The College of Management’s ACT Global Business Management Program is a multinational program offered in collaboration with Johannes Kepler University in Austria and the University of Victoria in Canada. Since its establishment in 2005, the program has been well received by students and has produced many management professionals with international mobility. Participating students move from Canada to Taiwan to Austria within 9 months. In addition to understanding the management characteristics, business background, policies, and strategies of each region, participants will also learn management-related knowledge in a step-by-step manner. They will also be assigned to different student groups in the three regions to train them to quickly adapt to the working patterns of different teams and to communicate more effectively. However, due to pandemic and different norms of disease prevention in different countries, the Taiwan module is once again taught online this year. An online opening event was held on November 22. This year, there are 33 students from 11 different countries, including the United States, Nigeria, Canada, Taiwan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Netherlands, Thailand, Austria, and Germany, adding cultural diversity to the cross-country course designed of regional business management in three continents.
The opening ceremony of the ACT Taiwan module was held by the College of Management’s Office of International Exchange team and was started off by the Office’s director, Professor Mia Hsiao-Wen Ho. Director Ho said the ACT program provides an opportunity to learn from peers from around the world, and she hopes that students of the program can gain an enriched international perspective and develop their Cultural Intelligence Quotient while gaining business management expertise.
After the warm words of encouragement and blessings from the director, her colleagues from the Office of International Exchange introduced the course curriculum, faculty, and the list of student groups for the Taiwan module. Although the students are unfortunately not able to visit Taiwan to experience the spirit and warmth of NSYSU’s people first hand, nor are they able to visit Taiwanese companies and experience the local culture, the Office of International Exchange and the module instructors still strive to break through barriers by inviting experts, scholars, and experienced entrepreneurs to teach them by example, bringing the unity of practice and theory into the online classroom. For example, in the course “The Asian Business Context,” Dr. Hedy Ho, Director of Category Management and Device Partner Solution Sales for Microsoft Asia Pacific, will lead the students to discuss the importance and development of digital transformation. Mr. Ken Chuang, CEO of Rainmaking Innovation, will share with students how to prepare innovation teams for ever-changing industry trends during the course “Innovation and Entrepreneurship.” A total of six leaders from industry and academia have been invited to share their knowledge and rich experience with the students during the two courses. We look forward to the participants’ successful completion of this three-month Taiwan module.
At the end of the opening ceremony, the participants were invited to introduce themselves and share their expectations for the Taiwan module. Although they are not able to visit Taiwan, the participants from different countries still responded enthusiastically and are looking forward to stimulating cross-cultural communication and thinking with their new group members.
(Written by Yu-Tzu Huang, IBMBA student/Edited by the College of Management)
