【Speech】Microsoft: Internal Politics, Ethical Diversity and Sustainability Challenges
On Friday 24th April, Dr. Ryan Brading invited Dr. Hedy Ho, Chief of Marketing and Operation at Microsoft Taiwan - as a special guest speaker. Dr. Brading wanted to share Dr. Ho’s management and multicultural knowledge with his students attending the courses he teaches, which are: ‘Organizational Politics’, ‘Sustainability of Global Enterprise’ and ‘Business Ethics and Social Responsibility’.
Dr. Ho has been working for Microsoft for the last 20 years. She was very happy to visit NSYSU and share with us very interesting facts about Microsoft, but also, do three simulation interviews with the outstanding students she identified during her visit.
As Dr. Hedy Ho pointed out, Microsoft follows its purpose-driven mission which is: “To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more”. Microsoft is a leading multinational company which has influential power. It is trusted worldwide and key to its success is transparency. Microsoft has a clear agenda towards the environment. It plans to go Carbon Negative by 2030, and in 2050, undo the harm done to the environment over the years of Microsoft’s operations.
As an important American company, Microsoft has also tried to convince the U.S. president – Donald Trump to stay within the Paris Agreement. It all shows that Microsoft is really contributing to the society. Dr. Ho stressed that “Technology can help the world”.
After introducing Microsoft to the students, Dr. Ho shared with us Microsoft’s recruitment techniques. This method is heckathon. Heckathon is an innovative method, which aims to create an environment where it is possible not only to encourage productive work, but also to identify the potential of new personnel and let them discover what they are capable of. This method is even more effective in groups of people from different backgrounds. On that day, we had students from over 10 countries joining the Microsoft lecture. We couldn’t be even more diverse! That was a perfect chance to use hackathon method - to deal the task that Dr. Ho gave to the groups.
Students were separated into four groups and had to solve a problem regarding, due to the Covid19 pandemic, the cancellation of the biggest event in Microsoft’s history. Each group was given 20 minutes to discuss the problem Microsoft was facing, find a realistic solution and present it. Dr. Ho was not only searching for solutions during group presentations. She was also observing how students interacted with each other and how they used their different cultural background as an advantage during their discussions.
After all groups presented their ideas, Dr. Hedy Ho selected three students for the job interview! We were so happy to hear that the three of them were accepted and offered a chance to get in touch with the Microsoft Team at their home country and recommend them. Students really enjoyed the hackathon method.
Finally, we would like to thank all the great people in the IBMBA/GHRM MBA/International Relations office for helping with organization of this guest lecture and providing us with great space for the lecture.
【Speech】Guest Lecture by Marketing Specialist John Murn
On 4th May 2020, students from GHRM650 International Marketing and IB604 Business Strategy had a special chance to attend a guest lecture delivered by John Murn. The lecture revolved around a subject that draws much recent attention: “How brands and retail businesses are responding to COVID-19 outbreak?”
John Murn is the co-founder of All Hands Taiwan, a network platform that works to increase the availability of insights and information to all professionals in Taiwan. John is also a Marketing specialist with more than 10 years of experience.
John started his talk with an amusing advertisement from GEICO that aroused the class’s interest on brand positioning. He then gave out a short in-class assignment to raise students’ awareness of the importance of Brand Positioning in Marketing. The lecture continued with insights into how businesses spiced up their marketing strategies amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
After having a close look at recent successful marketing case, John drew the class attention to the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on American retail businesses with clear and up-to-date statistics. John concluded his lecture with an open discussion on the potential changes caused by the COVID-19 outbreak on future customer behavior. Different speculations and assessments was presented by students of GHRM650 and IB604, bringing an interesting end to the guest lecture.
IBMBA & GHRM MBA Students Association held the video contest called “Love nature” from March 19th to April 30th, 2020. The whole idea behind this event was to encourage students to think and care more about the environment. It is known that NSYSU is located on a magnificent territory surrounded by mountains and the ocean and full of unique fauna. Thus, it is very important to strike a balance between human and nature. Being an university with global vision, NSYSU is very environmentally friendly and, also, is an active participant in the program Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), where goal 15 is “Life on Land”. Therefore, IBMBA and GHRM MBA students in their videos shared their ideas on how to protect the unique nature and animals in the university, and also inspired others to think more about this global problem.
