The aim of this course is to provide students with the opportunity to experience first-hand the business cultural practices of the region; in a learning environment that promotes cross-cultural understanding and insight into business processes in an “Asian context”.
A variety of perspectives are explored with the aim of familiarizing students with the business contexts of Indonesia, Korea and Taiwan, as well as issues pertaining to cross-cultural management, innovation and CSR.
The course involves an overseas stay in the Host Country (Indonesia for 2016-7, Taiwan for 2017-8 and Korea for 2018-9) and incorporates company visits, business meetings, networking with local business leaders, as well as lectures from professors of each partner university.
Day 1: Meeting Up! Asian Business Consulting has Started
Three different Asian universities, National Taiwan University Global MBA, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Universitas Prasetiya Mulya Business School (PMBS) have organized a joint program called the Asian Business Consulting course. Each university selects 12 young professionals as representatives to attend the program. This year (2018) NTU Global MBA takes the initiative to be the second host for the course. The program will be taken place in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, and lasting for one week.
NTU Global MBA hopes that this program will not only be beneficial to our students in terms of their consulting skills & experiences but also strengthen the friendship between the partner schools in order to build up a robust foundation for further co-operations.
The Welcoming Remarks were given by Professor Andy Guo, Dean of College of Management, NTU. Followed by the warm greetings from Dean Guo, Professor Chialin Chen, Professor Miriam Garvi and the other two professors from KAIST and PMBS introduced the Global MBA program in NTU, the ABC course, the KIT program and the Cross-Cultural Understanding via the Indonesian Context to the participants.
After the welcoming speeches and gifts exchanging, NTU Global MBA invited all participants to enjoy an extraordinary show brought by Taipei Puppet Theater. In the afternoon a campus tour for the visitors was also planned. Through the explaining from the tour guides, visitors got to know more about NTU’s beautiful campus, such as the Lu Ming Hall, the Administration Building, the Fu Bell and the Main Library.
After seeing the beautiful scenery of NTU, it is time to have some discussion with the company representatives. Our company representative from Domi Earth and UCarer are here to answer students' questions and give them more information about their companies.
Our welcome dinner brought us a perfect ending to the day...
Day 2: KIT Program Visits Yuanta Bank for Brain-Picking
After having a nice breakfast together at College of Management Building 1 this morning, students and professors of the KIT Program headed to Yuanta Financial Tower on the intersection of Dun-Hua South Road and Ba-De Road for today’s adventure.
The first glance while entering the Yuanta building is the magnificent but yet elegant lobby. The visit route today was included the introduction to the interior working environment and the outdoor decorations. Students and professors were guided to walk through the lobby, the reception, and the yard.
In concerning the expansion of the Company's business performance, Yuanta has merged proactively several local Banks in recent years. Nowadays, the total number of domestic branches in Taiwan has exceeded 100. As for the market strategy overseas, Yuanta also managed to set up several operational sites in Philippines, Korea, Indonesia and etc.
The last stop for today’s visit is to have a meeting with the Yuanta top managing. KIT students and professors moved to the conference room and listened to their thorough presentations on an overview of Yuanta Securities and Financial Holdings specifically in Korea and Indonesia. The experience sharing in strategies on developing subsidiaries in Korea and Indonesia was very informative as well as the introduction to Yuanta Financial Holdings. These had definitely raised the KIT students’ interest, and an active discussion was seen during the Q&A session.
Play hard, and we work even harder. Apart from company visits, we also spent a lot of time discussing our case. Thanks to all professors who deliver their problem identification and troubleshooting skills, we gained a lot in the consultation process.
Day 3: Explore Charming Taipei through Well-Known Attractions
After all the hard work during the group discussions this morning, students and professors of KIT Program started their Taipei Tour by taking Taipei Sightseeing Double-Decker Bus.
The journey today started from the College of Management, and we traveled across Taipei City through Roosevelt Road to Zhong-shan North Road. The Sightseeing Bus was passing by the most popular attractions such as C.K.S. Memorial Hall and Shi-lin Night Market. As Taipei has always been the glamorous symbol of Taiwan, one must be easy to be mesmerized by the great amount of diversity that it contains.
Finally, members of KIT Program arrived National Palace Museum (NPM), where houses a collection of ancient Chinese artifacts. Not only professors and students perceived the exquisiteness of jade cabbage and meat-shaped stone but also found more masterpieces, namely Mao Gong Ding and Olive Stone Miniature Boat.
Professors and Students headed to the most flourishing area of Taipei City, Xinyi District, after the visit to NPM. Taipei 101 is definitely one of the famous Landscape of Taiwan.
Day 4: Progress Review
It comes to the fourth day of the KIT Program as time goes on. This year all participating students were teamed up into six different groups for helping three companies, namely Yuanta Bank, DOMI Earth and Ucarer. Each company was served by two groups with customer-made consulting solutions for the proposed problems. This Friday all groups will be presenting their final work to the audiences and each company will point out a group with the best consulting advice.
With the hope of maximizing each group’s performance in the final presentation and securing their solutions to be in line with the companies’ needs, professors have called for a Progress Review this morning. During the review session, each group had 10 minutes to present what they have gone so far. Professors, as well as the other group members, could give feedback to the proposed solutions and if possible, provided suggestions from a different perspective. Ensuring each group was able to cut deeply into the business problems, Professors also raised several challenging questions to the group members to think it over. The intensive Progress Review lasted for one and a half hours. Each group was released back to their discussion room afterward and kept working on their presentation for tomorrow’s presentation.
Day 5: Perfect Ending of KIT Cross-Cultural Course
As the one-week program comes to the last day, today is the most important day for everyone in the KIT program – the closing ceremony. After breakfast, students kept busy doing their last-minute preparation and rehearsal for the final presentation this afternoon. Through the company visits and dozens of group discussions, the Progress Review, and many suggestions given by professors in the past four days, each group looked almost ready for the big show.
It was honored to invite managers and prestigious guests from Yuanta Bank, DOMI Earth and UCarer as judge panels in the closing ceremony. The main tasks for them were not only giving comments and feedback but picking the best group after the 6 presentations. Moreover, the professors from KIT could also appoint a group that provided the best consultant service.
The last part of the closing ceremony was another highlight: all participating students received their certificates from the faculties one after another, as an achievement of attending the KIT program. This course cannot be successfully accomplished and carried out without the involvement of the professors from three universities, the commitment of the three companies, and the cooperation with the local business leaders.
Hope students and faculties all returned home with full of harvest.
