On Friday, November 5th the International MBA class at Renmin University of China welcomed Mr. Marwan Faddoul, Managing Partner of NFG Consulting and his special guest Ms. Qian Wang, CEO of Genee Group.NFG Consulting is an advisory and consulting firm that helps Chinese corporations with their outbound activities, and Western corporations with their inbound activities.

Mr. Faddoul gave a talk entitled ‘Successful Tips for Inbound and Outbound Activities Between China and Overseas Markets’. During the talk Mr. Faddoul shared with students his wealth of experience in consulting in China and conducted a interactive discussion with IMBA students concerning the origins and reasons behind import and export activity in China today. Mr. Faddoul charted China’s FDI journey from manufacturing base for Hong Kong-based firms in the late 1970s to global factory and FDI exporter today. Mr. Faddoul spoke of China’s increasing focus on Research and Development expenditure and noted that China is forecast to spend$1.6 trillion USD (2.3% of it’s GDP) in R&D next year. Explaining the value of local knowledge and consultants in conducting foreign business, students were shown the case study of Shanghai Auto investing in Korea’s Ssangyong. In this case a lack of trust and cultural sensitivity lead to the eventual insolvency of the Korean firm and the failure of the business venture for SAIC.

Mr. Faddoul later introduced Ms. Qian Wang, CEO of Genee Group. Having originally studied Genetics at Fudan University Ms. Wang is also a graduate of NYU and Harvard Medical School. Genee Group is a global provider of web-based software for Lab Scientists focused at improving lab productivity. Ms. Qian spoke to students about her career to date and the day-to-day challenges she faced as a Chinese businessperson conducting business in America and China. She spoke of her challenges in navigating China’s bureaucracy in the past and told students “… to beat the system you must know what it is built on”.

Mr. Faddoul and Ms. Qian ended the session by patiently answering questions from students and Mr. Faddoul spoke of the opportunities that existed for MBA students in the Consultancy Field.

The Faculty and Students of the International MBA Program at Renmin University of China would like to sincerely thank Mr. Marwan Faddoul of NFG Consulting and Ms. Qian Wang of Genee Group for their time and kind support.

Article by Cian O’Dowd, IMBA Class of 2016