May 13th, MBA China Study Tour 2013

After a great weekend at Shanghai, we woke up early in the morning to have our breakfast and leave to the city of Hangzhou for our last company visit. We took the high speed train at 8 am. It was a great surprise for us to see how the train station in Shanghai is highly developed, it felt like an airport!!!!

The train took one hour to get to Hangzhou after making several stops; during that time we had the chance to do the course evaluation. We learned that most of the businesses in Hangzhou are owned by Chinese, in contrast with Shanghai and Beijing where most of the foreign investment is located.

The company we visited is SUPCON, which is specialized in automation systems and serves different sectors. SUPCON is a leading company in the Chinese market and its main competitors are companies like Siemens and Honeywell that we visited earlier in the trip. We were received by three international interns from Belgium and their Chinese mentor. They walked us through the company showroom and introduced to us the products and services they provide, and also shared their own experiences in China.

After two hours in SUPCON we had a traditional local fish for lunch in which we said good bye to professor Edy. Afterwards we went for a nice walk and site seeing at the West Lake, which is considered one of the main attractions in China. It was an amazing place to visit and take pictures because of the beautiful green gardens, mixed with traditional Chinese houses and the modern city in the background. John, our tour guide, told us that it was the first hot day in Hangzhou and we were lucky because it was raining the day before. Though, for some of us it was really `Caliente` (Spanish: hot) because we were still in our suits (some of us incorporated `Caliente` in our vocabulary the day before).

At the train station before returning to Shanghai, we all bid farewell to Fangwei who went home to visit his family. As an appreciation for his help during the trip, the group presented him with Canadian ice wine.

Upon arrival to Shanghai we had our last suit fitting, and then each of us had their own way to say goodbye to China as we are all going back home tomorrow.

This blog was submitted to me for posting by Inna Li, Maria Cordoba and Wisam Haddadin

May 12th, MBA China Study Tour 2013

“Today we were treated to a trip out to Venice… Venice of the Orient that is! The Zhou Zhuang water village is located outside of Shanghai and the trip out there treated us to a view of the rural lifestyle including rice paddies and fresh water pearl farms. The water village itself is a 900 year old man-made wonder of engineering. It was developed to support the local merchants in shipping their wares to other villages along the lake and the Grand Canal. Not only is this a beautiful site to experience, but the shopping here was cheaper as well… We are continuously surprised by the lack of crowds in most of our tours, and other than a few areas of the village that were a bit busier than we have become accustomed to, things were still relatively calm versus what we expected.

One of the options available for the free time in the village was a gondola ride through the canals… 6 of the guys in the group (who shall remain nameless) decided to partake in this and for 100 Yuen, they were treated to an elderly lady paddling them through the canals while they sat back and enjoyed the sites… chivalry at its finest! To top this off they paid an additional 50 Yuen to have her serenade them along the way… just to make things more romantic!

Following our tour and shopping, we stopped at a local hotel for a treat of Pork Hocks for lunch… these were quite similar to pulled bbq pork that we are familiar with at home.

This tour reinforced the extremes in the wealth of the city versus the poverty of the rural. As China continues to develop, there is still struggles that are apparent in the smaller centres.

As we headed back in to Shanghai, we had the afternoon to ourselves to explore… most opted to head to Nanjing Road to enjoy the energy and sites in the area. A large group saw this as an opportunity to enjoy some Szechuan food… the report back was that it was exceptional… starting out with one pepper in the beef dish and ending up with a soup that was 3 peppers hot! Most were still sweating well in to the evening!

This evening our suits were brought in for their fittings, and most were perfect… others only required minor adjustments. This was the ideal opportunity for Sam the tailor to upsell us all, and many of us increased our orders to be delivered the next day (it takes his crew 4 hours to make a suit and 1 hour per shirt… they worked well in to the night to accomplish this and did not disappoint)

After suit fittings, we headed back in to the Nanjing area for a little more wandering (the night time there is reminiscent of the lights in Vegas). We took advantage of the local Pizza Hut to take in dinner, and were quite surprised by not only the ambiance – these are quite nice places to dine – but also by an extensive menu that included everything from pizza to steaks, seafood, etc… more like what we would expect from Joey`s or Earl`s at home!