Three teams participated in the competition: “Gone with the Wind” team which included Le Ngoc Bich Thuy (李珊)and Truong Lam Huong (張藍香), “Ocean Innovation” team with Hua Yi, Tseng(曾華翊) and Liang Wei, Su(蘇良委), and “Tai-one in Nature” team with Justine Pura(傅佳璟). The participants were supposed to shoot the five minute videos that were published on the SA Facebook page. Next step was a voting period which lasted about a week. According to the rules, the video with the most amount of “likes” and “shares” would win.
Each team aims to bring important messages to us. The “Gone with the Wind” team aims to bring the message “give your hands to build it up as a better place for next students' generation” ;“Ocean Innovation” team emphasized the ocean waste issue risen dramatically. According to recent research, 80% Sea Area contains marine waste, 100% discovery rate of micro-plastic in 51 measuring point. It’s time to TAKE ACTION. Any single action can gather a lot of great idea to solve our social problem. “Ocean Innovation” team welcome all comments and encourage everyone to be part of ocean innovation challenge; “Tai-one in Nature” team aims to attract everyone’s attention by its eye-catching video and remind us that it is our role as humans to love and protect our nature and to preserve plants and animals, and all assets of nature as we have been reminded since we were kids to conserve nature.
On April 30th, SA calculated likes and shares carefully then announced the result. “Tai-one in Nature” took the 1st prize, “Gone with the Wind” won the 2nd prize and “Ocean Innovation” got the 3d prize. Apart from that, “Gone with the Wind” also won a special Social Media Prize for getting the most amount of “views”.
All videos are available at our SA Facebook page via this link: https://www.facebook.com/pg/SA.NSYSU.KAOHSIUNG/videos/?ref=page_internal
''Tai-one in Nature” took the 1st prize. From left Justine Pura and Dr. Sharon Wang of Interational program “Gone with the Wind” won the 2nd prize. From left Truong Lam Huong, Le Ngoc Bich Thuy and Dr. Sharon Wang. “Ocean Innovation” got the 3d prize. From leftHua Yi, Tseng and Dr. Sharon Wang. Awards ceremony
【Visiting】A Firm Foothold in Kaohsiung, and has the Whole World in View - Sheh Fung Screws Co., Ltd
Our IBMBA & GHRM MBA combined course, Consulting Methods and Practice, enables students to work closely with several enterprises and enhance students’ professional knowledge and practical experiences to meet the industry needs before entering the job market. On May 8th, Prof. Lin led students to visit Sheh Fung Screws Co., Ltd.
It is an outward looking enterprise which has a firm foothold in Kaohsiung, and the whole world in view. In addition to its global leader role in fastener industry, Sheh Fung Screws Co., Ltd. exports its branded products worldwide and also serves to customers spreading across the United States and the European Union with high-end products. On the day of the field trip, Sheh Fung Manger, Mr. Mark Huang, gave a brief introduction and company overviews, and had students visit its laboratory and factory tours to see how they use precision instruments to examine screws’ quality and make sure the screws will be delivered to customers with a lowest defective rate. We also went to the manufacturing site to see the production process of screws from raw material to end product operating smoothly on the Sheh Fung production line.
The course final presentation will be arranged on 12th June at College of Management in NSYSU, students will present their findings and suggestions to corporates they cooperated with respectively. Sheh Fung Manager, Mr. Huang, said that he is looking forward to the upcoming presentation. Lastly, we would really like to appreciate Sheh Fung’s support over the past years for this course. Let’s look forward to it and please keep following this page to catch the newest progress of this course!
【Interview】Utilizing resources wisely when studying abroad! Olga the travelnista in Nottingham.
