Thinc-Lab Closing ceremony was held at Room 418 of Shunde Building of Tsinghua SEM on June, 6^th. It marked the successful end of 15-week case practice program of Tsinghua MBA, which is the first case of giving a course of Case composition practice among all the business schools in China’s mainland and also one of the most important innovations in Tsinghua MBA programs. The attendees were Tong Yunhuan, the Associate Dean and Director of MBA Program, Prof. Gao Xudong, the Academic Director of MBA Program, Mao Donghui, the Executive Director of MBA Program, Xie Qihong, the Assistant Director of International MBA Program, supervisors of each team of Thinc-Lab, the CEO Matthew Burr and the R & D Director Adam Bund from INSIGHT, Hao Zhizhong, the Vice Executive of Ku6.com, Li Jin, the Human Resources Manager of China Non-ferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Co., Ltd, Dong Yuguo, the Public Relations Director of Wal-Mart China, and so on. During the conference, Tsinghua MBA students gave reports about the results of the Ku6.com Case, the Case of China Non-ferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Co., Ltd. and the Case of Wal-Mart China.

Prof. Tong Yunhuan, the Associate Dean of Tsinghua SEM, said, “This is a program of experiment and direction”. Through supervising MBA students to make direct research of enterprises and compiling Chinese cases, Prof. Tong Yunhuan believed that students could be improved in practice and teachers could know more about the true situation of Chinese enterprises. These Chinese cases are genuinely and truly reflected, which is the first attempt in the domestic business schools. Prof. Tong also said, more teachers, students and enterprisers would have opportunity to participate in this program.

The 15-week new program

Thinc-lab is a newly added course of Tsinghua MBA programs in the spring semester of 2008. 12 MBA students were divided into three groups, led by three teachers of Tsinghua SEM. The three groups went to enterprises to carry out their research. According to their research results, they wrote down the cases both in Chinese and English, made videos, and composed multimedia teaching materials.

Xie Qihong, the Assistant Director of International MBA Program, was in charge of this program and said, early before the Spring Festival, this program had already started, and all the members had been prepared well. The three supervisors were from Department of Human Resources and Organizational Behavior, Department of Business Strategy and Policy and Department of Management Science and Engineering of Tsinghua SEM. The research of the three groups they led reflected the actual business from the three perspectives of organizational behavior, of business strategy and of enterprises’ operation. Of all the 12 students involved in cases writing, 4 were the MBA sophomore, 8 were MBA freshman, and all of them were students of International MBA Program. Half of them were Chinese and the other half were foreign students.

Xie Qihong said this program was divided into the following steps: start-up training, case writing training, the first business visit to the enterprise, the outline of the case writing, interviews and data collection, writing case drafts, advisory committee meetings, the final draft writing, submittal of the final report and the closing ceremony. Among them, the interviews and data collection took up half of the total time. During this period of time, teachers and students carried out their intensive research in enterprises. For instance, 7 executive leaders of China Non-ferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Co., Ltd., including board chairmen and general managers, accepted the interviews of teachers and students. A total of 10 people of Wal-Mart China Group successively participated in the interview, and the locations were Beijing, Tianjin and Shenzhen.

It can help the world know Chinese enterprises

INSIGHT is an American company cooperating with Tsinghua SEM’s program. Matt Burr, as the CEO of the company, said, when contacting foreign enterprises, they found these foreign clients were very surprised of what had happened in China’s economy and commercial areas, but they only understood all that happened in China superficially and simply. There was little access for the outside world to get accurate information of Chinese enterprises, and especially from the angle of study, there were much less. INSIGHT was very glad to build a bridge between China and the world, introduce China’s economic development, the commercial operation and some other deep-rooted things to the world by this opportunity, and share Chinese wisdom with the world.

The supervisor Jiang Lu from the Department of Human Resources and Organizational Behavior said, since this year, the international situation was particularly disadvantageous to China. Some natural and manmade disasters occurred one after another, and some foreign media released many articles which went against China. Under this tough condition, to write cases of Chinese enterprises’ overseas operation, it was actually an opportunity for Chinese enterprises to express their growth process and true feeling. A Chinese enterprise, successfully operating overseas, had to experience pains and struggles and overcame unimaginable difficulties. Through the cases, stories behind the successful enterprise could be presented, which would help the world know China without any doubt. Especially at this time, case writings were even more significant.