This was also an opportunity for a few of us to get some last minute shopping done. There were numerous elastic powered helicopters purchased (despite the best efforts of the police to chase away the street vendors) and the evening was topped off with the purchase of a few more handbags from a dark back alley (literally – we all had concerns about entering the alley and set up a quick last minute plan to ensure that at least one of the 6 of us made it out alive to report any foul play… the last thing that was said as we walked in to the alley was “It`s all part of the experience…“) Thankfully this ended up being something that we could all joke about afterwards as we all made it out relatively unscathed (with the exception of our wallets which were lightened a little by the shopping)”

This blog post was submitted to me by Jeff Simpson and Tricia Waddell.

May 8th, MBA China Study Tour 2013

“After a night spent packing, worrying about overweight luggage and cursing ourselves for letting go of ourselves in the silk market, we bid adieu to Beijing and Lisa with the words “Everybody follow the Lisa” still imprinted in our minds. We are leaving Beijing with a smile on our lips for the good times we had had and the better times that await us, little do we realize that there is another suit shopping fiasco lurking in the near future.

The ice is finally breaking and the boundaries are finally thinning between one another and as I wait for our flight, the overweight luggage finally checked in without a hiccup (Yay….), I realize that how much this study trip has helped us discover ourselves and others around us.

The flight turns out to be pretty uneventful with everybody trying to catch up on sleep and we reached Xi’an in relative silence. We are greeted with cool breeze and a warm welcome from Melanie at Xi’an, and we set out for the Terracotta warrior’s site immediately upon arrival. The visit turns out to be one of the most incredible experiences I have had which has become quite a norm on this study trip. The concept of designing one’s own tomb with an entire terracotta army to protect it in the afterlife bedazzled me and people think I’m the biggest narcissist!!!

The warrior’s site visit however was still not the best moment of the day with everybody’s eyes popping out at the sight of the hotel we were supposed to stay in. But Edy had saved the best for last with dinner at the Brazil Steakhouse, a perfect ending to a travel ridden day comprising mostly of fast food. Everybody thanked Edy and Jayne with a round of applause for the amazing trip so far and one of the best meals we had had.

The final thoughts in my head before sleeping were “China, you will be missed”

I came up with the following phrase and only realized how true it was during this trip: “Which ever place you visit, you take a part of it along with you and leave a part of yourself over there”. This trip will definitely stay with us for our lives.

Zài jiàn!!!”

This blog post was submitted to me by Shivang Khanna, Heena Sengar and Sanu Sasindranath

May 8th–Visiting Merck Group

May 8^th, 2013 an exposure of Liquid Crystals at Merck- a global pharmaceutical and chemical family enterprise

On the second day of our stay in Koblenz, we spent the whole day at Merck Group, a global and also the world’s oldest pharmaceutical and chemical enterprise.

We had a remarkable lecture in the morning, the company was founded in 1668, and now it is in its 13th generation of succession, while family owns an interest of about 70% via the general partner. In terms of family business succession, it is common for family businesses to survive less than three generations; however, Merck has proved that the business can be successful in a family way. In addition, we were also given how they found one of Merck’s major successful products, which is liquid crystals. Since 1904 Merck has had liquid crystals in its sales program in order to support science than anything else.

We had the production and facilities tour after, which included the chemical and pharmaceutical production as well as the pharmaceutical development labs. They showed us what production equipment they use in the labs and the processes of monitoring the pills.

We also visited their Warehousing & logistics and most interesting part was the history presentation at Merck museum. In the museum exhibits, there are sets of utensils for making up prescriptions, a comprehensive collection of pharmaceutical and chemical packaging materials, and cases of medical samples as well as pharmacy vessel.

The presentation was followed after the visiting of the museum, which was a fascinating discussion about family business which that gave us a better understanding of family business and how to keep the succession of the business.

As a family business, one of the most important things would be the succession of the business. Merck has been working very hard to keep the company stay within the family business. First, a strong brand name is one of the precious assets for the company. Merck is a high quality brand name around the world since the company was founded by Friedrich Jacob Merck in 1668. The company began with as a small pharmacy run by the Merck family and they produce medicines and chemical products as their major business later on. Their products have very high quality, credibility, innovative and customer loyalty as well, which is one of the reasons that the company can maintain its success within the family business. Secondly, Merck distinguishes itself from its competitors by building their own culture and maintain true to itself. The company’s culture fosters long-term oriented and an entrepreneurial spirit.

