Commencement Address - Tsinghua University · of you are MBA students, I’m sure you love statistics and let me give you or remind you some numbers. Israel has been known as the

ISSUE NO. 17

TSINGHUA GATEWAYTHE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF TSINGHUA-MIT GLOBAL MBA PROGRAM

Tsinghua GATEWAY 1

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg Delivers 2015 Commencement Address

Christina Chong, GMBA Class of 2016

Sheryl Sandberg is ranked No. 8 on the Forbes’ World's 100 Most Powerful Women 2015. She is the founder of LeanIn.org, a global community committed to empowering all women to achieve their goals, and the author of the bestselling book 'Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead'. She has gained great popularity, especially amongst professional women in China, and got very positive feedback on the Chinese edition of her book. For the full version of Sandberg’s speech and video clip, please visit the official Tsinghua SEM website.

Continued on 3

On June 27, 2015, Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management (Tsinghua SEM) held its 2015 Commencement in the Gymnasium of Tsinghua University, hosted by Dean QIAN Yingyi. The Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, delivered a truly inspirational speech. She is the first female Commencement Speaker of Tsinghua SEM.

Although her BOSS, Mark Zuckerberg, did a full Chinese Interview with Dean QIAN During the Tsinghua SEM Advisory Board Meeting at the End of 2014, Sandberg did a 20 min Speech in English, Which was just as Fascinating for us. Sandberg started the inspirational speech by pointing out how much technology has changed the world in the past 25 years, and how the students of Tsinghua SEM will help to shape their generation’s world in the coming 25 years. She also emphasized, “As graduates of Tsinghua, you will be leaders, not just in China, but globally. China is a world leader in terms of educational attainment and economic growth. It is not just political and business leaders that recognize the importance of China.”

Sandberg encouraged the Tsinghua graduates to “be bold, speak up, and lean in”. During the speech, Sandberg paid tribute to her late husband Dave Goldberg, “No one won more hearts than my beloved husband, Dave Goldberg, who passed away suddenly just two months ago. Dave was truly an inspirational leader.” As the current graduates begin their paths towards leadership, Sandberg asked the students to take this day to reflect and think about what kind of leaders they want to be, and offered the students to focus on the following four points:

First, FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD.“Facebook exists because Mark believed that the world would be a better place if people could use technology to connect as individuals. He believed it so much that he dropped out of Harvard College to pursue that mission and he fought to hold onto it over the years. What Mark did was not lucky. It was bold.

I hope if you find yourself on one path but longing for something else, you find a way to get there. And if that isn’t right, try again. Try until you find something that stirs your passion, a job that matters to you and

matters to others. It’s a luxury to combine passion and contribution. It’s also a clear path to happiness.”

Second, FEEDBACK IS A GIFT. “A go o d l e a d e r re c o g n i z e s t h at mo st employees won’t feel comfortable challenging authority, so it falls upon authority to solicit feedback. I learned from my PowerPoint mistake. I now ask my colleagues “What could I do better?” And I always thank the person who has the guts to answer me

Fall/Winter 2015

Tsinghua GATEWAY Fall/Winter 2015 3Tsinghua GATEWAYFall/Winter 20152

ISSUE NO. 17 ISSUE NO. 17

Shana Penna Editor-in-Chief GMBA 2016

THE GATEWAY TEAM SEM HEADLINESEDITor’S NoTE

The first year at Tsinghua has flown passed in a blink of an eye. Looking back at how far the Class of 2016 has come since the beginning of the program, we can surely say that we cannot be more proud of our perseverance. In this issue, we hope to share with you our experience and exciting life at Tsinghua during spring and summer 2015. Despite the countless days and late nights, which were spent working on assignments and projects, we were happy to have opportunities to take part in the overseas modules, such as, the Asian Tigers and MIT Sloan Module, where we could explore new cities and cultures while learning. We were also very fortunate to have Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, as the Commencement Speaker of Tsinghua SEM at the end of the academic year. Her speech was truly inspirational. Also, following the photos of Tsinghua Autumn from issue 16, we would like to show you the beauty of the spring on Tsinghua campus.

The Gateway team would also like to acknowledge the generous donation from Thomas Shie who graduated from Tsinghua-MIT IMBA Class of 2014. With Mr. Shie's support we are able to continue printing this newsletter, as well as allowing SEM to continue presenting the annual New Year Gala. Thomas has gone above and beyond to support the Tsinghua SEM program and it is with great appreciation that we dedicate this issue to him.

We would like to send our gratitude to the wonderful Gateway team for putting the issue together, in addition to welcoming Allison Shi to the team as the new coordinator for the magazine.We hope you all enjoy

THE GATEWAY TEAM

Steven WhiteFaculty Advisor

Allison ShiMBA Office Advisor

Doris Duoduo XunMBA Office Advisor

Christina Chong Editor-in-Chief GMBA 2016

Amy Ly Editor

GMBA 2016

Tina Ja Editor

GMBA 2016

Daniela Cai Editor

GMBA 2016

Ivy LeeSub Editor

Postgraduate Student of School of Journalism and Communication

May Pakornpadungsit

EditorGMBA 2016

the interesting stories we have brought together, and look forward to working with the new Class of 2017 to bring you more exciting news at Tsinghua MBA.

Yours truly,Shana and ChristinaGMBA Class of 2016 MBA Class of 2015 Graduation Speech

by Professor June Qian

honestly, often by praising them publicly. I firmly believe that you lead best when you walk side-by-side with your colleagues. When you don’t just talk but you also listen.”

Third, NOTHING IS SOMEONE ELSE’S PROBLEM. “Companies in every country operate in ways that are right for their cultures. But I believe that there are some principles of leadership that are universal -- and one of those is that it is better to inspire than to direct. Yes, people will do what their bosses tell them to do in most organizations. But great leaders do not just want to secure compliance. They want to elicit genuine enthusiasm, complete trust, and real dedication. They don’t just win the minds of their teams, they win their hearts. If they believe in your organization’s mission and they believe in you, they will not only do their daily tasks well, but they will do them with true passion.”

Fourth, LEAN IN.“I believe that the world would be a better

place if men ran half our homes and women ran half our institutions – and the good news is that we can change the stereotypes and get to real equality. We can support women who lead in the workforce. We can find more balance in the home by fathers helping mothers with housekeeping and childrearing; more equal marriages are happier and more ac t ive fathers raise more successful children. We can walk up to s ome one w ho c a l l s a l i t t l e g i r l “bossy,” and say instead, “That little girl is not bossy. That little girl has executive leadership skills.”

Sandberg pointed out the imbalance in the proportion of leadership roles for men and women in every industry - Currently, less than 6% of the world’s top companies are run by women. “There are many reasons for the gender leadership gap – outright discrimination, greater responsibilities at home, a lack of flexibility in the workplace, and most importantly, our stereotypical expectations. “, she said.

At the end of the speech, Sandberg emphasized again that “equality is not just good for women. It’s good for everyone,” and she added, “great leaders don’t just develop people like them, they develop everyone. If you want to be a great leader, you will develop the women – as well as the men – at your companies and on your teams.” She further spoke, with great conviction, “I believe your generation will do a better job than mine at fixing the problem of gender inequality. So we turn to you. You are the promise for a more equal world.”

Over the years, the Tsinghua students have been so lucky to have had such opportunities to learn the wisdom of so many influential individuals. To name a few, the founder of Alibaba, MA Yun, the President of Yale University, Richard Charles Levin, and the founder of Lenovo, LIU Chuanzhi, all devoted their time to share their knowledge with us. We are excited to find out who will be speaking at the coming Tsinghua SEM Commencement in 2016.

Dear graduating students, parents and my fellow colleagues from Tsinghua SEM and MIT Sloan, good afternoon!

First of all, congratulations to students for your successful completion of your study at Tsinghua.

About 2 months ago, I was asked to represent the faculty and address all of you at this event. I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t admit that this was a daunting challenge and I seriously hesitated about accepting it. The reason was simple – the social media such as WeChat on our phones had been filled with all kinds of exciting and spectacular speeches, especially during the graduation season. So please don’t judge me against the speeches out there and I’ll try to do my best to speak from my heart, as a proud teacher.

Thanks to

Philip MertensContributor, GMBA Class of 2016

Maria Esther ChiaContributor, GMBA Class of 2016

Wafic Marwan MkhallalatiContributor, GMBA Class of 2016

Yiting Daniela CaiContributor, GMBA Class of 2016

Jason LauContributor, GMBA Class of 2016

Art ZhongContributor, GMBA Class of 2016

Napol Kamthornkittikulcontributor, GMBA Class of 2016

Paulo Lopescontributor, GMBA Class of 2016

Qian, Xiaojun, Professor of Department of Leadership and Organization Management, Associate Dean of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management



SEM HEADLINES SEM HEADLINES

Tsinghua-MIT IMBA Class of 2015 graduation group photo

Many of us listened to the Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, Ms. Indra Nooyi’s speech at Tsinghua SEM in October 2013, in which she talked about 5 Cs (namely, curiosity, creativity, citizenship, courage, and communication). Today, I am going to adopt her model and borrow a few words from the letter L to help you think about your plan and goals after your graduation.

The first L is Learning.Today marks the end of your MBA program, but it is, by no means, the end of your learning. Learning is a life-long journey and reading is the most fundamental way to learn. Since all of you are MBA students, I’m sure you love statistics and let me give you or remind you some numbers. Israel has been known as the number one country in the world that loves to read. An average Israeli reportedly has read 64 books per year, and the Israeli Jews, which makes up more than 80% of the Israel population, has read 68 books per year. What is the implication here? We only have 52 weeks a year. The Jewish people, who have been persecuted for thousands of years and for quite a while with no country to call their own, have been making remarkable achievements across all fields such as genetics, computer science, public safety, military science and technology, agriculture and bio-pharmaceutical, in just a bit more than half a century. So remember, books are a source of our continuous learning.

It’s also important that we learn from doing things ourselves, or from the people around us. We constantly improve and grow only if we continuously learn. It is a simple and straightforward principle, but not easy to be practiced in real life. Therefore, I wish you would always remember that learning is a life-long journey.

The second L is Living.Life is very long as well as very short. I was sent to the countryside after graduating from high school. Two years later I took the College Entrance Examination, the first such examination after the Cultural Revolution and was admitted into Tsinghua University. Upon graduation, I started as a young teacher at Tsinghua. I went for the National Graduate Examination another two years later, and was accepted in the overseas study program. I started to pursue a doctorate at Purdue University and returned to Tsinghua SEM in 1995. Gosh, it has been 20 years since I returned from my overseas study!

