Program Objectives
Innovation and entrepreneurship are thriving topics in Shanghai. With over 500 incubators and thousands of startup companies, a short visit to China's economic capital allowed 35 EMBA student from FFHS to boost their innovative spirit and to promote their entrepreneurial ideas.
5 days, 35 business ideas, 5 final projects, and many company visits and keynote speeches later, our students returned to Switzerland with a new way of viewing problems and new ideas to think about.
Program Highlights
Each student was tasked with coming up with one business model to present to the group and the five pitches with most votes were selected to be developed during stay.
Based out of a high tech coworking space in downtown Shanghai and with very limited time at their disposal, each group had to create a complete pitch deck for their business that would incorporate some of the lessons learned during their stay in China.
Multiple company visits to Sino-Swiss institutions along with networking events, round table discussions and entrepreneur insights were given along with the project work to give students more context around their academic work.
Program Financing
Costs related to the planning of the program, rent of the working space, local logistics, company visits, and events, were covered by the Fernfachhochschule Schweiz and organized by the ICL Team. The students paid only for their hotel and flight, with some students taking advantage of extended stays.
Such programs are essential to complement an academic learning for EMBA students who can directly apply what they have learned in their work back in Switzerland.
They've done it
Jana Eisenmann
"China is so different, but I liked it and it was a great experience. The people are very nice and friendly. The cities are not as crowded as I thought, despite the population density, which surprised me!"
Hagen Worch
"We came to China to see what was going on in this very big country, that is known for its technological development. What we experienced was overwhelming everything that we expected!"
Sandro Canneori
"China has a big future and I believe in Chinese people, because they are motivated and want to change something. I could feel it through the experiences I've had this week."
Ute Eisenkolb
"Thank all of you for the great preparation. Without your competence and commitment, we certainly would not have experienced such an exciting study trip with many entrepreneurial insights."
