Experiencing Business in China

Stamford, CT (1/3/2008) - More than thirty MBA students traveled to China for the Thanksgiving holiday to experience first-hand much of what they had been learning all semester long in two of UConn's MBA courses – OPIM 300: International Supply Chain Management and MKTG 300: Business Development in the Pacific Rim.

Led to the Far East by Professors Wynd Harris and Timothy Dowding, the 11-day trip in China, the world's most populous nation, included a mix of business and cultural experiences. Perhaps the most vivid take away from this trip for the group was to personally experience a country undergoing incredible change as it makes it presence known as a world business center.

The group – all of whom are working professionals as well as part-time students – toured Beijing, Jinan, Qingdao and Shanghai. They met with executives and visited the offices and factories of a number of multinational companies including Marsh, IBM, GE / NBC, Linuo, The Haier Group, Tsing Tao brewery, Baosteel and Covidien.

Exploring an academic partnership within the sister-state relationship between Connecticut and Shandong, the group also met with deans, faculty and students at Shandong University School of Management in Jinan, the leading university in the province.

Prior to the trip, the students spent the semester studying both marketing and supply chain management with an emphasis on the interdisciplinary aspects of viewing the supply chain and marketing functions as an integrated process that may include international components.

Business process development and market entry analysis aim to help firms add value and compete by improving and redesigning their key processes to meet global market requirements. Supply chain management deals with the management of material and information in production-distribution networks. Reducing costs, increasing product availability and increasing responsiveness to changes in the market are the focus of supply chain management.

"What makes this course experience different is the ability to provide our students with an in depth exposure to the entire value chain," said marketing professor Wynd Harris. "Tim covers supply chain elements and I cover distribution networks and we wind up visiting a number of manufacturing sites in the process – and the really special part is that we do all this in the foreign market setting of China across three provinces."

Despite the group's rigorous academic schedule, they still had some time to indulge in cultural excursions which included visits to Yu Garden, Jade Buddha Temple, Forbidden City, Summer Place, Great Wall, and Thousand Buddha Mountain.

Sponsored in part by UConn's Center for International Business Education & Research (CIBER), international experiences such as this one are part of a portfolio of in-country educational opportunities available to UConn MBA students that truly enhance the MBA experience.
Starbucks coffee at the gift shop along the Great Wall of China at Badaling
GE / NBC, Beijing. From left to right: Marsha Edscorn-Bird, Vice President, Olympic Operations, NBC Olympics Inc., John Jakovich, General Manager, GE Operations, Beijing 2008 Olympic Solutions, Michelle Pandolfi, Prof. Wynd Harris, Marketing, Shannon Marrs, Shannon McGill, Guy Williams, Lisa Bratt, Bhavik Modi, Joette McLaurin, Kelly Martin, Nick Lingler, Candice LaMar, Stephen Sholtis, Heather Klodzinski, Victoria Johansen
Paul Corkery, General Manager, GE Systems Engineering, Beijing 2008 Olympic Solutions

Technicians at Covidien manufacturing plant
Tsing Tao Brewery - Qing Dao

Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, School of Business & Management
Group shot of UConn with Covidien managers outside Covidien – Shanghai headquarters; Steven Shen, Plant Manager in foreground


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