Coming from Belarus, Olga Sakhatskaya has taken on challenges of living in multiple countries, various cultures and traveling to different destinations. She first moved to Taiwan for work but later discovered GHRM MBA an opportunity for growth, both professionally and personally. She was the hard-worker among her class, always raising questions fearlessly and putting full commitment into her class works. As a person who has to support herself when living abroad, she learned to finance herself and be budget-wise, which helped her tremendously after being admitted to the dual-degree program in cooperation with Nottingham Trent University.
Before arriving in Nottingham, students will have to face the harsh accommodation-hunting process, and oftentimes, it is even harder for dual-degree students who arrive in late January, during a study year. “You really have to start early” said Olga. Fair-priced and better-located housing options get booked almost right away. Furthermore, most student accommodations seek long-term leases, which makes it more difficult for dual-degree students like Olga. She eventually went for what her classmates in Taiwan recommended and reserved herself a room starting mid-February. But then she faced the dilemma of where to stay before moving into the accommodation and that was when her traveling experiences came in handy, she decided to couch surf to save money. Other than time, one also has to pay attention to price. In general, it is possible to find affordable accommodations nearby the campus. However, the rent is still significantly higher than what people are paying in Taiwan. Additionally, most student housing sites require student to pay upfront, which makes it important to stretch that budget in the beginning.
Life as a student in NTU can be very different than in Taiwan. Due to the intense studying schedule, time management is pivotal. You may have already heard the “module system” in NTU, with which courses are taught in blocks instead throughout the semester. One might have the same course topic during the day and stay on the campus for a significant amount of time. Olga considers utilizing the resources provided by NTU an essential skill whilst studying there. “You have access to a large collection of academic journals, text books, computer pools, software and more via the library, which can really save you the cost what you don’t necessarily want to spend so much. Students can also borrow the fully-equipped, versatile discussion space, so they won’t have to fo to cafes and spend money” said Olga. When first navigating through NTU’s Boots Library and its system, things can be a little confusing due to the varieties of services the library has to offer, but once understanding it, the library serveices are great helps to NTU students.
During her stay in Nottingham, it was unfortunate that the United Kingdom suffers from the COVID-19 (Wuhan virus) outbreak. Reacting to the ongoing pandemic, Nottingham Trent University allocated its online resources in order to continue providing its students the education. Along with the top-tier environment and equipments the school provides, Olga couldn’t be happier for her decision of joining the NSYSU GHRM MBA - NTU dual-degree program. “Maybe the university won’t tell you what they offer, but being graduate students, to understand what resources you can get and to utilize them are the quintessential lesson you have to learn”.
【Interview】Love Nature Video Contest Social Media Prize Winner: “Gone with the wind”–Sam & Mashi
We are very glad to have the chance to introduce “Gone with the wind” team regarding our “Love Nature” video contest, our GHRM MBA student Le Ngoc Bich Thuy (Sam)and IBMBA student Truong Lam Huong (Mashi) team video not only won a second prize but also a special Social Media Prize for getting the most amount of “views”. Let’s discover how they create the creative video and messages they aim to bring to our society.
“I bring cashew nuts for monkeys every time I do hiking. I love the connection and interaction I have with them. For me, I don’t feel any threat or uncomfortable. They are quite nice and patient, very cute in the way they ask for more nuts”. Mashi said.
Since I started to study at NSYSU in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, I heard a lot of comments about how naughty and aggressive the monkeys here are. But I do not mind much. I noticed that monkey often come down in the morning, waiting outside of the tunnel, where many students and people walk through this way to enter the school. They will try to catch some food from students’ breakfast. People often put food inside their bags and walk pass by them quickly to avoid troubles. For me, whenever I see a monkey there and if I have something with me, I will give it to them. It might violate the school’s rules as you will see the sign there, and friends often make fun of me or warning me not to feed them anymore. But actually, I don’t see them often, just sometimes, and I don’t mind to feed them some small snacks if I have as long as we are cautious and can keep ourselves safe.
