaction, led to his returns to a larger conference hall that was brimming with SEM students well before the start of his lecture.

Stacey Zhao, GMBA Class of 2017

as we would to a customer, mindful of our lasting reputation and brand. Many students stayed around to chat with Sim after his talk, adding him on WeChat and following him

on LinkedIn to keep in touch and watch his other lessons, finding his advice especially relatable to both everyday and complex business environments.

Group photo of Eric Sim with Family Business Club members



Aside from his business expertise, Sim is a family man and comedian, who uses bold anecdotes to teach us how to get what we want with Positivity, Persistence and a keen Perspective, what he calls the “three P’s”. Whether showing us how to win an ultra-exclusive dinner reservation or how to build leaner more efficient businesses through his humble experiences working at his father’s noodle shop, Sim continues to draw parallels from everyday life that connect fundamental human behaviors and psychology to business strategies. His recommendations of the top 7 essential job skills are:

1. Personal BrandingBe most visible through positive personal branding via media platforms like LinkedIn.

2. Presentation SkillsSim used Steve Jobs, who can powerfully describe a thousand songs simply by reaching out of his pocket with an iPod. He implores us to be dynamic speakers, tells stories, and freestyle.

3. Make it Easy PeasySim describes getting a “Yes” by making incentives available so that it will be easy for your audience to say yes.

4. Pure ProfitSometimes it’s the hardest job to convince YOURSELF to go the extra mile, because previous effort is already a sunk cost, yet that last stretch is "pure profit" for you.

5. PreparationUnderstand your customer and their needs before going into a meeting.

6. PsychologyFurthermore, observe people, know their motivations, and situation in life to satisfy their needs.

7. Pofu Tactics (泼妇原理)Learn how to deal with difficult situations, and know when to back down and let others win when your time is more valuable.

Sim ended the night with a special guest, Syndie Kang, Marketing BD Manager at LinkedIn, to talk to Tsinghua students about how to market their personal brand via the world’s largest professional social media platform. She spoke about the power of collaboration and staying connected within your professional circles. Mr. Sim & Ms. Kang left us with rich practical and versatile take-aways.

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Welcoming Party & Orientation for GMBA Class of 2017

Daniel Cowen, GMBA Class of 2017

international students travelled across the world to share in a common curiosity to learn about China and build lasting ties with their Chinese counterparts. We shared many great moments through the Orientation program and I will do my best to describe some of the highlights.

Still feeling jet lagged but excited beyond measure, our first event with the nascent GMBA2015-2017 family was the welcome dinner, set in a delightful restaurant in the 798 Art District of Beijing. This event gave everyone their first opportunity to introduce themselves in person to the class, and a few team games soon helped us learn the first names of our classmates as well as make our first friends.

The very first weekend we were whisked away to an exciting overnight stay for the Global MBA Ice-Breaking Journey; where we were given the opportunity to buddy up with a roommate and build

a giant brush and ink controlled by twenty ropes, with each group member taking two ropes and co-ordinating our movements to control the movement of the brush.

Our Ice-Breaking Journey culminated in a physical feat that really fostered bonds between classmates. With no initial help from above, each member of our class managed to scale a four metre high wall, a task which at first I believed would not be physically possible. Being towards the taller end of the height range and of a similar build, GMBA classmate Juan and I stood shoulder to shoulder as we helped Li Xiaolong be the first person to clamber over the top of the wall. From there we worked as a team, with Juan and me pushing classmates up from below whilst Xiaolong and those who followed him pulled up from above. This extraordinary feat was completed with Xiaolong hanging upside down from the wall,

relationships through team experiences involving physical and mental challenges alike. Staying in the Paralympic training village was an inspirational setting for our first MBA activities; an early start and traditional Chinese morning exercises got us off to a great beginning. Ready for the day ahead, we plunged into a series of tasks in our small teams.

Firstly, challenges such as the high ropes and Jacob’s ladder made us take physical jumps at heights of a few metres, which were more about individual mental leaps than athletic talent, and helped us build confidence in our own abilities. The low ropes followed, including the spider’s web challenge where each team member has to make it to the other side of a giant web of ropes, without touching the edges. Our teamwork and communication abilities were pushed further still in a task which required us to write ‘Tsinghua’ in traditional Chinese characters, using

A group of MBA students from Class of 2017 performing Tap Dance in the Tsinghua MBA Opening Gala

MBA NEWS

Reflecting back on some of the most memorable events in the starting months of our Tsinghua Global MBA experience,

most of us would agree that the activities not only formed our first bonds with the people we would share the next two years

of our lives with, but also alleviated our anxieties from leaving our professional and personal lives behind. Many of the

About Tsinghua MBA Student Family Business Club

Officially established in October 2015, Tsinghua MBA Student Family Business Club aims to provide students with an opportunity to understand and share their own experience with the dynamics of running family businesses and to create networking opportunities for students who belong to or are interested in family-run businesses.



putting his trust in his new classmates to hold his feet tightly enough, to pull Juan up as the last team member on the ground. I felt a genuine sense of pride in our class at this achievement and was in awe of what we accomplished together, especially having known each other for so little time.

Another highlight of our packed August calendar was the MBA Opening Gala event, which I was personally involved with as an MC. Seeing the dedication at rehearsals and the effort both P and G classes put into demonstrating their skills and interests, not to mention bravery in performing in front of a large audience that included Dean Qian, was a really remarkable thing to be involved in. For my part, learning the lines to read on stage was not something I was used to, let alone the few sentences in Chinese I had to perfect before the show. This event was a great opportunity to bring P and G classes together and a hugely entertaining start to the MBA journey ahead of us.

As September began, we were busy on a daily basis with everything from language placement exams to guest speaker events from a range of organizations. Another great activity to be involved in was a photoshoot for new marketing materials for the GMBA program. Following this we had an intensive two days in the classroom attending the TechMark course, which is taught to business leaders around the world. This management

simulation put us in new teams, where we had to understand each other’s strengths and abilities, to work together towards making a successful company by considering elements of R&D, production, sales distribution, promotion and consumer attitudes. This project was fraught with the issue of insufficient time at each business management decision making session, which made communications strained at times. We came through this experience with a much better understanding of what makes our classmates tick and different ways to approach working with each other in future.

Our Orientation program also combined the full-time and part-time MBA programs in mixed teams to work on the CreditEase case competition, where we solved real business problems for Chinese companies. In these teams we had our first case practice and an example of practical consulting work. At the end of this project, we spent an activity-packed day in these teams with campus orienteering and further team building activities. This was fascinating for me as we gained a real insight into the history of the Tsinghua campus, and was also a great opportunity to mingle with some of our part-time classmates. I thoroughly enjoyed the MBA Orientation program and I look forward to sharing many great experiences with this cohort in the years to come.

MBA NEWS

GMBA Class of 2017 during their Ice-Breaking Journey

STUDENT LIFE

Columbia Dual Degree: My Life in China and America

Frank Fan, GMBA Class of 2016

Admiring the gingko trees in Central Park, golden under the weekend sun, I’m reminded of the gingko trees near Tsinghua University’s old gate half a world away. Reflecting on campus life and our school motto of “self-discipline and social commitment,” I thought I’d share some insights into my time thus far at Columbia University. Life here can be exciting one day, unremarkable the next. But in the end, my professors’ te achings , my c lassmates’ d ivers e b ackg rounds , Ne w York’s mus ica l theatre, and the many books I’ve read and studied have all made an indelible mark in my life journey.