On May 10^th, we had a lecture about strategic renewal in the family business during succession. Family business needs to deal with not only the external competition but also the internal challenges, specifically the relationship between family members. The close bonds between family members can be one of the biggest competitive advantages for company’s succession. The Walter Rau Group is one of the cases that we learned.  The company is a family owned and family led food producing company in Germany, however, the challenge of the transition they faced was big and family members are in disagreement about how and who to inherit the company. I still remember how one of the family members defines success. He thinks that success is family members are still talking to each other, that is, strong family involvement and a better relationship are necessary to a family business. A better relationship between the family members makes the transition easier and the companies with close family bonds have more opportunities to outperform than the one that does not have the bonds. That is why Merck is still within its family generations.

As well, communication is one of the key factors of running family business successfully. Family members must encounter a lot of new challenges during the growth of the family business, so they need to talk through and tack the challenges as well as solve the arguments together in order to operate the business successfully and maintain the succession.

What’s more, the business must clearly know the company not only pursue production and sales objectives, but also meet the social responsibility to maintain the long-term development of the business. No matter how the environment changes, the company should remain the company’s social responsibility. For example, the 250^th anniversary of Merck is overshadowed by World War I, the company still held the same rights to the rest of the subsidiaries as we have learned during our tour.

Through the entire tour in Europe, we have visited few family businesses and also had presentations and lectures about family business. A big portion of enterprises in Europe are family businesses, which means the succession of these firms is very crucial to the European economy. Therefore, the transfer should be a big concern of family business in Europe. I believe that the key of the business succession should be family first and business second even though people may have different opinions at this point. The business is not only about the business itself, most part is about the people within the business, therefore, the succession or failure of the business cannot decide by the owner solely. The major components of succession of the business mainly focus on managing the family member relationship and family dynamics instead.

One the one hand, family business, such as Merck can successfully manage their succession plans and keep the family and business harmony while they are transferring the business so that they can maintain the business succession.  On the other hand, some businesses cannot reach the same because they fail to deal with the relationship between family members and hard to balance the harmony within the company. Hence they may end up with selling the company or only survive less than three generation like most of the family businesses.

In short, business succession is the biggest problem that many family businesses are facing and successfully transfer is crucial for every family business.  However, it is not easy to keep the long-term success in practice. If they want to do so, they have to learn how to better deal with the relationship among the family members as well as confront the arguments in order to maintain the succession of the businesses.

Day 2 in Strasbourg

Strasbourg: rode a bike for the first in 3647563635 years, climbed a tree, sort of,  climbed 330 steps.  Ate a frog (tastes like chicken) and escargot for the first time.

That’s just a short summary of day two in Strasbourg on a bike.

The day started early at 8:30 so we could rent bikes and tour the city.  15 minutes to the rental kiosk at Place de la Garde, and half an hour battle with the automated machine left four discouraged would be bikers.  Thankfully, the woman of the group (me) followed the signs and found a rental store not five minutes away.  Bikes were acquired,  landmarks on the map noted and we were off!

First stop was the European parliament, feet were wet to take pictures on the fresh, dewy grass.

Next off to Park de l’Orangie where we admired history immortalized in the form of commemorative statues, climbed a tree (ok, I was boosted up into it, others were much more adept on their own) conquered a waterfall and more.  

We took a break with the best gelato around (I naturally out ate the boys) and stalked swans and storks alike.  The store owner was a sweet lady who came out often to feed what I call the stork. Its probably a heron of some sorts.

 

Hungry, we headed off along the river towards the Notre Dame cathedral along the river, snapping a picture of the batorama we would later be taking with the European Parliament building as the backdrop, something we would later see both on the batorama tour as well as in person the next day.

Lunch was an assortment of deserts (sponge toffee cake, strawberry shortcake, etc) as well as crepes.    French crepes.  They were awesome.

At the cathedral,  we climbed 330 steps to the top, which honestly sucked.  But that’s ok because the view from the top was unreal!

 

This was followed by meeting up with the class for the batorama tour which led us up and down the river, introducing awesome buildings in old town, as well as the European Parliament building from before.