I couldn’t believe that next year I will reach ret irement age. I st i l l remembered my college graduation vividly, like it happened yesterday. Looking back, I deeply realized how fast time flies and how fleeting life is. Although I’m no movers and shakers, I have contributed towards many programs and initiatives within the school beyond my basic

and hard to come by, but we can always find opportunities in our daily life to lead quietly, to bring about positive changes patiently through our relentless effort. “滴水石穿、润物无声, 坚持不懈地推动”, that’s leading quietly.

One series events in celebrating Tsinghua SEM’s 30th anniversary last year is to honor some people who had made outstanding contributions to the school over its 30 years. One such event is organized specially for Ms Lin Yuxia (林玉霞老师). I remembered many people attended the celebration. Ms Lin is a staff member in charge of student life. She joined Tsinghua SEM in 1983, started serving

in the student life office in 1988 and had been working on the same role until she retired in 2007. In the span of 24 years, her kindness had touched countless batches of students. She not only took care of their logistics, she was also their support system away from home. She was meticulous and dedicated herself quietly without ever caring about rewards and recognation, but her warmth lingered in every student's heart and they all called her "Mother Lin". In my view, Ms. Lin is a role model of leading quietly.

So, be trustworthy and credible. Be sincere. Use your minds and actions to influence others heroically or quietly. Make this world a better place. I know you can do it.

My last L is Loving. You are the last i class. You represent the end of an era and the beginning of a new journey for our Global MBA program. The pronunciation of letter i means love in Chinese. When I add an MBA student’s phone number into my cell phone, I also make notes of his or her program and class. Take Matt as an example, his phone number is under Matt Ooi MBA爱13.

So, my final wish for every one of you is that your heart should always be filled with love – love for your family, love for your colleagues, and love for your career. Because it is only when we have love that we are able to shoulder responsibility. Likewise, it is only when we have love that we can find the motivation to overcome any trials and tribulations. Of course, most importantly, I also wish that you learned to love yourself. Please always keep your work and life well balanced so that you are able to fulfill your responsibility and make contributions to a better world in the many years to come.

You are about to start a new journey in your life. It won’t be easy. But, with the 4 Ls, namely learning (Learning is a life long journey), living (Spend every day of your life responsibly so as to make your life worthwhile), leading (take lead and make changes) and finally, loving (Love is responsibility as well as motivation), you will be able to overcome the difficulties and reach your goals. I wish you every success and will be waiting here for your good news.

Thank you and I love you.

routine of teaching and research, which include the international accreditations, launching and expansion of our international student exchange programs, the development of our faculty code of conduct and the school values, to just name a few. I also played important roles in developing and offering MBA Managerial Communication as well as Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility courses. I was assigned in 1999 by the National MBA Education Supervisory Committee as the leading person responsible to promote and develop faculty for the course of Managerial Communication nationwide and have been doing this for over 16 years, organized annual seminars consecutively for 15 times with 30 participants for the first time to an over 140-people event in recent years.

I love my career. I love my students. I work hard with honesty and integrity and I teach my students honesty and integrity. That’s just who I am. And I’m not just about my work; I’m also blessed with a happy family with two grown up children. I also love and be loved by my extended family members. I can proudly say that this is my life. I have no regret for such a life because I believe I have made my life valuable.

Your life will be composed by your every word and action, by the choices and decisions you make every day. It is uniquely yours. “谨言慎行，不忘初心” means you must always be mindful of your actions, and never forget where you came from. I hope that when you approach your 60th birthday like me, you will also be able to say that you have made your impact to the world and that your life is of value.

My next L is Leading.Living is about how you would like to spend the rest of your life, in your own domain. But leading is about how can you influence the others around you, in a positive manner. I truly believe that every one of you here aspire to be, and will be a leader who can make a change. Change is not confined by its size; similarly leading is not limited to only on a large scale heroic basis. If you haven’t read the book “Leading Quietly” by Joseph Badaracco, I strongly recommend you to do so. The opportunity for heroic leadership is rare

Tsinghua-MIT IMBA Class of 2015 graduation group photo

Graduation Ceremony



MBA NEWSMBA NEWS

MIT Sloan Module: Innovation and the Effective Manager

Yiting Daniela Cai, GMBA Class of 2016

My first time in the USA could not have started any better: amazing city, amazing people and amazing university.

“The mission of the MIT Sloan School of Management is to develop principled, innovative leaders who improve the world and to generate ideas that advance management practice”; this sentence is the first thing that gave me inspiration and big motivation for my future plans. Although it is not the only inspiring thing: during GMBA class of 2016’s journey at MIT Sloan, my classmates and I had the great opportunity to meet extraordinary people with incredible experiences: Executive Director David Capodilupo, who gave us the welcome speech, Professor John Akula, who dedicated us his t ime and taught

us his knowledge during the last class “Entrepreneurship and Innovation: legal tools and frameworks”, Director Stuart Krusell, who took us to visit MIT Campus and surrounding area, Professors Michael Cusumano, Fiona Murray and Tom Kochan, who shared with us their knowledge in system thinking, conflict management, building innovation driven enterprises, strategy rules to stay power and how to access and contribute to the ecosystem, and Professor Kane, who connected us to the companies: Carbonite, America’s Growth Capital and Cambridge Innovation Center.

The journey at MIT Sloan was a truly unique; the lectures were engaging and motivating and the company visits were inspiring. I personally found Professor Murray’s lecture

truly interesting. She gave us a new point of view about how to build a company driven by innovation, how important is an ecosystem for economic growth and prosperity, and how we can contribute to our innovation ecosystem. Though all the companies were fascinating, but in my opinion the visit at Carbonite was the most stimulating because David Friend and his co-founder Jeff Flowers, who introduced himself through his prototype Eva 500 robot, are able to start their fourth joint venture, simply by trying to fix an ordinary problem yet is encountered by many: loss of precious pictures or important personal and business data.

The MIT Sloan journey was my first American experience: unforgettable and inspiring; because MIT Sloan is one of the most prestigious business schools in the States and the situated in the exciting city of Cambridge, makes you believe in your capabilities and pushes you to take action.

Even though we were busy with the activities organized by MIT Sloan, my classmates and I were able to live the Boston lifestyle too. We were lucky that we did not feel sick after stuffing ourselves with lobsters and oysters for a whole week. If you were ever in Boston, I would recommend Legal Sea Foods, and Union Oyster House, which has the best oysters I have ever had in my life! We also

managed to go see the Blue Man Group, which was very engaging, and a baseball game at Fenway Park, even though the Red Sox lost that night, we were happy to watch them play.

My l a s t d ay i n B o s t on w a s Ju l y 4 t h , Independence Day. According to American tradition, it is a must to have a gathering or barbecue with family and friends and ending the day with fireworks by Charles River. A few classmates and I went to visit our American classmate and celebrated together

over a barbecue in the park. Obviously, the fireworks by the river could not be missed, so we decided to end our night with the famed fireworks. The city was crowded with everyone heading towards the same direction, excited for the fanfare. And it certainly did not disappoint!

MIT Sloan summer module is not only a beautiful experience in Cambridge and Boston, but it is also a proof of the successful collaboration between Tsinghua SEM and MIT Sloan. One thing was clear, both Schools want to create a long-lasting partnership. It was truly a great honour, both for myself and for my classmates, to come to MIT Sloan as Tsinghua SEM representatives and myself. I am grateful we were given this opportunity to widen our horizon. I hope the future GMBA classmates will enjoy this experience as much as we did.

Tsinghua-MIT Global MBA students in the MIT Sloan Module

Conflict management practical exercise by Tom Kochan, George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management, MIT Sloan

Fiona Murray, William Porter Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan

Group photo of GMBA students at MIT



MIT Lecture: Advanced NegotiationPhilip Mertens, GMBA Class of 2016

MBA NEWSMBA NEWS

The lecture on Advanced Negotiation is a two module course that integrates theoretical frameworks, best practices and applied exercises. After Prof. Ofer Sharone had come to China to teach the first class last autumn we were closing the module now with the second class.

After a br ief review of basic concepts such as Best Alternative to Negotiated Agreement, Reservation Point, Zone Of Potential Agreement and so forth we built cross-cultural pairs and started practical exercises based on business cases describing simplified but authentic negotiation scenarios. Professor Scott Stern, Professor Gao Xudong and Professor Zhang Wei with MBA students at Tsinghua X-LAB

cases that were designed in a way that gave us the chance to work together to “enlarge the pie” instead of negotiating in a competitive manner. Concretely this meant that certain assets had a significantly larger value for one party than for the other, and the party should find solutions by allocating those item according to their value instead. For instance, their price crucial for a total value maximizing solution. In other situations, certain actions were beneficial for both parties which made it useful to allocate more resources. Using the case of an actress and the theatre manager for role in a musical, higher advertisement spending for instance are beneficial for an artist’s career AND the profitability of the event organizer. Instead of spending more or less money on the salary of the artist which is only beneficial for one of the two parties the marketing is mutually beneficial and allows to create more value for every party (including even the advertisement agency). Finding these opportunities however is sometimes very challenging because it requires both parties to listen actively, put themselves into their counterpart’s shoes and open up the scope of the negotiation.

While the class came at a time of intense preparation for final exams and presentations for t he s e c ond s e me ste r of ou r M BA studies it still was a rich and fun learning experience thanks to the engaging teaching of Prof. Ofer Sharone and the concrete applicability of the class´s content to real business challenges.

Ofer Sharone, Mitsubishi Career Development Professor, Assistant Professor of Work and Employment Research

Scott Stern, David Sarnoff Professor of Management of Technology, MIT Sloan

MIT Module: Entrepreneurial StrategyAmy Ly, GMBA Class of 2016

was that the greatest challenge of innovation-based entrepreneurship is not the idea itself, but the idea’s commercialization and execution. Strategy, after all, is fundamentally about making choices among different paths. For the rest of the week, through a series of lectures, case studies, and interactive exercises, Professor Stern introduced us to

“Do entrepreneurs need a strategy?” This was the first questioned posed to us by MIT Professor Scott Stern on the first day of Entrepreneurial Strategy, a unique GMBA elective that took place over the course of five months. The course comprised of two intensive weeklong sessions taught by visiting MIT professors, with a company visit in between to help put theory into practice.

Before we could answer, Professor Stern launched directly into a story about Webvan and Peapod, two seemingly similar online grocery delivery companies from the dot-com era, but with two fundamentally different strategies—and ultimately, two different fates. Webvan chose to compete head on with traditional grocery stores, and went bankrupt shortly after its IPO. Peapod, on the other hand, chose to complement the services of large supermarket chains, and is still operating today as a niche but profitable business.

