What I have learnt in the UMD

Good morning! Thanks University of Maryland to initiate Smith EMBA for a day. Thank you all to join in today’s event.

Before sharing, let me introduce myself briefly. I am senior manager in Honeywell APAC since March 2013. Right now, I am responsible for working with business VPs, ISC leaders and other functional leaders to deploy and optimize OTC+ process of Performance Materials and Technology, namely opportunity-to-cash which is an end-to-end process starting from leads generation to drive business growth. Meanwhile, I am also responsible for lean six sigma talents development and value pricing. Before that, I was Senior Finance Manager of Honeywell Process Solution in China. In this role, I was responsible for leading team to work on finance planning and analysis, controllership, and key initiatives which were driven by global and APAC senior management team.

Before joining Honeywell, I spent 3 years working as business finance manager in China HP and 10 years working as Corp. finance manager of Asia Pacific region in Motorola.

Today, I would like to share what I have learnt during my study in the university of Maryland.

This is a fortuitous coincidence to enroll EMBA program in the University of Maryland. It was my dream to study in the US excellent university when I was young, however, this dream was put aside in the later work and life balance. Until four years ago, I chatted with my previous boss David Cheung who used to be country controller of China HP. David mentioned EMBA program of UMD was available in Beijing. All professors came from College Park directly. He told me if you would like to learn something useful to enrich yourself not just for a diploma, UMD would be definitely a good choice since he graduated from this program as well. I also checked with two of my friends.They are professors in other universities in the US. Both of them confirmed that UMD was a very good university. That was why I didn’t make any other comparison and investigation, UMD was my top choice.

I had already felt favorable learning style and rigorous academic attitude from application for admission. And it further proved me to make right decision through following course learning and getting familiar with each professor. I am so impressed on following aspects. They are integrity, fairness, preciseness, dedication, and life-long friends during two-year study here.

Firstly, let’s talk about integrity.The university didn’t require us to provide TOEFL or GRE grade as only 30 students would be enrolled each year. We needed to finish 3 papers about career path, current position and advance professional goals as well as 2 more given topic writings within required time. Plus half an hour face to face interview,the school would judge the candidate if qualified on critical thinking and efficient communication. To be honest, if English is not good enough, you would suffer since all courses were taught in English. However, I received the notice from school to rework on English exam since some candidates were discovered to copy. UMD has zero tolerance on dishonesty behavior. The cheating candidates would never be enrolled by UMD.

Honesty were reflected in every aspect. We were required to sign Honor Pledge before any pre-work, exam, or post work. “I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this exam / assignment.” We all benefited from this integrity environment.

Secondly, let’s talk about fairness.The syllabus of each course gave clear expression to fairness. Professor set the objectives, contents, schedule, grade criteria, what kind of behaviors were encouraged and what kind of behaviors were banned in the syllabus. We all followed same rules that helped to reduce unnecessary misunderstanding and arguments.

Fairness was also reflected in team work. For example, we were required to fill in Peer Evaluation Form after team presentation or case study. You would rank other team members except yourself based on their contributions. If you wouldn’t want a lower grade, you should make more contributions to the team.

UMD respected each student’s privacy. The grade was not shared with others. If you might have any issues about this, you could contact professor directly. I remembered I had concerns about the grades of final exams of two courses. I wrote emails to professors and got their feedbacks that confirmed something wrong by teaching assistants. They appreciated me to help them correct the errors. In the meanwhile, all other classmates’ answers were double checked.

Thirdly, let’s talk about preciseness.There was no assigned textbook, it relied on professor’s capability for the contents of each course. 2 courses were related to finance in overall 18 courses of EMBA program. Even if I am finance professional in world class companies for over 20 years, also was awarded top qualifications in this field such as AAIA, CGMA etc., I still felt a lot of stuffs worthy of learning. Each case study was chosen carefully, the professor made hard things easy understand.

All professors are famous experts in their field. For example, the professor of Financial Management Mike Faulkendar, he was the associate dean for master education in Smith business school last year, but was announced as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury by President Donald Trump this year.

The professor of Global Strategy Anil Gupta is one of the most influential living management thinkers in the world. His latest book the Silk Road Rediscovered was highly recommended by President of Honeywell high growth region Shane Tedjarati. He referred that was a pioneering work which should be on the desk of every global manager and every MBA student.

The professor of International Business Gary Cohen was the CEO in multi-national company for many years before he became clinical professor. He had such kind of humor and intelligence to draw our attention. He also invited the executive officers of Westinghouse, Nova Nordisk, Siemens, Under Armor to our classroom and share best business practice. It really expanded our horizon greatly.

I appreciate professor of Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation Brent Goldfarb as he made me feel the hardships of start-up company. I still remembered memorable experience that Janne from Finland, Mike from Gemany, Esther and I established Joy Inc for face painting. In the first two days, we built our company core values, figured out partners, positioned target market, explored potential customers, built relationship with them, set up channels, integrated our resources, calculated the cost, and forecasted revenue.We revised our business model again and again within total three days.Unfortunately, the face painting didn’t generate great revenue stream for us and it impacted our final grade. However, it was priceless that the experience to bring happiness to children and their parents. It ignited my passion to painting too.

I couldn’t list it one by one although each course was so wonderful. Furthermore, you can’t learn well by books only,everything must be practiced then been understood profoundly. We had deep feelings about this as a student of Smith business school. There were so many pre-works, quiz, presentations, simulations, reflection papers or final exams.There was almost no annual leave and weekends during we studied in UMD. However, it improved our capability unconsciously. I was quite touched that our papers and case studies were corrected by professor in person. I learnt a lot from their insightful views and critical comments.

Fourthly, let’s talk about dedication. Good education along with good administration. Here I would like to express my sincere appreciation to David, Jessica, Tracy, and Ronald in Beijing and Chris in US. They are role models of dedications. We started our course in early morning, Tracy always ensured breakfast ready before we arrived at classroom. David, Jessica and Tracy made thoughtful arrangement for each alumnus and EMBA open day.

During capstone course in the US, we learnt how to do business in the US by ex-senior government officers. We were also arranged to visit capitol hills which was especially for UMD and ex-senator as interpreter.

Life needs celebrations. Our graduation ceremony was grand and ceremonious. We were quite touched and tears in our eyes.Graduation party was happy and unforgettable. We were dancing and singing to appreciate all our family members and teachers.

Last but not the least, let’s talk about life-long friends. Life is like a box of chocolate you never know what you are going to get. I was recommended by my manager to join in EMBA program which was sponsored by company in 2007. However, it didn’t happen since the performance of Motorola was lagged. It was a pity until I joined in EMBA program of UMD. I felt lucky to meet life-long friends here. Although we had already graduated one year ago, I trust we will keep our friendship in the future as we respect each other and cherish the common values.

In general, I have learnt so many valuable stuffs during the two-year study in the University of Maryland. If conclusion in one word, let me quote the word of Mr. Chen Yinke “independent thought of spiritual freedom”. 独立之精神，自由之思想. The mascot of UMD is the terp, a  kind of tortoise in the state of Maryland. Even if it moves up slowly, it never gives up. We are proud of being terps. Go terps!