IS Postgraduate Residential Trip to Guangzhou

18 postgraduate students from the MSc Business Information Systems, MSc Information Systems Management and MSc Electronic Business and Knowledge Management programmes of the Department of Information Systems of CityU, and the Business School of the University of Queensland (UQ), completed a six-day residential trip (R-Trip) in Guangzhou, China, from 29th June to 4th July.

The trip is a key component of the elective course IS6930 Management Consulting in Asia, which is a collaborative course offered in partnership with the UQ Business School. The course provides students with the opportunity to participate in an on-site management consulting project for an Asian organization.

R-Trip Supervisors Dr Yulin Fang, Programme Leader of MSc BIS and Associate Professor of the Department of Information Systems of CityU, Mr Frank Lo, Instructor of the Department of Information Systems of CityU, and Dr Dongming Xu, Senior Lecturer of the Business of Information Systems of UQ Business School, offered guidance to the students throughout the consulting project.  

The group visited the Guangzhou Linan Logistics Park 廣州林安物流園, an area designated for logistics start-ups and corporations, and analyzed the business operations of Neway Logistics Co. Ltd. 新陸程物流有限公司, an incubatee of South China University of Technology established in 2010 that resides in the Park. Its main business is to provide logistics services in southern China.

The course supervisors believed the visit could provide a great opportunity for students to understand this relatively young but rapidly developing logistic industry. China is predicted to be the world’s largest logistics market by 2016, and the State Council of the People’s Republic of China has developed a detailed plan to further develop the industry.

In order to make the trip more productive and meaningful, the students were divided into four teams to conduct thorough background research about the logistics industry in China prior to the R-Trip. During the on-site investigation, the students reviewed Neway’s management system, financial reports and business development plans, and interviewed the core management team to fully understand their consumer needs. The research findings were presented to the company management on 3rd July. The Neway management showed high compliments on students’ outstanding performance and their valuable recommendations.

The project covered several issues that the company was eager to resolve, which included Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Platform Design 客戶關係管理平台規劃, Social Media Marketing Strategy 社會媒體營銷策略, Business Growth Strategy for Start-ups in China 適合中國國情的初創企業成長策略, and e-Commerce Development Strategy 電子商務發展策略.

For more information about IS6930, please visit the course website.