After this was another famous gelato place and a cookie store recommended by professor Peter Jaskiewicz.  Much sugar was purchased (not scheduled to make it back to Canada)

Dinner was at the Au pont Saint Martin 15- rue de Martin where we had famous dishes from the region: tarte flambee (not to be mistaken with pizza), escargot, and monsieur Froggie.  (I felt horrible about eating him.  But seriously, tastes like chicken)

STRASBOURG WAS AWESOME!

If you’re ever In the area you should absolutely visit the town, or maybe just take the whole European Family Business tour of 2014.  It was an unforgettable experience planned by Peter Jaskiewicz filled with new friends, new experiences and amazing things learned!

 

Text by Michelle Chin

Pictures Supplied by Zubair Akthar

May 14 – Sao Paulo

Today we visited Comgas, Sao Paulo’s major natural gas distributor.  We learned about how they are supplied NGV from Petrobras, and then have “concessions” by the government for areas where they can distribute gas.  Their growth strategy is to move residents away from electricity for showers to natural gas.  With a current customer base of 1.2 million out of a potential market of 20 million, they have lots of room to grow.  There is a culture shift required to move people away from electricity to gas, and that is their big challenge.

We then visited the newly appointed Consul General of Canada to Sao Paulo, Stephane Larue and Trade Commissioner Benoit Prefontaine to hear about the efforts Canada is making to create more bi-lateral opportunities between the two countries.  It was a most interesting presentation, and we learned about both the hurdles of doing business in Brazil, but also the rewards for the efforts.

 

A map of Sao Paulo in 2005 – Yes, it’s that big!   

Consul-General Stephane Larue and Trade Commissioner Benoit Prefontaine with the students

 

May 13 – Sao PAulo

Today was travel day from Rio to Sao Paulo. we were all amazed flying into Sao Paulo just how big it is. We arrived and visited FAAP, a major university in Sao Paulo for a lecture with Professor Tharcisio, Dean of the MBA program.  We did a Q&A on Brazil and its challenges and opportunities.

 

We had a free evening and many of us took in Game 7 of the Leafs / Boston series at an Irish Pub in the heart of Sao Paulo.  Despite the fact the Leafs lost in OT, it was a memorable experience.

May 10th, MBA China Study Tour 2013

“Our morning began with a wild stampede of students rushing to the hotel lobby at 5:45am. The previous night, Jayne informed us that the last to arrive would have to write the blog for the last day of our trip. When all was said and done, Marthe and Lorina were the tardiest, and will therefore regale readers with the story of our final day in China when the time comes.

Our final moments in Xi’an were spent observing locals dancing and doing tai-chi in public parks along the way to the airport. We also learned about Chinese preferences towards having a baby boy or girl. In the past, boys were preferred, but now that the price of paying for weddings and purchasing homes for young  couple has escalated for the parents of the boy, these sentiments have reversed.

After an uneventful flight, we touched down in Shanghai and met our next tour guide, John. On the ride into the city, John discussed the difference between old China from 20 years ago (people were poor and happy) and new China (people are less poor, but have many pressures). He also informed us of how expensive it was to own a car in Shanghai due to the price of the car, licence, and parking. The prices for the licence and parking are used to deter all 23 million people from buying a car, because the city isn’t set up for that much traffic; car culture is only 6 years old, whereas the infrastructure is mostly much older.

Since traffic was bad, we arrived at BaoSteel about an hour and a half late. Fortunately, we were still able to witness a raw block of iron transform into a spool of sheet metal. We were also able to tour the “garden plant” (thus named for the huge number of trees planted on the 20 square kilometre site). The tour concluded with a view of the shipping facilities and some history about the development of the facilities since the 1970’s.

 

The day ended much as it began: with a stampede of students being measured for suits and shirts, then a similar crowd of students in small rooms singing karaoke. Before the end of this trip, we will undoubtedly look better, but our singing is still suspect”

This blog post was submitted to me by Neil Kjelland, Aruna Bissonauth, Allan Cheung and Peyvand Turkington

Two great days in Rio de Janeiro

We left our hotel for a city tour at 9:00 am on Saturday that took us to the statue of Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado Mountain. The tram is a 15 minute ride up the mountain, and we got really lucky because it was a crystal clear day.  Normally the statue is shrouded in cloud because of its height.  We learned that Rio de Janeiro translates to River of January.  The Portuguese thought the bay was the mouth of a huge river, and they arrived in January, hence Rio de Janeiro.  Turned out there was no river, but the name stuck.  

