Most entrepreneurs are lifelong learners but in the high-tempo environment of modern global business, not everyone has the time and opportunity to look up from their immediate concerns and see the shifts in the broader landscape. However, during these times of growing uncertainty in everything from industrial tech adoption to geopolitics, now is precisely when entrepreneurs need to be thinking ahead.

This was the motivation behind the recently held two-day learning programme, ‘Inspiring Entrepreneurs’. Held at the CEIBS Shanghai Campus and delivered by the school’s world-leading professors, it allowed the attendees to briefly immerse themselves in everything the full Global EMBA experience has to offer.

Professor Dominique Turpin
President (European)
Professor of Marketing, CEIBS

Entrepreneurs work exceptionally hard on a daily basis; they have very little time to step back and reflect. This was a great opportunity for them to do so, to gain new strategic insights and concrete takeaways from our world-class faculty. This should help take them through the next stage of the development of their company, while providing viable solutions to the problems they are facing.

Lighting the Spark – Thinking Differently for a Changing World

As a global organisation, The Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) network has a worldwide reach counting over 17,000 business leaders among its membership. EO China makes up over 600 of said members, drawn from 12 different EO sub-chapters. It’s an organisation dedicated to empowering entrepreneurs through shared experiences and collaborative learning, while promoting global economic development. In total, 64 EO entrepreneurs responded to the chance to see CEIBS Global EMBA programme up close and personal.

Over the two-day learning journey, the EO members got to grips with essential GEMBA topics and classroom practices, discussing disruptive and agile innovation cases, presenting solutions, and analyzing some aspects of essential entrepreneurial leadership. They also had a chance to put their negotiation skills and tactics to the test with real-life cases on equity negotiation.

Stephane Monsallier 
CEO, System in Motion
Member of EO Shanghai

"I joined this programme because I never miss a chance to learn. Entrepreneurs are very impulsive; we act on our gut feeling, but the professors here base everything on research. They gave us excellent data-based insights into different business behaviours, into negotiation, into all the techniques we try to master intuitively, but reasoning backed by empirical research. I learned a lot in a very short time."

David Holvoet 
Owner, Prime Forests
Learning Chair, EO Shanghai

"Entrepreneurs are facing many challenges nowadays; the world has become very volatile, and we have to be ready for the unknown. CEIBS helps us to create strong, solid structures to do just that. I know from experience what CEIBS can do for entrepreneurs: my wife attended the school 10 years ago and since then her business has tripled in scale. By being here for two days you can network and really think about the next steps for your business."

Step back, reflect, learn and implement

At every turn, the emphasis was to provide the EO entrepreneurs with a broader perspective on the most urgent challenges facing the world today, while inspiring them to consider novel solutions that would best fit their industry and personal circumstances as entrepreneurs. At its core, the Global EMBA programme is about providing the right learning environment where innovation and inspiration can be drawn from multiple sources (lectures, classmates’ varied experiences, emerging case studies, etc) for individual members to take back to their organisation and recombine in the most effective manner possible.

While encouraged to think innovatively, and really dive into the topics from the faculty, the overall learning experience was designed to provide some framework thinking, and allow entrepreneurs to step back, learn, reflect, and hopefully implement real solutions with inspiration from each other and the work from the two days.

Alexa Camus 
Vice President, Camus Holding
Member of EO Shanghai

“Not only did we network with amazing business owners and entrepreneurs, we also explored lots of international and China-based case studies which provided a quite spectacular overview of different skillsets, cultures and problem-solving approaches. The professors don’t just provide structured information, they also pump a lot of energy and knowledge into you. At the end of the programme, you really want to go and change the world!” 

Alvin Chow 
GM, AdV Ltd
Member of EO Shanghai

“The negotiation skills session was a real eye-opener. We frequently have to negotiate with different people in business, but we often miss the wider point of the interaction. It’s not about “I win, so you must lose”; it’s more about how to create lasting mutual benefit. For me, that was the most important takeaway.” 

Kelvin Lee 
GM, Leader Radio Technologies (LRT)
President, EO Shanghai

One of the core values of EO is to have a “Thirst for Learning”. It’s really important for entrepreneurs to get formal training in different frameworks. There’s often a notion that entrepreneurs just like to jump straight in and get their hands dirty, break some rules and ignore anything that goes against their intuition. But when we step back and look at our business through an outsider’s eyes, it’s always a fascinating opportunity to learn. This was two days of learning from the best – from internationally renowned professors and from multi-industry peers. That diversity of opinion, the depth and breadth of knowledge, is what made the two days so special.”