The key takeaway from this story—and the overarching theme for the entire course—

an entrepreneurial strategy framework that outlined four distinct strategies companies can choose, and the different choices regarding competition, customers, technology, and identity that help shape each.

With this framework in mind, our classes split into groups of 10 for the second part of the course; each group was assigned a local company to visit and interview. Our task was simple: to understand strategic decisions made by these companies in their past, and to provide recommendations for their future growth. Professor GAO Xudong from Tsinghua University led this module, and accompanied many groups on company visits in a variety of industries including agriculture, education, and financial services. For the third and final part of the course, we welcomed Professor Pierre Azoulay from MIT for another weeklong intensive session to wrap up the course. Professor Azoulay provided feedback on our company recommendations, and also went deeper into each entrepreneurial

Supplementary information were added to make the cases more challenging, for example, by requiring one of the participants to act aggressive from the beginning and only give in once the other side “apologize”. One of our classmates played his role so well that his negotiation partner ended up getting angry as well, and escalating the negotiation so much that a deal became impossible – a very valuable learning experience not only for the two students but the whole class, as we witness their negotiation exchange.

The key learning objective from these exercises, however, was to train us to think creatively on

s t r at e g y w i t h m ore c a s e s t u d i e s a n d discussions.

As a former startup employee currently interning at a seed-stage VC, I found this course especially helpful for thinking more critically about why some companies succeed

while the vast majority fail. Too often we praise companies for their innovative ideas, but forget to consider that the road to success was never straightforward, and never guaranteed. Back to the grocery delivery example: Peapod could’ve easily chosen to compete directly with supermarket chains, a different and still

reasonable approach, but instead made the deliberate choice to partner and cooperate.

Many thanks to Professor Stern, Professor Azoulay, Professor GAO, and Derek Jiang from the MBA office for making this course a memorable and rewarding experience.



China in the World Economy – Virtual ClassroomPhilip Mertens, GMBA Class of 2016

Professor David Daokui Li is teaching the course “China in the World Economy” to help students better understand the historical context of China´s economic and political development. The course puts great emphasis

on placing China´s history, present and future, in a global context. In order to enhance the learning experience and pair professor Li´s academic perspective with the practical experience, multiple guest speakers joined the class to share their thoughts on Chinese history, economic development and foreign policy. What was even more exciting is that this year’s class was the pilot of Tsinghua SEM´s vision to develop an insightful Massive Open Online Course – MOOC – to allow unlimited and open access to some of the school’s lectures via the web for audience around the world.

The declared goal is to give more people from different countries and cultures access to the Chinese perspective on major geo strategic questions and to strengthen the debate among experts, especially the global public, on economic, political and social issues.

Mo s t c l a s s e s s t a r t e d w i t h a d e t a i l e d introduction of their major topic in the first half of the class and an open discussion in the second half. Especially in the first classes, the fact that everything was being filmed proved to be quite challenging for both the experts on the stage and the students. The prospect

Learning from Asian TigersMaria Esther Chia, GMBA Class of 2016

Tsinghua MBA students at “Decoding the Asian Tigers” trip.

Tsinghua MBA students visiting IE Singapore during the “Decoding the Asian Tigers” study trip

MBA NEWSMBA NEWS

LI DaokuiMansfield Freeman Chair Professor, Department of Finance Director, Center for China in the World EconomyFormer Member of the People’s Bank of China Monetary Policy CommitteeGlobal MBA Course Taught: The Chinese Economy in the WorldPhD, Harvard University

of being filmed and potentially seen by interested audience around the world is a little intimidating – no matter whether one knows the subject inside-out or asks a question out of genuine curiosity. Not only are we more careful about whether the content of what we want to say is actually accurate and smart, but we also want to ensure we communicate our ideas and or questions eloquently. Cold calls are especially tough in this context, but were managed vigorously by the students.

Professor Li and his team took great care to invite experts with long track records in their respective fields, who provided distinctive opinions that offered not only perspectives different from the mainstream but also served as strong, sometimes provocative, basis for the discussions that followed.

China in the World Economy module has been a great experience and an opportunity to learn from experts and peers alike. While being a challenge for everybody, we are proud to have been a part of this meaningful pilot project. We are looking forward to more opportunities like this and hope that we can contribute our fair share to a better understanding of China in a global context by a global community!

After a trip to parts of South East Asia, I was captivated by Singapore’s magical view from the Marina Bay Sands, its huge quantity of malls, the grand casino, and the city-state’s modernity and organization. I also fell in love with Malaysia, the Petronas Towers captured my attention, not only does this country has a mix of ethnicity, culture, food and people, it also possesses beautiful beaches and landscape However, it was each country’s economic success that impressed me the most. Especially after learning – thanks to the university lectures we attended - how a “zero natural resource” Singapore became one of the world's major commercial hubs (evolving from a GDP per capita of US$500, in 1965, when the country became an independent state, to the highest GDP in the world with US$56,532, in 2010). As well as after learning how Malaysia achieved to maintain an annual average GDP growth of 6.5% for almost 50 years, while preserving peace in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multilingual society.

Thanks to a mix of efficiency, discipline, i n n ov at i on , an d t h e c ont i nu at i on of

governmental policies under only one political party (the People’s Action Party, over the past 50 years), Singapore developed a globalized and diversified economy. Heavily dependent on trades, with one of the busiest ports and one of the largest financial centers in the world, the country is currently positioned as the 14th largest exporter and the 15th largest importer in the world. It also holds the world’s highest

trade-to-GDP ratio and AAA credit ratings from all three major credit rating agencies in the world.

Moreover, Singapore is known to possess one of the freest, most innovative, most competitive, and most business-friendly economies. Despite being considered as a semi-authoritarian regime, with one of the

highest income inequalities among developed countries and one of the worst world rankings for press freedom, suppressed civil liberties, political and human rights, the country maintained a corruption-free government image. In fact, the country is one of the least corrupt countries in Asia and one of the cleanest in the world!

Malaysia, with a mixture of different ethnic groups, languages, religions, cultures, has also managed to grow steadily for the past fifty years. The country took advantage of its abundant natural resources; instead of depending on export of raw materials and goods, it created different industries and diversified its economy. With promising

industries or “key economic areas” such as palm oil, electronics, agriculture, science, tourism, commerce, financial and business services, health, oil and gas, Malaysia targets an annual GDP per capita and GNI per capita grow of 6.5% and 6%, respectively, by 2020. Currently, Malaysia is considered as the third industrialized market economy in South East Asia.

In addition, in Islamic Malaysia, women and men are treated equally: a total of 43.8% of Malaysian women are in labor force, as well as accounting for 13.2% of Malaysian parliament members. Particularly, in the Islamic banking industry, Malaysia has already become the world's largest Islamic

banking and financial centers and women account for the majority of employees. Furthermore, in the Malaysia Palm Oil Board, the premier government agency entrusted to ser ve Malaysia’s booming oil palm industry, the majority of the top executive positions are taken by women.

When one understands all the economic and government measures, one can see that there is more than beauty behind all the modern cities, gorgeous buildings, gorgeous beaches, and exotic temples. All these governmental decisions carry huge weights for any country in the process of development and are also the main reason for Singaporeans and Malaysians to be proud of.



MBA NEWSMBA NEWS

New MBA Elective: Management of Family Business Shana Penna, GMBA Class of 2016

During the spring semester of 2015 the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University introduced a new class that focuses on a unique, but large, segment of the business community, family operated businesses. With the help of two professors from INSEAD, Bo Ji and Rose Lau, and Tsinghua’s own, Zhu Hengyuan, the family business class was supported by many students who are in the precarious position of being a part of their own families' businesses. This semester the class was structured into four sessions, business succession planning, challenges of operating a family owned business, crit ical issue management, and a final presentation in which the students present their work regarding an issue with their own businesses. Some students have even invited the family members in their company to join in the final presentation.

Globally family businesses account for 60-80 percent of all businesses, and they account for 70-90 percent of the GDP. In the Fortune 500, 40 percent listed are family operated/owned businesses. Some of the top companies in the world are managed by families, such as the Walton family and Walmart and generations of the Hermes family owning the esteemed brand in their name. This exemplifies how important

this issue is to students of the MBA program, because even if they are not inheriting a piece of a family business now, the aspirations to build one of their own is very likely.

One of the critical concerns for all members of a family business is how the company will generationally succeed in the future. The course discusses the common problems with succession planning, which sometimes involves a lack of planning or interest, and it gives the tools for the students to mitigate the risks in their own businesses. Another issue is aligning the goals of the generations, because the vision of the founder may not align with that of the inheriting children. There is a way for the goals to align if the families work together, however if the goals never align the class teaches the students how to pursue their own interests without damaging relationships.

Professor Bo Ji stated that “keeping the vigor of the family business may be the most important task.” The problems are not exclusive to family conflict, there may also be problems with outside investors who lose trust when there is an unplanned or difficult succession. When this happens there may be up to a 60 percent drop in value for the company. Sometimes the

succession is successful allowing confidence and market value to eventually rebuild, though other times the company is destroyed in just a short time, whether by a lack of confidence of investors or by an incapable successor. Another important lesson is the regional differences in a family business structure, because as an investor you may bet that a company will be willed to the capable sister who is already working with the company, but instead because of filial piety it is left to the incompetent son. The dynamics of cultural influences have a huge effect on the way a family business is managed.

The structure and management of a family business is especially important to the family involved, however it is also important to stockholders and consumers. As business school student’s, the development of an understanding of all business structures is fundamentally crucial, therefore family businesses are especially important, because they are a huge part of markets all over the world. As China continues to develop family business management and structure is especially imperative, and it is the students of this class that will successfully navigate this important business terrain.

Half way through our second semester, we started a new course called Managerial Communication. The objective of this course is to help MBA students understand how to utilize different communication strategies to apply to different audience in different aspects of business as managers. This course was taught by Professor Hao Jie. Professor Hao blended both theoretical and practical methods throughout the entire four-week course, with the first 3 weeks as interactive-style lectures, leading up to the final week as a student hosted Managerial Communication event.

