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Tag: Hong Kong

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Blog post by Josh Lodestro, GMBA '20

Five months of work led up to just one hour of one day: final presentations to the client. Over the last five months, each team has been diligently working towards their final deliverable, a 30-minute presentation and final report. The CAP journey begins with meeting your client for the first time through a video call. The client presents the team with a business problem to research and develop solutions for by the end of the semester. Through extensive research and preparation, each team aims to provide three recommendations for the client. The bulk of the final presentation is justifying each recommendation.

As one can imagine, the final presentation in front of the client is both nerve-racking and exciting. Teams are nervous about whether their recommendations will work, but find relief knowing that months of hard work and dedication culminate in those 30 minutes. My team suggested several recommendations to improve brand consistency and pursue international expansion. Only through numerous primary research interviews, extensive secondary research on the market, and the help of our professor for estimating capital expenditure projects were we able to arrive at these recommendations. After about an hour of presenting and a question and answer session, we were done. What an exciting feeling to see your work come together in such an impactful way for the client!

For many of my classmates, and myself included, this was our first experience working with businesses in Asia. On one of our great informational meetings, Anny Kwok, a Partner at Heidrick & Struggles, said that Hong Kong is, “introductory Asia.” Even with this in mind, each team had to overcome some struggles with cultural differences in business. Learning how to navigate the cultural differences when conducting business in the East versus the West was the most significant takeaway for me from CAP. These experiences are what makes the GW Global MBA program genuinely global.

After all teams delivered their final presentations and sent the final reports to the clients, we had some time to continue enjoying the fantastic food in Hong Kong. This dinner was well deserved by all! The following day we were able to visit one of the most iconic structures in all of Hong Kong, Tian Tan Buddha (colloquially known as Big Buddha). Being able to experience some more of Hong Kong’s culture before heading home was the perfect cherry on top of a wonderful five-month experience.

It was a sad goodbye as we all gathered in the hotel lobby to head to the airport. Some students chose to continue to travel through Asia and some students were heading back to Washington, DC to start their summer internships. My family met me in China, where we will be spending a week experiencing a new country together before I head back home to start my summer internship. The skills learned in CAP will undoubtedly set up a summer of success for my classmates and me.

Published on

Blog post by Josh Lodestro, GMBA '20

While I have been to Hong Kong before, for many of my classmates, this is their first time to Hong Kong. For some, it is even their first trip to Asia. The different sights, sounds, and food stand out as such a difference from Washington, DC.

Students were provided a case study by Deloitte to solve and are presenting their findings to executives.

On our first night together, we decided to jump head first into the culture and try Chinese hot pot at Haidilao. The spices of the soup and delicate meat made for a truly memorable first night in Hong Kong!

As much as us students would like the trip to be all pleasure and no business, we immediately began to work the following day with professional meetings around Hong Kong. We were able to meet with the city’s Planning Department to discuss how such a vast and expansive city like Hong Kong came to be the icon that it is today. We met with finance heavyweights like Broadridge and Visa. We also had meetings with Marriott, the American Chamber of Commerce, and Deloitte, to name only a few. Being able to immerse yourself in the business perspective of this side of the world is a truly unique experience to CAP.

On our second day in Hong Kong, all of the teams met their client in person for the first time. For my team, Regal Hotels, we were able to tour many of their properties and meet with front-line staff from the hotel. We gained a more in-depth perspective about the hotels themselves and the hospitality industry in Hong Kong that we could never have gotten from a video conference. When we returned to our hotel for the evening, we had to reevaluate our recommendations and adapt them to the realities on the ground. This is a challenge that we had to work on steadfastly to ensure that we were delivering value to the client.

Students recap their memorable day at Deloitte Hong Kong.

In between our busy working schedule, G&EE arranged for exciting and insightful cultural tours so we can better get to know the city of Hong Kong and its people. We were able to see the iconic Symphony of Lights, an absolute must for anyone visiting Hong Kong. We were able to experience the unique architecture of Hong Kong up close with a tour of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. One cannot appreciate how unique Hong Kong is without being here up close and personal.

After more than a week of long nights reworking our recommendations and our presentation, we will wake up tomorrow and deliver the final presentation to the client, bringing the most critical portion of CAP to an end.

 

Published on

Blog post by Joshua Lodestro, GMBA '20

For a team of four MBA students with no consulting experience the last four months have been nothing short of challenging and rewarding.

In January, sixteen classmates and I learned that we would be going to Hong Kong for our Consulting Abroad Program (CAP). Our three teams would be working with two different clients, Click Ventures and Regal Hotels. Click Ventures is a venture capital fund. One group would be working on a way to analyze investments in blockchain companies, and the other team would be working on a pitch deck for an upcoming fund. The Regal Hotels team, my team, would be working through a marketing and competitive analysis of the hotel industry in Hong Kong.

Again, my team had no consulting experience. We brought together a diverse range of backgrounds: human rights, public service, finance, and customer service. For us, everything was new. We quickly learned how to set expectations as a team as well as set expectations with the client. With the challenge of working with a time zone thirteen hours ahead, we found ourselves on 9pm WebEx calls with the client. However, we found WeChat to be the most effective way to catch our client.

We learned a few different methods for active consulting engagements, the first being Team FOCUS, and the second being design thinking. My team would adopt design thinking due to its stress on empathy. As we were working on a marketing project, having empathy with the target customer and their needs would prove crucial to execute our project successfully.

We were fortunate to be working in Hong Kong insofar as cultural barriers are minimal for typical Western business norms. We did not find that there was a language barrier with our client and they were open to our questions and ideas. We were fortunate to have a friendly and funny client!

We wrapped up our semester’s work in two significant events. First was the storyboarding session where we presented our research and findings to a group of second-year students for feedback. Their feedback was helpful and set us on the right track for creating a successful final product. Two weeks before we were to leave for Hong Kong, was the Panel Presentations Day with industry experts from consulting heavyweights like PwC and Booz Allen in attendance. While their feedback was tough, it was the last guidance we would receive before we flew to Hong Kong to meet with our client face-to-face.

With packing done and a long flight ahead of me, I look forward to getting to Hong Kong and meeting our client in person!

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