The 2008 Tsinghua MBA Orientation Opening Ceremony & Leadership Forum was held at Tsinghua SEM on September 5, 2008. The one-week orientation, which includes various activities such as outdoor expansion, role playing, scene simulation, case studies and other experience-based training will provide participants opportunities from which they can systemically get knowledge of the basic skillsrequired by being a professional manager, enjoy Tsinghua MBA’s culture, and improve their communication skills and commercial awareness as well. The 2008 orientation which lasts for one week will see participation of more than 400 freshmen of 2008 Tsinghua MBA.

In the fall semester of 2008, 50 oversea students from over 10 countries join in the family of Tsinghua MBA, and they will spend two-year study life at Tsinghua, beginning with the orientation for freshmen. Among the students of international MBA programs in the 2008 fall semester, oversea students account for 52%, and respectively come from 13 nations.

Among more than 50 national colleges with the qualification of providing MBA courses, Tsinghua University was the first one to launch orientation for the newly enrolled students in 1999. For every orientation, there is a theme, or an emphasis on some concept or idea. This year’s theme is “Perfected through competition, strengthened through teamwork”. Through promoting the theme, it can stress the training of the competitive sense of “being brave in challenge and having courage to be the first”; through “both in words and deeds”, it persuades the students to strengthen the leadership training in “performance, appeal and influence” and other aspects; through “Perfected through competition, strengthened through teamwork”, it can call on the attitude to pursue excellence, to establish the study mission of “placing oneself in the market freely, facing competition, and developing economy by their own efforts”.

Yang Bin, Associate Dean of Tsinghua SEM, and Mao Donghui, Executive Director of the MBA Program, inaugurated the 2008 MBA orientation. Cheng Jun, General Director of the 2008 orientation and chairman of MBA Student Association, and Cao Yihui, on behalf of all the 2008 freshmen, respectively gave a speech at the session.

Shenzhen Clou Electronics Co. Ltd and the British Association of Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) were the sponsors of this orientation for freshmen. Zeng Yongchun, Vice president of Clou Electronics Group, Han Bing,manager of CIMA North China business development, Zhang Xina, education market development manager, MBA and EMBA alumni representatives, Tsinghua student organizations and Chinese MBA Beijing Union representatives were invited to attend the opening ceremony.

The forum with the theme of “leadership” was carried out right after the opening ceremony of 2008 orientation. Professor Lu Xiangqian, from the Department of Innovation and Entrepreneurship of Tsinghua SEM, hosted this forum. The attendees were Luo Jianfan, CEO of the PacLantic Co., Ltd., Guo Yiguang, the Strategy Director of Ogilvy Digital, senior adviser Yang Lei and human resources expert Gary Hopwood from Northern Light Venture Capital.

(Special thanks to MBA Center)