The final event was planned and managed by two teams, in which I acted as the leader of the teams.. The entire event was divided into two sub-events. In the first event, the four designated teams had to communicate strategies for foreign companies to enter into China market. In the second event, another set of four designated teams had to communicate and present ideas for WeChat to enter into foreign markets. The highlight of the events was the presence of experts in the field of communication strategies acting as judges, who provided feedbacks to all the presenting teams. For the first event, a marketing consultant, Mr. Esmond Quek, along with three CCTV

Managerial Communication Wafic Marwan Mkhallalati, GMBA Class of 2016

Management of Family Business Managerial Communication class photo

B o t h e v e nt s w e r e v e r y b e n e f i c i a l a s students received direct feedback regarding their strategies as well as presentation and communicat ion sty les . However, what made the event even more valuable was the private session Tencent’s VP gave us at the end of al l the presentations. He gave insights about the past and current challenges Tencent has faced and is still facing, regarding competition, dealing with the government, and how they have tried to overcome all the challenges. Our classmates had a great discussion with him at the end of the session.

The lecture series, coupled with the final student planned event, is a sample of the great courses to come for the 2016 GMBA class!

reporters were our judges. For the second event, the Senior Vice president of Tencent, Mr. Leon, came with his company’s executives to provide comments and critique.

Wafic Marwan Mkhallalati, Tsinghua GMBA Class of 2016



MBA NEWSMBA NEWS

Tsinghua SEM Southeast Asia Alumni Association and Singapore Chapter Established

Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management

On November 16, 2014, Tsinghua SEM Southeast Asia Alumni Association and Singapore Chapter, Singapore MBA Alumni Chapter, and Singapore EMBA Alumni Chapter held the inaugural ceremony at the auditorium of Singapore Management University. School officials who attended the event included Professor QIAN Yingyi, Dean of Tsinghua SEM, Professor LI Jiaqiang, Secretary-General of Tsinghua University Education Foundation, and TAN Zhiyong, President of Tsinghua Alumni Association (Singapore). The guests included Teo Ser Luck, Minister of State, Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore, ZHENG Chao, Minister-Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Singapore, YU Yunfeng, Counselor of Education of the Chinese Embassy in Singapore, etc. More than 200 Tsinghua SEM alumni in Southeast Asia attended the event from various programs including undergraduate, master’s, doctoral, MBA, EMBA, training, and so on. The meeting was presided over by Professor LI Jinliang, Associate Dean of Tsinghua SEM, and LIANG Meng, Deputy Secretary-General of Tsinghua SEM Southeast Asia Alumni Association and the Singapore Chapter.

Mr. Teo Ser Luck, Minister of State, Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore, made the opening speech by introducing the Singapore-China relationship and stating the close relationship between Singapore and China in all aspects of Singapore’s economic development. He then congratulated on the inauguration of Tsinghua SEM Southeast Asia Alumni Association and Singapore Chapter and said he was looking forward to

the acceleration of the economic development in both Singapore and China by this alumni association through attracting more talented professionals and driving the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

After that, Professor QIAN Yingyi, Dean of Tsinghua SEM, introduced situation of the School by first appreciating participation of the alumni from various geographic locations and programs. According to him, the Southeast Asia Alumni Association and Singapore Chapter were the first overseas alumni association established by Tsinghua SEM, with special meaning. Dean QIAN then elaborated on recent development of Tsinghua SEM to the alumni and guests there, covering ten major aspects including the 30th-year anniversary of Tsinghua SEM, the Advisory Board, undergraduate education, post-graduate education, innovation in education, instructors and research, the new school building, the chair professor foundation, students’ activities, and alumni network. The alumni and guests present there watched a video titled “Review of the 30th-year Anniversary Activities”, while the Dean introduced the grand occasion of the 15th Advisory Board Meeting convened in October 2014, where those attending celebrities included

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc., Jack Ma, Executive Chairman of Alibaba, and Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Facebook. They had also subsequently learned about the undergraduate education reform awarded National First Prize, the fruitful and effective progress of the Tsinghua x-lab – a platform of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship – in one year and a half, the fundraising and planning of the new school building, and the alumni associations the school had established by teaching program and geographic region. Dean QIAN concluded his speech by restating his remarks used in the reunion of Tsinghua SEM instructors and alumni at the 30th-year anniversary: “The next couple of years will mark the economic restructuring in China and changing of the world. As long as the School seizes the opportunities, it will continue to make significant progress. We look forward to the even better next decade and next 30 years!” All the participants at the event had been excited and moved by the remarkable results Tsinghua SEM achieved in recent years.

Then, LI Jinliang, Associate Dean of Tsinghua SEM, announced commencement of the event. The first stage was the opening ceremony and official launch of the Southeast Asia Alumni Association and Singapore Chapter, in which LI announced the list of the alumni association members and Dean QIAN issued certificates to the first session of the President, Vice President, Secretary-General, Deputy Secretary-General, Executive Directors, and Honorary Members.

GUO Ningning, inaugural President of Tsinghua SEM Southeast Asia Alumni Association and Singapore Chapter, addressed the event after issuance of the certificates. Firstly, she expressed warm welcome and gratitude to the attending guests and alumni. According to GUO, the thirty years of Tsinghua SEM is also a miniature of the thirty years of reform and opening up of China, through which the school has cultivated numerous talented people through reform, innovation and constant growth and advance. Meanwhile, those alumni based in Singapore and Southeast Asia at large are bringing their talent and expertise into full play in almost all professions, contributing significantly to the prosperity of Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries. Ms. GUO appreciated the concerted efforts from those who built this first-ever overseas alumni association for Tsinghua SEM. According to her, this association will connect Tsinghua SEM alumni in Southeast Asia with Tsinghua University and the school as a bridge, thus strengthening friendship and powers, facilitating the alumni, and contributing to the school. The following speech was given by TAN Zhiyong, President of Tsinghua Alumni Association (Singapore). Mr. TAN congratulated on establishment of the Southeast Asia Alumni Association and Singapore Chapter. He introduced overview of Tsinghua Alumni Association (Singapore) and the experience learned about. According to Mr. TAN, this alumni association of Tsinghua SEM

was unprecedented and one of the most comprehensive alumni associations from Tsinghua University. Establishing such an association and its Singapore Chapter will definitely step up the engagement of Tsinghua University and Tsinghua SEM. After the inaugural ceremony for the Southeast Asia Alumni Association and the Singapore Chapter, there came the opening ceremony for the Singapore MBA Alumni Chapter and the Singapore EMBA Alumni Chapter under Tsinghua SEM. Dean QIAN Yingyi also issued certificates to the Presidents, Vice Presidents, Secretar y-Generals , Deputy Secretar y-Generals and other relevant members of the two organizations.

Following the inaugural ceremony for the Singapore MBA Alumni Chapter was a speech given by QIN Minghan, first President of the Chapter. Mr. QIN appreciated the opportunity the Singapore Government extended to him for the study at Tsinghua SEM, where he was fortunate enough to become attached to Tsinghua SEM and those MBA alumni. He also expressed gratitude to the vigorous support he ever received from the school and those alumni from Singapore, without which this alumni chapter would never have been

The inaugural ceremony group photo

Address by Teo Ser Luck, Minister of State, Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore

Address by James Tan, Tsinghua-MIT IMBA Class of 2010, Managing Partner, QUESTVC

Address by GUO Ningning, President of Tsinghua SEM Southeast Asia Alumni Association and Singapore

Chapter, President, Bank of China (Singapore)

Dean QIAN Yingyi issues the letter of appointment to Honorary President of Tsinghua SEM Southeast Asia Alumni

Association, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, former President of Indonesia and Honorary Doctor of Tsinghua University (accepted by Sudrajat, former Indonesian Ambassador to

China, on his behalf)

Address by Andrew Chin, Vice President and Secretary General of Tsinghua SEM

Alumni Association Southeast Asia Chapter and President of Tsinghua MBA Alumni

Association Singapore Chapter, Head of China Desk, Singapore Management University



MBA NEWSMBA NEWS

established so successfully and smoothly. Mr. QIN sincerely hoped that the Singapore MBA Alumni Chapter was going to work closely with all other alumni associations under Tsinghua SEM, assisting the Singapore-based alumni to a greater extent and contributing largely to Tsinghua SEM.

Upon the inaugural ceremony for Tsinghua SEM Singapore EMBA Alumni Chapter, WEI Feng, first President of the Chapter,

which focuses on venture philanthropy and impact investing; Lumni, which provides loans for students who will be able to repay their loans only if they are successful in their lives; LeapFrog Investments, which developed the world’s first micro-insurance fund providing medical insurance to HIV people. As Wayne Silby explained, similar to any other investment funds, not all investments are successful, but on average the fund has brought a very good return for its investors. The topic of impact investing is growing in China, and it was great to see the room full of students and from the general public highly engaged. One of Silby’s key messages was the need to build a new paradigm: one in which businesses operate to create profit and create a positive social impact at the same time. Businesses can be used to make the lives of everybody better, including the bottom of the society pyramid. Wayne Silby has been doing this for more than 40 years, now it is up to all of us to make the world an even better place! The Net Impact club at Tsinghua is a club for like-minded people who want to make a difference. Net Impact is a community of 60,000 students and professionals creating positive social and environmental change in

the workplace and the world. Our mission is to develop and promote top leaders who aim to use business to drive social and environmental change by developing and implementing best practices in corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainable development, impact investment, and non-profit organizations. Come join us and make a difference!

Net Impact Lecture Series – “Impact Investing: The Next Generation”

Paulo Lopes, GMBA Class of 2016

made his opening address. According to Mr. WEI, establishing the Southeast Asia Alumni Association and the Singapore EMBA Alumni Chapter symbolized a harbor for the EMBA students and alumni in this region that they could depend upon, bringing about numerous opportunities for them to learn from each other. Aimed to serving the general alumni group, this alumni chapter is supposed to be a home for the alumni communications and a bridge that bonds alumni to the school.

The last activity was the alumni forum. Those celebrities who made a presentation on behalf of the alumni included: CHENG Qiang (bachelor in economics, 1989; master in economics, 1994), Vice President of Tsinghua SEM Southeast Asia Alumni Association; CHEN Zhong (MBA, 2008), Execut ive Director of Tsinghua SEM Southeast Asia Alumni Association and Singapore Chapter; Yu-Fo o Yee Sho on ( t rain ing program graduate), Honorary Adviser and former Minister in the Singapore Government; and former Indonesian Ambassador to China (training program graduate). The forum was concluded by a keynote speech themed “Internet Startup and Globalization” given by ZHANG Xiangdong (EMBA, 2003), an EMBA alumnus in Singapore.

A group photo was taken to mark this successful occasion at the venue for all the participants upon conclusion of the inaugural ceremony for Tsinghua SEM Southeast Asia Alumni Association and Singapore Chapter.

