On the afternoon of the fifth day of September, the 2008 Tsinghua MBA Orientation Opening Ceremony & Leadership Forum was successfully held in Tsinghua SEM. This orientation will last one week. More than 400 freshmen of 2008 Tsinghua MBA will participate in the orientation. Through outdoor expansion, role playing, scene simulation, case studies and other experience-based training, they can systemically get to know the basic skills a professional manager must have, enjoy Tsinghua MBA’s culture, and meanwhile, their teamwork, communication skills and commercial awareness are cultivated as well. In the fall semester of 2008, 50 oversea students from over 10 countries join in the family of Tsinghua MBA, and they will spend two-year study life here, beginning with the orientation for freshmen. Among the students of international MBA programs in the 2008 fall semester, oversea students account for 52%, and respectively come from 13 nations.

Among more than 50 national colleges with the qualification of cultivating MBA, Tsinghua University was the first one to launch “orientation for the newly entry students” in 1999, which received a strong repercussion. For every orientation, there is a theme, or an emphasis on some concept or idea. This year’s theme is “Perfected through competition, strengthened through teamwork”. Through promoting the theme, it can stress the training of the competitive sense of “being brave in challenge and having courage to be the first”; through “both in words and deeds”, it persuades the students to strengthen the leadership training in “performance, appeal and influence” and other aspects; through “Perfected through competition, strengthened through teamwork”, it can call on the attitude to pursue excellence, to establish the study mission of “placing oneself in the market freely, facing competition, and developing economy by their own efforts”.

Yang Bin, the Associate Dean of Tsinghua SEM, and Mao Donghui, the Executive Director of the MBA Program, inaugurated this orientation. In the opening speech, teacher Mao Donghui pointed out there were mainly three aspects of the orientation: the first was to help the freshmen better integrate into Tsinghua’s culture; the second was to help everyone learn leadership, teamwork, communication skills, sense of innovation and commitment to social responsibility in experience, which should be the ability what MBA students have to acquire; the third was to help students get familiar with the environment, the resources, all kinds of systems, demands and information related to the MBA study as soon as possible. She also said, since this year’s orientation just started closely after the end of 2008 Beijing Olympics, the theme should be “Perfected through competition, strengthened through teamwork”, which made her feel like the extension of Olympic spirit in our students. At last, she wished the orientation to achieve success and expected students’ outstanding performances.

Subsequently, Cheng Jun, the general director of the 2008 orientation and chairman of MBA student association, and Cao Yihui, on behalf of all the 2008 freshmen, respectively gave a speech. Chen Jun illustrated the orientation’s theme and emphasized that the orientation would be a unique experience; Cao Yihui expressed the freshmen would cherish this opportunity and appreciated the hard work made by the school and the student association. She said they had already made sufficient preparation, looking forward to integrate into the Tsinghua MBA family as soon as possible. Shenzhen Clou Electronics Co. Ltd and the British Association of Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) were the sponsors of this orientation for freshmen. Zeng Yongchun, the Vice president of Clou Electronics Group, Han Bing, the manager of CIMA North China business development, Zhang Xina, the education market development manager, MBA and EMBA alumni representatives, Tsinghua student organizations and Chinese MBA Beijing Union representatives were invited to attend the opening ceremony.

The forum with the theme of “leadership” was carried out right after the open ceremony. Professsor Lu Xiangqian, from the Department of Innovation and Entrepreneurship of Tsinghua SEM, hosted this forum. The attendees were Luo Jianfan, CEO of the PacLantic Co., Ltd., Guo Yiguang, the Strategy Director of Ogilvy Digital, senior adviser Yang Lei and human resources expert Gary Hopwood from Northern Light Venture Capital. In the forum, the atmosphere was relaxed, the thoughts were active, and inspirations were great. Every guest had a warm and lively discussion with the present students through their own experience and unique thinking from the aspects of “leadership’s performance and constituent elements and how to cultivate and improve leadership under different cultural background” and etc. They also suggested students should take full advantage of the opportunity to study at Tsinghua MBA, so as to systemically improve their own leadership skills.

The 2008 Tsinghua MBA freshmen’s orientation & the forum of leadership came to an end in applause.