Monkeys therefore become our unique icon in this university. It does not matter what concepts people have in their minds about them, maybe good, maybe bad, but I know it’s always there and play an indispensable role in our areas. So we came up with the idea that we need to have a monkey as a main actor in our video, and having a real monkey seems impossible so we borrowed a stuffed one from our Department. Thanks for their supports; we’ve added a great factor in our video.
I saw the monkeys snatch food from other students few times, might unlucky for that person but kind of funny for me. They climb really fast up to the wall above the tunnel after that and sit there, look down on us and enjoy their booties. That’s when we came up with the scene about giving food to them unconditionally or being forced after they chasing behind us.
Recently I and my friend, Sam from GHRM MBA had joined in a school contest named “Love Nature”. Our team’s main idea for the content based mostly on our observation and perspectives since we live and study at NSYSU.
Surrounding by mountain and ocean, the school always amaze us every day by its unique location in the South of Taiwan. It gave us an idea of a must to introduce this great scenario, let people know more about this place. That’s why you can see in our video a combination of mountain, ocean, school properties, bus, motorbike … we aim to make people feel like we are showing them around in a school tour. You can find our video here https://www.facebook.com/SA.NSYSU.KAOHSIUNG/videos/2483352518642349/.
When I have free time, I often do hiking on Shousan Mountain which located behind the school with my friends. I like all the paths for hiking there. They are nice, safe, clean and eco-friendly designed. I always see many monkeys along to the hiking paths but they are so calm and friendly to human. I was surprised when realize that they do not scared of people, even there are many climb up to the mountain every day. They feel safe because they know no one want to catch attack or harm them. The scene you will never see in my country- Vietnam. Monkeys in front of people like that, if not turn into food will be put in cage as pet or zoo. You never can approach them so close like the way people are doing without panicking them or make them feel being threatened.
The more I do hiking in Taiwan, the more I realize that Taiwanese have very high awareness of preserve and protect environment here. It moved me a lot. It teaches me a lesson that when we put effort to protect nature, it is also protecting our future. Mother Nature will nurture us back, give us what we need to be healthy and happy.
I also really love all the big banyan trees that we have around the University, which barely see in my country if you not going to deep inside the jungle. The peaceful vibe was created between people and animal in this area make me feel calm and fresh everyday go to school. From the janitor, hardly sorted out all the trash every time after lunch, to the gardener, taking care of flowers and branches, make them always look healthy, organize and beautiful. Besides that, there are many local people come here to do exercise, have some tea, chatting to each other every morning or spend their time to feed dozens pigeons every afternoon. All of those things paint out nice pictures for us to keep in mind. We want to put all of them in our video, to keep as unforgettable memories for us in next period of time, and to show how much we appreciate what they did, to make us have a great environment to enjoy our studying here.
The diversity of international students at NSYSU also impressed me a lot. Through studying here, I’ve had more chances to meet friends from different regions/countries, and learned a lot of new things from them, share to them more about my country in reverse also. Due to exchange students program, I’ve made many friends and one of them is from Germany that you could see in the video. We became good friends, even after she went back to her country and could not join me this semester.
At the video, you would also see that we collected several students from different countries and suggested them to say “I love NSYSU”, put together in the video. Due to time limitation, we can not show much all nationalities that we have here but just some. We want to highlight this aspect to help students have a general view about our school that might encourage them make wise decisions to join us in the future. And together, I hope that we can keep enhancing our abilities and responsibilities to make this place always being a great place for our community. This would be one of our most important goals through this video.
I hope you enjoy watching our video. Through filming process, we had a lot of fun, even nearly get attacked by real monkeys around the tunnel area because they thought we kidnapped their partners. We know that there are improvements still and will do our best to be better next time, if we still have another chance to join in the next contest.
Thanks a lot for all of your support, caring and kindness through share and comments, helping us get the second prize in this contest.
Much Love.
