Wharton-Fudan GCP
January 9th, the first day of the second Join Week, saw the first meeting of Fudan and Wharton team getting together in person to work on the 2015-2016 Wharton-Fudan Global Consulting Practicum, which, along with other ilab projects, is integral part of Fudan MBA experience that aims to create an academic and social atmosphere which cultivates experiential and dynamic learning for students, by providing innovative, operational plans that add value to the client companies.
This year, the team comprised of five students from Fudan IMBA program and five students from Wharton MBA program, University of Pennsylvania, along with three project faculties and mentors. Starting from October, 2015, the team worked together to offer strategic consulting work for the client, with a final presentation scheduled in April, 2016.
Having already acquired certain market share in China, the client of this project, a world leading network security company based in Silicon Valley, wanted to assess the entry barriers in terms of regulations and market opportunity, which would guide its global marketing strategy in both short term and long term. The client visited the Fudan School of Management and the GCP team delivered their first project proposal presentation. Impressed by the team’s well-prepared presentation, the client offered the team valuable suggestions for future research and analysis.
The team conducted more than 10 interviews in these days, including Professor Shen, Associate Professor at School of International Relations and Public Affairs; Mr. Wu, Professor at Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences; and some strategy consultants at Gartner and IDC. Moreover, the team also visited the client’s office in Shanghai to talk with senior staff face to face and get sense of company culture. “We got a lot of insights through these interviews,” Daniel Wang, one group member from Fudan IMBA program commented, “we are even more confident to move forward.”
“We received the warmest welcome from our team members at Fudan and faculties of School of Management,” Sachin, one group member from Wharton EMBA program said, “I really enjoyed this project and we definitely will deliver a perfect report in the end.”
Apart from the project work, the team also indulged in cultural experience including touring the city of Shanghai, getting a look at the Bund, Shanghai Financial towers, downtown area and the traditional Chinese streets. The guests were treated with a rich culinary experience across different food places in the city.
Overall, the experience was enriching and the team is geared to put forward the best foot to finish the task in hand.
(by Wharton-Fudan GCP team)
Australia-China Lab
Before the formal kick-off meeting on January 20th at noon, the Fudan team made preparation with the help from UQ iLab team in order to have a successful first client meeting. In the previous weeks leading up to the kick-off meeting, both sides have had the opportunity to get to know each other and discuss briefly on how they wished to conduct the project. As the sponsored company for the Australia-China Lab was set, they were able to begin the research and prepare our consulting questions for the first meeting. The team grouped information focused on the executive education industry in China as well as doing their due diligence to learn about the client company UQBSEE and its history.
The con-call itself went very smoothly. Having a pre-set agenda for the client allowed the meeting to run effortlessly. Pheobe Smith from the UQ team was appointed to lead while all other members were there in support to take notes and bring up any newly developed questions from the provided information. The meeting ended with the client very excited about the project and confident in the team to be able to provide them valuable output.
Following this, two teams coordinated a follow-up meeting to discuss what they have heard so far. They established a project and team structure allowing them to function as a unit. From now on, they will have a lot of work to do, but they are focused and determined to do a great job.
(by Australia-China Lab team)
Fudan-Tekes iLab: Avain
The kick-off meeting of Fudan-Tekes iLab: Avain Project was held in Room 503 of Starr Building in the afternoon of January 11, 2016. The representatives of Avain’s management led by Pekka, CEO of Avain Technologies Oy, and the project team led by Professor Lijin Qiu, the faculty mentor, officially met and extensively exchanged views on project deliverables.
After formal introduction of each participant, the guests shared detailed information of the company’s history, organization structure, globalization, products, major business fields and future plan in China. By products demonstration and Q&A after the sharing, the team had a deeper understanding of their products and potential market opportunities. Following is a discussion of what kind of problems the client is facing in China, feasible proposals and operating schedule of the project. At the end of the meeting, the two parties reached a simple agreement of reporting rules during the whole project and arranged next meeting.
To top it off, all the participants of the meeting got to be familiar with each other through face to face meeting and established an optimistic prospection of this project.
(by Avain team)
Fudan-Tekes iLab: Ekolet
On Jan. 13, Fudan-Tekes iLab project Ekolet team successfully held the kick-off meeting with Ekolet company—Mr. Matti and Mr. Kalle. Faculty mentor Prof. Lijin Qiu and team members Claire, Yao, Rafael, Perry and Jiang attended the skype meeting.
In the meeting, each team member first did a presentation of their backgrounds. Mr. Kalle also gave a brief introduction of Ekolet company and products. Because of the learning in advance and initial internet research, after Mr. Kalle’s introduction Fudan team raise questions about the company and products, such as what’s the selling point of Ekolet’s products and what are the differences of product catalogues, etc. Then both parties reviewed the timeline of project, including proposal deadline, research phases, mid-term report and final report. Then both parties discussed the coming meeting schedule and details. To help team members better understand the products, Mr. Kalle planned to have a product lecture in the next meeting. With a good preparation and clear plan, the kick-off meeting was very smooth.
Finally, after the meeting Prof. Qiu helped Fudan team review the project steps using marketing theory and tool such as 5C and 4P theory. Each member had full confidence and expectation on this project.
(by Ekolet team)
Fudan-Tekes iLab: OptoFidelity
On Jan 3rd, the team sent the introduction of its members and mentor to the client. On Jan 13th, the team had kick-off meeting with Wen, Director of APAC Sales in OptoFidelity. In this meeting, the team learned the situation of client`s company and market of company in China, which client burned with desire to develop Chinese market and hope to get some help in Chinese testing market. After the meeting, the company sent the expectation of the proposal to the team. The team made several panel discussions to confirm the context of its proposal. On Jan 25th, Ilmo, one of the senior managers in OptoFidelity, came to Shanghai, discussed with the team about the proposal. She offered some suggestions and wished the team should provide a testing marketing analysis. The team followed these suggestions and made revision on the final proposal.
(by OptoFidelity team)
Fudan-Tekes iLab: Virranta
Virranta company runs a Finnish family business which mainly focuses on ventilation system cleaning, maintenance and indoor air quality measurement.
On January 14th, Mr. Petteri Virranta and Mr. Jussi, the managers of Virranta company, flied to Shanghai to participate in the kick-off meeting. Led by Professor Youzhen Zhao, the Virranta team had started to collect some industry background. Since all the team members only had very limited information about their client, they all had a lot of questions. After Mr. Virranta and Mr. Jussi’s arrival in Fudan, they immediately started the meeting. During the meeting, the clients first introduced the background information of their company, such as the main business and services they provide. Then, the Virranta team members asked many detailed questions about the company and assured the clients’ expectations of this project. After one-hour discussion, they had formed a general idea about the client and the industry.
Next day on January 15th, the clients invited Fudan team members a dinner in Shangri-la Hotel. All team members talked and exchanged ideas with clients in an easy and pleasant atmosphere. They all looked forward to the mid-term report and hoped to meet in Finland again.
