【Post-EMBA】 “Senior Student” A Model of Lifelong LearningSuper-star Faculty and Mentors CompanionshipFirst Class of Xi Wan Sheng Sheng Shu (Post-EMBA) Graduation Ceremony A Success
The ceremony was held on the evening of February 17 and was like taking a trip back in time to the ancient National Imperial Academy.
Over 50 professional and experienced business owners and senior managers from all walks of life came on stage one by one to solemnly receive the blessing ceremony and commendation from the head of the College of Management, NSYSU. It was just like the ancient ceremony when graduating scholars thanked the Imperial College and paid homage to Confucius at the Confucius Temple as they complete their studies.
The night was the graduation ceremony of the first cohort of the Post-EMBA, which was not only a highlight for them, but also a new milestone in the development of EMBA programs in Taiwan.
The ceremony specifically followed the ancient ceremony from the Qing Dynasty. After the list of the graduates was released, a chancellor of the National Imperial College would pin flowers on the students with the top examination score. Therefore, a flower pinning ceremony was held in which National Sun Yat-sen University President Ying-Yao Cheng presented the certificate of completion and then Dean Shu-Chuan Jennifer Yeh of the College of Management pinned flowers on the “Top Scorers”.
In addition, Professor Hao-Chieh Lin, Director of the EMBA Program, was invited to present a trophy. In ancient times, armor and cloaks were used to encourage the morale of soldiers; therefore, Professor Shyh-Jer Chen, the Head of Post-EMBA, was invited to present a scarf instead. Professor San-Yih Huang, former Dean of the College of Management, presented a hat and a seal as a symbol of advancement in rank.
The first graduating cohort of the Post-EMBA program since its debut at National Sun Yat-sen University completed the year-long, two-day-a-month, 12-course program, alongside their own busy schedule. Students were required to be very spontaneous to complete the program in one year – not an easy task!
The graduation ceremony has a profound meaning, which is to hope that all the students can continue to innovate enthusiastically in various fields with the energy of Post-EMBA.
The students took off their serious work faces and showed their sincere and happy smiles as they grabbed each other to take photos together. They also shared the glory and joy of “Qu Shui Shui Chuan,” an ancient game of poetry played by the literati and refined scholars in ancient times.
NSYSU Post-EMBA Special Feature 1 Faculty members are top entrepreneurs, experts and cultural figures in the industry Practical wisdom, sharing the most valuable experience
Throughout this year’s courses, both faculty and students have gained many insights. In the past, an EMBA was seen as the final destination for business owners and senior executives to further their education. However, with the changes in the environment and the “black swan” brought by the pandemic, continuous learning has become the best way for organizations to maintain their competitive edge and transcend environmental and competitive barriers.
“Many people ask me what is ‘Post-E’? Is it a post-baccalaureate medical department?” said President Ying-Yao Cheng in his speech. In fact, Post-EMBA is the continuation of the EMBA. It is a platform for continuous learning and sharing for entrepreneurs, and a channel for continuous growth in the midst of change. And the Post-EMBA at National Sun Yat-sen University is the most special of all.
Post-EMBA has already started two cohorts since 2021 and has the most super-star faculty lineup of all universities in Taiwan. Professor Shyh-Jer Chen said that, unlike other post-EMBA programs, which are taught by faculty from their own universities, Post-EMBA faculty are all top entrepreneurs, experts, senior media professionals, cultural figures, and famous teachers in the industry.
It’s not easy to find so many industry experts to come and teach. According to Professor Shyh-Jer Chen, the most difficult thing about organizing the Post-EMBA program was hiring faculty. “We hope that the teachers can share their personal experiences; this is the most valuable course. The industry can also exchange with each other.”
In his speech, a student representative of the first cohort, Lien-Hsing Chen said, “These are personal experiences the most genuine currency.” He cited the example of Qisda’s Chairman and CEO, Chih-Hong Peter Chen, who shared in the class how he had turned around a difficult situation of poor business performance through mergers, acquisitions and manpower transfer. He also talked about the hard work of various business entities that are thriving. For another example, President and CEO of AUO Lai-Chu Chen shared his experience with a US government anti-trust lawsuit, the mental anguish and frustration he experienced, and how he faced and overcame these difficulties.
In addition, Director and Chief Sustainability Officer Kuo-Tung Tseng of WPG Holdings, also gave a personal account of the founding of Yosun Industrial Corp. and joining WPG Holdings as Vice Chairman in 2010. The students were also inspired by the forward-looking views of technology leaders such as Ying-chao Yang, Chief Senior Advisor of Electronic Commerce Universal Group, and Li-Feng Chien, former General Manager of Google Taiwan.
