HKUST MBA

MBA Sundial Eighth Issue, March 2020

INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM
Read First-hand MBA Exchange Stories

Our full-time MBA students have returned from their overseas exchange. Learn more about Alex’s life at Berkeley Haas, Laurent’s experience at CEIBS and Luxi’s stay at LBS below.

Alexander Ip - Exchange to Berkeley Haas

Weekend hiking through Strawberry Canyon Fire Trails just outside the city of Berkeley

Watching the famous Pier 39 Sea Lions in San Francisco

My exchange term at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business was a wonderful experience to culminate a fulfilling MBA journey at HKUST. I broadened my experiences in Asia with an additional North American perspective to provide an expansive and holistic view of business around the world and to further develop my network and experiences within the world’s largest ecosystem for innovation.

My personal goal for the MBA program was to advance within life sciences and healthcare. The Haas Healthcare Association was among the largest clubs in the Berkeley-Haas MBA community, with extensive student engagement and deep connections to industry. Its proximity to San Francisco and Silicon Valley also enabled a powerful presence in tech and entrepreneurship, with many additional opportunities to cross-pollinate across industries. Berkeley’s good-natured rivalry with Stanford is a common in-joke between the two high-performing schools that leads to additional collaboration.

The Berkeley-Haas community welcomed me as one of their own and encouraged me to take part in the many Haas events, such as mixers, forums, startup showcases, and sporting events. My participation was even encouraged for career events such as skills workshops, consulting case practices, and company visits. I never felt excluded there, even as I drifted between the Full-time and the Evening and Weekend MBA students.

The Bay Area weather during my stay was extremely pleasant, with the Indian summer bringing warm temperatures and sunny weather throughout the term. I had ample opportunities to explore San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area, and I continued my love of hiking that I developed in Hong Kong at the many parks nearby.

There is a vibrant and growing HKUST Alumni community, which welcomed me even as a current student. The community allowed me to stay connected to Hong Kong among the many events and happenings available in the Bay Area.

The opportunity provided by HKUST’s exchange program supplemented an already-intensive program at HKUST with an experience tailored to my specific MBA goals, where I could further explore my interests at another top business school.

Laurent Ye - Exchange to CEIBS

Choosing an MBA was a difficult dilemma for me, as both schools I applied to came back with an offer. Hence, when I decided to join HKUST for my full-time MBA, I also decided to go to CEIBS for my exchange. There is an old Scottish saying: "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry". That was true for me: eight months into my MBA, I started an internship that was converted into a permanent position in Singapore. All my plans needed to be revised. At this point, I might've as well summarised my MBA as a series of dilemmas (choosing what course to take is definitely not a simple task).

Fortunately, HKUST MBA has an integrated flexibility in its programme length that is, by all means, a core competitive strength. As such, being able to finish our studies between ten and sixteen months allowed me to manage my course load to be able to graduate while taking CEIBS’ two intensive courses.

Near the end of September, I took a week off work and flew to Dunhuang, midway between Tibet and Mongolia for a course entitled “Gobi Module: Strategic Leadership in Action.” The main portion comprised of three days of trekking for a total of 90km through the desert (though officially 88km).

Although a large portion of the group consisted of exchange students (as most CEIBS students were on their own exchange), I was the only new kid on the block. Soon enough, we would find that there are multiple ways of getting blisters, including getting sands in your shoes. Despite the hardship, almost everyone finished the expedition.

The family business class was held in Ningbo to coincide with a forum on that industry — the 5th generation CEO of family-owned Victorinox was a keynote speaker

My team and I on the last day in the middle of the Gobi desert where we truly got to know each other at a personal level

What came next was my favorite part: a retrospection about the intensive experience we had just gone through, coupled with a session during which everyone would give and receive feedback (or “gifts” as Prof. Chris Doran likes to call it) to his or her teammates. At the beginning of my HKUST MBA, the “Experiential Learning Program” was one of my biggest enjoyments, thus this course was a natural next step. I would recommend it to anyone, as it allowed me to learn about myself and see leadership and teamwork through a different lens.

The other one-week course I had the opportunity to take at CEIBS was “Ningbo Module: Family Business and Succession”. The student population of this course differed slightly from the previous one: most were from CEIBS and came from a family business background. Although I do not expect to inherit any business, I did enjoy the learning. What was special in China was that due to its history, most family businesses were at their first generational transition so this was the big topic of the day; it gave me a good idea of what to think of if one day I decide to start my own business.

As I write this article, many fond memories surface from my exchange. Although I only met a limited number of classmates, I was able to build solid relationships as we went through these intense times together.

As for my MBA journey itself, the only description that comes to mind is that it was “on steroids”. From juggling a 14-credit semester with an internship to marrying exchange and work, the intensive workload did teach me an invaluable lesson: remove what is superficial and focus only on what is critical.

Finding that kind of balance requires a lot of self-introspection, but people’s confused expression when I introduced myself as a “student from HKUST, exchanging at CEIBS, and working in Singapore” was simply priceless and made it worth all the effort!

Luxi Wang – Exchange to London Business School

HKUST Gathering in London

Enjoying the great countryside in Scotland

My 16-month HKUST MBA journey just concluded with joy and a sense of accomplishment in the city of London. Studying at LBS was a vastly different but equally amazing journey as that in HKUST.

The first 12 months at HKUST turned to be a most rich and intensive experience. The learning pace slowed a bit after we began the exchange. Most of us got the chance to travel around the United Kingdom and Europe during our spare time, which made the last portion of the MBA journey quite a blast before we returned to the workforce.

At LBS, we got to choose three of five elective courses, which lasted from one to four weeks and were offered during the second year of their MBA program. Exchange students from various schools and countries get to take courses with students from the MBA, EMBA and Sloan programs at LBS.

What I personally enjoyed the most at LBS was the opportunity to discuss and work with students from a wide variety of cultural and professional backgrounds, including some who were at the executive level and from globally renowned companies.

I was lucky to be enrolled in two popular courses, where I teamed up with EMBA students and befriended students from Sloan. Our in-class discussion was most effective, and I found the comments from students to be equally inspiring as what we learnt from the professors.

Outside class, LBS also has a variety of active student clubs, which exchange students are welcome to join. Many of us made fast friends at the LBS weekly social event “Sundowner” hosted by the student clubs every Thursday night.

We also have a WhatsApp group for all exchange students, which we used to organize occasional hiking and sightseeing activities in London. It was so nice to explore the city with many other exchange students simply to chat and have fun together.

I must say that the working and communication styles in Europe are quite different from those in Asia or North America. It was amazing that the MBA program could provide this opportunity for us to personally experience these differences before the conclusion of our student journey.

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