Opening Ceremony of Tsinghua SEM Singapore MBA Alumni Chapter

Wayne Silby, founder of the Social Venture Network, chairman of SynTao

Professor QIAN Xiaojun with the winners of the Inaugural Tsinghua Tsinghua SEM MBA

Entrepreneurship Competition

The finals of the inaugural Tsinghua MBA Entrepreneurship Competition were held at the Tsinghua SEM on August 23, 2015. The competition was jointly organized by the Tsinghua SEM MBA programs and the Tsinghua x-lab. Through practical learning, the competition aimed to develop the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in MBA students, serving as a platform and resource support for them. The competition’s joint chairpersons were assumed by Tsinghua

Inaugural Tsinghua SEM MBA Entrepreneurship Competition Held

Wan Jun, MBA Office

Tsinghua SEM Associate Dean, Professor Xiaojun Qian, pointed out that since the programs establishment in 1991, Tsinghua MBA has been continuously developing itself through exploration and innovation, which have become a tradition. In 2015, the Entrepreneurship Competition systematically allocated entrepreneurship courses and activities, fully exemplifying the features of innovation and entrepreneurship in the Tsinghua MBA education. The competition is also a manifestation of Tsinghua MBA’s mission and social responsibility. By connecting MBA students with other science and engineering students, MBA and engineering thought frameworks were integrated, while managerial experiences were blended with product design development. Problem solving methods were expanded with limited resources, the startup process was accelerated and entrepreneurship was cultivated for success. As a result, the competition was a platform for continuous, healthy, and rapid growth for the Chinese economy.

This year, the student association Net Impact@Tsinghua partnered with SynTao, a Chinese social and environmental consultancy, to bring guest speakers to Tsinghua University to

of the Social Venture Network, the chairman of SynTao in China, and also one of the main supporters of the creation of Net Impact in San Francisco. Indeed, he was very happy to see Net Impact at Tsinghua University.

Social Responsible Investment (SRI) has evolved throughout the years, and now comprises of four key areas: sustainable research, social venture capital, shareholder advocacy, and community investing. Through SRI, it is possible for businesses or investors to use market-based mechanisms to contribute to a better society. Silby illustrated dozens of examples, including: the Calvert Women’s Principles, the first global code of corporate conduct focused exclusively on empowering, advancing, and investing in women worldwide; the China Social Entrepreneur Foundation,

Wayne Silby in Tsinghua MBA Net Impact Lecture

SEM Senior Associate Dean Professor Jian Gao and Professor Jinliang Li, while the academic chairperson was the Tsinghua SEM x-lab Academic Director Professor We i Z h a n g . T h e c o m p e t i t i o n l a s t e d over 4 months , which included inter-departmental meetings, entrepreneurship training sessions, roadshows and various complementary activities.

10 finalist teams, which were selected out of 60 teams, gave their presentation and answered queries from the judges during the last round of the competition. In the end, team “Woo Kong” was presented with the gold medal, while “Wireless Charging” and “Fat Tiger Second Hand Luxury Goods Trading Platform” obtained si lver medals. The teams that received the bronze medals were; “Baby Sitter O2O Service Platform”, “O2O Indoor Sport Shoes“, “Heart Warming Medical Care”, “Travel Companion”, “Box of Jewels”, “Doraemon HD” and “Simple Goods Second Hand Trading Platform”.

discuss topics on creating a positive impact in society.

On April 23, Mr. Wayne Silby kindly accepted our invitation to come and share his thoughts about impact investment. Impact investments are investments in companies, organizations and funds that have the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return. Silby is widely regarded as a pioneer of social investing. He co-founded a mutual fund firm, the Calvert Group (now called Calvert Investments) in 1976. In 1982, Silby started the Calvert Social Investment Fund, one of the earliest mutual funds dedicated to socially responsible investments, which has since grown to a $15 billion investment management group. In addition, Siby is one of the founders



Outreach trip to Laos: A Journey That Created a Lifetime Connection

Tina Ta-Ting Ja, GMBA Class of 2016

STUDENT LIFE STUDENT LIFE

Last year, I joined Tsinghua University’s Leadership Club. Through this club, I was able to part icipate in many wonderful activities during the year. This outreach trip to Laos was one of them, and has left a lasting mark in my life.

Russ Neu1 , a Leadership Club member and a recent Tsinghua IMBA graduate, spearheaded this trip. Russ volunteered in Laos for 1.5 years back in 2008, and has always wanted to go back to Laos to give back to the local community. So he reached out to his friend, Ms. Meiling Yap2 , whom he met when he lived in Laos. Ms. Yap* has been living in Laos for many years and is currently a business owner and active local philanthropist.

With the help of Ms. Yap, Russ connected with a local community school in Vientiane, and

offered to help paint the entire school during our four-day stay in Laos. Thus began the journey to Laos for the sixteen of us.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Laos, like I was, Laos is a place of rich history, stretching back 10,000 years. It is a landlocked, often forgotten country. It is also one of the poorest countries in South East Asia. Yet, for a country that is still recovering from war and ravage, Laos is a surprisingly relaxing and serene place. Possibly because Buddhism permeates every facet of life here, it is so easy to feel at peace and to break away from the busy city life. Then again, it might also be because people in Laos do not have much to begin with.

However, this still doesn't erase the fact that the country needs more help. In Laos, funding is

extremely limited and sparse, and often it does not reach the people in need. What this means is that if local residents begin to build a house or a school, the project will reach a halt if and when the funding runs out, and will begin again only when the next round of funding arrives—if it arrives at all. Unfortunately, this happens quite frequently; the school we were helping out with, Ban Sivilay School, was one such case. From what we learned, this school took shape and improved in small increments, one year at a time. It started with pillars and roofs, then slowly walls were built, blackboards were installed, and at last chairs and desks arrived. The facilities were simple but enough for children to come to school, learn, and feel safe.

Ban Sivilay School teaches children from as young as 5 years old to 18. When we reached the school on our first day, we received a heartwarming welcome by the teachers and the children. Even though we did not know a

word of Lao, nor the kids a single word of English or Chinese, we were able to connect and form a bond very quickly through just a few simple games. The kids had the sweetest, most genuine, and unforgettable smiles, and were always excited to see us when we were there.

There were about eight classrooms at this school, but only three of the rooms were in good condition. Even though the rest of the rooms were not in good shape, all of the rooms had blackboards, chairs and desks—just enough for the children to share and use. Original ly, our plan was to paint only the exteriors of the five classrooms and a paint mural on the front wall of the building. But after we saw the classroom conditions, we decided we would paint the interiors as well.

We planned our days so that we could paint in the morning until lunch, then after lunch we would play with the kids. On one of the days, we divided the kids up into smaller groups of 10, and shared Chinese culture with them through activities such as singing Chinese songs, making dumplings with play-doh, and dancing. Other days, when we had extra time, we would play soccer and tag. Every morning the kids waited at the school to greet us and help us paint.

The kids were truly our motivation to paint and work hard. We completed the mural just in time on our last day in Laos. It was a lot of hard labor but we were all so happy we completed this for the kids so they can have better classrooms to learn in. It was really tough to say goodbye to them in the end, to part from these wonderful kids. But we were glad we were able to help in any way possible, even if it’s only painting their school.

This journey honestly cannot be expressed properly with just an article because words cannot possibly do its justice. Thank you Russ and to Ms. Yap for guiding us, for sharing this experience with us, and for reminding us to live with just a little more humility.

I am sure I can say on behalf of the Leadership Club that this trip has humbled every one of

1.Russ is a Leadership Club member, a recent Tsinghua IMBA graduate, and a Singapore International Foundation volunteer. In 2008, he volunteered to teach English to the government officials at the Laos Institute of Foreign Affairs and ended up teaching for a year and a half. He has documented his adventure in a book he wrote, A Whole Neu World. Russ is a strong supporter of local village schools and believer of Laos-Singapore relations.

2. Ms. Meiling Yap, formerly a GM of Honda Motors in Thailand and Laos, and currently a café (Simply Me) and a rice farm owner in Laos, who is also a strong supporter for women rescued from human trafficking as well as local community.

us. We felt truly lucky to have grown up the way we did, to be blessed with so much in our lives. It is so easy to take things we have for granted that we forget to appreciate the things we do have, which is why it is so much more

important for everyone to go out there and do something good for those in need, no matter how big or small the gestures are.

Laos, I will see you again.

Outreach Trip to Laos

Outreach Trip to Laos



Class Committee: GMBA Weekly Events

Class of 2016 End of Year Party

Jason Lau and Art Zhong, GMBA Class of 2016

Wafic Marwan Mkhallalati, GMBA Class of 2016

STUDENT LIFE

Thumbing through the student profile book, you might come away with the impression that you are looking through a list of potential presidential candidates, or wonder perhaps that you picked up the wrong book. Then you realize that in fact you are reading through the impressive professional backgrounds of the people you see in class every day—your classmates!

After finishing strong in the first semester for the first ever Global MBA class (Class of 2016), the Class Committee was eager to keep up the strong momentum. To kick off the relatively short spring semester, we introduced two initiatives that would showcase the MBA’s most valuable resources, each other.

The first initiative, Weekly Industry Sharing Sessions (WISS), gathered together the entire class every Wednesday to share the rich professional experiences of our classmates. Many GMBAers have goals of switching into new careers post-MBA, and the WISS gave everyone the opportunity to learn from classmates who had been there, done that in their respective fields. Throughout the spring semester, we covered a wide range of topics from mobile gaming to foreign exchange trading through short presentations and open Q&A.

The second initiative, Weekly Blind Dates, was created to help everyone to get to know each other better, and also to break through language and cultural barriers. Even though as a class we spent a lot of time together in lectures and working on projects, there were still people we rarely interacted with, which was a shame.

Each week, the Class Committee sent out a randomly-generated list of classmate pairings, giving each pair an "excuse" to make plans and

meet. Whether at the school cafeteria, fine dining restaurants, or even just a simple sandwich lunch in the classrooms, you’d find our GMBA class buddies getting together to explore each others’ backgrounds, aspirations, and future goals.

The randomized weekly pairings were a huge success, allowing us to weaken the international-Chinese barrier and redouble the family spirit that makes the GMBA class so special. And it definitely added some excitement to your week when you opened your email every Monday to see if you got matched with that cute girl you’ve been dying to talk to. Some of these meetings fostered job opportunities, investment ideas, and business partnerships, but more importantly, they led to new friendships.