Post-EMBA Special Feature 2 “Companionship” by deans and professors Teaching the village leaders, deepening learning and exchange.
Post-EMBA also has something else unique, “companionship”. Professor Shyh-Jer Chen said that in each class, one or two professors from the College of Management participated in the whole process, helping to improve the discussion and interaction. Not only that, they also learned as they taught: “After all, the students have a lot of social experience. We also learn together.” The class size is kept small, to about 50-55 students, to ensure the quality of learning.
President Ying-Yao Cheng pointed out that the students in the Post-EMBA program are in fact experienced in various fields, but they are still willing to return to school to absorb new knowledge, which is a commendable spirit: “They are models of lifelong learning.” The key to success in business is forward thinking and innovation, and the students in the Post-EMBA program are willing to humble themselves and learn together, to follow their dreams and accept new challenges.
One student of the first cohort of the Post-EMBA, as well as an alumnus of the second EMBA cohort, Chairman of Lung Ching Steel Enterprise Co., Ltd., is Chin-nan Hsieh. As a “senior student”, he laughed and said that in the past, he was one of the three youngest students in his EMBA program, but now he is one of the three oldest ones. This Post-EMBA cohort has a range of more than 20 cohorts of EMBA students. At the age of 70, he is still very diligent. He humbly says that he tries his best to listen to all the opinions of younger generations and that there is no end to the sea of learning and mutual exchange. A fellow student of the first cohort, former presiding accountant of Deloitte Southern Region, and current Director and Chief Financial Officer of SYONG-DA International Management Consulting Co., Ltd., said, in Taiwanese, “We are all very serious!” Even though all students are experienced, they are all very motivated to keep learning in the Post-EMBA program, and they all speak up enthusiastically and try to expand their businesses.
The students’ spontaneity was also praised by Dean Shu-Chuan Jennifer Yeh. “They all love to study and to listen to the lectures. In addition, they enthusiastically interact with the speakers and bring knowledge and resources back to their companies, so that the company can become stronger and more fruitful.”
Director Hao-Chieh Lin pointed out that the goal of Post-EMBA is to grow and multiply endlessly, to open up new opportunities for various industries, and to help companies to “benefit the world with beauty” (Zhouyi). It is a mission and a responsibility to help companies achieve sustainable development. We hope that the students’ careers will continue to flourish, and that their families, society, and the country will also flourish, which is the original goal and expectation of the Post-EMBA program.
【Big Data Business Analytics】 Using Big Data for Marketing and Serving Customers: The Key to Staying Competitive and Successful
In the era of big data, the pulse of business is changing rapidly. Don’t know where to start when faced with data? Companies are in urgent need of data analysis talents with business management knowledge to extract the important essence of business data to help marketing and improve customer experience. How can big data be used to achieve formidable results?
Through collaboration with companies in different fields, NSYSU College of Management’s Digital Marketing and E-Commerce Data Case Study curriculum guides students to use tens of millions of pieces of actual market data to express their insights with logical thinking, precisely identify pain points, and verify and solve them based on the data.
In this course, we invited Angie Shao-ting Hsu, a senior data analyst from Far EasTone and a graduate of our own MBA program, to explain the use of data to students in depth.
Data has changed the world forever. How can it be applied? Far EasTone Senior Data Analyst: Defining Key Business Metrics and Generating Hypotheses
With eight years of experience in business data analysis, Angie Hsu specializes in analyzing customer behavior data and driving cross-departmental projects. Her project experience spans strategy, marketing, A/B testing tool implementation, FinTech App product analysis, channel planning and management, and network signal optimization.
To begin, Angie used McKinsey’s modern marketing model as an example to introduce data-driven marketing. Through data analysis and data science models, marking effectiveness can be improved. To help students better understand the operational process, she proposed a “data-driven marketing process”. From defining key business indicators, generating hypotheses, collecting and analyzing data, generating data tools, and finally influencing marketing decisions, the process requires continuous monitoring of performance data.
Among these steps, “defining key business indicators and generating hypotheses is the most important,” says Ms. Hsu, who always keeps the problems and goals that need to be solved in mind. “In the process, we will learn how to communicate and interview with supervisors and cross-departmental teams, eliminate the possibility of failure, and strive to find the key to success.”
Lastly, using the real-world examples of Spotify and Airbnb, Angie helped students understand how to uncover business opportunities from data and how to use data to enhance the customer experience, analyze inactive users and provide insights for marketing and products, and uncover more potential user leads. Data can be used to think, reveal previously unknown analytics, identify unexpected problems, and generate new value.
