2018 GMiMers' Hangzhou Trip
As a part of the Global Master’s in Management program, students spent their first year at London Business School and their second year – this year – at Fudan University in Shanghai. They had the opportunity to travel on a 3-days weekend trip to the city of Hangzhou under the guidance of Prof Cong Jiajia.
We invite Prof Cong Jiajia, Department of Industrial Economics，as our Academic Advisor.
The first station of the trip was to visit Yangshengtang, a growing and energetic private firm. The firm’s reception team gave us a detailed introduction to the firm structure and product lines. We were impressed by the firm’s dedication to R&D and efforts to offer high quality products. It always implants the core value of “nature” in product design and production. It also has a clear marketing strategy: offering quality product with friendly price. That is why many of its brands have earned great reputation in segment markets. We were also amazed by its young and professional reception team. They have deep understanding of the firm’s core values and have great English communication skill which is not so common among Chinese firms.
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The second station is to visit Cathaya, the largest silk producer in China. Cathaya used to be a state-owned enterprise (SOE) and focused on manufacturing. After ownership reform, it tries to build up its own brand and earn premium from its high quality silk. But establishing a brand is challenging in China’s silk industry, especially when the market is filled with products of different qualities and consumers do not have good tastes in silk. The Cathaya team gave us a very interesting tour of silk industry chain and we were impressed by the exquisiteness of the products. Meanwhile, most students knew why the firm aspires to build up reputation and separate itself with lemon goods. The manager and our students had constructive discussions on the firm’s struggles in branding and what are the possible solutions. One of our international students provided a similar case in her country and suggested Cathaya would learn from the firm. In my view, Cathaya is a typical case of Chinese firms’ transformation from SOE to modern enterprise and from manufacturing to branding. Our students now got to know the bitter and struggles in the transformation process.
After Cathaya, we visited the B2B sector of Alibaba. The reception leader gave us a comprehensive introduction of Alibaba’s business lines, especially the B2B sector. The next station is Sunac, a giant real estate company in China. From the introduction of the HR leader, we clearly understand the development strategy of Sunac and its unique company culture.
Not only did we visit the very first Alibaba campus, but we also had an ‘Alibaba Lunch’ (i.e. at their canteen)! While Alibaba’s B2C is well-known to most, we had the opportunity to explore its overall strategy, including its payment, cloud, entertainment and location-based services. But in particular, we analysed the business model of its B2B segment, as well as integrations across its B2C and logistics services. Last but not least, we learnt of Alibaba’s very own ‘Business School’ for SMEs!
——2018GMiM Louis Lee
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The final firm is Geely, a domestic automobile company, who is famous for its acquisition of Volvo and its own new energy cars with friendly price. Our students were impressed by Geely’s various car models and its endeavor in innovation. Geely is a good example to demonstrate how Chinese firms gradually develop their own technologies and try to catch up with western competitors.
The culture tour in West Lake was novel to many international students. Maybe they cannot catch the gist of West Lake in one morning, but it was a fresh start. After the field trip to Hangzhou, I believe our students grasp more understanding of Chinese firms and get to know the challenges that different firms confront. This experience perfectly complements what they have learned in class.
供稿人：从佳佳, Louis Lee