The Committee is thankful that these activities received a lot of great feedback and participation from the whole class. Our goal this year was to draw the class together, create fond memories, and help each student get as much out of the program as possible, and we’re proud to say we delivered. We hope these initiatives will be passed down to future GMBA classes to come! They say it takes a man to make a man. Well, it takes world changers to make world changers. And to find them, learn from them, work with them, you need to be at a world-changing institution like Tsinghua, molded by the world changers that make up the acclaimed Tsinghua family. And the only way you’re going to be able to do that is: getting to know your classmates! All we asked for from our classmates are the initiative to reach out to each other and to discover unique characters that brought them to the Tsinghua MIT program.

STUDENT LIFE

To celebrate the successful completion of our first year, and the mid-point of our Tsinghua journey, the GMBA class gathered together one last time in early June before heading to our separate ways for the summer. At this party, we also said farewell to many classmates leaving Beijing next year to pursue dual-degrees at MIT and HEC, or to participate in semester exchange programs at other prestigious universities.

The party was held in Parlor 香 bar in Sanlitun under the theme “Wolves of Wall Street.” The Class Committee, led by Student Life representatives Joob and Curr, planned a great night filled with glamor, laughter, and enjoyment. Everyone dressed up in their finest gowns and suits, and enjoyed the well-stocked bar and various entertainments, which included a year-end look-back video, and a dancer. The main event was the awarding of

various titles we had voted on as a class, such as “Teacher’s Pet”, “Like a Boss” and “Drinks Like a Fish”. I was voted “Best Dressed” and received a mirror as a small gift. But to top off

the night, our class president Jason proposed to his girlfriend (now fiancée) with the help of fellow classmates—and she said yes! It was a fun and memorable evening, but also

bittersweet, for the next and last time we will gather as a class will be one year later for our graduation in July 2016.

End of Year Party




Tsinghua MBA New Year Gala 2015Art Zhong and Christina Chong, GMBA Class of 2016

The Tsinghua MBA New Year Gala was held at the Weilun Auditorium on the 28th of December 2014. An annual event held at the Tsinghua SEM that gives all the Tsinghua MBA students an opportunity to

“Combining the sound of time and pulse of innovation. We all come together to look forward to our journey in Tsinghua.The changes of four seasons in old and new directions,The changes of hours filled with our precious hopes and goals.We are all here tonight to show our talents and our youthful energy,Tonight we will dream together and showcase our talents with the sound of music.Expressing the unique spirit of Tsinghua SEM,Spreading the determination and dreams of the Tsinghua MBA.”

gather together, celebrate their collective accomplishments after a grueling f irst semester, and ring in the New Year with an e vening of f un enter t a inment and memorable performances.

One of the rare opportunities we had was to work a longside our part-t ime MBA classmates. We were so honored to represent our GMBA class as the English show hosts for this exciting MBA year end event.

We opened up the festive evening with a gorgeous GMBA and Part-time MBA duet, setting the stage for an evening full of hidden talent, killer dance moves, and a healthy dose of laughter.

Entertained all night by our gifted classmates, each class performed a series of acts that ranged from pop star caliber duets (call us biased), dance routines that would make

Tsinghua MBA New Year Gala 2015

Justin Timberlake blush, and martial arts that inspired Jackie Chan double takes.

Our GMBA class proudly displayed our international flair – can somebody say core competency? – by taking our fellow MBAs on a song and dance tour around the world. With stops in K-Pop Korea Town, beautiful Thailand, dirty dancing América Latina, and Kung Fu Fightin’ China, the GMBA class proudly showcased the well-rounded, truly gifted individuals that make up our dynamic program.

To spice up the evening (and give Christina and I more opportunities to make fools of ourselves) prize drawings of gifts sponsored by Tsinghua SEM alumni took place in between acts, giving us the opportunity to welcome the new year with a little bit of luck!

Our fellow GMBA performers spent countless hours dur ing evenings and weekends, between finals and projects on their dance and song routines leading up to the big event. Their hard work and dedication were truly a treat for everyone! To the pleasant surprise of

all our MBA cohorts, our talented classmates made a loud statement that festive night. Not only are GMBA students good-looking and exceptionally intelligent, they also have angelic voices and killer moves!

We had such a blast ! What a fun and enjoyable evening for all the Tsinghua MBA. We can’t wait to see what more impressive performances the MBA class has in store for us this coming New Year Gala in December 2015. We better see you there!

GMBA students performing at the New Year Gala




Spring in TsinghuaStudents from GMBA Class of 2016

By: Amy Ly GMBA Class of 2014 By: Napol Kamthornkittikul GMBA Class of 2014

Experiencing Harbin Ice CityNapol Kamthornkittikul , GMBA Class of 2016

Having been through 4 months of fruitful experiences for our first semester of MBA life at Tsinghua University, we now arrived at our month-long winter break. Certainly, this is an opportunity for all of us who came from different parts of the world to freely experience China. Thinking about where to travel in China during winter, I believe that the majority of us would choose “Harbin”, a city famously known for winter tourism and recreations with its famous ice sculpture festival. A group of us which comprised of seven students (who are not afraid of the bitterly cold winter of Harbin) from five different countries decided to take this shot right after our final exam week.

Taking a two-hour flight from Beijing, we eventually arrived at Harbin, the capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province. Immediately after arrived in Harbin, it blew away our idea of “Beijing’s winter is cold” with its day-time temperature of -15° C, forcing all the girls to put on our life-saving heat pack. Once arrived at the city centre, we got impressed by the city’s beautiful Russian architecture styles. Also known as “Oriental Moscow”, Harbin, which once was inhabited by an overwhelming majority of Russian immigrants, is notable for its combination of Chinese and European architecture styles.

We could see many Russian and other European style buildings, which are protected by the government everywhere in the city. Additionally, majority of new building in the city such as hotels and condominiums are also built under European architecture styles. We visited Saint Sophia Cathedral (圣索菲亞教堂), the famous Russian Orthodox Church which is a typical representative of Byzantine architecture. Our group also spent considerable time at Zhongyang Street (中央大街). This 1.4km street is like a live museum of European architectural styles. Without considering Chinese people walking around, we felt like we were walking on the shopping street somewhere in Europe. Here we found plenty of Russian restaurants and souvenirs throughout both sides of the street. We ended our walk with our stomach fully filled by Northeastern street food and the famous Madier ice-cream.

The highlight of this trip was definitely the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture

Festival (哈尔滨国际冰雪节). The festival is an annual winter festival that takes place with a theme throughout the city and is now the largest ice and snow festival in the world. The two main exhibition areas are Sun Island (太阳岛), which features an expo of giant snow sculptures, and Ice and Snow World (冰雪大世界). We spent our entire evening at the Ice and Snow World, which, by the time we arrived, had already welcomed more than 400,000 visitors from all over the world. The exhibition this year amazed us with the magnificent ice buildings, including an ice maze, ice bar and even an ice castle. In addition ice is also formed into several objects such as an ice train, ice horses, and many other sculptures. Multicolored lights also illuminated the sculptures making the exhibits look more spectacular. Although we had to take a few breaks from cold Harbin night for warm coffee places during the exhibition, we all agreed that this exhibition alone made the entire trip worth it and would definitely recommend everyone to visit Harbin once in a lifetime!

Napal Kamthornkittikul, GMBA Class of 2016

GMBA Trip to Harbin



Thomas Shie: Rising Star in Global Capital MarketShana Penna, GMBA Class of 2016

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Thomas ShieTsinghua-MIT IMBA Program Class of 2014Partner, Aevitas Capital Management Limited

Thomas Shie, Tsinghua IMBA alumni 2014, has accomplished a lot given his young age, from graduating from New York University in just three and a half years to finishing his MBA by the age of 23. Now, he is on to his next venture, a hedge fund in China, while still maintaining his Tsinghua roots and global aspirations. His ambitions go far beyond his real estate development background, although he still maintains the expectation to transition back into his family business in the future.

Thomas’s primary education in Canada and the United States has broadened his expectations far beyond his Fujian upbringing. As the eldest son in his family, he has always known that his path would follow the family’s continuous success in business. After receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Management from New

York University, his family pushed him to apply for Tsinghua’s MBA program. Even at the young age of 21 he was easily accepted into the business program, because his success had already been defined.

While in New York Thomas dabbled in real estate as a conduit for renters in the lucrative NYC market, but he soon realized that real estate in New York, though “cut throat”, had a “low ceiling” of potential. He soon went back to China and transitioned his success into the Tsinghua MBA program. It was here where he began to think of his future career choices and apply them to China, which to him “was the place to be”.

As a first year Tsinghua SEM student Thomas soon found himself as the Vice President of the class, as well as taking a lead role in helping students develop their Chinese business acumen. He held a round table event for students to have dinner with business

leaders and learn from their experiences in the country. He knew how important the development of this acumen was to both him and his fellow student’s future career potential. It was important for him to understand a part of the culture he would have never learned during his western upbringing, though as with anything he had tribulations on the way.

Thomas has three pieces of advice to current and future students at Tsinghua’s School of Economics and Management. First is to keep a low profile when you should keep one, but also recognize when a high profile is necessary. The second piece of advice is to make the right friends, he emphasizes that people should socialize not just with the people they have fun with, but also more importantly, people should socialize with those that they can learn from. He believes that learning from others is just as important as an academic education. He esteems his relationship with his mentor and advises all students to find and develop a relationship with one.

His third piece of advice is in regards to the macro view of business in China, which is for students not to think that companies like Baidu, Xiaomi or Tencent are the future of China. Although these companies are the pride of China, according to Shie the true future of China is in the small and medium size entrepreneurs. It is these innovators who will develop and bring China into the future. His view is for students to look further into these smaller companies for strength and opportunity, and focus less on the powerhouses.

As a young entrepreneur, Thomas Shie exemplifies what is great about the Tsinghua MBA program. The MBA has allowed Thomas to begin to develop his roots in the finance industry, while still allowing him to remain grounded in the family enterprise that he came from. It was his family that pressed him to greatness and the Tsinghua family who raised the bar.

