The 2014 Fall IBS Immersion Week was Successfully Held
By admin on 2014-11-26

The IBS Immersion Week of 2014 fall semester was held last week, on November 17-21, 2014. IBS first and second year undergraduates and postgraduates participated in various activities in the Immersion Week including the company visits to three top high-tech internet enterprises: Baidu Inc., Google Inc. in China and LeTV and two lectures given by Dr. DONG Lili and by Dr. LIU Peng on case study method and on internet and business innovation in China respectively.

The IBS Immersion Week is an intensive, one-week and academic business immersion experience held every semester for IBS students to immerse themselves in various activities to help them learn and understand business and management in different ways. Students will visit top companies in China, attend academic lectures, discuss with their supervisors, do research in groups, make a group presentation and finish an individual report in the end. During the Immersion Week, students are able to learn outside classroom and understand business in China.

The Immersion Week Briefing

This semester’s Immersion Week began with the Immersion Week Briefing on Monday. Dr. LIU Peng, Acting Dean of BFSU-Solbridge, talked about the schedule and the discipline of the Immersion Week on the Briefing and emphasized on what students were expected to learn during the Immersion Week. Through company visits and company talks, students were expected to learn business models in Baidu, Google China and LeTV. The Immersion Week guidelines given by Dr. Didier Soopramanien, Director of Academic Affairs of IBS international program, taught students how to learn and do the research during the immersion week.

The Company Visit to Baidu, Inc.

On Monday afternoon, the students visited the headquarters of Baidu Inc. in the Baidu Campus. Baidu is one of the largest high-tech internet enterprises in China. The students had a tour around the Baidu campus. Managers from Baidu led students and professors round the company and introduced Baidu’s major products and services. Questions raised by students during the visit were also answered by the Baidu managers.

The Company Visit to Google, Inc. in China

On Wednesday morning, the students visited the headquarters of Google Inc. in China. The Google human resources manager gave the students a presentation on how Google provides all kinds of facilities and activities to encourage Google employees to be creative and efficient. After that, in a presentation by a manager from Google international department, the students got new understanding of how Google earns its revenue. One student said that he knew little about it before because information on the internet was not accurate but he has learned a lot after visiting Google.

The Company Visit to LeTV

Afterwards, the students went to visit the headquarters of LeTV in the afternoon. The vice president of LeTV introduced LeTV products, services and their competitive advantages among the internet companies. The students asked various questions about the business model and LeTV products and carefully took notes based on answers they received. What interested the students most was a LeTV experience area. In the experience area, there were a living room and a bedroom equipped with the latest LeTV products like Super TV sets. The students experienced a 3D movie with 3D glasses on the Super TV sets.

The Group Presentation and Evaluation Given by Professors

After company visits and academic lectures, the students made the group presentation on Friday. Students were divided into groups and professors were assigned to each group as their supervisors. In the group presentation, the students focused on specific questions about the business and management of the companies they visited or challenges to these companies. The students also need to submit their individual report based on the company visits.

In this Immersion Week, the students got a great overview into three top hign-tech enterprises in China, Baidu Inc., Google Inc. in China and LeTV. They have learned how to work in team and face challenges that came with it.