S & M team (Le Ngoc Bich Thuy (Sam) and Truong Lam Huong (Mashi))
“Gone with the Wind” won the 2nd prize. From left Le Ngoc Bich Thuy, Truong Lam Huong and Dr. Sharon Wang. behind the scenes behind the scenes
【Interview】IBMBA Alumni Dieu Huyen (Class of 2013)
“The professors, who taught me at NSYSU, provided me knowledge, skills, and awareness in the learning process. They also guided me with the method to approach English learning through different research papers from the researcher all over the world. I am extremely grateful to them. At NSYSU, I gained confidence by giving presentations in the classes and obtained more problems solving skills through learning case study”, said Dieu Huyen, our alumni from IBMBA 102.
Dieu Huyen is currently living and working in Hanoi, Vietnam. she owns a small coffee shop in the city. The coffee shop is a cozy place, where customers will be able to socialize in a relaxing environment as they can enjoy traditional Vietnamese coffee. Although her working routine repeats day by day, she feels happy because she can enroll herself in real-life business, be her own boss, and share great coffee with the customers. Being a small business owner gives her the opportunities to apply the knowledge she had learned in NSYSU, from accounting, finance to management.
Sharing about how she found IBMBA, she said that a Taiwanese teacher introduced her about NSYSU. She had been told that College of Management, NSYSU is one of the top business schools in Taiwan, and she has searched our university website then found out our IBMBA. From the Website, Dieu Huyen knew that the program is related to her Bachelor’s Degree, and it is fully taught in English.
In the beginning, it was a little hard for Dieu Huyen to fit in because the course arrangements between Taiwan and Vietnam are different. In Vietnam, she only had a midterm and final exams for most of the subjects, whereas in Taiwan that lots of homework, presentations, tests, and reviews are all counted for the final results. She studied very hard and had to pay attention and put more efforts into studying compare with studying in Vietnam. The IBMBA professors also required students to read many documents in English. This helped Huyen improved her English and promptly caught up with the latest knowledge in the world. In classes, she was assigned to groups to work on different case studies; at the end, she gained many problems solving skills. During these times, she met and had many good friends and classmates, who always supported her.
Dieu Huyen’s everyday hobby is reading online news. She is also fond of designing the Website and has self studied to do it by herself, as a result, she used to work as a Website Manager at VAE language center, in Nha Trang, Vietnam, before entering the IBMBA program. Dieu Huyen loves hanging out with her friends, doing exercises, and walking with her dog. These activities help her with weight loss and reduce her stress. Recently, she is interested in cooking and has signed up to study further in a vocational school.
Dieu Huyen has a passion for tennis. She said tennis is very similar to table tennis, the sport which she used to play as a professional junior player in Vietnam. In NSYSU, she participated in a club, which provided her a tennis training course. Her impression of this club was club members took the lesson intensely, and they were all enthusiastic; it made Dieu Huyen felt like she was in a professional sports center.
“Coming back to hassle life in Hanoi, sometimes I wish I were in Sizihwan (where NSYSU located), the atmosphere there is extremely tranquil and serene, which greatly lives up to my expectation,” Dieu Huyen shared her impression with the campus life.
Regarding advices for the students, she said the graduation certificate is like a concert ticket, the ticket for you to enter Broadway theater. However, it does not mean you can stay there till the end of the concert if there is misbehavior. She also mentioned that no matter you work at a small enterprises or a public sector, you should always consider how much you can learn from the job; how long and how far you can go with that job. Last but not least, Dieu Huyen mentioned that reading is essential and helpful to gain knowledge while studying at IBMBA, NSYSU. It is a bit theoretical and students have to think further then apply these theories into a realistic case in business. This tip may help the students to avoid making mistakes in their future working career.
Interviewee: Phung Dieu Huyen Class: IBMBA103 Finalized by Alex Dang
【Interview】Observe, Learn, Elevate - Jamie Huang and Her HR Career Sharing
GHRM MBA Alumni Jamie Huang
Jamie Huang graduated from GHRM MBA, National Sun Yat-sen University in early 2019 and has since then working at Alstom SA, the French industrial giant’s branch in Taipei. She had always been an organized person who thinks critically.