Learning at Columbia

I still remember the first session of my Real Estate Capital Markets class. The professor, with both deep industry experience and scholarly expertise, pushed me to think critically about the changes facing China’s real estate industry and how America’s mature

capital markets have improved the effectiveness of property pricing. My takeaway was that China’s real estate industry still contains opportunities for growth, but that financial reform and tax policies also must adapt in step with each new development. This type of insight, which challenged my previous opinions and ideas, is exactly the type of critical thinking I hope to develop in my studies abroad.

This semester I also chose Napoleon’s Glance, a classic Columbia Business School course that brings together decision theory, psychology, sociology, and creative thinking to teach the art of managing with strategic intuition. This class has inspired deep reflection on my core values and beliefs. The world is much more complex than the simplified cases we study in class; with China’s rapid internat ional izat ion, a wel l-rounded and nuanced worldview will be key to producing Chinese leaders with global influence.

Life in New York

I still remember a famous quote from the movie Beijinger in New York: “If you love someone, let them go to New York; if you hate someone, also let them go to New York.” Perhaps it is this vague and enigmatic impression of New York that ultimately led me here. Before I arrived, an HBS friend advised that I would probably learn more simply by living in New York than by attending class. Thus, with an open heart and sense of adventure, I began my new life in New York.

New York is a c ity that constant ly surprises. Every morning one can run around Central Park and witness the seasons changing. Seeing mothers running with strollers, elderly joggers persevering uphill, you feel the energy and momentum of social progress. When tired, you can sit on a bench and examine the etchings people have left over the years about love, family, and the future. In that moment, you suddenly feel blessed as even just a tiny speck in this grand universe.

Every day I walk through a now-familiar subway station, but I still meet different performers on the platforms. Line 1 has over 100 years of history, and the varied designs decorating the walls speak to the city’s change and transformation. At night, Times Square is always lit up in a scene of revelry, with the “Love In New York” sign always attracting a crowd of tourists and couples who come from all over the world to witness love in this great city. Window-shopping along bustling Fifth Avenue, you feel the pulsating energy of life coursing through the streets. Winding through Wall Street’s cluster of narrow buildings, you feel the weight and rigor of America’s

Frank Fan, GMBA student Class of 2016, pursuing his Columbia MSOR dual degree in New York



STUDENT LIFEcapitalist history. The Wall Street bull statue attracts tourists wishing to create photo memories, while the Twin Tower tribute lights make us all pause and reflect on lives lost, and yearn for peace. Cycling along the Hudson River, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, leads you to the music of outdoor concerts and provides beautiful views of the city. Lastly, thankfully, one can find Asian food in Chinatown and Koreatown—including authentic Sichuan hot pot—allowing any longing for home to melt away into the laughter of good friends and good company.

Travels around the U.S.

I still remember the classic teaching material Family Album, U.S.A. from my early days learning English. In one scene, the main character visits New York City. The image of the Statue of Liberty set against a clear blue backdrop left a deep

impression and kindled my desire to travel around America. Even though it seemed a fantasy at the time, slowly but surely, I’ve found myself in a position to fulfill this dream.

Taking advantage of New York’s convenient transportation options, on weekends I’ve

had the opportunity to see classmates at Yale and attend MIT’s $100K Entrepreneurship Competition in Boston. I’ve also driven with friends to visit the nearby states of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Along with previous trips to Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, I’ve made good progress in my goal of traveling around America.

This winter break, I have plans to explore California, starting in San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, paying a pilgrimage to tech meccas Palo Alto and Mountain View, driving along the coast on Route 1 to Los Angeles and Hollywood, then all the way down to San Diego. Afterwards I’ll fly to Miami to embark on a Royal Caribbean cruise around some South American islands before ending my trip back in Florida, in Key West. Standing at America’s southernmost tip, I will reflect on my travels and experiences in the U.S., and look towards the future. Life, it turns out, can be pretty great after all.

this is the main reason why for MBA exchange my choice was Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, located in the city of Durham in North Carolina. At Duke, each MBA cohort consists of approximately 400 students, which is quadruple the size of our class at Tsinghua. And diversity is indeed a significant factor.

Exchange Experience: Life at DukeOat Sithi Nerngchamnong, GMBA Class of 2016

I always look for new opportunities to grow and explore new fields:

This move from East to West gave me the chance to encounter a number of differences, both academically and non-academically.

MSOR classroom at Columbia University

The campus of Columbia University

STUDENT LIFEI was looking forward to going to the States, especially to Duke University since its elective courses perfectly aligned with my interest in the field of technology. As my background was non-tech related, Duke’s courses have helped me prepare to work in tech companies. Clubs and activities also play an important role in developing and preparing students for job recruitment. Some clubs arrange weekly conferences to provide insight into different industries and the respective recruiting roadmaps. These are extremely helpful if your goal is to apply for a job in the U.S.

Each club also arranges a very exciting activity during the fall break, a trip to visit the leading companies in each industry. For example, Tech Club has arranged a trip to visit Facebook, Google and many more.

I would describe my exchange as a well-balanced mixture of studying and travelling. Durham is the polar opposite of Beijing. The city itself is quiet, peaceful, and full of nature. I would never have expected to find myself driving from one city to another, enjoying beautiful scenery, and camping on a mountain if not for my visit to the U.S. I would strongly recommend Duke to students looking for an exchange experience that provides quality academic lectures and can also guarantee an escape from hectic big city life.

Tsinghua MBA Charity Christmas Dinner 2015Karnpisith Juke Laorpaksa, GMBA Class of 2017

Thanks to Tsinghua Net Impact, Lean In MBA x Women Leadership Club, and Family Business Club, the Tsinghua MBA Charity Christmas Dinner was organized to fundraise donations for Bethel China, a non-profit organization that brings up and cares for blind orphans in China. This year’s event brought more than 80 people and 7 sponsors together, smiling and enjoying a fantastic holiday meal.

"Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town"

There were a lot of fun activities during the

Charity Christmas Dinner at the Bridge Café in Wudaokou, a colorful restaurant near Tsinghua University. Full of grateful spirits, the cafe created a buffet dinner with 4 varying main dishes and unlimited drinks. With the support from the event's seven sponsors (Monteil Paris, KeyPrint, CHAO, V-Mark, GCEO, CHUNSO, 长兴今陵商城发展有限公

司), the lucky draw for exclusive prizes made the event even more brilliant. The prizes this year included tea, skincare products, luxury wine, and a 1-month free workspace in a collaborative work place; it is easy to imagine how excited the people were, hoping that their raffle ticket number would be called out. At the end of event, all the proceeds from the Christmas Dinner were donated to Bethel China.

