Jolly Lectures at Shanghai IMBA
International MBA (IMBA) students at the Shanghai University of Finance & Economics (SUFE)-Webster Program were presented a European perspective on China’s healthy development of innovation. Professor Dominique Jolly, Chair of the Department of Business & Technology at Webster Geneva Campus, was in Shanghai and Suzhou developing plans for a Webster Study Tour that intends to bring students from several Webster campuses such as Geneva, Vienna and Leiden to China. While planning this future academic tour, he made arrangements to speak to the IMBA students in Shanghai on Saturday, February 18, 2017. Professor Jolly is an expert on Doing Business in China, and has visited the country numerous times. Notably, he spent a full year doing research at the Center on China Innovation at CEIBS-Shanghai.
He told the twenty-five assembled IMBA students about China’s vast scientific and technical base and how these strengths are now turning into processes, products, and services. He noted the substantial development of Chinese research universities, advanced research institutes, scientific articles, R&D Parks, and the explosion of patent applications.
He discussed the importance of the funding and development of science and technology programs that are already successful at institutions like Tsinghua, Fudan, Shanghai Jiao Tong, and Nanjing University among others. Professor Jolly also praised the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the country’s research institutes, such as the Shanghai Institute of Biological Science and the Advanced Research Institute, also in Shanghai. These research institutes and laboratories formulate strategies to advance knowledge, skills, and methods that are eventually adopted by universities and then companies.
When he was visiting CEIBS in 2012-13, Professor Jolly conducted interviews with nearly fifty companies in China to determine their R&D goals. Based on his own research, he said, “a wide variety of global companies, who are not Chinese, have been able to advance R&D projects in China that have blossomed into new processes and products. International companies have adapted or created products in industries such as: cosmetics, automotive, engineering, electronic products, and agriculture-food.” He described other examples of successful development in construction materials, basic chemicals, and pharmaceutical trials—all realized in China.
Students from Europe to Shanghai
While in Shanghai, Professor Jolly met with the IMBA SUFE Directors, Professor Rick Foristel and Chen Xi, to discuss classroom space, company visits, in the perspective of welcoming non-Chinese Webster Master’s students. Professor Jolly also made a close inspection of the campus, the Wisdom Hotel, the convenient subway line, and nearby restaurants.