On 25^th March, Manchester Business School China Centre launched its 1^st GEMBA Thought Leaders Talk series event, Beyond Digital Marketing, presented by Dr. Feng Xi, Senior Vice President of Horizon Research Consultancy Group and President of Hi-GDP.

Dr. Feng started his presentation by sharing successful stories of some famous Chinese brands, as well as failure of some brands which used to be so well-known but now forgotten and disappeared from the market. Followed those stories, Dr. Feng leaded the audience to think about some recently hot cases like WeChat’s success again Weibo, competition of Didi and Kuaidi (嘀嘀打车VS快的打车), and why lucky money is more than lucky money. He also shared an inspirational case of a new brand Diao Ye Niu Nan (雕爷牛腩), how they used digital marketing to promote their brand and gain customer loyalty.   

At the end of his presentation, Dr. Feng summaried that, to customers, fun is everything and less is more. Make your produce easy to use, understand your customer, engage with them and respond quickly. Those are key points to lead your business to success. And last but not least Business mind in this digital era is a MUST.

This 1^st GEMBA event successfully attracted almost 30 people in the room. It was very interactive with many questions raised during Dr. Feng’s presentation leading to several rounds of short discussions. Not only there was audience from Shanghai, but also this was the 1^st time MBS China Centre tried to broadcast its event live to allow students in Beijing, Chengdu and other China regions to benefit from it.

Ms. Sherry Fu, Regional Director of MBS China Centre closed the event and introduced GEMBA programme to the audience with great passion!

Sherry said, the Manchester Business School Global Executive MBA is distinctive, challenging and inspirational. The programme balances academic rigor with getting out in the real world to try ideas and critique current practices, aiming to get the delegates get ready to be international business leaders. We encourage business people with over 8 years’ professional experience, a minimum 5 years in leadership roles to apply for our GEMBA programme.

Ms. Sherry Fu, Regional Director of Manchester Business School was invited to FESCO Adecco and meeting with Mr. Ying Ni, CEO of the company. FESCO Adecco is a joint venture company between FESCO, one of the leading HR services companies in China, and Adecco the worldwide HR services leader, to provide the most comprehensive professional HR services including staffing, outsourcing and recruitment to our clients.

Both sides deeply discussed the cooperation about talent development. MBS China centre offers great support to FESCO Adecco, who wants to develop senior management people to be more internationally competitive.  Leaders of two sides have expressed confidence to guild up good relationship.

Followed, a Global MBA information session was held in the conference room of the company, around 40 staff attended, who all worked more 7 years for its company and now positioned in high management level.  FESCO Adecco will send qualified staff to GMBA programme to MBS for further development. One week later, the first group of candidates will visit MBS China centre and learn the application process.

Innovation is important into a company, while competition comes to a critical stage in all industries. Against this background, on 8th April, Global EMBA Thought Leaders Talk ‘Eight Steps of Lean Innovation ‘was held at MBS China Centre. William Yu, Senior VP of Allegion Plc & President of Allegion Asia Pacific was invited to introduce a newly developed systematic and repeatable approach to bring innovation to next level.

The lecture gathered around 40 people, including senior management people from various industries such as finance, consulting, pharmaceutical and manufactures.

William joined Ingersoll Rand in 1997. Until November 31, 2013, he was the President of Security Technologies of Ingersoll Rand Asia Pacific and the Dean of Ingersoll Rand Safety and Security Institute. Prior to joining Ingersoll Rand, William spent 12 years in a large state-owned enterprise and local public company and also gained overseas experience by working in the U.S. and Singapore. The cross-cultural working experience and western perspectives enabled him to accumulate a broad spectrum of experiences from business strategy, operation management, marketing & sales to supply chain management. 

First, William illustrated the delimitation of Lean Innovation and the reasons why it is important to a company. Followed, showcasing some classic cases, he provided practical tips to solve the real innovation challenges which faced by current institutions includes GE, Allegion and Cirque du Soleil.

In short, Eight Steps of Lean Innovation consists of 1) makingInnovation Strategy, 2) Segmentation, 3) Understanding Customer’s Needs, 4) Determining Opportunity, 5) Generating Ideas, 6) Evaluating Ideas, 7) Executing Ideas, and finally building up 8) Innovation Culture

During the Q&A session, participants heated discussions on a wide range of creative problem solving and its generating way.