March 27, 2018
By Xu Yuzhuo, Junior Project Manager in academic relations
From March 19 to March 23, MAS ETH group(40 ppl), in which all participants are specialists and prospective managers with technical background and professional experience, stayed in Shanghai for one week study tour with focus on “How to do business in China”.
In the morning of 19th March, the group was warmly welcomed by Felix Moesner, CEO of swissnex China. He talked about the mission of swissnex in China, which includes tech scrutiny and trend spotting. The morning then continued with presentation from Ms. YE Mingya, Trade Promotion officer of Swiss Business Hub, on the topic of how to assist Swiss companies in doing business in China.
@swissnex
In the afternoon, the group was split into two groups, one group visited XNode and the other one went to TechTemple. Xnode and TechTemple are well-developed accelerator/incubator for startups. ETH MAS group had opportunity to visit their high quality co-working space and exchange with startups based there.
@TechTemple and Xnode
The ETH MAS group also visited Geek+’s smart warehouse in Kunshan. Geek+ is a fast grow startup established less than 4 years ago, which leads the technology revolution by advanced robotics and AI technologies to realize high-flexibility and intelligent logistics automation solution. The group learnt about how Geek+’s robots operate to realize a smart logistic process with reduced demand of manpower as well as the rapid development of Chinese smart logistics.
@Geek+
In the same afternoon, the ETH MAS group visited Swiss Center Shanghai, a non-profit organization serving the Swiss economy by providing adapted services for SME’s intending or entering the Chinese and Asia market. Ms. Emmanuelle Roduit, operation manager at SCS, gave an informative presentation on how Swiss Center operates in China. Then Mr. Joe Liu, managing director of Fraisa China, shared Fraisa’s experience in “conquering” China as a Swiss SME. In the evening, the group was invited to a reception at the residence of Mr. Alexander Hoffet, Consul General of Switzerland in Shanghai, which was also joined by external guests. The group was warmly welcomed by Mr.& Mrs. Hoffet and enjoyed a very delightful evening.
@China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park
@GCL
The next day, the ETH MAS group took a day trip to Suzhou, where they visited Suzhou Industrial Park and GCL, the world’s champion manufacturer of high quality photovoltaic material located at Suzhou Industrial Park.
@CEIBS
After three days of visit, the group spent the fourth day at China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) where they were joined by CEIBS students for a design thinking workshop, to put what they’ve learned and observed in the past days of the week into practice. During the day, the group also had the pleasure to welcome Mr. Nicolas Musy, who is the founder of Swiss Center China and learnt about “where is Chinese economy heading – Challenge and Opportunities” from Mr. Musy.
On the last day of the China trip, the ETH MAS team came back swissnex for a wrap-up session and final presentation of their work that they did at the workshop the day before. In the afternoon, they visited the art district in Shanghai to experience the artistic side of the city.
@swissnex
This China study trip was a good opportunity for the group to learn about innovation in China and how startups and companies grow. swissnex China very much looks forward to welcoming the next ETH MAS MTEC class in 2019!