2009 Antai EMBA New Year Forum: Science and Technology Drives Industrial Evolution, Transformation of Momentum Determines Future of China’s Economy

Time:2019.01.12 Publisher:EMBA Office

On January 12, 2019, the EMBA New Year Forum of Antai College of Economics and Management of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (hereinafter referred to as "SJTU Antai College") with the theme of “Business Promotion·New Realm” was held solemnly and successfully in Wenzhi Hall, Xuhui Campus, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. This forum attracted more than 1,000 outstanding talents from all walks of life, including elite women from Shanghai Women's Federation and Shanghai March 8th Red-banner Pace-setter Fellowship, alumni of Antai College and other extraordinary professionals who track the development of EMBA projects consistently, to gather together and listen to the judgments and reflections of the new era. National Business Daily gave support particularly and more than 20 mainstream media are invited to attend and report on the spot.

Chen Fangruo, Dean of ACEM of SJTU, Chen Hongmin, Vice Dean of Industry Research Institute and Professor of Economics of SJTU, Chen Xian, Professor of Economics of SJTU, Pan Yingli, Professor of Finance Department of SJTU, delivered keynote speeches. Subsequently, the EMBA alumni Shi Yonglei, chairman of Shanghai Laiyifen (stock code: 603777), Huang Haiqing, president of CITIC Information Development (stock code: 300469), Tian Guang, General Engineer of Zhu Guangya Institute of Strategic Science and Technology and General Manager of platform company, You Aiguo, chairman of Naer Share (stock code: 002825), took part in alumni interaction and talked freely about the technology-driven industry evolution. This forum is presided by Liu Jiangxian, alumnus of Class 1, Fall 2011 and Deputy Director of the product promotion department of SMG Financial Media Center.

Chen Fangruo: Return, Exploration and Leadership

In his keynote speech, Chen Fangluo mentioned that the current situation of business schools "lacks the combination of theory and practice", and said that "business schools all over the world are facing the same problems. Without models to learn from, there is no choice but to blaze our own trail". And then Chen Fangruo put forward to us the philosophy and practice of Antai College - " Combing vertically and horizontally, realizing full unity of inner knowledge and action". Last month, the Industry Research Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University was officially established, hoping the new platform can contribute to solving the problems faced by business schools.

Following reform ideas above, Chen Fangruo has put forward ten visions for the future of Antai College for the first time at the forum. He pointed out, "In the future, Antai College will present ten highlights. Firstly, we will establish an ecosphere in which we can listen to each other and interoperate with each other; Secondly, we will establish a rich case base; Thirdly, we aim to put forward a series of in-depth industry reports, industry reviews and policy recommendations; Fourthly, there will be not only masters in the field of disciplines, but also extraordinary professionals from various industries in Antai College; Fifthly, Antai College will be a lifelong learning platform; Sixthly, customized projects and courses of industries will be developed; Seventhly, we will explore a new international strategy; Eighthly, the formation of Antai School will be completed; Ninthly, promote brand popularity of Antai effectively by two dimensions; Tenthly, become a world-class business school."

Chen Hongmin: What is The Future of Sharing Economy?

In 2018, the sharing economy suffered a painful transition from growth period to maturity period, resulting in a great many new changes in the industry. People began to reflect on what is the core of the sharing economy on earth. Professor Chen Hongmin believes that the development of the sharing economy goes through three phases: first, the exploratory period of subdividing and sharing on the demand side; second, the outbreak period of free matching and sharing on the supply side; and finally, the growth period of platform collaborative sharing in which everyone can directly participates.

In the past, with the advantage of the “Calculus Trait” of the sharing economy, a large number of new enterprises emerged. Chen Hongmin has noted that China's "unicorns" prefer the Internet platform model, especially the sharing platform. But for the present stage, if we compare the development stage of the sharing economy to the life stage of frogs, then the sharing economy at present is still a stage of "little tadpole" that is "looking for mother". It’s because that the sharing economy is the outcome of lower transaction costs, and it will continuously change its shape with changes of cost in the future.

Chen Xian: New Momentum, New Economy and New Trends

If the current highlighted contradiction of the sharing economy is that social value is not necessarily transformed into economic benefits directly, then when will the next opportunity of the new economy in 2019 come? At the forum, Professor Chen Xian presented that the transformation of kinetic energy determines the future of China's economy when he published the topic “New Economy, New Momentum and New Trends”.

