On February 12, representatives from the National Strategy Institute (NSI) of Korea visited CEIBS. CEIBS was the last stop of their visit to Shanghai, which lasted four days from February 9 to 12. The group, led by Mr K S Kang, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of NSI and the former Deputy Prime Minister of Finance and Economy, was consisted of well-known figures from various arenas like politics, business and education, etc. The members of the group included former Ambassador of the Korean Delegation to OECD (Organisation for Economic and Co-operation Development), former Commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office, former Minister of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and former CEOs of Samsung and LG.

 

Professor Rolf D. Cremer, President and Dean of CEIBS warmly welcomed NSI visitors. In his greeting speech, Professor Cremer briefed the visitors on CEIBS' development. Following this, Professor Liang Neng, Director of the EMBA programme gave an introduction of the programme. Then, Ms. Seanie Comerford, Director of Development Department gave a talk about CEIBS' sponsors and corporate relationship. The visitors were all impressed by CEIBS' rapid progress in becoming a world-class business school within a short period of time. They also showed an enormous interest in CEIBS EMBA programme and its close partnership with the business world.

NSI is a non-governmental organisation, aiming to study and research government policies, and provide consulting service to its members on hot issues in such a wide area as politics, economics, diplomacy and technology, etc. Funded by major Korean companies, one-third of its members are former senior government officials, and two-thirds are top executives of major companies in Korea. 
 
Given the increasing close relationship between China and Korea, the NSI visit group came to Shanghai with the mission of gaining a deeper understanding of China's development, of which Shanghai and its surrounding areas are undoubtedly providing the best perspective as "China's economic engine".
 
The visit made a huge impact on all members of the group. Before the visit, they believed that Korea could offer a great deal for China to learn. However, when touring around and witnessing the rapid and steady growth of Shanghai and the surrounding areas, they came to realise that China has many new things to offer to Korea. Mr Kang, the leader of the representative group, told the reporter that they were very impressed by the business-inviting mode adopted by Pudong Government and the method used by Suzhou Economic Development Zone, i.e., co-operating with Singapore to attract numerous MNCs and helping them to settle in the Zone. Both of them could serve as options for Korea to adopt, for currently in Korea, there is a project of setting up a similar development zone - Incheon Economic Special Zone. The visit to China proved to be a learning trip, during which they discovered these two role models. In the meantime, another project of building up an international business school with high level autonomy is also in preparation. Korean education is hindered by many problems of systems and policies and it will have to take time to make the break-through. CEIBS, according to Mr Kang, created a successful model for Asian business education with its uniqueness dubbed "a special zone of China business education". Korea can learn much from CEIBS experience.
 
Asked of the development of Korean companies in China, Mr Kang reckoned that the performance of these companies in China would sharpen the overall competitiveness of Korean companies against the major competitors in countries like Japan and the USA. Regarding the fast growth of Korean companies, Mr SH Oh, Chairman of GreenWood 21 Corp and former CEO of a branch company of LG Group, expressed his views. The investment and progress made by Korean companies in China's manufacturing industries are close to mature. The next sector they should think of entering is the service industry, such as communication, logistics, and transportation. In spite of great success made by these companies, Mr. Wu suggested that they could have done better, should two hurdles removed: one is the communication difficulty caused by the language problem, and the other is different systems. More significant progress will be made if these two problems are solved. Therefore, more talents need to be trained in Korea to strengthen the link between the two countries. With an excellent background in business education and abundant experiences in the business world, Mr Wu raised the point that CEIBS was an ideal training place for these much-needed talents. He was amazed at the quick rising of CEIBS within a short period of time and agreed with CEIBS' perception that a business school should play an important role in the economic development. He also applauded CEIBS' aspiration to create China's international reputation in business education by helping other Chinese business schools to improve.
 
Mr SB Soon, President of Areko and former CEO of Kwang-Joo Bank, have been in senior positions for years in Korean banking industry. Talking about the development and great potential of China's financial industry, Mr. Soon told the reporter that Korean financial agencies were in transformation period and therefore would not make significant moves in China market in the new future. At the moment, a few Korean banks opened their branches in China with the main purpose of serving Korean companies in China. But more Korean financial agencies expect to enter China in the future and also to expand the business profile. Mr. Soon was very optimistic towards China's prospective growth. But in order to have a share in this bright prospect, Korean financial agencies need to make greater efforts and to have more talents. Like Mr. Wu, Mr. Soon also regarded CEIBS the best training base to produce qualified people. 
 
Quite a number of members in the visiting group shared the same view that talent was a crucial factor of the development and that having world-class business schools was of great importance. They would like to know more about how CEIBS became the special zone of China business education, how the curriculum was designed and how the sponsorship from so many MNCs was secured. Professor Cremer provided answers in the following three aspects: First of all, the lack of professional managers raised the awareness among MNCs of the necessity of having top-class business schools to train and store talents for them; Secondly, the very nature of CEIBS as a joint effort of China and Europe gains for CEIBS many supports from the EU and the European countries; Thirdly, CEIBS recruits the professors with expertise in industries so that companies will turn to them for professional advice when encountering any problems. 
 
A business school won't be able to produce talent with practical abilities if it doesn't have a dynamic relationship with the business world in communication and collaboration. This is a point widely accepted in the visiting group of NSI. One member, however, noticed that no Korean company was found in the list of CEIBS' list of partners. He hoped that next time when he visited CEIBS, he could find some Korean companies on the list, and that more and more of them could join CEIBS' partnership.
 
The visit to China this time demonstrated to the Korean representatives from NSI the great prospect of China's development. Their tour around CEIBS' campus in Shanghai increased their confidence in a more concrete way.