Review｜2021 CEMS Global Alumni Week
To celebrate the 2021 Global Alumni Week, Tsinghua University's CEMS Club Beijing and University of Sydney's CEMS Club Sydney on March 7th, 2021, 15:00-16:30 Beijing Standard Time, join together to host the Innovation and Entrepreneurial Environment in Asia Pacific Round Table Seminar. 40 CEMSies from 8 CEMS schools participated in this event. We are honored to have invited Professor Steven White of Tsinghua University SEM to host the round table and three entrepreneurs from the Asia-Pacific region: Tsinghua University MiM program class 2011 alumnus Stewart Johnson, Tsinghua University MiM program class 2019 student Uradee Kunkiratiyut (Meng Lu）and University of Sydney MiM program class 2013 alumnus Fabien Martin to share their incredible entrepreneurial stories and insights.
2021年3月7日，为庆祝2021年全球校友周，清华大学CEMS Club联合悉尼大学CEMS Club共同举办了线上圆桌活动，主题为亚太地区创业与环境。本次活动共有来自8个CEMS成员学校的40名CEMSies参加，特别邀请了清华经管学院创新创业与战略系副教授Steven White（白思迪）主持，并荣幸地请到了在亚太地区创业的三位校友：清华大学MiM项目2011级学生Stewart Johnson，清华大学MiM项目2019级在校生Uradee Kunkiratiyut (卢盟）以及悉尼大学MiM项目2013级学生Fabien Martin 来分享他们精彩的创业故事和体悟。
01
Host&Entreprenuers
Steven White
Dr. Steven White is Associate Professor in the Department of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy of Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management, where he focuses on issues related to creativity and innovation, entrepreneurship and internationalization. He has served as founding Associate Academic Director of Tsinghua University’s x-lab, a resource platform and ecosystem hub that brings together students, alumni, faculties and executives to develop the entrepreneurial capabilities in teams as they develop new ventures. He is also an angel investor and provides strategic advice to new ventures. His current research projects investigate the role of entrepreneurship in the emergence of new industries, competition between ecosystems, China’s national innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem, and the management of cooperation in alliances; he has been recognized as one of the top 20 China-based management scholars. Before joining Tsinghua, Dr. White taught at INSEAD and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He received his Ph.D. from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, MA from the International University of Japan, and BS from Duke University.
Dr. Steven White是清华大学经济与管理学院创新创业与战略系的副教授，研究方向为创造力和创新、企业家精神和国际化。曾担任清华大学x-lab的创始副院长。他目前的研究项目是调研企业家精神在新兴产业的兴起，生态系统之间的竞争，中国国家创新和企业家生态系统以及联盟合作管理中的作用。他还是天使投资人，为创企提供战略建议。他被公评为中国管理学20强之一。加入清华大学之前，他曾在欧洲工商管理学院，中欧国际工商学院和香港中文大学任教。他获得了麻省理工学院斯隆管理学院的博士学位，日本国际大学的硕士学位和杜克大学的学士学位。
Stewart Johnson
Stewart Johnson studied in TSEM MiM program in 2011. Stewart is a British entrepreneur and co-founder of two Chinese companies in secondary education and restaurant incubation. After winning the prestigious Chinese Bridge (汉语桥) competition in front of 300 million people on Chinese TV in 2010, Stewart traded in a London legal career for a full scholarship at Tsinghua University, where he met his Chinese co-founders.
In his second year, he set up Alpha partners education, which is a company that he is still working on to this day. In 2015, he set up Beijing's first culinary incubator. He raised around U.S.$500,000 in venture funding, grew quite quickly but then also failed quite dramatically.
Stewart Johnson是2011级清华MiM的学生，英国创业者，两家中等教育和消费零售行业的中国企业的联合创始人。Stewart于2010年在中央电视台3亿人参与的“汉语桥”比赛后，他辞去伦敦的律师工作，申请并获得了清华大学的全额奖学金，在那里他结识了他的中国联合创始人。
第二年，他成立了Alpha partners education，这是他至今仍在运营的一家公司。2015年，他成立了Beijing first culinary incubator。他筹集了约500,000美元的风险投资，成长很快，但随后快速的跌落。
Fabien Martin
Fabien Martin studied as a CEMS student in University of Sydney in 2013 and a CEMS exchange student in TSEM & SGH in 2015. Fabien has been working in Chengdu, China, in the technology sector for the past 5 years. He has worked on developing and deploying Web, Computer Vision & Natural Language Processing applications both in China and abroad. He is currently co-founder and head of AI of Founders Lair and co-founder of and venture builder at Gradients.tech. He was previously working as a VC analyst for Catcha Group, one of the most successful venture builder in South East Asia, with exits such as iFlix and iProperty.