Jamie joined GHRM MBA as a fresh graduate. “I didn’t think too much into it. I just wanted a full- english environment.” She said. During her college life, career plans never really came into her mind; similarly, she had no intention to work in HR back in the days.
Apart from gaining theoretical knowledge in human resource management after joining GHRM MBA, Jamie looked for internship opportunities proactively and had thereafter encountered her career turning point by taking parts in both Adecco and Tesla as an intern.
From her limited knowledge in HR, to her comprehensive perspective in how HR plays its role in organizations, her mindset had altered significantly.
She reaffirmed her career path after experiencing how HR works in real business settings. “I changed from not being too interested in HR to finding a sense of belonging and achievement in the field. More importantly, the supervisors I met during the internship experiences were the ones I see as role models. They have become my mentors.”
Jamie’s classmates see her as a very goal-oriented person with a candid attitude. During her graduate life, she utilized various resources wisely; alongside her internships, she was also the vice-president of the International Program Student Association and took an exchange semester in Czech Republic after finishing her thesis. While enjoying the exotic scenery in Europe, she got her hands on her resume, applying to multiple corporates. Soon after she returned to Taiwan to proceed with the graduation process, she went on board with her job in Alstom within two weeks. Her entire job hunting process was about two months.
In her job-seeking journey, Jamie was in touch with both international and local companies. However, with all the jobs she applied for being related to international affairs, the supervisors and interviewers were all able to speak English fluently, and thus the interview styles between local and international businesses were not significant. “The biggest difference… I’d say is that the Taiwanese companies are more likely to have written tests during the processes, such as logic tests and so on.”
Being a globally-situated corporate, Alstom’s operation in Taiwan is relatively small. How did the company become Jamie’s first step into the labor market?
“Taking its small-sized operation into consideration, the work load and delegation are not too specific, with which I can learn more.” On the other hand, Alstom as a multinational corporation has all the resources in hands for the ever-changing learning experiences. Among all, cross- country projects have become what Jamie enjoys the most.
“Cross-country coordination can make one go beyond the routines and stimulate ones mind. During the communication process, the cultural differences between colleagues from other countries are showcased through how they work. For instance, the Singaporean colleagues are more out-going, more expressive and talk faster, which can be very different in comparison with the colleagues from some of the other asian countries.” Facing the current project that requires communication with other countries, Jamie considers listening and trying other methods are the keys to success.
What is HR work?
Generally speaking, outside of the management level, the HR work in Taiwan is often misunderstood as solely coordinating and responding to the Labor Act. Even the employees within the company can be confused about what HR works actually are and what HRs do on the daily basis.
To Jamie, HR work is “elevation of output per capita”, just as what HR seniors described. On the practical side, the performance of HR is not as easily quantified and seen as sales operations. Thus, making the most out of the employees became a crucial part of running businesses. With the success of a company, comes with the right HR tactics.
“I wanted to get a more comprehensive look at HR work, which was why I chose to work as a HR generalist.” As current HR Associate, Jamie sees herself diving into the functions as a specialist in the future to face more specific HR needs. Perhaps after fully understanding each function in HR, she can proceed to deciding whether to continue working as a specialist or switch to the HRBP route.
“You can’t force people be what they’re not.” Jamie thinks that ultimately, job seekers cannot play up to so many companies’ expectations. By showing one’s true color, companies can then look for the best person-organization fit possible. However, while being one’s true self, she also encourages those who are about to look for job opportunities: Be well-prepared when facing each interview! Under this uncertain time with the pandemic, opportunities can be seen as rare. Making efforts to the positions and companies, collect information for a more well-rounded point of view will impress the interviewers and will benefit the interviewees.
(Click to see *Jamie’s Adecco and *Tesla experience sharing) ＊Jamie's journey in Tesla: https://bit.ly/2zw7Vkv ＊Jamie Huang@ Adecco: https://bit.ly/2ZwcMwJ
Jamie Huang was the vice-president of the International Program Student Association Jamie Huang took an exchange semester in Czech Republic after finishing her thesis Jamie Huang is a HR Associate at Alstom