The only constant in the world is that the world is always changing! Today, data has already completely changed the world, and business data analysis has become a necessity for all enterprises to stay competitive and successful in the digital world. Through this lecture, the College of Management’s Big Data Business Analytics micro-curriculum program has improved students’ understanding of data analysis and allowed students to understand the skills and importance of practical application of data analysis.
(Written by Wen-Ching Liao, MBA in Business Management student/Edited by the College of Management)
【Big Data Business Analytics】 Bakeries, Cosmetics, Automotive Companies, Commercial Banks, and other Industries all Make Good Use of Big Data to Benefit Their Businesses and Meet Customers’ Needs
Big data is really amazing – properly applying it in commercial fields will not only benefit the enterprise but also provide more services that meet customer needs. Moreover, the fields of application can range from baking and cosmetics to medical clinics, automotive companies, and commercial banks!
This year’s “Big Data Data Case Studies” course included participation from companies in the bakery, cosmetics, medical, automotive, and commercial banking sectors. As the last step of the “Big Data Analytics for Business: Cross-Domain Smart Innovation” micro-curriculum program, this course provided students with the experience to participate in industry projects, use tens of millions of real and valuable market data points, and integrate data science techniques as part of practical industry-academia collaboration.
As former program manager Professor San-yih Huang said in an enthusiastic opening statement: “This is the fourth year of the Data Case Studies course, and we have learned a lot from the companies in the past three years. This year’s line-up of companies includes many familiar faces from previous years, which means that our students’ output is recognized and appreciated by the industry. We hope to inspire even more creativity and performance from the students this year.”
Professor Chou-wen Wang of the College of Management’s Department of Finance shared: “National Sun Yat-sen University has strong big data resources and has set up relevant micro-curriculum programs. While working with industry practices, you can also apply for the school’s micro-curriculum program certificate to improve your resume.”
As for the companies cooperating with the micro-curriculum program this year, the digital marketing group will cooperate with Master Fang’s, Niou Amaze, and Dr. Artskin Dermatology Clinic; the business data group will cooperate with Yulon Nissan and China Motor Corporation; and the financial technology group will cooperate with Taishin International Commercial Bank.
Using big data in bakeries, cosmetics companies, and medical clinics Analyzing customer information to help marketing and digital strategies
Master Fang’s bakery was the first to share. It is a well-known pastry bakery whose bread made fresh daily and has been making Kaohsiung fragrant for 30 years. This time cooperating with NSYSU, Master Fang expects to use customer data to strengthen the implementation of the membership system and to provide the company with an analysis of strategies related to connecting physical membership cards to app membership cards in order to develop diversified channels of business growth while strengthening member loyalty.
Established in 2017, Niou Amaze is a start-up cosmetics company with more than 28,000 members. Currently, they are already marketing through hotel cooperation, cross-industry cooperation, and other peripheral co-branding. This time, they hope to make use of data on ordering habits to explore more feasible marketing solutions.
Next was an introduction by Dr. Artskin Dermatology Clinic, which is collaborating with NSYSU for the first time. As a high-quality aesthetic service with a focus on customization, they hope to use the information provided to develop a total marketing plan that will not only attract local customers but also develop remote customers.
Leading brands in the automotive and banking industries Analyzing consumer information and optimizing promotional resources and sales policies
As a leading domestic manufacturer of both automobiles and electric two-wheelers, CMC hopes to focus on promotional resources and sales volume, discover how much promotional investment is needed to achieve the best sales volume that meets the company’s expectations, and use this to optimize the existing forecasting system.
Finally, Taishin International Commercial Bank, which is entering its fourth year of cooperation with NSYSU, said: “Taishin has always been committed to identifying and solving customer problems through new technologies, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence.”
Taishin Bank uses customer images, asset allocation habits, payment records, financial operation records, and various general consumption data to make the most appropriate predictions about the communication channels between financial products and capital needs. They hope to find the most suitable interaction mode for each customer group and predict the acceptance level of specific products and interactive channels in order to optimize the existing solutions. In addition, Taishin believes that corporate practical experience is very important and therefore does not hesitate to provide internship programs to motivate students.
Through cooperation with various types of companies, NSYSU’s College of Management’s commercial big data analysis micro-curriculum program allows students to understand the attributes of each company, the content of cooperation, and the domain knowledge of the industry, which is also the purpose of the course presentation. At the same time, students are able to see the diverse issues that companies bring to the table for industry-academia collaboration and understand different applications of business analysis.