Founders Lair, or FLair, is a free peer to peer platform for founders & startup enthusiasts, which strives to help entrepreneurs find faster the resources they need. His team is based in Beijing, Algiers, Rome, Paris, Oslo, Kharkiv, Ahmedabad and Lagos.
Fabien Martin在2013年于悉尼大学就读CEMS项目，并于2015年到清华和华沙经济学院交换。Fabien在过去的5年在中国成都从事技术工作，曾在中国和国外开发和部署网页、计算机视觉和自然语言处理应用程序。他目前是Founders Lair的联合创始人和AI负责人，Gradients.tech的联合创始人兼风险投资分析师。他曾在Catcha Group担任风险投资分析师，该公司是东南亚最成功的风险投资机构之一，如成功退出项目iFlix和iProperty。
Founders Lair (FLair)是面向创始人和创业发烧友的免费对等平台，致力于帮助企业家更快地找到所需的资源。团队位于北京、阿尔及尔、罗马、巴黎、奥斯陆、哈尔科夫、艾哈迈达巴德和拉各斯。
Uradee Kunkiratiyut
Uradee Kunkiratiyut is currently a TSEM MiM student (2019). She runs Lunique Real Estate Co.,Ltd. in Pattaya, Thailand. Lunique Real Estate and Banyan Tree Group (through its wholly-owned subsidiary Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts) have signed a joint agreement for the development of a new project - Skypark LuceanJomtien Pattaya. The first phase comprises 2 buildings of 60-storey and 31-storey respectively with premium facilities. It features 899 units with total investment value of over 4,500 Million THB . They plan to start construction in 2022 and finish in 2025.
Uradee Kunkiratiyut是2019年清华经管MiM的学生，是LUNIQUE房地产公司的CEO。LUNIQUE和BANYAN TREE GROUP（通过其全资子公司Banyan Tree Hotels＆Resorts）签署了一项联合协议，以开发新项目Skypark LuceanJomtien Pattaya。第一阶段包括两座分别为60层和31层的建筑物，并配有高级设施。它拥有899个单位，总投资价值超过45亿泰铢。他们计划在2022年开始建设，并在2025年完成。
02
Round Table
Q1: Looking back to your time at the CEMS program, what has impacted you the most and helped you?
大家在不同的时间节点/不同的地方都参加了CEMS/MiM项目。当我们回溯这一段校园时光，你觉得项目给你带来了什么帮助？
Uradee Kunkiratiyut:
As a current second-year student of the program, I’ve benefited a lot. The knowledge I learned from classes can be applied to my real-world business situations. Talent Assessment class helped me to improve my current recruiting process, and other classes like Project Management and Marketing also impacts my daily decision making. Being in the MiM program allows me to meet different professionals in the industry, and taught me to speak out my opinion bravely.
作为MiM目前研二的在读学生，项目使我受益良多。首先，很多项目里面的课程可以运用在实际的商业社会中。人才测评课程教会了我如何更加科学、高效地找到我需要的员工；还有项目管理、市场营销等。MiM项目同时也给我提供了机会去跟行业精英进行交流，教会我如何更勇敢的表达出自己的想法。
Stewart Johnson：
Broadly speaking, the supportive network that CEMS and Tsinghua provided, helped me with my business development; Classmates and professors opened doors for my networking and introduced both schools and inventors to me. Even many of my future recuritments were helped by my network at Tsinghua. To me, being an entrepreneur is about tapping into the different social network and meeting different people to see what others could bring to the table, and this program provided the opportunty for me to meet people from various backgrounds.