Something from Bethel China

“Thank you to all Tsinghua students!” said Susan – a Teacher from Bethel Beijing. “This is an amazing charity dinner. I have rarely seen this many people with such big hearts.” “We

seek for donation raising, but we don't have much opportunity to create this kind of event by ourselves.” she emphasized. From the short conversation with Susan, Bethel in Beijing now takes care of more than 16 blind orphans with a scope that covers from kindergarten level to college education. It is with pride that the proceeds from the Charity Christmas Dinner can support Bethel for their future projects.

New Chapter of Net Impact Club

Last but not least, it was time for the Net Impact Club to introduce the new Core Team

Tsinghua MBA students at their semester exchange to Duke University



STUDENT LIFEof GMBA’15. “Fantastic!! That's great job. Thanks a lot everybody for your hard work, it was a great evening and I had a lot of fun.” “I'm sure next year it will be even better!!” said Paulo – President of Net Impact 14.

See you again next year!

A Mid-Autumn’s Adventure to South KoreaRoy Kwang Soo In, GMBA Class of 2017

"School’s Out, Fun’s In at Tsinghua during the Mid-Autumn Festival Holiday!"

It has been a busy season over here at Tsinghua for first-year students; from settling in to meeting new people, attending classes, preparing for presentations, catching up on homework and to top it all, meeting project deadlines. Life in school has never been more fulfilling and interesting, but nothing beats having a short holiday during the Mid-Autumn Festival break to take a breather and have FUN!

While some MBA students chose to stay in Beijing and explore the old capital, others took the opportunity to return to their hometown for some family time. Daniel Cowen (1st Year GMBA student, Class of 2017) and Stacey Zhao (1st year GMBA student, Class of 2017) decided to venture out to South Korea first in a quest to find out more about Asian culture, and who would be their best tour guides? They were none other than Sanghyuk Kim (1st year GMBA student, Class of 2017) and me!

Geographically, South Korea is only two hours' flight away from Beijing. As soon as we arrived at Gimpo Airport, the sights and sounds were all too familiar to Sanghyuk and me. However, to Daniel and Stacey, it was a new experience, and especially Daniel could hardly contain his excitement thinking of the authentic Korean Fried Chicken that he could finally get his hands on. The first thing we saw as we stepped into the center of Seoul was the ‘Han River’, also known as Seoul's lifeline. The broad Han River was once vital to South Korea’s past economic growth, and that period is known as the 'Miracle of Han River' until today.

Our first stop was Gyeongbokgung Palace, the largest and arguably the most beautiful palace still intact in South Korea. Located at the heart of Seoul, Gyeongbokgung Palace represented the sovereignty of the Joseon Dynasty. Similar to the Forbidden City in Beijing, the architecture in Gyeongbokgung speaks of its history and culture, and it was certainly a

About Tsinghua Net Impact Club

Net Impact is a network of 60,000 students and professionals all around the world who want to create positive impact in the society through business practices. Net Impact at Tsinghua is the first Mainland China student chapter under the global Net Impact organization, which includes key business schools such as Harvard, Wharton and INSEAD.

Group photo of leaders from Tsinghua Net Impact, Lean In MBA x Women Leadership Club and Family Business Club

Roy, Stacey and Daniel during their Mid-Autumn’s Adventure to South Korea

STUDENT LIFEmeaningful trip that allowed for rich exchanges of opinions, noting the similarities and differences between China and Korea.

Of course, a trip to South Korea is never complete without stopping by one of the must-go shopping districts, Myeongdong, which is lined with countless shops and restaurants. Stacey was instantly attracted to the wide variety of Korean cosmetics, while Daniel and I scanned the streets for delicious street food such as the famous ‘tteokboki’ (spicy rice cakes). What would be the fastest way to experience one’s culture other than through food?

The four of us also visited the Gangnam District. Many have heard of this place thanks to singer PSY's 'Gangnam Style', but Gangnam District has actually always been one of the must-visit places in Seoul, being

touted as one of the most affluent and influential areas in South Korea in general surrounded by many towering office buildings.

The four days had been an eye opener for all of us. For Daniel and Stacey, their first trip to South Korea allowed them to experience different cultures and helped broaden their perspectives on the Asian market as a whole. As for us, Sanghyuk and me, returning back to Korea as tour guides has allowed us to see our country in a more objective manner. Putting what we have learned for the past several months in perspective, our interaction has allowed us to understand and address the strengths and weaknesses between the East and the West. Last of all, how could we not mention how much fun we had over the holidays! Say ‘YES!’ to more holidays please!

The Sloan Experience at MITNapol Kamthornkittikul, GMBA Class of 2016

at Tsinghua University in Beijing, I was looking forward to my next journey, to spend my second year at MIT Sloan School of Management for a Master of Science in Management Studies (MSMS) as part of a dual-degree program in collaboration between the two schools, allowing students to spend two years at the two best universities (well, according to the recent 2015 QS World University Rankings, Tsinghua is the number one university in China and MIT is the number one university in the world) and receive two master degrees. I was curious how the life at MIT would treat me, especially given the fact that I was having a really good time back in Beijing learning an entirely new language, meeting so many interesting people and friends, and experiencing the real China from both academic and non-academic perspectives.

As always, time flies so fast. Now I am at the end of September, and I am a month into my life at MIT. While it might be a bit too early to draw conclusions about my overall experiences here, I am convinced that I am going to have a fruitful nine months based on what I have experienced so far and wanted to share with everyone here.

Firstly, the MSMS program has proven to be a perfect complement to my first year of MBA study at Tsinghua University due to

its extremely flexible nature. Unlike MBA students at MIT Sloan who are required to take some mandatory classes or Master of Finance students who are required to allocate a substantial portion of their credits to finance-related courses, MSMS students are entirely free to take any courses, including classes provided by other schools in MIT or even cross-registered classes offered at Harvard University. This semester I position myself at the intersection of finance, technology and entrepreneurship with classes like Advanced Corporate Finance (a case-based class focusing on practical topics in corporate finance), FinTech Ventures (a cutting-edge FinTech class involving Finance and Entrepreneurship lectures, top entrepreneurial and investor speakers as well as students’ business plan generation with feedback from speakers and faculty members) and Israel Lab (an action learning class allowing students to work with start-up companies and spend three weeks working on the ground in Israel).

Secondly, the resources available in the Sloan community (and beyond) are highly valuable. I was completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of activities, networking events, campus recruitment activities and student club events during the first few weeks alone such that I had free food for lunch and

Napol Kamthornkittikul, GMBA Class of 2016, pursuing MSMS dual degree at MIT Sloan

By the end of August, I finally finished my 10-week summer internship in Singapore as an investment banking summer associate. As much as I missed my first year of MBA study



personal interests. Now I am a member of a handful of student clubs, including the FinTech club and Asia Business club, while planning to participate in the $100K competition and work on an emerging markets investment-related thesis with an MIT professor.

Last but not least, Cambridge, MA is a nice place to live, despite the fact that winter can be extremely cold. This small city contains two of the world’s most prestigious universities (Harvard and MIT), many good foods (around Kendall, Central and Harvard Squares), and nice peaceful neighborhoods. Just across the Charles River (where I enjoy sailing for free as an MIT student), Boston city is within a 10-minute commute, enabling me to enjoy Boston’s specialties such as clam chowder and lobster roll. Most importantly, I enjoy taking a deep breath of Cambridge’s fresh air, which allows me to take a break from Beijing’s often challenging weather conditions.

