On Oct 31^st, 2015, the 7^th International Advisory Committee Meeting was held successfully at the School of Economics and Management (hereinafter referred to as SEM). Present at the meeting are members: Prof. WU Qidi, Director of Department of Management Science, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chairman of National Supervisory Committee for MBA Education, Former Vice Minister of Education, and Former President of Tongji University; Prof. GUO Chongqing, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering; Prof. Fiona DEVINE, Dean of Alliance Manchester Business School, UK; Prof. Amir REZA, Senior Vice President of Babson College, US;  Mr. Clas NEUMANN, Senior Vice President of SAP, Head of Global SAP Labs Network, Head of Fast Growth Strategy Group, SAP; Mr SHEN Xuejun, Senior Vice President of Siemens Ltd. China; Mr. CHEN Xiaodong, CFO of HUAYU Automotives Co., Saic Motor Co., Ltd., as representative of Mr. GU Feng, CFO & Executive Director of Capital Operation Dept., Saic Motor Co., Ltd.; and Prof. HUANG Yuxiang, Former Dean of SEM and Director of the Advisory Committee. Prof. LU Peiming, Vice President of Tongji University, attended the meeting together with SEM’s management team, faculty and student representatives.

Prof. HUANG, Director of the Committee, presided the meeting. Prof. LU Peiming, Vice President of Tongji awarded the appointment certificate to the new committee members and extended warm welcome and gratitude to all the members on behalf of Tongji University. Prof. LU briefed on the university’s latest development focuses and strategies and gave full recognition to SEM’s achievement in the development of three distinctive disciplines. He promised full support for the school for its future development and extended wishes that advisory members could provide more guidance for the school. Prof. HUO Jiazhen briefed the development of SEM over the past one year in regards to newly developed bachelor and master programs, and professional degree programs, new faculty recruitment, output of scientific research, and international cooperation. Prof. HUO also responded to the issues raised by advisory members last year on international faculty recruitment, curriculum development reform, EDP internationalization, and influence of “Internet+” on the reform of business schools. Babson College, No. 1 in the area of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the US, offered helpful advices for SEM’s development of new bachelor program on Entrepreneurship. Prof. WU Qidi emphasized the importance of internationalization of professional degree programs, however, she also pointed out the importance of maintaining China’s own characteristics. Mr. CHEN Xiaodong pointed out that SEM and industries should work closely by creating more internship opportunities and developing more application-oriented courses for the students.

Panel discussion followed with the topic on “Repositioning of SEM’s Mission and Vision, and Brand Promotion and Marketing of SEM”. Prof. GUO Chongqing emphasized that the development of SEM should follow the overall strategies of the government and China’s economic development. SEM should face the challenges from the society and create real social influence by producing cutting-edge research. Prof. Devine shared their own experience on the development of MBS’s mission and vision. She proposed that three key points of strategies, namely, scientific research, student services and social contribution, should be included throughout the daily academic activities and operations. In terms of brand promotion and marketing, she thought business school should take advantage of the strengths of its university and made interdisciplinary cooperation in those areas of strength. Sufficient communication is necessary among its faculties, staffs, students, clients and partners, who are the brand ambassadors of the business school, according to Prof. Devine’s suggestion. Prof. REZA introduced Babson’s experience on brand promotion. He suggested business school should invite external experts to review how the brand positioning in three to five years would influence the school as a whole. And a school should combine internal mechanisms with external ones when promoting its brand. The key to success is that a school’s brand positioning should be in line with the experience of its faculties, students, and alumni. Mr. Neumann indicated that big data, cloud computing and Internet will become the core of revolution in the future. This indicates the development orientation for the business school as the development of enterprises also depends on the talent pools from the school. Mr. SHEN Xuejun said that while Siemens formulated its own corporate strategy, they did a global research to predict the four trends of revolution in the future which acted as guidelines for them. SEM’s strategy development could well learn from this practice.

The International Advisory Committee of SEM, Tongji University was founded in 2009. Its members is comprised of influential government officers, entrepreneurs, presidents of universities, deans, experts and professors renowned in the fields of economics and management both home and abroad. The International Advisory Committee Meeting is held once a year. Its main function is to provide consultations on crucial decision-making for SEM’s medium-long term development planning, and offer propositions for SEM’s developing strategy.