On 28 March 2013, Tsinghua-MIT China Lab (Hereinafter referred to as China Lab) presentation was held in Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management.

China Lab program was jointly launched by MIT’s Sloan School of Management and Tsinghua SEM in 2007, when the two schools cooperated on international MBA program, and China Lab was set up as a platform for students from the two schools to participate in consulting projects. In addition to providing traditional classroom teaching, the program offers students an excellent opportunity to develop skills and experience as a management consulting professional. At the same time, it also offers consulting services and advices for local small-and-medium sized enterprises to improve their management. The topics include internationalization strategy, emerging market entry, corporate finance strategy, marketing strategy, organizational structure and commercialization strategy, administrative competitive landscape, and other related consulting services. All project teams are international teams and each team has two MBA students from Tsinghua MBA and two from MIT Sloan School of Management. Every year, Tsinghua SEM would pick the best MBA students to participate in this project. All the selected students have unique work experience and academic background. They could improve their analytical skills and problem solving ability through providing professional consulting and advisory services to the host companies.

The four host companies of the 2012-2013 China Lab project include Beijing Jinquan Technology Co., Ltd., CreditEase Business Consulting Co., Ltd., Suzhou SLAC Precision Equipment Co., Ltd. and one other company based in Beijing. CreditEase Business Consulting Co., Ltd. was a host company for this project last year and maintained good relationship with Tsinghua SEM since then. Eight MBA students from Tsinghua SEM and eight from MIT formed four consulting teams to participate in four research projects targeted to solve real-life problems of the four client companies. The four projects include Management Systems of Regular Chains of Maternity Care Club, Competition Research in Financial Credit Market, Feasibility Research on Global Market Risk Exploration and Internationalization Strategy & Entry to Emerging Markets. This year’s research follows the following steps: first, host companies propose consulting projects; second, consulting teams perform field research; third, consulting teams build econometric model based on collected data; and lastly, the consulting teams will provide advice for host companies to solve their problems.

Honored guests present at the research presentation include LI Jinliang, Associate Dean of Tsinghua SEM, ZHANG Lei, Executive Associate Director of Tsinghua MBA Programs, DAI Yong, Manager of Resource Development Department of Tsinghua University Education Foundation, Michellana Y. Jester, Manager of MIT Sloan School of Management's Action Learning Program, Trond Arne Undheim, Senior Lecturer of MIT Sloan School of Management, and Professor YANG Delin and Professor XIE Bin from Tsinghua SEM. Other participants include representatives from the four host companies, MBA students from MIT Sloan School of Management and Tsinghua IMBA, and previous participants of China Lab program.

In the opening speech, Professor LI Jinliang said in the past five years, China Lab has provided a number of companies and organizations with integrated and value-added consulting services and in the meantime the Tsinghua MBA students have gained substantial extra-curriculum knowledge through the four-week “experiential learning” experience. At the same time, the China Lab concept was widely acclaimed and adopted by other Chinese universities so that more business schools and companies are benefiting from it. After Professor LI’s speech, Michellana Y. Jester, Manager of MIT Sloan School of Management's Action Learning Program, also delivered a speech, in which she said China Lab focuses on building international teams in which students can expand their vision and improve their ability to provide business consulting services. The project is a win-win for the students and the companies.

After that, the presentation started in the form of competition. The four project teams presented their models and forecast with lots of pictures and vivid language. The first team presented its Competition Research in Financial Credit Market for CreditEase Business Consulting Co., Ltd., which is facing the challenge to improve CreditEase's marketing strategy to support urban expansion of small and micro-enterprise loans. The second team made a thorough analysis on the Management Systems of Regular Chains of Maternity Care Club for Beijing Jinquan Technology Co., Ltd and proposed the client counseling concept and a evaluation system based on client need. The third team provided international market entry strategy for Suzhou SLAC Precision Equipment Co., Ltd. after they studied 13 regional markets and provided a widely accepted conclusion based on risk analysis. In the end, the team also provided feasible marketing solutions to enter Brazil, India and Russia based on careful studies of the three individual markets. The fourth team provided international market risks analysis and feasibility studies for their host company. They used their academic knowledge to build financial models for the company and to evaluate the risks related to internal control, financing, legal affairs and technologies.

Professor LI Jinliang (left), Michellana Y. Jester (center), ZHANG Lei

After the presentation, the project teams interacted with the honored guests and judges in the Q&A section. Although the questions from the judges are challenging, the students managed to answer them fluently and sharply. The room was lit up by lively atmosphere and was filled with applauses and laughs from the audiences.

After the presentation, the judges spoke highly of the projects. Trond Arne Undheim, Senior Lecturer of MIT Sloan School of Management said he is delighted to see the excellent performance from the students of the two universities, and believes such cooperation should be a very special experience for all of them. The China Lab provided the students with an opportunity to witness China’s development through their own experiences, he said. Management of the four host companies also expressed their gratitude and recognition of the student teams’ efforts, saying that the project teams used their academic knowledge, unique business vision and professional analysis to provide the companies with effective solutions which can benefit the companies’ operation and future development. Representative from CreditEase said after years of cooperation with China Lab, the company witnessed China Lab’s growth into a mature program and believes China Lab could extend its reach to overseas companies, such as the US companies.

After careful evaluation, the team for Suzhou SLAC Precision Equipment Co., Ltd won the top prize, i.e. “the Best Presentation Team of China Lab 2012-2013”, with their precise and vivid presentation, focused analysis and strong teamwork spirit.

The winning team, i.e. Suzhou SLAC Precision Equipment Co.,Ltd project team, posed for pictures

The event also includes a heart-warming section during which ZHANG Lei, executive associate director of Tsinghua MBA Programs, announced the establishment of the Charles Hwa Foundation. Charles Hwa was an outstanding alumnus of Tsinghua MBA program, and he led the team to win the top prize of last year’s China Lab program. But unfortunately, he died of heart attack before he finished his MBA last year. His parents decided to use the insurance claims to set up the Charles Hwa Foundation to support the China Lab program as a way to pass on his positive attitude, determined career pursuit and dedication to more people. Their decision attracted lots of media attention and demonstrated the popularity of China Lab program.

 The faculty, staff and students at the presentation