My Time in the Red Dot: Exchange at NUS Singapore

Tina Ta-Ting Ja, GMBA Class of 2016

STUDENT LIFE

For the first half of my second year of the GMBA program, I decided to study abroad, and I chose NUS in Singapore. The reason I decided on Singapore is I wanted to explore the main financial hub of Southeast Asia. Knowing the weather I would be facing for the next few months, I packed my entire summer wardrobe and was ready for my semester in Singapore. At least I thought I was …

I guess I want to dedicate this article to people who are considering doing an exchange here or moving here for a career. So, here are a few things I’ve learned from my time here (aside from school that is).

Be prepared for the weather: For the first two weeks, I was running around looking for an apartment to rent for the semester, as there was not enough on-campus housing for exchange

students. The apartment hunting was not the issue; it was the intense heat and humidity. I basically took a three-hour nap every day because I was exhausted from the humidity. For someone who is not used to a tropical climate, it took some time to adjust to this change. However, despite sweating uncontrollably, I thoroughly enjoyed exploring this beautiful and lush city-state. There are also times of sudden downpours – so always have an umbrella with you, whether to hide from the blazing sun or the torrential rain.

B e op en to explor ing : B e yond a l l t he obvious touristy places, what I love about Singapore is the mixture of cultures, the rooftops, the hawker centers, and the eclectic neighborhoods. I loved trying out different local foods at different hawker centers – the best way is to go with a group of people so you can try out different foods together. I also enjoyed going to

STUDENT LIFE

President Xi’s State Visit to the U.S. and UKYutong Gu, GMBA Class of 2017, and Daniel Cowen, GMBA Class of 2017

The year of 2015 was a busy period for Chinese diplomats, as officials of the Chinese government engaged in many high-level international events throughout the year. The most predominant and influential foreign affair was no doubt President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the United States and the United Kingdom. From the campus of Microsoft in Seattle to the front lawn of the Whitehouse in Washington, D.C.; from the banquet hall of Buckingham Palace in London to the pub table of Plough at Cadsden in Princes Risborough; President Xi’s visit to the U.S. and UK was not only an important foreign relations event, it also symbolized China’s growing presence on the world stage.

President Xi began his visit to the United States on September 22, opening his seven-day journey with attendance at the Third U.S.-China Governors' Forum in Seattle, where six Chinese provincial governors met with five U.S. state governors to discuss a variety of topics regarding increased collaboration between the two countries. The following morning, President Xi’s participation at the U.S.-China Internet Industry Forum was possibly the most publicized news story of the trip, as he met with a group of the world’s most recognized CEOs from some of America’s and China’s top technology companies, including Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, IBM, Facebook, Alibaba, Tencent, JD, and Lenovo. It is noteworthy that many of the headline CEOs at the forum are also members of the Tsinghua SEM Advisory Board, such as Alibaba’s chairman Jack Ma, Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg and Apple’s CEO Tim Cook. In the same day, Xi also paid a visit to the Global Innovation Exchange, a school co-founded by the University of Washington and Tsinghua University that focuses on cutting-edge technology innovation. During the first two days of the trip, the Chinese president’s discussions at multiple events emphasized the positive outlook on the Chinese economy, increased market access to China for multinational companies, and China’s growing economic ties with America.

From September 24 to 25, President Xi’s focus shifted to political affairs as he arrived in Washington, D.C., where he met U.S. President Barack Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden, and Secretary of State John Kerry as well as many other U.S. state officials and congressional leaders. A wide range of topics, including the economy, cyber-security, the South

China Sea, climate change and anti-corruption drive were discussed between the leaders of the world’s two most powerful countries. The visit to the U.S. capital ended on a high note with a state dinner at the White House's North Portico attended by Xi, Obama, both first ladies, Peng Liyuan and Michelle Obama, as well as two hundred-plus guests. In the final three days of his trip, President Xi went to New York City and participated in a number of United Nations events, including chairing the Global Leaders’ Meeting on General Equality and Women’s Empowerment and giving his first UN speech at the 70th United Nations General Assembly. Xi pledged to invest $12 billion in support of the UN’s new global sustainable development goals and to increase contributions in international peacekeeping missions, highlighting China’s growing commitment to the world’s peaceful development.

On October 19, President Xi started his five-day state visit to the United Kingdom, where he met with three generations of the Royal family as well as the head of state of the UK government. Sharing a golden carriage with Queen Elizabeth II, President Xi arrived at Buckingham Palace on the morning of October 20, where he also met with Prince Philip, his wife Camilla, Prince William and Princess Kate, and later addressed the British Parliament. For the next two days, Xi visited Imperial College London and joined with British Prime Minister David Cameron at the latter’s country retreat at Chequers, where the two also enjoyed a pint of IPA beer with fish and chips at a nearby English pub. The Chinese president wrapped up the UK visit with a trip to Manchester on October 23, showing his interest in soccer by touring the Etihad Stadium and the Manchester City Football Academy. This state visit is a hallmark of the ever-increasing cooperation between China and the UK, with a total of 62 billion USD worth of economic agreements signed during the five days, leading the media to describe Sino-UK relations as having entered a “golden age”.

The two successful and fruitful state visits to the United States and United Kingdom by President Xi Jinping are a huge step forward for two of the world’s most important bilateral foreign relationships and are examples that showcase China’s pursuit of an international order that is based on practical win-win cooperation.

dinner almost every single day (believe me, though, I was not there because of the food). In particular, MIT has exceptionally strong resources for entrepreneurship and innovation, including the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship

different neighborhoods and finding gems that I otherwise wouldn’t have noticed.

Be active: Even though the humidity took some time to adjust to, I can certainly say I eventually did. There are many hiking/running trails, parks, gardens, and reservoirs to be explored, and these places are truly worth the

sweat. One of my favorites is the MacRitchie Reservoir Park. This place will make you feel like you are no longer in Singapore, but rather, in some tropical forest. I was literally hiking with monkeys and armadillos. Another one of my favorites is running along the Marina Bay at night. Even if you are not a runner, you should try walking along the Bay.

The view is incredible there, even more so at night, in my opinion.

All in all, I am glad I got a chance to explore this beautiful and vibrant city-state. My time in Singapore was truly enjoyable.

Competition, the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and the MIT Media Lab. As a result of the aforementioned facilities, I have learned to be especially focused, and I have only participated in activities aligning with my



STUDENT LIFE

“Innovation” plays an important role in the social development of China, and young entrepreneurs are trying to help build a better society by creating their own innovative methods in solving social problems. On 24th September 2015, Tsinghua MBA Women Leadership Club (WLC) and Lean In MBA jointly hosted a screening session at Weilun 404 of the documentary, “Be a Changemaker”, aiming to inspire fellow MBA students to focus on “Innovation” and “Change”.

