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Stanford GSB News

 

Study Trips Explore Australia, China

January 2007

STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS—Each year, MBA student trips offer a brief but intensive learning experience in parts of the world of interest to Business School students. Alumni or classmates who have previously worked or studied in the countries involved may help students arrange meetings with leaders of major corporations and nonprofit agencies, as well as governmental leaders. Here are some observations from students who participated in trips in December 2006.

Australia
Daniel Wiser, MBA ‘07

Australia is a curious place, and an ideal setting to spend ten days learning about business with GSB classmates, meeting with several of Australia's leading companies including Cochlear, the firm that  pioneered the development of the bionic ear and has since become a global success story for Australian business.

The company has kept the original design of the inner ear implant and has provided improvements over time by innovating the outer ear piece. By removing a major customer fear of being permanently saddled with outdated technology, Cochlear has been able to generate tremendous trust with customers.

We also met the new CEO of Woolworth's, Australia's largest retail chain and largest employer. He explained being Australia's "largest" company in three fields-grocery retailing, liquor sales, and holder of gambling licenses-can at times provide management challenges."

One of the most impressive examples of leadership conveyed on the trip was our poolside talk with John Tanzer, the executive director of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Picture yourself in your hometown with posters plastered on telephone poles with your photo and the word "WANTED" centered above your head. Tasker faced just that, having been given the unpalatable task of protecting the largest living organism known to man (1,200 miles of reef) in a highly charged political and business environment.

Facing death threats from some of Australia's 3,000 commercial fisheries, Tasker forged ahead and ratified legislation that re-zoned the Great Barrier Reef to limit fishing and damage to the coral. It was almost hard to believe that the incredibly laid-back, humble guy sitting before us was helping save the planet and protect one of the world's most biodiverse ocean landscapes.

Tasker's unassuming character typified the Australian do-gooder. His accomplishments left me hopeful of the positive things that might come out of Australia's environmental policy. Of course, the trip provided a great number of fun social times too. We spent New Year's Eve. schmoozing with Dean Robert Joss and Stanford alumni at Sydney's trendy Bungalow 8 lounge, before boarding a yacht for the evening. We toured around what must be the most beautiful harbor in the world, watching the fireworks over the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.


China

Olivier Belzile, MBA ’08, 
and
Sam Singh, MBA ‘07

So there we were staring at one of the world's most spectacular skylines from the manicured backyard lawns of the Governor's residence in Hong Kong-a dwelling that has enough history and intrigue to merit a book by itself. Uniformed waiters brought us cocktails as we walked around wondering how many heads of state had been through here before us and what sort of conversations took place.

The theme for the evening was "China Red” and it dawned on us that this was officially the last evening of the trip and that in the ten preceding days, so much had happened that would stay with all of us forever.

We had started in Beijing where Day one included a visit to the offices of Baidu (The Google-beating Chinese uber-search engine), China Mobile (the world's largest cell phone service provider) and Lenovo (the Chinese firm that commands a large part of personal computing industry following its takeover of IBM's laptop division). Dinner with alums from Google China rounded off the day nicely.

Day two took us from technology to politics. We started at the Ministry of Commerce chatting with the official in charge of-among other things-the U.S-Sino trade relationships. From there, we went straight to the U.S. Embassy - getting perspectives from both sides on the same day! We must add that we were really impressed by the savvy and professionalism that the Chinese politicians showed and by the depth of their knowledge.

Flying out of Beijing in a driving snowstorm, we made it to Shanghai in time to enjoy a blowout New Year's Eve party. More than 60 of us watched the fireworks go off and danced the night away at "Attica," in one of the most memorable settings you can conceive.

The daytime highlight of our Shanghai trip had to be the meeting with Mayor Han Zheng-a person who is said to be the likely next premier of the nation who discussed his perspectives as leader of China’s financial capital and answered questions from Professors Mark Leslie and Baba Shiv

As we eventually made our way to Hong Kong, we were treated to an amazing political contrast in the form of a meeting with the Chief Executive of Hong Kong at his residence, the Governor's House. Donald Tsang's political views are seemingly a world away from those of Mayor Han Zheng of Shanghai. Yet at the same time, the two men both maintain a striking similarity in purpose, mainly to maintain and grow their cities while steering them in the direction of a prosperous, integrated and unified China.

Later we discussed the state of Chinese manufacturing with William Fung, CEO of Li & Fung. We debated Asian fiscal policy with the head of the Hong Kong monetary authority. We dodged 40-foot shipping containers on the docks of the world busiest container port. We rode sampan boats through Hong Kong's famous waterways. We drank at the Ice Bar in fur coats. And on the last day of the trip, with Thomas Tsang, MBA2, as our impromptu tour guide, we walked the grounds of the Governor's house in our glorious "China Red."

From Beijing to Shanghai to Hong Kong, we all shared in a once-in-lifetime experience. Our group represented a slew of different citizenships: Chinese, American, Canadian, Egyptian, French, Filipino, German, Indian, Japanese, Kazakh, Korean, Singaporean, Spanish, and Taiwanese. The trip will provide all an invaluable resource for decades to come.