项目本身带来的人际网络在我创业的路上帮助了我很多。有很多当初的同学运用他们的资源帮助我联络校方，教授把我引荐给投资人，以及后续公司员工的招募都离不开校友网络。对我来说，企业家就是能聆听不同圈子的人不同的声音，而MiM这个项目也给我提供了这样的平台。
Fabien Martin:
The capacity to adapt, is what CEMS gave me, through my exchange experience I had the opportunity to immerse myself in the different cultures and talk with the local people, which made me feel comfortable about going to different places and allowed me to integrate into the local life quickly.
However, the downside of CEMS is that students in CEMS are super awesome, you are always surrounded by many talented and motivated students, but once you graduate, you realize that you need to adjust your mentality and expectation of others.
CEMS项目带我最大的收获是培养了很强的适应能力。通过交换让我有机会跟不同文化背景的当地人聊天，所以就算现在我的工作性质需要我长时间在不同的地方出差，我也可以游刃有余，让我可以迅速地融入当地的生活，也可以让我快速了解当地的文化。如果非要说项目不好地方那就是：周围的同学都非常的优秀，主观能动性很强。但是当你毕业后，你会发现很多人不是这样的，这个时候你就要调节自己的心态了。
Q2: Instead of going into corporations, what made you choose this difficult path of starting a business and being an entrepreneur？How did you decide which industry you wanted to go into?
对比毕业之后进入企业工作，是什么样的机缘巧合让你决定选择这条比较艰难的创业之路？优势如何选择行业的？
Uradee Kunkiratiyut：
For me it wasn't much of a choice, It’s a family business, I don’t think real estate is really friendly to female, but since this is family business and I don’t want to disappoint my father, so I took up the responsibility.
说实话，其实我没有太多的选择，这是家族企业，我也不希望让我家人失望。所以我觉得是时候要承担起这个责任了。
Stewart Johnson:
For me, I always knew that I want to be my own boss and do my own thing, but the challenges were what to do and in what industries. I knew I wanted to start my business in China, so I came to Tsinghua. After attending many events and meeting many people, I pulled together all the resources I have, evaluated the potential of industries and decided to go into the education sector. For my restaurant incubation business it came to me from my personal experiences, being British I found it difficult to find a good western foreign restaurant, the idea just popped up.
Overall, for me starting a business is to think through my personal experiences, determine what i can bring to the table and how I can combine it with someone else's.
对于我来说，我一直都知道我想要自己成为老板，自己做一些事情。但是主要问题是我不知道具体要做什么以及选择什么行业。我知道我想在中国创业所以我选择来清华学习。通过跟不同的人聊天、通过参加各式各样的活动，我认识了我的合伙人。在分析了自己的优势和可用到的资源，我选择了教育行业。很多时候创业的想法都是来自于生活本身，作为一个常年在中国的英国人，没有好吃的、正宗的西餐厅困扰我已久，所以关于餐饮业的创意点子孕育而生。
总的来说，创业和行业的选择就是从我个人的经验、生活触发，我可以为创业公司带来什么以及现有的资源/能力要如何跟他人去配合。
Fabien Martin：
My first business started because I wanted to stay in South East Asia and I have accumulated really good relationships working in Venture Capital. This background helped me to start my first business, which is an accessible data platform for companies.
我的第一次创业也是源自于我之前的生活工作经验积累，我很喜欢东南亚，想要留在东南亚。在VC工作的时间里，我识别到了市场无法快速、全面地获得行业数据的痛点，数据影响了商业决策但是数据的可得性差，得益于工作上对人际网络的积累，我开启了我的创业之路。
Q3: What lessons did you learn from your entrepreneur experience?
如果时间倒流让你有机会重新来一次，你会在哪些方面做得不一样？换言之，你在创业过程中学到了什么？
Fabien Martin：
There are couples lessons I’ve leaned during my startup:
① Choose your co-founders wisely, pick those people who share the same values with you.
②Get something out there! Release the product ASAP, and get initial feedback from your costumers, don't wait for a perfect product.
在我的创业过程中,有两点
① 选择一个好的合伙人是至关重要的，需要选择跟你三观相似的人作为合伙人。
② 尽早地发布你的产品，通过MVP（最小化可实行产品）用最快的速度来接触用户，收集用户反馈，再来改进产品，不要执着于创造一个完美的产品。
Uradee Kunkiratiyut：
Keep studying, what you’ve learned can actually apply to business world. After learning Talent Assessment class last semester, I introduce Big Five Assessment for company’s recruitment process, which improve the efficiency of recruitment.