“Be A Changemaker” is a documentary about social innovation produced by Kenny Choi aka “A’Cai”, a young Chinese designer who is passionate about promoting social innovation and social change in China. He started the project in July 2012 and spent 2 years travelling around the world to more than 30 cities to interview social entrepreneurs and innovators who created their own methods in solving social problems. The documentary featured many interesting social startups around the world, such as Play Planet in Korea, Haven training restaurant in Cambodia,

Studentfunder and GiveMeTap in the UK, and many more. All the founders of these organizations have one thing in common: motivation and determination to help build the society into a better place.

The event attracted students from different industries and international backgrounds. As a WLC tradition, the last part of the event was a group discussion session for all the students, where they had a chance to meet each other and share their thoughts and learning. There were many good feedback points on the documentary, and everyone was left feeling very inspired. At the event’s conclusion, the students were encouraged to write down one thing they would do to change the world. Students could take the cards with them as a reminder to do something good for society.

It was a truly inspirational evening for all of us, and we look forward to seeing more of these enjoyable events organized by WLC and Lean In MBA in the coming year.

Tsinghua MBA Student Women Leadership Club

Women Leadership Club x Lean In MBA: “Be A Changemaker”

Christina Chong, GMBA Class of 2016

About Tsinghua MBA Student Women Leadership Club

Tsinghua MBA Student Women Leadership Club was established in October 2013. The club focuses on women’s leadership development and connects female MBA students to support and empower each other with continuous self-improvement and help in maintaining a work-life balance.

About Lean In MBA

Lean In MBA was established in April 2015 as a circle of the LeanIn.org network. LeanIn.org is an organization started by Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook and the writer of the bestselling book “Lean In”, to encourage women to work towards their goals and change their lives for the better through the power of peer support. LeanIn.org currently has over 22,700 circles in its worldwide network.

Lean In MBA x WLC celebrated their partnership at the Lean In MBA kick-off event, “Be a Better Me”, on 21st Sep 2015, where a special guest from UN Women, Menke Maria Meijer, delivered an inspirational speech and shared her own experiences on how women should continuously improve themselves and never give up on their goals. Menke ended her speech with a message for all the ladies at the event, “I encourage you all to never give up even when you feel like you have no more strength and that the world fell apart on your shoulders: don’t ever give up, and help each other.”

STUDENT LIFE

In October 2015, Mr. Tony Wu, the Vice President of Operations and General Manager of Flex Zhuhai, kindly accepted our invitation to come and share his experience about how to build win-win strategies for both companies and society. Originally from Beijing, Mr. Wu holds a Bachelor of Science (B. Sc.) degree from Northwestern Polytechnic University and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Kellogg School of Management and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Prior to his current position at Flex Zhuhai, Mr. Wu was the General Manager of Flextronics Suzhou. Earlier in his career, Mr. Wu held various management positions at Lenovo, Dell, Lucent Technologies, Aavid Thermolloy, and JET Inc.

Flex is an international supply chain solutions company that offers design, manufacturing, distribution and aftermarket services to OEMs. It is the second largest global Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) company in the world, with operations in 30+ countries and 200,000 employees. Mr. Wu oversees Flextronics Zhuhai’s campus management, operations and P&L, which employs 40,000-60,000 employees and generates $4bn - $8bn in revenue.

Flex has a very strong Corporate, Social and Environmental Responsibility (CSER) mindset. More interestingly, Flex sees CSER as more than just a marketing tool. Flex sees CSER as a source of competitive advantage that creates better working conditions for its employees and value for society while also generating additional profits for its shareholders.

Mr. Wu’s sharing of his hands-on experience stimulated a series of very insightful conversations – for example, about the challenges he faces in managing his plant due to China’s shifting demographics, which have caused a reduction in migrant worker supply. Other hot topics included the high attrition rate associated with Generation Y and the constant

Net Impact Lecture Series : “Building Win-Win Strategies for Both Companies and Society”

Paulo Lopes, GMBA Class of 2016

Tony Wu, Vice President of Operations and General Manager of Flex Zhuhai, with GMBA students



battle to remain responsive to technology and environmental changes.

Specifically on the topic of how employees are treated, Flex not only provides market-driven base pay, free accommodation, recreational facilities and meals, which are the common practice in this industry. It also provides a profit-sharing program, which means for each assembly line, the workers can get a share of the profits and see in real time how much bonus they are making. Flex also supports employee education by sponsoring employees to pursue university degrees or professional courses. As most workers are migrants, Flex has partnered with several organizations to provide support for migrant workers to integrate more easily and help to bring their families to the city by supporting the education of employees’ children.

In the words of Mr. Wu: “As some are painfully aware and most of us should be aware, we are in a crisis mode in China. To turn this around, we must make the cultural shift from a ‘Hire and Fire’ mentality to one of Workforce

with analysis, creativity, and an open mind, it is possible to create win-win situations where profits and doing good for society are aligned!

STUDENT LIFE

Retention and Dedication.”

Factory workers’ living and working conditions have improved substantially in the past few decades. However, in an industry where profit margins are only 1-2%, many think that spending so much money on employees would decrease profits, thus adversely affecting the business. Due to the scale of the factory, it is possible to use strong data analytics to measure the effect of employee benefits on the companies’ profits. After analyzing the data, Flex found that for each employee who leaves, it costs $400 (this includes HR-related costs, e.g., replacement and training costs, opportunity cost of productivity, etc.).

To reduce these costs, Flex chose to invest more heavily into employee benefits. This increased Flex’s retention rate dramatically – it even became one of the highest retention rates in the entire industry. With this mindset, Flex managed to reduce costs, provide better working conditions for employees, and create a win-win situation in which both company and society are better off. This example shows that

About Tsinghua Net Impact

Net Impact is a network of 60,000 students and professionals all around the world who want to create positive impact in the society through business practices. Net Impact at Tsinghua is the first Mainland China student chapter under the global Net Impact organization, which includes key business schools such as Harvard, Wharton and INSEAD.

We strive to develop top leaders who seek to improve the world and society through business, and we facilitate interaction of ideas and projects in corporate social responsibility, social enterprise and non-profit organization management.

Come, join us and make a difference!

it literally refers to how this big earth can nurture ten thousand types of creatures and analogously exhorts a virtuous gentleman to be tolerant of diversity and adaptable in order to be worthy of great responsibilities. As Bruce Lee says, “Be like the water” and in this most environmentally, linguistically, and culturally challenging of all GMBA courses, there are not only grave pitfalls to avoid but also great needs to fill where the path to virtue is being like water (“上善若水”). The ever-changing seasons and coldest winter ended for some of us in a 6 hour direct flight to ever-green and solid-state Singapore (which is also in the same time-zone and Chinese) but not the learning and socializing as work and play carried on. As the Caribbean is a winter palace to North Americans, so is Southeast Asia to East Asians. Once away from the Yin elements, I found many Tsinghua alumni continuously self-strengthening themselves (as did I) in sunny Singapore, one even gave me his refined calligraphy of the motto which now hangs on my wall.

