In the early hours of August 25, sixteen people found their paths converging momentarily at the airport. It was a symbolic start for the newest cohort of students from the Global Business Studies program as they prepared to embark on their orientation trip to Tokyo. Those six days presented an opportunity to gain rare insight into various financial corporations and government offices. Unbreakable bonds were formed among them, who would be classmates, study partners and most importantly – friends who have become as close-knitted as a family.
The tour around Ishikawa Brewery and a Q&A session with its current president marked the beginning of the corporate visits in Tokyo. Unlike Asahi and Suntory, Ishikawa Brewery is a microbrewery and thus has different business systems and target markets, which created a unique opportunity for students to find out how microbreweries compete against larger firms with their management and marketing strategies.
In essence, a brief but personal visit to Ishikawa Brewery revealed the trends and performance of the beer and sake industry in Japan. It provided the students a profound glimpse of the management strategies implemented by the brewery, especially on how family businesses are maintained, in a traditional industry that requires a high level of craftsmanship.
The visit to Keio University comprised of a lecture delivered by Dr. Mitsuhashi whose expertise is in macro organizational behavior, a real-life case analysis, followed by a group presentation.
It was the first taste of a case competition for most of the students when they were presented with the task of devising solutions for a local Hong Kong product entering into the Japanese market. Due to time constraints, their research remained quite shallow, yet most students managed to garner an overall gist of the current market landscape and formulated feasible expansion plan for the product into a foreign market. The visit not only gave students a taste of applying marketing strategies, but also introduced them an array of skills and techniques which would enhance work efficiency and team productivity.
The students were given an overview of the operations and challenges of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Tokyo by Mr. Tsui, its Deputy Representative. Having been told that Hong Kong’s attractiveness was diminishing over the past years, it was enlightening to understand the reasons behind this trend. The major misconception is that Hong Kong is being “mainlandized”, thus losing its East-meets-West characteristic.
A thought-provoking question was raised near the end of the presentation – What makes Hong Kong special? All students had failed to recall that Macau is also a Special Administrative Region. It happened that Hong Kong was always the first to spring in mind whenever they were asked to think of an international city. In short, this visit consolidated the students’ belief that a prosperous career lies in front of them as a student of CUHK Global Business Studies.
The visit to the Tokyo Stock Exchange was an exceptional experience. It was shocking to the students that despite the economic downturn in Japan, there were still quite a number of listed companies on the stock exchange.
The representative of the Tokyo Stock Exchange delivered the students a highly informative lecture, introducing the new JPX-Nikkei 400 Index and its recent enhancement. The lecture was more than insightful and shed new light on how to understand the stock markets and exchanges.
A particularly memorable activity was the simulation online trading game, in which students attempted to raise the highest total equity. Aside from increasing their understanding of the function of sales and trading, they also experienced the unpredictability associated with investment.
The visit to the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation was definitely the highlight of the orientation trip. The students were welcomed and escorted by a number of staff from the bank, including Mr. Hosomi and Mr. Tsuru, who were the General Manager of the Global Business Planning Department and Head of Asia Strategy Department respectively.
The talk delivered by the guest speakers offered the students an insight into how the banks responded to undesirable business climates. It was mind-opening to understand how SMBC has attempted to tackle the stagnant growth in deposits and loans.
A networking session with young employees from the bank’s rotational program followed. Aside from technical knowledge, students learnt that interpersonal and other professional skills, including etiquette and attitude, and the ability to think with a global mindset, are equally important.
