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Program Overview
Asia Start is a 5-day immersive program that takes you through a field learning journey in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen. It offers you a new perspective on scaling your business by focusing on the digital innovation, Asia’s economic disruption model, and market opportunities in Asia. Asia is home to some of the world’s most innovative companies and forward-thinking industries, with its digital economy is projected to reach US $1.2 trillion by 2025. This offers tremendous learning opportunities for western entrepreneurs and executives.
During this intensive program, you will gain exclusive insights into the disruptive innovations and unique business models that drive Asia’s most successful companies, such as JD.com, BYD and Tencent. You will have the opportunity to go behind the scenes and explore the strategies, technologies, and ecosystems that have propelled these businesses to the forefront of their industries.
Asia Start offers a unique opportunity to connect to influential players in Asia’s business ecosystem, including executives, entrepreneurs and investors enabling you to build valuable relationships and unlock exponential business growth in the region.
Program Details
Program Dates
17-21 November 2025
Location
Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen
Language
English
Program Fee
USD 9,000
Program Benefits
In-depth AI & Digital Insights
Gain a comprehensive understanding of the digital landscape in Asia, focusing on the trends and the latest cases driving economic disruption and growth in China and the wider region. Learn from a team of experienced faculty members with deep industry expertise.
Exclusive AI & Tech Company Visits:
Learn from behind-the-scenes dialogues with Asia’s top tech giants and digital ecosystems, including Alibaba, Unitree Robotics, Meituan, XpengMotors, learning first-hand how they are shaping the future of the creator and shared economy, global ecommerce, supply chain, healthcare and electric vehicles, etc.
Strategic Partnership Opportunities
Identify and establish key partnerships with leading companies, customers, suppliers, manufacturers and digital ecosystems across Asia to expand your global footprint.
Networking with Successful Entrepreneurs & Executives:
Build valuable relationships with Asia’s disruptive innovators, gaining insights into their strategies for scaling businesses in a rapidly changing digital economy. Join Asia’s influential and increasingly globally connected business community.
Get exclusive insights from 4 thought-provoking lectures by worldrenowned faculty
- Scaling And Innovations From China And Their Global Implications -XIANG Bing, Founding Dean and Dean's Distinguished Chair Professor of China Business and Globalization, CKGSB
- China’s AI Strategy & Digital Marketing -LI Yang; Associate Professor of Marketing, Executive Academic Director of EMBA Program, CKGSB; PhD, Columbia Business School
- Building an AI Driven Digital Ecosystem -ZHANG Weining, Associate Professor of Accounting, Executive Academic Director for Executive Education Programs and Executive Academic Director for MBA Program, CKGSB
- Industry 4.0: AI-Powered Manufacturing & Automation -GAN Jie, Professor of Finance and Director of Center on Finance and Economic Growth, CKGSB
Gain unparalleled access to 6 industryleading innovators shaping tomorrow
- Alibaba Group - Alibaba is a global e-commerce giant with significant investments in AI through its Alibaba DAMO Academy, focusing on AI research and innovation.
- Unitree Robotics -Unitree Robotics is one of the world's leading manufacturers of consumer-grade quadrupedal robots. Its products are known for their high performance, flexibility, and relatively low cost, making them widely used in education, research, entertainment, industrial inspection, and more.
- MeituanBig Data Center -Meituanis a leading Chinese technology-driven retail company. Meituan'sBig Data Center leverages advanced technologies to enhance AI inference performance and reduce service costs, supporting the company's diverse e-commerce operations.
- XtalPi - (AI-driven drug discovery and material science) -Utilizes quantum physics and AI for pharmaceutical research. Collaborated with major pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2024.
- XpengMotors (Flying cars) - XPengis a trailblazing electric vehicle company at the forefront of AI-powered mobility, autonomous driving, and smart EV innovation. With rapid global expansion, award-winning models and strategic partnerships with giants like Volkswagen, XPengshowcases the future of intelligent transportation and offers an inspiring blueprint for tech-driven growth.
- Hitachi Ltd. - A Japanese multinational corporation participating in sustainable urban development projects within the knowledge city.
- Sanofi - Aglobal biopharmaceutical company, operating an Innovation Hub to foster open innovation in healthcare. It has successfully integrated AI across its drug development, manufacturing, and operational processes.
Showcase your business with 3 exclusive pitch opportunities
Pitch in front of the most influential ecosystem players to access to new funds, customer bases, manufacturers, distributors, and strategic partnerships. You will be prepared during 3i Pitch Workshop with the skills, strategies, and confidence needed to deliver compelling pitches and maximize their impact on this critical audience.
Faculty

XIANG Bing
Founding Dean, Dean's Distinguished Chair Professor of China Business and Globalization, Vice Chairman of Board of Trustees, and Senior Advisor to the Dean Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB)

ZHANG Weining
Professor of Accounting, Executive Academic Director for Executive Education Programs and Executive Academic Director for MBA Program, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB)

LI Yang
Associate Professor of Marketing, Executive Academic Director for MBA, EMBA and Executive Education Programs, CKGSB

