As a German consultant working for Accenture in Zurich, I made the decision last year to relocate to Shanghai to begin an MBA at CEIBS. The country, as the workbench of the world, has always fascinated me, and like many of my peers from Europe, the words ‘Made in China’ were stamped on pretty much everything I owned growing up. The China of today is very different, and being part of the innovation takeover here is exactly why I came. As I draw to the end of my first year on the 18 month programme, I wanted to share the three areas of my knowledge that have increased dramatically – namely China, Africa and digital.

MBA 2021's Consulting Club Leadership team

China Depth 

The advantage of having two thirds of the class from China is their connections. So when we visited the former employer of one of my classmates, I saw the China of my youth again – manufacturing. What I discovered is that this is only half of the story. Manufacturing hasn’t left China. Instead, it has moved north and west. This is congruent with what we have learnt in the classroom, and now, when I’m asked what is the next China? The answer is actually China is the next China. The western and northern parts of the country will play host to new opportunities as tier one cities continue to move up the value chain and become more involved in brand building – think companies like Huawei and Xiaomi – and less in manufacturing or assembly.

Visiting my classmate's former company in Anhui Province, China 

Another key driver for me was getting to know the consulting industry in China. I think it’s important for incoming students to realise that you only get out what you put into an MBA, so becoming President of the Consulting Club was a logical step for me. We organise various events, including case interview workshops and mock interviews, but the trade-off is that I get to build my network in the consultancy industry here and understand the similarities and differences to Europe.

Africa Depth

CEIBS is the only top business school that has a campus in Africa. I took this opportunity to discover more of the world and went to Accra in Ghana as part of an overseas elective on Doing Business in Africa. We visited Blue Skies Fresh Fruits, a company which buys locally produced fruits, cuts them, packages them and sends them to Europe. Less than 24 hours from the field to the store! When we entered the quality control room I directly spotted a package that looked familiar. The same design which I bought during my lunch breaks in Switzerland, and now I knew exactly where they were coming from. Packaging them in Africa brings several advantages: The local producer can add more value and downstream some of this down to the local people. As well, the speed from field to store is unchallenged and brings fresh fruits to costumers in Europe – a win-win.

Visiting Blue Skies Fresh Food Packaging Company in Accra, Ghana  

I also noticed something strange while we were there. Many people were using a mobile phone brands that I was not familiar with – Transsion, for example. I had never heard of this brand before. I was puzzled why there were so many of them here? Why not Nokia or Samsung?

The mystery was soon solved by a case in the classroom: telecommunications in Africa is troublesome, as calling from one carrier to another can be expensive. So what is the solution? Carrying multiple phones? With Transsion, the answer is “not anymore” – they simply built a phone that could accommodate four sim cards. This is a great example of localisation to me. As that may be, a brand totally unknown in the developed markets is the top brand in Africa. My classmates and I were astonished to learn that this phone manufacturer was actually Chinese. None of us knew the brand and all of us were quite familiar with the Chinese market by then.

Digital Depth

Attending a business school in Shanghai has a big advantage: Shanghai is a bustling city where a lot of new ventures and businesses get tried and started. The first Starbucks Reserve Roastery opened in Shanghai. Not far away from CEIBS another venture, Freshippo (or Hema) opened its doors. Freshippo is a new retail store, which is O2O – online to offline. It not only has fresh groceries – you can also get your meal pre-cooked. In case you want to know more about a product, simply scan the barcode of a product with the app and it will tell you everything. If you like the experience and the freshness, you can order online with their app the next time. This for me, as a German, is astonishing. A lot of companies have tried fresh food delivery in Germany, but all have failed so far.

In Harbin at the beginning of COVID-19 outbreak

During the Chinese New Year festival I went to Harbin to see the beautiful Ice Festival. At the same time, the coronavirus outbreak had started in Wuhan. Hence, you can see in my picture that I’m already wearing a mask. What I didn’t know: Masks would become my daily companion from that point onwards. However, a simple virus can’t stop a business school from teaching. CEIBS quickly ramped up its online teaching capabilities and teaching restarted soon after. The biggest change is that I meet my classmates only online and not on campus, in class or during the breaks. This is what I’m missing and I hope we soon can go back to normal. Still, I’m very grateful the school reacted quickly and effectively to restart classes!

In summary then, I hope my three experiences have been of interest. I’m also a student ambassador, so please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions.

Jan-Eric