By Professor H. C. de BETTIGNIE, Distinguished Professor of Global Responsible Leadership, CEIBS

The EMBA is a "journey", a trip that will change you. Each of you will be a different manager, a different leader at the end of this journey. Education is - in its very nature - a process of change and the EMBA education process will transform you.

At least three changes will take place between now and the time you graduate:
1 - You will have broadened your view: of your job, of your company, of the Chinese society, of the world. You will see more.
2 - You will have enlarged your competences: through the acquisition of concepts, theories and models, through the development of skills. You will manage better.
3 - You will have changed your attitudes: toward people, toward society, toward your responsibility as a leader, a responsibility particularly critical, today, in China, when the pace of the transition is so fast. You will endeavor to be a responsible leader.

In short this EMBA will make you a different manager, a different person more aware of himself or herself, with more skills, other attitudes and a new vision of your company, of China and the world, and probably of yourself.

The journey to achieve this change, this transformation process will confront you with several challenges:
1 - "Time management": in spite of the time pressure, make sure you always come prepared to class ("no preparation, no learning"). You will need to cope with a great demand on your time.
2 - "Unlearning": learning may require to un-learn (and "unlearning is often more difficult than learning"). You will need to question your assumptions, your models, to be willing to change your mindset.
3 - "Openness to the other": be willing to learn not only from the professor but also from your colleagues "(learning from colleagues is potentially as rich as learning from the teacher). Leverage the huge experience accumulated by your friends in your group.

If you keep those suggestions in mind, all the way during the EMBA journey, you will then have been through a unique, rich experience, and will graduate with an enriched social capital, new skills, different attitudes, and hopefully be the "responsible leader" CEIBS aims at developing and that China needs so much.

Do not forget that:
1 - You are yourself your best management tool (know yourself better)
2 - The present is the consequence of the future (develop your vision of the future)
3 - If you define a situation as real it is real in its consequences (the EMBA is a unique journey in learning, make the best of it)

Good luck for this unique journey and I will be looking forward the pleasure to work with you.