Blog post written by Alyssa Passarelli
Image source: Bisman Preet Singh, GMBA Class of 2019
Before arriving in Beijing, the four CAP China teams researched industry best practices, brainstormed and whiteboarded ideas in Duquès Hall, and used feedback from client site visits to improve PowerPoints in the JW Marriott. These efforts all led up to the pinnacle of CAP: the final in-person presentation to our clients. Even for the three JD.com teams, each presentation required preparation that was as unique as their individual projects.
Cheng, Erez, Kapoor, and Shahi needed to conduct multiple on-site interviews with key stakeholders as well as observe the logistics and processes within the client’s warehouse to analyze aspects of the supply chain. They also had various translation
Image source: Kathleen Harrington, GMBA Class of 2019
requests for their PowerPoint and final report that influenced how they managed their time and efforts for their final presentation.
In contrast, Baid, Curry, Harrington, and myself were only able to spend a single afternoon interviewing four employees of JD Finance (the startup arm of JD.com). The meeting was informal, taking place on couches at the end of one the hallways of company headquarters. This conversation afforded our team the opportunity to better understand the current priorities of the expansion of JD Finance’s work and confirm that our recommendations reflected what was most important for the client in both the present and longer term. Additionally, the abundant feedback that our team received the previous month from the external panel of judges helped us revamp our PowerPoint’s content and aesthetics.
Kalec, Khashogji, Preet, and Yuan went to great lengths (figuratively and literally) to deliver their final presentation, mainly because their points of contact were based in Shanghai. For our group’s weekend outing to this new city, none of us expected that we would spend what ended up being twelve hours in the airport before making our departure. Despite the travel
Image Source: Katherine Kalec, GMBA Class of 2019
challenges, this JD.com team made it to Shanghai to give their final presentation over a breakfast meeting with their points of contact, which was an ideal environment to engage with the client on their recommendations.
Dimes, Miller, Ou, and Russell worked with Shenzhen Energy, a client whose relationship-building style made for an intensive experience for the team in country to prepare for their final presentation. As Russell put it, “Our contract was quite guarded before our visit (so didn’t tell us much), but it seemed that he [their point of contact] really wanted to have a meal and rice wine with us to get to know us, and he was very generous after that (but it did mean we had to do plenty of work in China.)” Dimes shared that the team divided up ownership of additional research needed from the new information the client provided in country based on the project areas where each team member had built the most expertise. The final result was a presentation that more closely resembled an internal company discussion.
No two teams had the same experience preparing for these final moments of our CAP projects, but there is something important to learn from each one. What we all shared in this experience was gaining practical experience preparing for when working with your client does not go as planned, how to shift gears with composure, and above all, how to serve your clients.
Image source: Natalia Tabares Dimes, GMBA Class of 2019