坚持学习,保持好奇心。通过学习获取的新知识真的能很好地在商业世界里面帮助你。比如，通过上学期的人才测评课程，我将大五人格的测试引入了公司的招聘流程中，提高了公司人才招聘的效率和人才匹配程度。
Stewart Johnson：
①When your competitior go low then you go high. Don't drag yourself too much into competition, focus on what you are doing；
To address more on what Fabien said, which resonate me a lot:
②Choose co-founders or people who you work with wisely. If you can't see yourself working with them for your whole life, don't work with them for a day.
③Launch the product quickly and then change it to fit market demand. I spent months developing our APP and I was obsessed on what’s useful for users but is that really what users needed? Foucing on what you consumer needs instead what you think they want.
④ The idea is worth nothing, the execution is the key point.
① 专注于自己正在做的事情，在竞争很激烈的环境下，不要跟竞争者同流合污；
我非常赞同Fabien的说法，一些细节的地方我想进行补充:
② 选择一个好的合伙人和好的同时很重要。如果你无法想象跟Ta共事一辈子，那连一天都不要跟Ta共事
③ 不要一味的想着什么是有用的、客户想要什么，更要重视视客户需要什么。我曾经浪费了很多时间在绞尽脑汁想什么对用户有用，而忽略了什么是用户需要的。应该要快速研发，然后根据客户需求快速迭代；
④ 想法不重要，执行才是关键，需要付诸实践而不是夸夸其谈。
03
Q&A
Q1: We have very different backgrounds and are in different industries. What do you see as being interesting to look into for the future?
我们有不同的背景和不同的行业。您认为未来可以更多去关注的是什么？
Stewart Johnson:
I think remote workforce and education are very interesting. My business model is B2B not B2C and my clients are school not individual customers. Schools, universities are dinosaurs. They don't move very fast, but if you can build solutions for schools that can be quickly adopted, then that's gonna be very interesting. Otherwise they'll lose all their enrollment. Students are going to start just getting Micro credits everywhere and then packaging that for university. And they're going to just bypass the traditional education system. There's a massive vested interest in that not happening. I think that's a multi-billion dollar opportunity, and one which I'll have a crack at, over the next 10 years.
我认为远程工作和教育非常有趣。我的业务模式是B to B而不是B to C，客户是学校而不是个人客户。学校、大学就像恐龙。他们的调动能力不是很快，但是如果能够构建让学校迅速采用的解决方案，将非常有趣。否则他们将失去很多学生。学生将开始在各地获得学分，然后将其用于大学。他们将绕过传统的教育系统。这种情况有可能损失巨大的既得利益。我认为这是一个数十亿美元的机会，我将在未来10年内努力解决这个问题。
Fabien Martin:
I think Chinese are very entrepreneurial and they like adapting new technology to everything. In European countries, there is a huge opportunity to adapt many of these new technologies. There is a huge premium in closing the gap between these different cultures to make it one unique market, there can be a lot of opportunities for an entrepreneur that can solve these cultural problems.
我认为中国人非常具有企业家精神，他们喜欢将新技术应用于一切。在欧洲国家，有很大机会使新技术适应任何需求。而且，弥合不同文化之间的鸿沟使其成为一个独特的市场，将有巨大的溢价。对于一个能够解决文化问题的企业家来说，有很多机会可以做到这一点。
Uradee Kunkiratiyut:
I really love food, so I'm very interested in the food industry. After Covid, people are going to be more focused on health, I think healthy food is the future of the food industry. I also have a protein shake brand in China. During the pandemic, people are more focused on their body shape and health. That's what I would like to do in the future.
我很喜欢美食，所以我对食品行业（例如健康食品）非常感兴趣。我发现就像在Covid之后一样，人们更加关注健康, 我认为健康食物是整个食品工业的未来。我在中国也有一个喜欢蛋白质奶昔的品牌。Covid期间，人们会更加关注自己的身体形态和健康状况。那是我将来想做的。
Q2: What advice can you give to others, how should they make the decision? Should they jump in and become entrepreneurs? Or should they wait for the right opportunity? Or should they just go to a large firm and make a lot of money?
