Global Management Forum (GMF) is a semester course led by National Taiwan University Global MBA and partnered with Business Weekly, and four local enterprises Aromat, Anko, ATC, and YCM. With years of good relationships formed with Business Weekly, NTU GMBA students were given the opportunities to visit the “small giants” from various industries throughout the course.
This course aims to provide students with first-hand industry learning experiences, combined with class knowledge to practice and develop consulting skills through class discussions and group work.
A variety of perspectives are to explore to familiarize students with the business contexts of manufacturing industries, as well as issues of HR & financial management, business sustainability, CSR and ESG.
The course involves company visits (ATC for 2020- 3&5, Anko for 2020- 3&5, Aromate 2020- 4&5 and YCM for 2020-5). It incorporates company visits, business meetings, networking with local business leaders, lectures from professors as well as online discussions with business leaders and professors.
Photo: NTU & Business Weekly
GMF Team at ATC Business Consulting 2020/3 Changhua, Taiwan
It was a beautiful afternoon in Changhua where NTU GMBA students and professors finally arrived at the headquarter of one of the happiest Entreprises ATC (全拓）after taking nearly four hours of a bus departing from NTU. The chairman Wu and the senior executives of ATC welcomed us warmly and asked us to put on the shoe cover first before entering into the office. Then Chairman Wu started to introduce the history of ATC, the company's core competence and future goals for ATC.
ATC Chairman Wu presented the topics on the history of ATC, the lean production management and ESG.
Students were allowed to visit ATC’s factory and learned how manufacturing companies make oil seals products for luxury car brands. Here, it shows how ATC used Just-in-Time systems and automation systems to improve its lean production management.
ATC had invited us to join them for a delightful lunch with chairman Wu and other ATC executives inside of their company cafeteria.
To better understand the “high-quality” of the luxury cars, ATC employees are permitted and encouraged to drive the luxury cars collected by chairman Wu.
During our visit to ATC, we have learned how ATC is applying lean production and lean management to produce high-quality oil seals products, but how ATC makes differentiation compared to their rivals. Additionally, our goal throughout the project is to look for their business needs and to propose feasible solutions that can help ATC to meet their short term and long term business goals.
ATC not only provided opportunities for students to visit the factory and welcomed us with hospitality but also showed us what a happy enterprise truly is! Having active group discussions with chairman Wu and other ATC supervisors, along with our group works and preparations, had enriched our overall visiting experience at ATC.
ATC group photo
GMF Team at Aromate Business Consulting 2020/4 , New Taipei City, Taiwan
Our team consists of GMBA students from India, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines and CoM exchange students from Czech and Finland. Students visited Aromate in April together with Professor MD Cheng. We delivered our solutions to help Aromate find distributors and penetrate the e-commerce market in Southeast Asia. CEO of Aromate Jane, and VP Henry, and Jane's husband immensely improved the quality of our action plan by providing practical and direct feedback on potential issues. We also had the opportunity to meet other team members in Aromate leadership and learned about the company's founding stories and its five-year business goals from Jane.
Students were happy to observe the production facility and Aromate Wonderland. The company is vamping up the production capacity of a new production line, and it was exciting to witness how air freshener was produced from start to finish.
Students also enjoyed their time at Aromate Wonderland, an innovative and spectacular space not only to showcase Aromate scented products but also to host events and classes for everyone to explore the scents around us. We learned to make scented bags and sampled Aromate's CSR products to support aboriginal tribes in Taiwan.
Students were giving the presentation and solutions to Aromate.
At the end of the visit, Jane and Henry were very generous to keep our contacts and offer internship/employment opportunities to team members. It was truly insightful, in-depth experience to one of the hidden champions of Taiwan. The whole team was truly inspired by Jane and Henry' passion and efforts to build a global air freshener empire from a shaky business that Jane purchased from her employers 20 years earlier, what a great experience!
Q&A at Aromate
GMF Team at YCM Business Consulting 2020/5 , Changhua, Taiwan
Our team consists of students from NTU GMBA program and exchange students from Europe, and Vietnam. We had our visit with Professors Charles Chand and MD Cheng, to one of the hidden champions that produces and provides the "mould proof patch", and "mould-proof/ prevention consultant services" located in Changhua, Taiwan. YCM is the company that sells products based on customers' demands on various kinds of moulds, and to keep accumulating professional information to increase their core competencies.
Students were gathered discussing the prepared presentation for YCM.)
During the visit, students were given a chance to visit its innovative laboratory and learn the different types of “moulds” that the company is currently producing or collecting at for the research purpose.
Before arrival to the headquarter of YCM, our team had spent time with the owners from YCM and professors to discuss the possible recommendations for YCM. During our visit, we provided different ways for YCM to extend its customer base.
One of the most valuable experiences during the visit was having the chance to visit YCM’s innovative research and development centre, from mould ecology room, laboratory, to mould culture room that can simulate shoe factory environment. Apart from that, mould prevention tech is an entirely new domain for many of us to explore and learn from the very first time.
Understand how YCM has increased its competitiveness by implementing new ideas such as hiring professionals to set up a big database or collecting up to 200,000 moulds that allow them to surpass their rivals in the market. All in all, it was such an unforgettable experience for us, thank you YCM!
YCM group photo
GMF Team at Anko Business Consulting 2020/4 New Taipei City , Taiwan
Our team has members from Denmark, Norway, Holland, France, Czech and Switzerland. To us, it was such a fantastic experience visiting food manufacturing company Anko in Taiwan. Anko is an expert of food equipment including wonton machine, steamed stuffed bun machine, spring roll machine, onion pancake machine, etc., providing the introduction consultation of manual production into automatic production and the professional consultant of the whole plant planning. Before our visit to Anko, we could only imagine and visualize how pastries or dumplings can be made by machine. However, what we considered to be the most intriguing part is to be able to observe how Chinese dumplings, steamed Buns, etc., can be produced within multiple shapes just like hand-made ones. The visiting experience had widened our views in Taiwan’s food manufacturing industry.
Anko warmly welcomed students and took us to visit the manufacturing process and learned how dumplings could be produced via their specialized multi-functional food machines.
Anko has major customers from five continents and is aiming to enter its market in Europe. Thus, Anko has to deal with customers in five continents having all different sizes and scattered distributions which could make their after-sale maintenance service even more challenging.
Before we arrived at the headquarters in Anko, we were asked to research the Chinese food market or potentials in the major cities in Europe. Based on the data we have found, we were given the opportunity to share our ideas and research with the CEO and the supervisors of Anko to propose our solutions. Providing thorough market analyzes and useful recommendations are the biggest challenges while doing this consulting project.
Anko group photo
(Written by Roslyn Chien 簡辰丞, GMBA student)