(Written by Wen-chieh Ku, MBA in Finance student/Edited by the College of Management)
【Social Enterprise Development and Research Center】Focusing on Children’s Financial and Business Education: What is Malaysia doing? neOOne Social Enterprise Academy International Visits Taiwan and Promotes Social Impact through Exchanges between the Two Countries
You may not be aware of how much Taiwanese children and teenagers lack financial management and financial knowledge. How can we do our part to enhance the financial literacy foundations of future financial leaders?
What does it matter if children lack financial knowledge? In fact, a poor foundation may deeply affect their future development and path of life!
According to a survey conducted by yes123.com.tw in 2022, 45.8% of Taiwan’s working population is living from paycheck to paycheck or even spending more than their income. It is estimated that there are 4.21 million people who are employed in Taiwan, and 26.3% of them have the problem of “needing to borrow money to get by.”
Therefore, the Social Enterprise Development and Research Center of National Sun Yat-sen University invited the Malaysian neOOne Social Enterprise Academy International to Taiwan for a Social Impact Education Sharing Session on February 14, 2023. Twelve principals and staff from 10 Kaohsiung secondary and elementary schools were invited to attend.
On the day of the event, the director of NSYSU’s Social Enterprise Development and Research Center, Yih Jeng, introduced the neOOne organization, which is mainly engaged in social innovation and financial capability education. Director Yih Jeng hopes that through this event, they can cooperate with each other to localize and introduce neOOne’s successful financial education curriculum modules into Taiwan’s secondary and elementary school curricula to strengthen Taiwan students’ social enterprise concepts, financial knowledge, and financial abilities.
The principals of several schools also explored youth financial education. Kaohsiung City principals Yu-shan Kao Gushan Elementary School, Huo-yen Huang of Cijin Junior High School, and Pi-hui Huang of Linyuan Senior High School shared their views on how to cultivate good financial education for young people. They exchanged views with the seminar participants on Taiwan’s education system at all levels, curriculum development priorities, financial and business education curriculum design, on how to cultivate young people to develop good habits of income and spending and promote care and participation in social issues from an early age.
Why did we invite Malaysia’s neOOne Social Enterprise Academy International? In fact, neOOne Social Enterprise Academy International has been developing social enterprise financial education in Malaysian schools since 2020. More than 40 public primary and secondary schools have participated, with about 800 students teaming up and producing more than 150 business projects to solve social issues. The more students who have access to financial education, the more financial vulnerabilities can be reduced!
Ms. Yasmin, neOOne Senior Partner, said that Malaysia is now adopting the curriculum design, implementation results, and social impact. The curriculum is diverse and layered.
The course design has three main core themes: social enterprise awareness, business model operation concepts, and development of profitability framework. The content is edited according to students’ age level and is divided into low, medium, and high levels of difficulty. Materials are drawn from sources close to real life, contextual teaching, game-based learning, and practical application workshops. With the help of professional guidance from industry financiers, the course culminates in a competition, in which the children actually produce social enterprise plans; some of them are even able to generate profits to give back to their schools and neighborhoods.
Ms. Yasmin shared that in the financial empowerment program topics, students practice sound financial habits and explore the sources of money and income, they manage spending through planning and get income from resource management, and they conduct necessary financial planning on a limited budget.
We hope that this seminar will help us learn from Malaysia’s experience in teaching financial business, and help promote social influence starting from the youth in Taiwan.
In addition, while they were in Kaohsiung (2/12-2/16), neOOne also visited: Ark Shelter Store (方舟庇護商店), Kaohsiung Green Shoots Compassion Association (高雄市小草關懷協會), Shanlin Gourd Art Workshop (杉林葫蘆藝術工坊), Pingtung County’s Coconut Garden Elderly Care Home (屏東椰子園老人養護之家), Dragonfly Elegant Pearl and Bead Workshop (蜻蜓雅築), GWG Social Charity Foundation (善慧恩社會慈善基金會), and Syin-Lu Social Welfare Foundation “Factory” (一家工場), a total of seven social enterprises and non-profit organizations. This allowed us to further understand the current situation, business results, and difficulties of social enterprises in southern Taiwan, which will be compiled and included in future case study materials.
The visit of neOOne Social Enterprise Academy International to Taiwan and their experience sharing has provided interaction and exchange between social entrepreneurs and educational institutions. In addition to broadening international perspectives and establishing partnerships, it will also enhance the diversified learning and innovation skills of teachers and students and promote the development of social enterprise and financial education.
(Written by Li-chiung Lo/Edited by the College of Management)