From the top of the mountain you can see Botafogo Bay, Sugarloaf Mountain, Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon beaches, and the Formula 1 racetrack.  We also saw the Cathedral with its beautiful stained glass panels, and then traveled to the gondola on Sugarloaf Mountain.  For James Bond fans, this is where Jaws and Bond fight on the tram in the movie Moonraker.  The tour took the entire day, and we arrived back at our hotel at 5:30. 

We stayed in a new area called Barra da Tijuca.  Their beach runs a stunning 17 kilometres of the cleanest and finest sand in the world.  People play footvolley, a combination of football and volleyball, as any other body other than hands can be used to volley the ball over the net.

There was no schedule for Sunday, so everyone relaxed on the beach while the adventurous body surfed the waves; a few sore muscles today but no injuries.  We also took in the “hippy market” in Ipanema, a Sunday market where artisans sell their wares, and concluded our weekend stay in Rio with an evening beach party.  We are now off to Sao Paulo for more company and university visits. 

 

May 9th, MBA China Study Tour 2013

“We woke up and enjoyed the buffet breakfast at the hotel. The breakfast had many more western options than the Beijing Hotel breakfast, but also included many Chinese staples.

We left the hotel at 8am and then travelled to Honeywell for a presentation from the Marketing Manager, Ronnie. Joining us for the presentation were several students from a partner University in Xi’an. After the presentation we had a Q and A and then visited their product room where we viewed products and interacted with the Chinese students.
During the event Matt asked a student how to translate a question he had. the Chinese student happily obliged.  We are not sure how Matt knew, but his spider sense tingled and he decided to run the translation past Fengwei. Fengwei’s only response was to laugh and suggest that Matt not repeat anything he just said. We gathered for a couple of group pictures and then left. Noticeable was the fact that Ronnie was not your typical Marketing Manager; he seemed quite understated and soft spoken.

We then travelled to a lunch buffet with a large selection of foods. We appeared to arrive just after an African tour group and the competition for the food was great. At one point there was a number from our group standing around a circular buffet table and no one was moving. It was a mexican standoff. Except in China. And with buffet plates instead of guns. Finally someone had the idea that even if we didn’t move we could pass or plates to our classmates around the table and get a few more items added to our plates.

After lunch we headed to the Xi’an city wall where we rented bikes and rode around the 14 kilometre city wall. The city wall was bumpy and you needed to watch out for chipped or missing bricks that made the bumpy ride even bumpier. Most people rented single bikes but a few tried tandems. Sean and Marthe shared a tandem and after a failed corner led by Marthe, they switched spots and Sean recklessly (Sean: it wasn’t reckless, it was just exciting) led the rest of the journey. While on the city wall we stopped frequently to take pictures. The best picture was of a police car with an obvious spelling error, the car which read “PLOICE”. Xian, although a second tier Chinese city, had large condos or large condos under construction in all of the sight-lines from our bikes. It was quite remarkable to see how built up and dense a smaller city in China could be.

After the city wall we headed to the Muslim quarter where we wandered the markets. A trip low-light was the most disgusting bathroom so far. Details of which should not be shared. While at the market some people bought a few more souvenirs and many were even brave enough to try street meat and other foods from the various vendors. A popular street meat among the locals was Golden Retriever – just kidding! There was a lot of shopping to be done as well but we were pressed for time. As usual, we had to barter hard for our purchases (Except for Neil, whose dark passenger kept talking him into buying nothing).

After the Muslim quarter we had our dumpling dinner (NaNaNaNaNaNaNa Dumpling feast!) where we tasted nearly 20 different dumplings. Unfortunately the bird flu concerns meant that chicken was off the menu and pork and beef dominated the various selections.

After dinner the group divided into three groups. One group walked back and were able to enjoy the great weather along with a mechanical bull and dancing/umbrella twirling in the public square. Another group headed back to the hotel and exercised and/or swam in the hotel pool. The final group went to a cultural show about the history of The Tang Dynasty.

Things seemed to wind up at a reasonable hour as the morning required our luggage to be ready for transport to the airport by 5:45am.”

This blog post was submitted to me by Sean Feehan, Gagan Duhra and Mike Meldrum