It can help to strengthen MBA’s ability of practice

Different from the traditional MBA classroom teaching, this case practice program did in-depth researches to enterprises. In this way, they could have close contacts with managers of different levels and observe enterprises’ survival and development from multi-level and multi-dimensional, which would help students understand the essence of enterprise management and improve faster in practice.

Michael Frechette was an American freshman of Tsinghua MBA. In this program, he participated in the research on China Non-ferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Co., Ltd.. He was pleased that he could investigate in a Chinese enterprise in such a deep way, have some different thoughts when discussing with Chinese teachers and students, and better understand Chinese enterprises’ different manner of analyzing and handling problems

Prof. Tong Yunhuan said, he deeply realized two common and obvious problems in Chinese business schools through investigation and discussion on various occasions. One was the weakness in practice. In the whole MBA teaching and students’ training, the questions of how to be more practical and how to participate in enterprises’ practice more closely were always what teachers of business schools were thinking about. The other obvious problem was that the MBA teaching cases showed insufficient attention to Chinese enterprises. For example, there were many cases from Harvard Business School and Richard Ivey School of Business, but Chinese enterprises were seldom involved in the cases. Therefore, Thinc-lab could help china’s business schools solve the two universally existed problems.

Not only could the students benefit from the program, but teachers involved in the program also had some new feelings. One of the supervisor, Jian Jie, from the Department of Business Strategy and Policy, said, since he was also engaged in internet industry himself, he witnessed some ups and downs of this industry. He had always been thinking this question: was internet still a potential industry or not? Through this in-depth research on enterprises, he found out from his successful practice in Ku6.com, the answer was positive: as long as the target customers and content were chosen exactly, internet was still a quite promising industry. David Robb was a foreign teacher of Department of Management Science and Engineering and also the supervisor of the writing. He said, due to the cases, not only did enterprises learn how to operate successfully, but also he himself learned a lot from the journey of case practice program, such as how to find out and identify issues.

Gao Xudong, the Director of Technology Innovation Research Center of Tsinghua University, said, the program had already had a good beginning, Technology Innovation Research Center would continue to concern about this program.

It can help enterprises’ summing-up and growth.

“From 1983 to now, China Non-ferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Co., Ltd. has been established for 25 years”, Li Jin, the Human Resources Manager, said, the company’s operation went through simple construction contracts, and developed into the business idea of overseas resources exploitation simultaneously. Among them, Tu-Ao Zinc Mine of Mongolia was a successful turning point of this business idea. Through this kind of cooperation with Tsinghua SEM, enterprises can sum up experience and continuously grow in study.

Hao Zhizhong, the Vice Executive of Ku6.com, said enterprises developed very quickly after becoming famous. He was glad that this kind of development received attention from the best university of China and the development of enterprises can be shared as a case study. The business model and social value of Ku6.com gained recognition from the state government and its users. By exchanging with experts of the university, enterprises would make further thinking and conclusion and they were also more clear and certain that the website was a business model of making money together.

According to some news, more partners may join in the next program. Although it has not yet begun, some companies, like Beijing PacLantic Co., Ltd., have already applied to be partners of the next program. Prof. Tong Yunhuan said the school would develop more practice-related programs.

Description of the cooperated enterprises and direction of each research

Enterprises involved in the first case practice program include China Non-ferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Co., Ltd., Ku6.com, and Wal-Mart China.

China Non-ferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Co., Ltd. is a listed company controlled by the central state enterprises. The main business of this company is overseas project contract and overseas resources. Take Tu-Ao Zinc Mine of Mongolia for example. This case narrates stories of how Chinese enterprises overcame economic and cultural differences and achieved success. Tu-Ao Zinc Mine, after put into operation for three years, has become the sixth largest enterprise in Mongolia. And all the governments of Mongolia attach great importance to them. Chinese President Hu Jintao implied when he first visited Mongolia, that Tu-Ao Zinc Mine can be built to “a model project of bilateral cooperation”.

Ku6.com is a newly established video-sharing enterprise for about one year and nine months. Its foundation was a number of “first” in Chinese enterprises. Only after 13 days of its establishment, it received venture capital of tens of millions of dollars; it is the first Chinese internet company which acquires online video business license; its business model is the first to share profits of internet video, etc. Teachers and students of Tsinghua SEM will sum up experience from the enterprises’ business strategy.

Wal-Mart China is a multinational corporation successfully operating in China. Its sustainable development has become the concern of teachers and students.