 | |
| Former federal cabinet minister and current EMBA student Denis Coderre chats with Chinese Ambassador to Canada Shumin Lu. |
The 2006 EMBA graduating class met His Excellency Mr. Shumin Lu, the Chinese Ambassador to Canada, and other officials as part of their preparations for their international consulting engagement in Shanghai.
The group of business students, comprised of experienced professionals from a diverse range of disciplines and sectors, was delighted to have the ambassador speak to them before their ten-day stay in Shanghai from April 21 though April 30, 2006.
“The class sees the growing importance of China in the context of globalization and wants to better understand what it takes to unlock the value that China holds,” explains Terrence Kulka, director of the Executive MBA Program.
In past years, Shanghai had been considered as a potential destination for the International Consulting Project, but this is the first class to unanimously agree on it as the destination of choice. The advanced consulting project and trip in the spring of the participants’ second and final year of the program enables them to apply everything they have learned over the preceding months—on a global stage.
Set into multicultural, multidisciplinary teams, the students have planned, researched and engaged contacts in Shanghai before their departure. Typically, students develop market entry strategies or strategic alliances for the organizations they represent abroad. This year, the firms represented will include two in high-tech, two in health care and two consulting firms.
In Shanghai, students will gather further intelligence through interviews and on-site research to validate market potential, explore avenues for business, solidify contacts, and experience first-hand the local rules and protocols. Upon their return, teams will present their results to their respective clients and submit a report to the EMBA program as their final assignment.
Most of the students have never been to China before. “Each time we talk to people who have been there recently they tell us to ‘prepare to be amazed’,” says student Barry Davies, a senior verification engineer at Nortel Networks. “Judging from the pictures and growth statistics of the city, I have no doubt that we will indeed be in awe.”