应该怎么做出决定？直接创业？还是等待机遇后创业？又或者是去一家大型公司赚钱？
Uradee Kunkiratiyut:
I think if you want to do business, you need to determine whether you want to earn fast money or if you want to make great products. Great products always have more value.
我认为，如果想创业，需要确定是要赚快钱还是要生产出优质的产品。我认为优质的产品始终更有价值。
Stewart Johnson:
If you really want to be an entrepreneur, you need to have both a good group of people and a good idea. Otherwise, I would tend to recommend that you just work for someone else, because they will be the one paying your salary and you can still learn a lot from their mistakes. Basically, they are paying for their mistakes and you are getting all the knowledge.
如果真的想成为一名企业家，除非你拥有一群优秀的人和一个好主意。否则，我会倾向于说为别人工作更好，因为他们会支付薪水给你，在收入上更稳健。你将从他们的错误中学到很多东西。基本上，他们为错误付出了代价，而你正在从中获取知识。
The event was a great success! We want to express our sincere appreciation for our three guest speakers for sharing their experiences generously and special thanks to professor White for hosting, as well as to the 40 CEMSies that participated with vigor. We also want to thank CEMS Club Sydney for cooperating with us for this event, without whom the success of this event couldn't have been possible! Lastly, we would like to thank everyone for joining us, we hope you took something away from this event, and if you have any questions and comments, please contact us at Tsinghua University CEMS Club Bejing.
圆桌分享会在热切的讨论中圆满结束了。本次活动在悉尼大学CEMS Club的鼎力支持下顺利地开展，期待后续能一起合作更多的精彩活动。同学们纷纷对三位嘉宾的倾情分享表示感谢，并表示收获满满，期待清华大学CEMS Club在未来能够凝聚更多校友的力量，为CEMSies勾勒出华美的乐章。
END
清华经管学院开创的管理硕士项目（Master in Management，简称MiM）是中国推出的第一个MiM学位项目。本项目定位于培养学生的领导力、综合管理能力和分析能力，为全球企业、政府以及国际组织培养未来的管理者和领导者。近年来，项目致力通过一系列管理分析课程不断拓展和完善学生的知识结构，提升管理实践环节的要求和训练强度。项目实行中英文双语教学。
2011年，清华经管学院正式加入管理硕士国际联盟 (CEMS)，成为CEMS在中国大陆的唯一成员学院。基于学生对成员院校开设的CEMS项目教学质量、教学管理与服务、学生活动、职业发展资源等综合评估，2018年，清华经管学院荣获管理硕士国际联盟（CEMS）2017-2018学年最佳院校（CEMS School of the Year 2017-2018）奖项。项目学生通过申请，于第二学年前往1-2所CEMS成员院校进行交换，符合CEMS考核条件的学生可同时获得全球认可的CEMS管理硕士证书。
此外，项目学生还能够参加清华大学经济管理学院管理硕士（Tsinghua SEM MiM）—法国巴黎高等商学院管理硕士（HEC MiM）双学位项目。
管理硕士国际联盟（以下简称CEMS）成立于1988年，起源于欧洲，是一个汇聚了全球顶尖商学院、跨国公司和非盈利组织的战略联盟，致力于培养多语种、多文化融合的全球商业化背景下的责任型领导。CEMS仅在每个国家选择一所顶尖管理学院作为成员。清华经管学院于2011年正式加入管理硕士国际联盟，成为该联盟在中国大陆的唯一成员院校。截至目前，CEMS共有33所成员院校，覆盖全球各大洲，拥有近70家跨国企业和7个非盈利组织合作伙伴。CEMS国际管理硕士项目在《金融时报》(Financial Times Ranking)、《经济学人》（The Economist Ranking）、QS全球管理硕士排名(QS Masters in Management Rankings)中均位列全球前十。历年毕业生累计超过1万4千人，来自85个不同的国家和地区，当前分布在75个国家就职，就职领域覆盖咨询、金融服务、科技、消费品、医疗健康、政府组织等行业。