"New economy is an economy characterized by science and technology, big data, interconnection of all things and intelligence everywhere." Chen Xian believes that innovation driving force is a vital feature of China's economy of “new normal”. "The transformation of China's economy depends on the development of new economy and the cultivation of new momentum, while the formation of new momentum is determined by " mass entrepreneurship and innovation "and innovation ecology."

Regarding the new trend, Chen Xian also put forward his own ideas, "I think there are three aspects. Firstly, it should conform to the general trend of technological and industrial revolution and support scientific and technological innovation and development; Secondly, it should conform to the inherent logic of market economy and support the development of private enterprises; Thirdly, it should adapt to the progress and governance of globalization and support integration into world development.

Pan Yingli: Prospects for Macroeconomic Trends under Complex Background

At the beginning of the new year, "Ten Predictions of China's Economic Development in 2019" is really a heated discussion topic for financial scholars and business leaders. As far as Pan Yingli, a professor at SJTU Antai College concerned, the world situation is going through vast changes that had never happened in the past century. China's growth model relied on the external market excessively and faces both internal and external pressures.

She predicted that China's economy would experience a long-term slowdown. "The external adverse factors in the world will hinder China's export growth; Heavy-asset industries such as manufacturing, real estate and local government infrastructure have already been faced with overcapacity and are unlikely to expand.; In the future, consumer services such as health care, financial insurance, education, culture and tourism will have a great development space after breaking through the bottlenecks of market access, responsibility definition mechanism, human capital investment and innovative business model.

Alumni Interaction: Technology-driven Industrial Evolution

In the alumni interaction session, Shi Yonglei shared with us how enterprises should answer today's economic fluctuations. He said that if we save the cost to the utmost and continue to concentrate on quality of our products, we would be able to survive any economic winter safely. Facing the homogeneity of the industry, how to realize the difference competition is crucial. Shi Yonglei believes that homogenization is an inevitable phenomenon in terms of products. But the longer consumers compare different products, the more clearly they will know which products are always reliable and whose quality is unstable. In addition, differentiation is also reflected in the concepts of enterprises. LAIYIFEN pursues cost-effectiveness with adherence to several bottom lines - food safety and quality, and the best material.

In the past two years, one of the biggest difficulties faced by the IT industry is the huge cost behind the project system. “Especially as 70% of its 1,270 personnel are in R&D department, it is a certain challenge when the company pays wages amounting to tens of millions every month. The cost of high-tech talents is huge.” As an IT veteran, Huang Haiqing believes that for private enterprises, they must rely on advanced technology and excellent services to participate in the industry competition. Faced with the large-scale growth of personnel costs and uncontrollable factors of project development, the company has also brought up a lot of thinking and design. The company has put forward the Strategy 2.0 of information development, which is committed to transforming the customized and project-oriented software integration company into a product company, and further developing into a platform company with standardization and integration gradually.

When You Aiguo talked about the problems faced by his company in 2018, he said that the power of knowledge enabled the company to survive the severe winter of 2018. You further said that in 2018, the most gratifying thing is that some Antai EMBA students joined Naer Shares’s management team, with three of the seven senior executives of Naer Shares coming from Antai. He said he felt that 2019 would not be "so cold" and that the company had set a goal of achieving high growth in 2019.

 Tian Guang shared that he hoped after learning so many business models and industry experience, he could then turn back to focus on rooting down and revolve around some basic research and development, or to say, the cultivation of the core competitiveness himself. And he hoped to be able to dock or embody the spirit of Antai College, to cooperate and combine with each other, and to interrelate the research and development of our core competitiveness and the transformation of scientific and technological achievements as a platform.

 In response to the theme of the forum, "Business Promotion and New Realm ", Chen Hongmin explained, “from my understanding, “Business Promotion” is to fundamentally change the present situation of attaching importance to rationality but neglecting pragmatism, and vigorously enhance the position and value of business or management disciplines in economic and social development.; "New Realm" is to re-establish the realm that the theory should "come from practice and then serve practice" that has been left behind by some people, and abandon the old self-closed paradigm as " entertainment and singing all by oneself".