As befits a general degree, my classmates and teachers have very different ideological, national, academic, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. Among my classmates not only do we have the traditional divisions between poets and quants but also experienced

C-suiters and entrepreneurs on the right side of their 20s. My experienced groupmate once told me that there is a fable where the charioteer selects two young horses and two experienced horses so that youthful exuberance is balanced with lethargic maturity to make sure there is steadiness and energy. I know I was fortunate in having balanced and harmonious teams who were able to achieve as much as was humanly possible. Speaking of humanly possible before coming to this program, I would not have believed it was possible for a person to subsist on 4 hours of sleep a day for consecutive weeks and still remain mentally alert or master every Excel and PowerPoint shortcut. Still, others were able to run their businesses or work at least part-time while socializing and juggling their studies. Our classmates come from different economies and industries all with their own unique experiences, including two entrepreneurs from opposite ends of the world who made their bare-backed fortunes by risking their credit and futures on investments, after class is over they invite us to their homes and gatherings. Among the teachers, there is no other university where you can get taught by both Zhu Yun Lai and Peter Thiel, and among the staff we were able to interview rural migrant workers for the research. On every hazy and freezing day I depended on a百度外卖 (food delivery) worker to brave the elements for my daily bread. I admit my viewpoint is special, being bilingual helps a great deal in code-switching between different groups and I could not help but empathize with my Chinese classmates who gamely and seriously took most of their classes in English albeit in a program that reflects Tsinghua’s engineering and quantitative strengths. Many of whom give up living in their multi-million RMB homes every week to share communal 3-person rooms and toilets in order to make it to class with us.

I too chose to come here to challenge myself to improve my Mandarin and quantitative abilities as there is no other combination of languages that will allow you to communicate with more humans (it’s also among the most difficult combinations according to linguists). As a whole I have not met undergraduates as bilingual as the ones in Tsinghua’s School of Economics and Management as they are

taught half in Chinese and English. Yes the program is most obviously a gateway to the globe for the mainland students but if you can make the most out of it, it can also become more than a soft landing in China. As the country has developed at breakneck speed in relative isolation to the rest of the world and is still developing, there will be many things someone from the first world can find fault with. Even so, instead of seeing it as a flaw, an international student can see it as her value-add and business opportunity. This age of ambition brings many chaotic upheavals and dangers but also opportunities to reinvent yourself and assist others in reinventing themselves. Aside from a few exceptions, instead of seeing only one path to success or one way of life as right and judgments as set in stone, it might be better to see China as a big and diverse place where multitudes of peoples and their relationships, dreams and fortunes are in continual flux. Even their own understanding of their history can change with new archaeological finds. The new semester opened with a lecture by Li Daokui on the topic “Out of the Haze” and a Chinese New Year visit to our classmate. Hopefully some of the past problems will one day be forgotten but other traditions preserved in the future.

Tsinghua opens many doors and provides m a ny n e w t y p e s o f e x p e r i e n c e s a n d opportunities. The drawback of openness and diversity is that it may attract the intractable but exposure to a wide range of personalities and backgrounds can also make one more discreet, discerning, discriminating and circumspect. A chairman of a Singapore Chinese bank once told me that reflexivity is the most important thing and being able to alternate between different modes as circumstances call for them is what Aristotle calls practical wisdom or ϕρονησιϛ, the charioteer of the virtues. Knowing when and how to act to whom over what depends on where you are and why you are there and makes you who you are. And it is a privilege to be among the last cohort of youthful and dynamic people in a rich world otherwise stuck indefinitely in polarization, inequality, deflation, debt and aging.

STUDENT LIFE

Diversity and ReflexivityDennis Ye, GMBA Class of 2017

It was a bleak winter with the weather alternating between stretches of haze and

negat ive temperatures . The 阴(Yin) is embodied in winter and the second half of the

Tsinghua Motto“厚德载物”which is often translated as “social commitment”. However,



At the invitation of United Nations Global Compact Korean Network, and under the guidance of Professor Qian Xiaojun, Ms. Wendy (Qi) Wen (Tsinghua-MIT Global MBA), participated in the 7th China-Japan-Korea Roundtable Conference held in Seoul on Oct. 28-29, 2015.

The Global Compact China-Japan-Korea Roundtable Conference was initiated in 2009 aimed at promoting collaborations among three Global Compact Networks. Over the past 6 years, the CJK network has successfully shared a wide variety of best practices and defined common challenges facing these Networks in promoting the principles of Global Compact. The joint academic research under the CJK network has also contributed a lot to corporate sustainability in the region.

The 7th China-Japan-Korea Roundtable Conference was convened in Seoul this year, attended by member companies of Global Compact, as well as academic and youth representatives. Major topics this year include “post-2015 business engagement”, “climate change & public private partnership”, and “private sustainability finance”. As an integral part of this year’s Roundtable Conference, Youth Session brought together over 40 students from top universities in China, Japan, and Korea to explore the significance, execution and implication of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) from future leaders’ perspective.

This year’s Roundtable Conference was comprised of 2 parts: the preliminary Youth Session in the afternoon of Oct. 28 and the whole-day’s conference on Oct. 29. In the afternoon of Oct. 28, students were divided into 3 CJK mixed teams to discuss how to promote innovation and cooperation among governments, companies and academia

from the 3 Networks. In the meanwhile, each network youth team was also working on proposals to propel United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in China, Japan and Korea respectively. For more details about SDGs, please refer to the last part of this article.

During the conference on Oct. 29, participants from the three Networks were invited to engage in the post-2015 development agenda and bring regional private sector perspectives into the implementation of the sustainable development goals. Participants stressed the importance of integrating the UN Global Compact into companies' supply chains, and discussed the types of partnerships and collective action that create the best environments for corporate sustainability. At the “Youth Session” taking place that afternoon, the 3 CJK mixed teams and the 3 Network Youth teams presented their thoughts and proposals resulting from the discussions of the previous day. Wendy joined the mixed CJK team of Academia, and played an instrumental role in helping develop the presentation of the China Youth team.

Before joining the Tsinghua-MIT Global MBA Program, Wendy has been working in the sector of corporate sustainability for almost 9 years. She has an in-depth understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility and rich experience in the integration of CSR and corporate business strategies. Her knowledge and experience contributed a great deal to the conference and was acclaimed by the Youth Network teams from the 3 countries.

Wendy sees the Roundtable Conference as a platform to broaden vision in global CSR and to enhance collaboration with people from the 3

Tsinghua MBA Attends Global Compact-The 7th China-Japan-Korea Roundtable Conference

STUDENT LIFE

Qi Wen, GMBA Class of 2017

countries to develop a sustainable future. She believes that Tsinghua MBA students, as the most innovative future leaders, should and will play a more constructive role in promoting corporate sustainability and social innovation.

About United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

In September 2015, all 193 Member States of the United Nations adopted a plan for achieving a better future for all – laying out a path over the next 15 years to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and protect our planet. At the heart of “Agenda 2030” are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which clearly define the world we want – applying to all nations and leaving no one behind.

The new global goals result from a process that has been more inclusive than ever, with Governments involving business, civil society and citizens from the outset. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are

Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhereGoal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agricultureGoal 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all agesGoal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for allGoal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Goal 6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for allGoal 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for allGoal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for allGoal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovationGoal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countriesGoal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainableGoal 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patternsGoal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impactsGoal 14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable developmentGoal 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity lossGoal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levelsGoal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

What is a sustainability?