Thomas Shie was awarded Outstanding Contribution by Dean QIAN on the Tsinghua MBA Orientation Gala

BEYoND CAMPUS

Thomas ShieTsinghua-MIT IMBA Program Class of 2014Partner, Aevitas Capital Management Limited

尊敬的清华大学经管学院和MBA中心的各位老师们，校友们，亲爱的师弟师妹们，女士们先生们，大家晚上好！

我是佘启光，来自2012年级的清华国际MBA班。

首先，非常感谢清华大学的邀请，让我再次回到这个舞台上。我对这个舞台感情很

呀？＂我觉得人的能力大小，成就高低，和他知道感恩，知道回馈，是没有关系的。今天的我，除了要感谢父母的栽培，朋友的支持，和自身的努力。最重要的是在清华大学的岁月里，无论在知识上，人际交往上，行为品德上，都有很大的改变。所以，只要好好学习，发奋图强，他日必能振翮高飞，自由翱翔。我非常感激清华的老师对我的教导和引领，虽然今天我的能力有限，回馈清华大学，是我义不容辞的。

让我们想一想，我们为什么选择清华。毋庸置疑，清华有全中国最好的平台，优秀的老师，良好的人际网，以及未来更好的职业发展机会。我们之所以今天可以拥有这么多的机会与这么强大的资源,其实是离不开两个字的，那就是“回馈”。只有懂得＂回馈＂，清华才能更强大，才能实现它的理想——“创造知识，培育领袖，贡献中国，影响世界”。

校训不只是口号，关键是传达一种不断推动自己进步的思想。只要有自信，并且付诸行动与努力，目標就会越来越近。百川汇海，集腋成裘，如果每个人都有一颗感恩的心，每个人都愿意为社会作出一点贡献，出一份微薄之力，世界就会越来越好。最后我祝大家学业进步，前程锦绣。

谢谢大家。

深，两年前，我也曾站在这里，当时我是新年晚会主持人。一年前，我又站在这个舞台上，那是清华大学的招生大会，我在这里讲述我在清华的学习情况和体会。今天我又来到这个舞台，这是清华大学的迎新晚会。以前在这里，我感到非常兴奋和自豪。而今天我是带着感恩之心來到这里。因为清华的栽培和鞭策，使我有能力步入社会，面对挑战。

三年前，我刚来到中国的时候，中文讲得不太好，中国文化也不够了解，开学典礼那天，我坐在后排，听到钱院长说“创造知识，培育领袖，贡献中国，影响世界”。我记得，我当时在想，这几句话说得真好。虽然我那时候中文不太好，也没太听懂这句话的意思但心里觉得院长帅气，院长真牛。

现在我的中文水平明显提高了，终于明白清华的校训传达的深刻含义。直到今天，这句话对我来说依然很好听，它不再是一句响亮的口号。如果只是听一听，喊一喊，是没有实际作用的。每个学校都有自己的校训，比如说我们旁边的北京大学的光华学院，它的使命就是“创造管理知识，培养商界领袖，推动社会进步”。虽然听起来我觉得没有清华的磅礴大气，但实质却是一样的。

前段时间，我把我的工作奖金，全部捐给了清华大学。当时所有人问我，甚至笑我，说：＂捐钱给清华？你有多大的能力

Speech at 2015 Tsinghua MBA Orientation Gala

Thomas Shie sponsored the 2015 Tsinghua MBA Orientation Gala and delivered a speech

Good morning, Minister of State Teo Ser Luck, Minister Counsellor Zheng Chao, Education Counsellor Yu Yufeng, Dean Qian Yingyi, fellow alumni and friends!

First, I would like to sincerely thank the Singapore Government for

Andrew ChinTsinghua-MIT Class of 2013 Vice President and Secretary General of Tsinghua SEM Alumni Association Southeast Asia Chapter and President of Tsinghua MBA Alumni Association Singapore Chapter, Head of China Desk, Singapore Management University

Speech by Andrew Chin at Tsinghua MBA Alumni Association Singapore Chapter Launching Ceremony



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James TanTsinghua-MIT IMBA Class of 2010Managing Partner, QUESTVC

Dear Minister of State Teo Ser Luck, Dean QIAN Yingyi, presidents and representatives of Tsinghua SEM Alumni Association, fellow alumni and friends,

I was asked to share my personal journey so I will use the next few minutes to do so. I have always wanted to build a career in China. In 2007, I took the International Business Fellowship, a scholarship scheme administered by IE Singapore and formerly directly administered by the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

As many of you know, it is a challenge to uproot yourself and relocate for two years. The scholarship further affirmed the decision to go to Tsinghua was correct. When I arrived, Tsinghua helped and the Beijing municipal government gave me another scholarship which further encouraged me and reduced the opportunity cost of two years. But what an awesome two years!

Alumni Story: ChineseAll's arduous path to an IPOWan Jun, MBA Office

Towards the end of the two years, I started 55tuan with three other Tsinghua alumni - one MBA 06 and two Tsinghua PhDs in Computer Science. I was the COO. Our first office was in Huaqingjiayuan at Wudaokou Area. At that time our competitor Meituan were in the same building as us.

The company subsequently grew to more than 5,000 people in 200 cities in China. Our CEO is currently a Tsinghua EMBA.

The same group of us who started 55tuan then started 求索创投, QuestVC, a venture capital firm that started with investments in China and now also make investments in Southeast Asia and the US. In Singapore, we were the first investors in C2C marketplace mobile app Carousell and real estate platform 99.co - both of which have gone on to raise new rounds of funding from Silicon Valley venture capital firms. We are also the first investor in the bitcoin ecosystem in Singapore and likely Southeast Asia. Today the portfolio covers China, US and Southeast Asia.

MOS Teo mentioned iCarsClub, or PPZuche. PPZuche was in the same office as us and that was when we got to know them and started helping them in a very small way in their China market access through the Action Community for Entrepreneurship or ACE, the entrepreneurship community chaired by MOS Teo at that time.

TONG ZhileiTsinghua-MIT IMBA Class of 2000Chairman and President, ChineseAll

Being the First Mover in a Startup BusinessAn Interview with Tsinghua MBA Alum TONG Zhilei (Class of 1998)

From 1993 to 1998, TONG Zhilei pursued undergraduate study in the Department of Automotive Engineering at Tsinghua University, where he ultimately obtained bachelor's degrees in engineering, management and law. In 2000, he graduated from the IMBA program, jointly developed by MIT and Tsinghua University. He was the COO of FanSo Information Technology Co., Ltd from 1999 to 2000 and CEO of Tide Times Corporation from 2001 to 2003. Since 2000, he has also been the Chairman and President of ChineseAll Digital Publishing Group, one of the leading digital publishing companies in China.

On January 21, 2015, TONG Zhilei, the Chairman and President of ChineseAll Group and Mr. CHEN Jining, the then-

President of Tsinghua University, together rang the opening bell at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, symbolizing the successful listing of ChineseAll on China’s Growth Enterprise Market. It was at that moment that TONG Zhilei couldn’t help reflecting on the past 15 years of business startup and growth efforts. Reflecting on countless logged hours of toil and sweat, he had no regrets. His memory took him back to the beginning of his startup, that is, his undergraduate study at Tsinghua University.

Youthful EndeavorsIn 1993, when summer was transitioning to autumn, TONG Zhilei was full of excitement. He had just been admitted to the Department of Automotive Engineering of Tsinghua University, the cradle for New China’s automotive engineers. It seemed a sacred calling to rejuvenate the Chinese automotive industry. He made a commitment to himself

Through the ACE collaboration agreement with Tsinghua, the first PPZuche office in China was with ACE and we are delighted to have played a small role in their success.

But like every Tsinghua alumni, the group of us did not want to sit still. So earlier this year, the same group of us - the Tsinghua alumni - started China's first inbound and we think the largest inbound travel platform - Jetbay.

Jetbay became the first mainland China startup to be accepted into the world renowned 500 Startups programme in Silicon Valley and have raised venture capital from Silicon Valley and China. China is the world's largest online travel market in the world and we think we are well-positioned to ride the wave. We are looking forward to returning to and moving into a new office in Huaqingjiayuan.

Looking back, the last six years in China had been a whirlwind of changes. It started with the scholarship from IE Singapore, then starting three companies in 4 years. I am indebted to Tsinghua for the opportunities it has provided and am especially happy that we now have overseas presence, starting with Singapore.

Thank you.

sending me to study MBA program at Tsinghua University on a scholarship in 2001. That was a major milestone in my life. My stint at Tsinghua SEM enabled me to make a career switch to become Chief Representative and Country Manager (China) of a leading global educational publisher. I also met my wife and started my family in Beijing.

Please allow me to share that I was actually not that interested when my EDB manager first asked me if I would like to go on a scholarship

to do an MBA program. I did not see much value-add as I already had a Bachelor of Business Administration. However, when my manager highlighted that it was an offer to study MBA program at Tsinghua University, I immediately jumped at the offer! I was very fascinated about China and I believed that doing an MBA program at Tsinghua University would be an ideal platform for me to learn about the dynamic Chinese economy as well as to make great local Chinese friends.

I would rea l ly l ike to Tsinghua SEM for g iv ing me a sol id management education and a super alumni network. Tsinghua SEM alumni network has been extremely useful in in my professional work and my social life.

I am very happy to be part of the launch of the Tsinghua SEM Southeast Asia Alumni Association, the first international alumni chapter! I look forward to working together with our fellow alumni to better serve the local community and our fellow alumni.

We look forward to working closely with other alumni groups including those in Indonesia, Malaysia and Hong Kong!

Thank you!

Speech by James Tan at Tsinghua MBA Alumni Association Singapore Chapter Launching Ceremony



BEYoND CAMPUS BEYoND CAMPUSaccumulation of knowledge and transmission of culture promoted the progress of human civilization, in which transmission of words and characters played an extremely important role. Ancient Chinese figures like CANG Jie, CAI Lun, BI Sheng and WANG Xuan made outstanding contribution to human progress given their endeavors in creating Chinese characters, inventing paper and promoting printing and publishing technology. Every transformation in transmission of words and characters has had profound influence towards the development of society and culture. And China’s future digital publishing would have the same revolutionary effect. ChineseAll, in the spirit of “Inheriting Civilization by Digital Publishing” would lead and promote the great cause of digital publishing. TONG Zhilei believed that digital reading would change human life and that ChineseAll was poised to become a great company in this regard. I n M a y 2 0 0 0 , T O N G Z h i l e i o p e n e d ChineseAll based on the reading channel of FanSo. The media press event was attended by many eminent guests, such as famous writers MO Yan, YU Qiuyu, YU Hua, and the Chinese Central Television presenter BAI Yansong, who served as the press host on the day of the event. TONG Zhilei believed that his dream was finally being realized in the emerging digital publishing era, but he never expected that a sudden change was just around the corner. Not long before the media press event, the US NASDAQ market plummeted with wholesale selloffs of hi-tech and internet company stocks. Suddenly, the global stock market, once promising, became a landscape of despair. Venture capital tightened and financing squeezed. There was no escape for the infant ChineseAll. TONG Zhilei had to pay out of his own pocket to sustain his company, but still he could not get away from the desperate situation. He barely had any savings left, and there was no way for him to borrow any more money. He and another Tsinghua MBA alum who had started a business at the same time had to borrow money from each other to pay employees’ salaries. Witnessing his beloved company coming to a dead end, he had no choice but to provide strategic consultancy to a state

enterprise in Beijing. He saved every penny he earned for the dying company in the hope that it could somehow survive.

