I was very fortunate to have the opportunity last week to travel to Shanghai and Hong Kong to meet with Asian executives, teach in the Kellogg HKUST Executive MBA program in Hong Kong, and enjoy Kellogg alumni roundtables each evening in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen. Wow! What a fascinating and energizing week!
The week started with a Monday meeting with Asian execs in Shanghai (by the way, Cynthia Meng K’98 was remarkable in the number of events she was able to set up! Thanks, Cynthia!).
Given all of the changes occurring in the first 10 weeks of the Trump administration, you can only imagine the questions surrounding President Trump, tariffs, China-US relations, the Ukraine, NATO, Gaza, Canada — and I could go on and on. I will sum up their questions as a genuine curiosity to understand, “What is America trying to accomplish?”
On Tuesday we had a wonderful gathering of the Kellogg Shanghai Alumni Club (thanks to Claire Chin K’14).
Wednesday was the last day of the Chinese New Year (the year of the snake), and I was fortunate to take a tour of Shanghai with Helen He, my former Baxter colleague who is now the CEO of Leaderstyles International, along with her husband, Mike.
On Thursday, Leaderstyles held a fascinating conference at Fudan University celebrating Leaderstyles’ 15th anniversary. The focus of the conference was “Leadership and Becoming the Light.” My values-based leadership presentation fit well with Helen’s overall program for leaders “to seek and become the light for themselves and those they lead.” Here’s a short promo video from the conference:
On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I had the opportunity to teach my 16-hour class on “Leading a Global Company” to KH27 for the 10th consecutive year. “KH” is the joint Kellogg/Hong Kong University of Science and Technology EMBA program that has been rated by the Financial Times as the #1 EMBA program in the world for 12 consecutive years! Judy Au, the Executive Director, has been leading the program that Dean Don Jacobs originated for 25 years! Congratulations, Judy!👍
On Friday night, Cynthia arranged another fascinating dinner with executives in Hong Kong. It was very educational to hear the difference in perspectives of the executives in Hong Kong and Shanghai. I always find it interesting to understand how the concept of “one nation, two systems” works.
To finish the week, Connie Chue K ’09 organized a wonderful get-together with the Kellogg Hong Kong Alumni Club in city center on Saturday night (thanks, Connie!). Then, after my classes on Sunday, I traveled to Shenzhen for a fun evening with the Kellogg Shenzhen Alumni Club (thanks to alumni co-president Rochelle!).
One last note: if it wasn’t for Dicky Kwok, Associate Director of Kellogg Alumni Relations & Development for Asia, there is no way I would have been able to get through immigration from Hong Kong to Shenzhen… but that’s a much longer story, right Dicky? 🤣🤣🤣 Thanks again, Dicky!