It’s not environmentalism or a complex business model. According to Christopher Dossman from Alesca Life; sustainability is smart business. The common topic for our guest speakers in this event is sustainability. Three representatives of three companies came to share their insight of their industry and share how their companies created their own sustainable business model.

Mark Lyons the Global Vice President of Alltech, an American agriculture company, shared his insight of the Chinese agriculture. Alltech’s business model is built on solutions that will help Chinese agriculture to overcome its challenges. To make their business more sustainable they have initiated a Model Operating Farm in south China. This model will be a research and education center, and work as a model for the

STUDENT LIFE

Creating the Business Case for Sustainability

future of the Chinese agriculture.

Yi Zhang, CSR and sustainability manager of Shangri-La hotel shared the Shangri-La’s way of building a sustainable business model. Shangri-La’s model does not only cover a small and specific area such as food, but they try to implement their sustainable business model in every part of their business, from construction to restaurants. As a result of constructing their own hotels, Shangri-La has been able to apply more sustainable methods in constructions and customize their building to be more energy and water saving.

To be more sustainable on the food front, Shangri-La created strict food requirements for their suppliers and a concept called “Rooted in Nature” which tells Shangri-La’s guests that food with this label is local and grown in an environmentally friendly way.

Karnpisith Juke Laorpaksa, GMBA Class of 2017

Last but not least Christopher Dossman from Alesca Life presented his startup company Alesca Life. His business is trying to make agriculture more fun and efficient. Their solution allows restaurants, hotels and others to grow their own plants in glass capsules. By offering this solution, they are making agriculture more environmentally friendly, efficient, and fun. Their goal is to make the capsules in big scales and offer people locally grown food instead of imported food.

All these three business cases gave us an understanding of how sustainable businesses can be built. More importantly, these cases tell us that a sustainable business model is possible in even more traditional industries such as hospitality.

Net Impact 2015



Interviewed by Chen Fang and Wan Jun, Written by Wan Jun

Interview with LI Huabing, Tsinghua-MIT IMBA Class of 2006

ALUMNI STORIES

Li Huabing, Founder and CEO of 51 Yongche

Li Huabing (IMBA ’06) is the founder and CEO of 51 Yongche. Aftergraduation from the Department of Computer Science of Wuhan University, Huabing joined in starting up Beijing Guangcai Zaixian, an internet B2B business before enrolling in the Tsinghua-MIT IMBA program. Between 2006 and 2009, Huabing worked at the Hina Group, beginning as an investment manager and ultimately climbing to Vice President. In 2010, he started his second entrepreneurial venture, and he has since set up Qiantao Capital, Chepin Hui, Haha Pinche, and 51Yongche, winning support from well-known investors like Lei Jun and Li Kaifu.

Early Life

Li Huabing was born in a village along the scenic Yangtze River in Ezhou City, Hubei Province. Although today Ezhou is a relatively poor village, it used tobe the capital city of the state of Eastern Wu during the ancient period of theThree Kingdoms, and it is famous for its rich cultural and philosophical atmosphere.

ALUMNI STORIES

Prior to the third year of primary school, he always sat in front of a slab stone in the classroom that was taken as a desk. In winter, his hands were chapped by the cold as there was no window in the room to protect against the chilling wind. After class, he helped with the household chores such as herding cattle, carrying water, cutting firewood, tending the kitchen fire and cooking. He transplanted rice in paddy fields in spring and harvested in autumn. He did all kinds of farm work, including planting sesame, potatoes and sweet potatoes on hills. Despite the toil of labor, his childhood was also a happy time. In the afternoon of summer time, he and his friends caught fish and picked lotus roots and chestnuts from local ponds. After school days, Huabing, along with his older brother and younger sister, would adorn bamboo hats and walk their herd of water buffalo through the golden fields of cole flowers in the evening sun, leaving behind cheerful talk and laughter. After being admitted to Shawo Middle School located at the foot of a mountain in Shawo town, Li Huabing began his boarding school tour. On Sunday afternoons, his father helped him pack his provisions such as rice, salted vegetables, an aluminum lunch-box, bamboo bed and a comforter, and sent him to school. Li Huabing washed and steamed the rice at school. As the salted vegetables were only for three-day consumption, he had to take an hour and a half in rushing back home through miles of mountain path for more salted vegetables to sustain the later half of the week. Later, he suffered from hypoglycamia and fell into a faint during a student assembly at class break.

Among all students of the two classes in the primary school in the village, only three students were admitted to Ezhou High School, a leading high school in Hubei Province. Li Huabing was one of them. In 1995, he passed the national college entrance exam and was admitted to the Department of Computer Science of Wuhan University.

A Clash between Dreams and Reality

At University, Li Huabing was active in a wide variety of activities on campus, including art festivals, student choirs, and speech contests. He also served asclass monitor. Occasionally, the university invited some well-known guest speakers to deliver public speeches on campus, including Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi, Inc., as well as President and CEO of Kingsoft, who had also graduated from the Department of Computer Science of Wuhan University. As Lei Jun passionately addressed a lecture hall full of faculty and students one day in May, Huabing was struck by his entrepreneurial charisma.Little could he have known that ten years later, their paths would meet andthey would be engaged in another stimulating conversation, this time side byside.

After graduation in March 1993, Huabing began his work at Tefa

Group in Shenzhen. There were many fellow alumni from Wuhan University working at Tefa, and some of them went on to set up their own businesses in Beijing. In April 2001, Li Huabing himself arrived in Beijing. Together with Gao Xiaoming, one of his senior schoolmates, he founded Beijing Guangcai Zaixian, an internet B2B business, in which Huabing worked as the Chief Technical Officer. However, this startup failed two years later, leaving Huabing perplexed as to why. Confident in his own capability in technology, communication, and work practice, he began to further explore the question as well as a string of other, interconnected ones. Why did the business fail? Conversely, what were the common characteristics of successful internet businesses? Why did successful enterprises get listed on NASDAQ with the support of venture capital? What does venture capital mean? Why do most venture capitalists have an MBA? With all these questions circling, Li Huabing pinpointed an MBA program as an essential step for further study and reflection. Tsinghua University had long been a dream of his, well before an MBA had even entered his consideration. Eventually, after careful analysis, Huabing concluded that Tsinghua was indeed an optimal choice for his own MBA study.

Fulfilling a Dream: IMBA Program

In particular, the Tsinghua-MIT IMBA Program was attractive to Huabing because of its collaboration between Tsinghua SEM and MIT Sloan, the resources of both institutions, and the program’s focus on expanding students’ international horizons. Ultimately, Huabing received an offer of admission and found the decision to matriculate an easy one. During his first year as an IMBA student, Huabing had the opportunity to take Management Communication, instructed by Associate Dean and Professor Qian Xiaojun. Throughout the course, focused on communication methods and contexts, Huabing was continually impressed with the critical importance of mutual trust and understanding between parties. Organizational Behavior, taught by Professor Chen Guoquan, was another of Huabing’s favorite courses. It came as no surprise to Huabing that political intrigue and conflict is common insidecompanies; a key takeaway in responding to that conflict was maintaining a spirit and appearance of objectivity and rationality from the 360-degree perspective of relevant stakeholders. Studying game theory through the lens of the Cuban Missile Crisis was another of Huabing’s distinct memories from his IMBA study. Huabing enjoyed the balanced curricular focus on soft skills, critical thinking, and hard skills such as financial statement analysis.

