When corporate experience encounters with Guanghua's thoughts,

When the wisdom of professors collides with the inspirations of fresh blood,

When enterprises, professors, and students assemble in the IPP,

What kind of story will be created?

What outcomes will they produce together?

Today we are going to share with you

Testimonials for 2020 Guanghua School of Management MBA IPP @NIU Technologies

Part 1: Testimonial from Enterprise

So far we have a good impression of the level of professionalism, enthusiasm and capabilities of the two groups of students. We have regular check-in with the students, provide needed data and requirements as well as guidance from relevant departments and team members. We are still in the beginning phase of the research IPP program, and still learning how these programs will impact our business decisions but so far it is showing that the program will contribute to our new product market entry strategy.

Part 2: Testimonial from Student

Team Name: NIU Power

Team Members: Cindy Zhong, Pauline Marjolein W. Hunink, Verena Margareta Klotz, Effie Ma, Yi Shang

Niu Power has been meeting great progresses in identifying key markets and developing market entry strategies for Europe with NIU Technologies.

The first meeting between the company and the two competing IPP groups took place online on Microsoft Teams due to the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The IPP group “Niu Power” comprised of three members currently based in Europe and two members currently based in China. Thanks to the group members’ knowledge and familiarity with the European market, “Niu Power” took the initiative in choosing to focus on the European market, one of the two targets on NIU Technology’s list of target markets in interest.

The company established its brand not only within China but also outside of Asia. More than simply a technology “start-up,” the company offers great potential in its product lines. A new understanding of the brand who is highly internationally oriented while staying focused and loyal to the Chinese market was developed within “Niu Power.” The group soon dived into a round of close investigations into identifying the company’s potential markets in Europe. Even though the company’s rich product portfolio offers a variety of transportation electronics in the market, there lies greater potential in breaking into the E-bike market in seemingly smaller but strikingly promising markets, like the Netherlands and Belgium, which were not specifically on the company’s targeting radar.

The IPP project greatly helped the group members gain insights into how a company operates internally with its various functional divisions as well as externally facing distributors, customers, and regional regulations. The group has gained the ability to apply learned theories and frameworks from University curriculum into practice, with helpful guidance from the professor from Guanghua and company representatives from NIU Technologies.

Thanks to the project, students have been able to uncover and fine-tune a clear picture of the kind of company to look for in future job hunting.

Part 3: Testimonial from Professor

Professor Lei Ying, Department of Marketing, Guanghua School of Management

It is the first time I took part in the Integration Program. It is a very special and meaningful way of practice. In this program, students went to businesses and looked at the market with the aim of fulfilling the current demands and solving problems the businesses have. Theories and skills have been integrated into the process where they communicate with heads of different corporate projects. The diversity of their career and cultural backgrounds makes the way they group and build analytical frameworks very unique. I think this is another aspect how the program is interesting. I can see the different working styles of the two teams and I was impressed by the research methods, suggestions they offered to the research subjects, and research results inspired by different ways of thinking.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, members of each team are staying at home in different countries. They are in different time zones. It is quite a challenge to even convene an online meeting, sometimes very late at night.

I hope the two teams maintain intensive communications with the business and make full use of available information and resources. I am looking forward to more brilliant performance over the following days.

About IPP

The Integrated Practicum Project (IPP) is a required course for full-time and international MBA classes at Guanghua School of Management, Peking University. It is an education-industry partnership aimed at building a practice platform to help solve the practical problems at enterprises and improve the comprehensive management skills of MBA students. The basic framework of the IPP, an experiential course, is as follows: After completing the core courses, students go to the selected enterprises in teams to carry out business projects under the guidance of professors. They need to come up with proposals and hand over consulting reports to the enterprises and professors. Each project revolves around a real-world topic designed and provided by a particular enterprise based on its own needs in order to solve actual problems. In the IPP, the teams can provide strategic, marketing, human resources, financial, and other solutions to help address the management problems of enterprises in transition and devise business plans for the development of startups or growing enterprises.