In the second half of the year 2000, the situation became even worse. On a cold autumn weekend, TONG Zhilei, as one of the board directors of FanSo, got an emergency call from his colleague at FanSo and rushed to his office at TsinghuaTongFang Building. His colleague’s words rang in his head as he made the anxious commute: “The company has been split.” Did that mean the stock shares split? When he finally arrived at his office, he found an unlocked, disheveled room. All office equipment had been sold at reduced price to compensate employees, as the company had no money to pay their salaries. The realization hit TONG Zhilei like a ton of bricks. The business to which he had been devoted for years had now collapsed. He had been so ambitious in setting up the company, but now he had lost almost everything. He fully knew that business was war sometimes, but he never expected that the reality could be so harsh and cruel. It was also the darkest day for ChineseAll. Only 3 employees remained, one of them the son of a mayor who now, for the first time in his life, had to take the bus to work. Although TONG Zhilei and his team had spared no effort in sustaining the company, the sales revenue for the year was less than 200,000 RMB. In the second half of 2001, TONG Zhilei met CHEN Ping, the Chairman of HongKong TideTimes Corporation, who recognized TONG’s talents and decided to acquire ChineseAll. TONG Zhilei served as a professional manager at TideTimes for over 2 years, responsible for managing tens of companies and thousands of employees. Everything seemed to go smoothly now except for ChineseAll, still without enough support for its further development. In 2004, with the promise of “making ChineseAll a great listed company,” TONG Zhilei bought back his company with self-raised funds. Soon after, he led his team back to Tsinghua University Science Park for his second business start-up.

The Value-Added Tsinghua MBA PlatformDespite various hardships, ChineseAll emerged, phoenix-like, from the ashes of

bankruptcy and embarked on a path of rapid and steady development. UP to now, ChineseAll is one of the largest digital publ ishers which provide copyrighted contents in China with over 70 million users f rom the own channel and more than 400 million from other cooperated channels. It provides millions of resources by collaborating with over 600 publishers, more than 2,000 famous authors, and over 800,000 cyber writers. With the three major resources of copyright, original intellectual property and online education, ChineseAll de ve lop e d i t s “B o ok in C hina” s er ies program of commercial value and promising prospect. While focusing on economic profit, ChineseAll also undertook its social responsibility, including co-initiating the Chinese Online Anti-Piracy Union, the only company in the digital broadcasting industry to do so.

Having come through all the setbacks and hardships in the past 15 years, ChineseAll, steered by the ever-youthful ambition of TONG Zhilei , has embarked on a new journey. TONG Zhilei says he doesn’t care much about the fame brought on by the company’s listing. Rather, he now cherishes even more what the Tsinghua MBA has brought to his life.

In 1997, a joint IMBA program was launched by Tsinghua SEM and MIT Sloan, which was the first joint MBA program developed by a domestic business school with MIT. TONG Zhilei was confident that this program, in opening a new international horizon, would serve as a benchmark for domestic MBA education reform and bring dramatic changes to management ideas and practices. With a lens now extending beyond being one of New China’s automotive engineers and designers, TONG Zhilei read many MBA books, as he believed an entrepreneurial path would allow him to realize his dream at a higher level. He thus decided to apply for the joint IMBA program, considering Tsinghua MBA’s focus on developing students’ ambition, horizon and comprehensive capability. One of the admissions interviewers for TONG Zhilei was Professor ZHAO Chunjun, the then-deputy dean of Tsinghua SEM. Learning that

that he would study hard and undertake the sacred mission the nation had entrusted to him. In order to gain more practical experience, he participated in Tsinghua Youth League Committee and student union, where he played an influential role. In the fourth year of his undergraduate study, he was elected as the Secretary of the Youth League Committee of his department, and he later became the president of the “Truth Seeking Society,” a well-known learning group at Tsinghua University.

Every night after TONG Zhilei finished his work with student organizations, he would return to his dorm, a single room in Building No. 16, which was provided to him after he was elected as the department’s Youth League Committee Secretary. He frequently pulled all-night study sessions. After the first two years of study at Tsinghua, besides his major coursework in automotive engineering, he also selected management and law courses at SEM and the School of Law. His schedule was so tight and his

workload was so heavy that he often had no time for meals. Sometimes he made use of the 20-minute break during afternoon classes and rushed to the canteen for dinner before rushing back again to the classroom.

At midnight, when the moon shone on the flowers of Tsinghua campus and a gentle wind brought the message of spring, a robust figure would pass along (now) Xinmin Road and come to the track on the east sports field. There was TONG Zhilei, carrying out his physical exercise plan with the aim of maintaining both his body and his mind. Running lap by lap, he reminded himself that just as a journey of a thousand miles begin with single step, great expectations also start from every strenuous effort. Surrounded by the beauty of Tsinghua campus, he would turn to his jumping exercises, then follow them with tireless basketball shooting drills.

Being a First Mover in a Campus-Based Startup SpaceTONG Zhilei’s path of starting a business,

driven by a pioneering and patriotic spirit, began on Tsinghua campus. Soon after his enrollment at Tsinghua University, he and several other students from the Department of Automotive Engineering together set up the first personal website – “Huayunfang” – on Tsinghua campus, which was also the first local area network that could be shared by students in the same dorm in China. One of the initiators was TONG’s classmate and roommate who achieved the top score in the national college entrance exam in Guangxi province. Their original motive for the startup was to prove that students of the Department of Automotive Engineering were as outstanding as those from the Department of Computer Science, which was said to be the best in Tsinghua. In 1999, TONG Zhilei and his fellow students changed the name of “Huayunfang” to “FanSo,” which soon became one of the most popular portals among Chinese college students during that time. With the emergence of the internet in China and in order to spend more time on the start-up, LU Jun, one of TONG’s classmates and partners to start up the company, even decided to suspend his schooling, and became the first student to do so in China.

In the same year, the Ministry of Education approved 9 qualified graduates of Tsinghua University to be admitted to the IMBA program jointly developed by Tsinghua and MIT, of which 4 were from SEM and the other 5 from other departments. TONG Zhilei was one of the lucky 5. He later participated in organizing the first Tsinghua Business Plan Competition, which generated huge social response. Afterwards, in the First National Business Plan Competition for College Students hosted by the Ministry of Education and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League in the October of 1999, TONG Zhilei and his “FanSo” team won the first-place gold medal, together with venture capital worth 6.6 million RMB, making them the most-financed business startup team on campus.

Perseverance on the Brink of CollapseIn starting up FanSo, TONG Zhilei had the idea of creating ChineseAll, a digital publishing company. He believed that the

ChineseAll went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange GEM Listing on January 21, 2015

Tsinghua GATEWAYFall/Winter 201532

ISSUE NO. 17

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TONG Zhilei was born in Yunnan Province, Professor ZHAO Chunjun asked him, “What’s your view on drugs?” The unexpected question, seemingly unrelated to management, actually reflected the unique and open perspective of the Tsinghua SEM faculty and the IMBA program. Thanks to the habit of wide reading and in-depth thinking, TONG Zhilei answered the question with confidence and composure, and ultimately received high marks for his interview.

TONG Zhilei believes he made the right life decision in applying for the Tsinghua IMBA program. Besides the best overseas faculty in China, top cases and modules, as well as various opportunities for international exchange, the Tsinghua MBA also possesses an ad hoc advantage in its real practice, which greatly benefited TONG Zhilei’s business startup. In the beginning of 1999, TONG Zhilei was voted by his classmates to participate in a global business plan competition in HongKong. There were 4 members in his team. One team member knew a new material technology owner with intellectual property rights to a self-luminous material. The material owner was invited to be the CEO of the company based on this project, but he did not participate in the competition. The team dubbed their company “Lunar.” Their team, among other candidates from many renowned Asian

universities, won the prize for Outstanding Presentation. One judge, a chief representative from NASDAQ, noted that the absence of the CEO and technical expert cost them in the final competition results. Ultimately, although they did not win the first prize, the competition was of great significance to TONG Zhilei. For one thing, it was the first time for him to attend a business plan competition; for another, he realized that a good business plan was mostly about a real business project in which people could participate rather than a mere draft of a written plan. From TONG Zhilei’s perspective, one critical advantage of the Tsinghua MBA lies in its emphasis on practical experience in business reality.

Lofty Ideals, Model ResultsAs early as his undergraduate years at Tsinghua, TONG Zhilei knew that he was living in a great era of transformation. Like many other Tsinghua students, he had a dream to change the world and to become the most outstanding one among his peers. He had frequently discussed with his classmates that as China had no proprietary automotive technology, he intended to devote himself to independent R&D for the rejuvenation of China’s automotive industry. However, gradually he discovered that China was in more urgent need of real automotive entrepreneurs, like Lee Iacocca, who promoted great changes in the industry, than of engineers and designers. Even long before he started his own business, tracing all the way back to his middle school years, he had made a life goal of striving for human progress, and he considered himself fortunate to have been born into this key era of innovation.“Paper-making and printing technology, two great inventions China has contributed to the world civilization, would go through huge transformation because of digital publishing. How lucky I am to be able to participate in this transforming process!” It was this perspective that refreshed TONG Zhilei’s energy and ambition whenever he encountered difficulties in his later years of business startups.

From obtaining three bachelor’s degrees at Tsinghua University to fol lowing that with an IMBA directly after graduation to eventually witnessing ChineseAll’s successful listing after 15 years of entrepreneurship, TONG Zhilei’s success has covered a wide range of experiences. However, there is surely a common thread of purposeful dedication among them. TONG Zhilei’s dream to make ChineseAll a leading company in China digital publishing industry and the biggest Chinese digital platform has been realized. His trailblazing model serves to communicate a key message to young people who aspire to make great achievements in this changing era: one’s dream and pursuit determine one’s life trajectory. Your horizons, your breadth of mind, and, to some extent, even your life stage are all determined by your dreams and goals. The current business environment, with its noteworthy room for improvement, may present more difficulty for students to be successful in their business startups. However, traits of passion and vigor as well as the knowledge and talents stimulated out of students’ entrepreneurial endeavors has a nearly immeasurable impact. As long as you uphold your dreams and remain true to the right core values, despite the inevitable frustrations and hardships, you are on the path to realizing great expectations.

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Commencement Address - Tsinghua University · of you are MBA students, I’m sure you love statistics and let me give you or remind you some numbers. Israel has been known as the