In the fall of 2005, Huabing went to HEC in France for a four-month exchange program, focusing mainly on courses about VC and mergers and acquisitions. At HEC, he was inspired by his dialogue with brilliant counterparts, exchange students from other top universities such as London Business School, INSEAD, Stanford University, and Nanyang Technological University. Upon his return from France, he finished his dissertation, “A Case Study on Focus Media’s Acquisition of Frame Media.” His dissertation was recommended by Liao Li, his academic advisor, to Harvard Business School’s core case database and became a compulsory case study for MBA students around the world to study

Corporate Finance.

His two years of study at Tsinghua is a cherished memory for Li Huabing. He still carries fond remembrances of spring days walking through campus, enjoying nature, mixed between more hurried moments of rushing to class (he never missed a class during the entire two years). The Tsinghua IMBA served as a starting point for him to pursue his life’s dreams, as is was here that, Li Huabing learned about VC in greater depth and began to pinpoint issues of management and shareholder structure as possible reasons for the failure of his first start-up. He also noted that in successful start-ups with complete management structure and advanced management ideas, VC plays a critical role. As an outgrowth of these observations, in March 2006, Huabing started his work at the Hina Group, one of China's leading crossborder investment banking and private equity firms.

A Fortuitous Exchange

During his four years at the Hina Group, Li Huabing worked as investment manager, senior investment manager, and, eventually, Vice President. He was in charge of all kinds of projects, some of which were valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars. As an observer, he witnessed the legendary rise of Jingdong as well as the unexpected rescue of Yao Jinbo, the founder of 58 Tongcheng, from the brink of collapse. During these four years, he became accustomed to the harsh realities of the capital market and also shocked by its deterrent power. He saw how the Internet created miracles one after another, making young people’s dreams come true. The dream he himself once had at the time of university graduation ten years before was stimulated again. In the second half of 2009, Li Huabing quit his job at the Hina Group to take another step closer to that dream.

Huabing went on to found Qiantao Capital, an investment fund, which offered investment consulting services. He also later created Jike Menggongchang in the name of Qiantao Capital, making numerous successful investments. Meanwhile, he also became a shareholder of Cheku Cafe. In early 2010, one of his friends engaged in mobile phone design asked Huabing for help with financing his new project. Given his experience in VC, Huabing knew very well that almost no investor would be interested in hardware design of mobile phones. He had long been thinking towards a solution before Lei Jun popped into his head. After Kingsoft was listed in 2007, Lei Jun disappeared from the industry, though he had possessed many years’ worth of profound insights and accumulated skills and experience.

Despite the prosperity of angel investments in mobile Internet, including Vancl, YY, Letao, and Yixun, Lei Jun had remained unmoved and continued to enjoy his modest lifestyle, which stood in sharp contrast with his fame and status in the industry. Li Huabing believed that Lei Jun would return to the industry again, and the only thing lacking was a hardware carrier at hand. Huabing hoped Lei Jun might be interested in making the investment in the mobile phone design. As he had once met Lei Jun at a public event in 2007, Huabing decided to send him an email

Tsinghua GATEWAY Spring/Summer 201644

ISSUE NO. 18

ALUMNI STORIES

to introduce his friend’s team. Half an hour later, Huabing’s phone rang. On the other side of the phone, Lei Jun’s voice came through: “Let’s meet at the Costa Cafe at Yingu Building at 2 pm.”

They met in April 2010. On that day, Lei Jun, with a bag full of cell phones, gently queried his junior alum, “Huabing, tell me about the selling points as if I knew nothing about cell phones.” Huabing was prepared for the question: first, the team is doing hardware design related to the Android system and making customized solutions for Lenovo; second, it used to design cell phones for Techfaith; third, based on cell phones of its own brand, it has massive potential for value-added services. The meeting between the two presented a seemingly coincidental synergy, as one had been planning for the rise of an opportunity while the other had assessed and identified the logistics of that opportunity from his own unique vantage point. A storm of industry change was brewing.

Two weeks after their meeting, Xiaomi Workshop (predecessor to Xiaomi, Inc.) was founded on the 8th floor of Yingu Building.Asked by Lei Jun to look for potential partners, Li Huabing selected over 50 teams successively within 3 months. In April 2011, after interviewing 19 companies from early morning to late night, Li Huabing was completely exhausted. When he met Lei Jun that evening, Lei encouraged him to start up his own business. Since then, Lei Jun has been always ready to support him. It is the miraculous and coincidental meeting between the two that makes Li Huabing’s dream reachable.

Flying High: Chepin Hui and 51 Yongche

In July 2011, Li Huabing embarked on his own start-up journey by creating Chepin Hui, mainly dealing with automobile products. In May, Lei Jun invested two million RMB as the initial angel investment for Chepin Hui. However, the company had some early hiccups, prompting Lei Jun one year later to advise Li Huabing to make some business adjustments – advice Huabing embraced.

In 2013, Li Kaifu, the founder of Innovation Works, made an investment allowing Li Huabing to close out the A round of

financing. In November, he founded Haha Pinche, officially entering the carpooling industry. Then, in early 2014, Hading 1.0 was rolled out. In July, Hongshan Capital took the lead to invest tens of millions more, rounding out the B round of financing. InNovember, Huabing changed the model to focusing on one-on-one carpooling. On December 15, 51 Yongche was launched (http:/ /www.51yche.com/ ). The company developed quickly, completing thousands of business deals, and the operational team expanded to over 200 staff members. In April 2015, 51 Yongche obtained the C round of financing from Baidu.

Faced with numerous competitors in the carpooling market, Huabing believes that competition is particularly good for the development of the market in its initial stages. Different companies with distinct characteristics and models are necessary for business growth and market prosperity and segmentation. 51 Yongche holds advantages in possessing an experienced team, abundant capital, and right timing. The company’s real value, in Huabing’s mind, is to create a sound credit system shared by both car owners and passengers. Currently, 51 Yongche is building its algorithm team to solve the problem of dynamic matching between car owners and passengers. In this process, the modeling principles Huabing learned many years ago in class at Tsinghua are being applied in practice. In addition to improving the efficiency of carpooling, 51 Yongche is also determined to give full play to its social function for further development. According to Huabing, it was the Tsinghua IMBA program that gave him wings to fly, providing essential tools to his subsequent entrepreneurial success after his prior startup learning experiences.

Having seen a great deal of the world, Li Huabing is still full of dreams and passions and eager to continuing learning and influencing change, both in himself and in the world around him. He says he would like to take a self- driven tour of the world with a guitar on his back, and he has considered writing a book. In his view, life is a journey of landscapes in which the destination may ultimately be less distinctive the scenery along the way, and it is with much satisfaction that he looks back on the academic and entrepreneurial steps along that way that have constituted his own life’s scenery.

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