GAN Jie
Professor of Finance and Director of Center on Finance and Economic Growth, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB)
Program Schedule
Taichi
9:30-9:45 Orientation
9:45-12:00
Scaling And Innovations From China And Their Global Implications
XIANG Bing, Founding Dean and Dean's
Distinguished Chair Professor of China
Business and Globalization, Cheung Kong
Graduate School of Business
12:00-13:00 Break
14:00-17:00
China’s AI Strategy & Digital Marketing
(Case Studies: Alibaba, Jd.com, TikTok,
Temu, etc.)
LI Yang, Associate Professor of Marketing,
Executive Academic Director of EMBA
Program, CKGSB
19:00-21:00 Networking Dinner
Taichi
High-speed train to Hangzhou
10:00-12:00
Company Visit: Alibaba Group
Alibaba is a global e-commerce giant Company visits: Sanofi with significant investments in AI through its Alibaba DAMO Academy, A global biopharmaceutical company, focusing on AI research and innovation.
12:00-13:00 Break
14:00-16:00
Company Visit: Unitree Robotics
Unitree Robotics is one of the world's leading manufacturers of consumergrade quadrupedal robots. Its products and smart EV innovation. With rapid Meituanis a leading Chinese technology-driven retail are known for their high performance, company. Meituan'sBig Data flexibility, and relatively low cost, global expansion, award-winning models and strategic partnerships with giants like Center leverages advanced making them widely used in education, Volkswagen, XPengshowcases the future technologies to enhance AI research, entertainment, industrial inspection, and more.
18:00-21:00
Flight to Guangzhou
9:30-10:30
China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City
10:30-11:300
Company visits: Sanofi
A global biopharmaceutical company, focusing on AI research and innovation.operating an Innovation Hub to foster open innovation in healthcare.
13:00-14:00 Company Visit: XpengMotors car) -XPengis a trailblazing electric vehicle company at the forefront of AIpowered mobility, autonomous driving, Data Center Unitree Robotics is one of the world's leading manufacturers of consumergrade quadrupedal robots. Its products and smart EV innovation. With rapid Meituanis a leading Chinese technology-driven retail are known for their high performance, company. Meituan'sBig Data flexibility, and relatively low cost, global expansion, award-winning models and strategic partnerships with giants like Center leverages advanced making them widely used in education, Volkswagen, XPengshowcases the future technologies to enhance AI research, entertainment, industrial inspection, and more. of intelligent transportation and offers an inference performance and inspiring blueprint for tech-driven growth.
14:30-15:30
Company Visit: Hitachi Ltd.
A Japanese multinational corporation
participating in sustainable urban
development projects within the
knowledge city.
Bus travel from Guangzhou to Shenzhen
16:30-18:00
Cultural experience Hua QiangBei: World's largest electronics market
19:00 –21:00
Taichi
9:30-12:00
AI Driven Organizational Change
ZHANG Weining, Professor of Accounting, Executive Academic Director for Executive Education Programs and Executive Academic Director for MBA Program, CKGSB (Advisor to Tencent, Alibaba, etc.)
12:00-13:00 Break
14:00-16:00
Company Visit: MeituanBig Data Center
16:00-17:30
Visit Hua Qiang Bei: widely
Meituanis a leading Chinese technology-driven retail company. Meituan'sBig Data Center leverages advanced echnologies to enhance AI inference performance and reduce service costs, supporting the company's diverse e-commerce operations.
19:00 -21:00
Networking Dinner
Taichi
9:30-12:00
Industry 4.0: AIPowered Manufacturing & Automation
GAN Jie, Professor of Finance and Director of Center on Finance and Economic Growth, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB)
Learn all of the advantages and details around establishing your business in the hub of AsiaPacific such as: easy access to major markets, free trade policies, ease of business setup, and government incentives.
12:00-13:00 Break
14:00-16:00 Company Visit: XtalPi (AI-driven drug discovery and material science) Utilizes quantum physics and AI for pharmaceutical research. Collaborated with major pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2024.
Bus travel back to campus
16:00-16:30
Program Wrap Up
*Subjecttochange based on availability
CKGSB Differentiations
Unrivalled China Insights
Our faculty members – most of whom are Chinese by heritage – have an innate understanding of Chinese business and culture. This, combined with the school’s in-depth research and access to China’s most influential alumni, allows CKGSB to offer unsurpassed insight into China’s transformation and its global implications.
RCEP and Asia’s Perspective
We provide increasingly sought-after and on-the-ground knowledge and the necessary ecosystem for you to leverage Asia’s opportunities to boost intra-regional trade and investment, and business growth, particularly amidst global uncertainties and a slowing global economy.
Unparalleled Alumni Network
CKGSB offers a life-long learning platform with access to an elite business network of:
- 22,000+ alumni, more than half of whom are at the CEO or chairman level and, collectively, lead one-fifth of China’s most valuable brands
- 1,188 founders of unicorn and soon-to-be-unicorn companies
- 4,000+ global senior executives at multinational companies
“Top-of-the-Pyramid” Approach
Since its establishment, CKGSB has focused on companies’ top decision-makers, such as chairmen and CEOs of the most influential companies and iconic entrepreneurs, which few other educational institutions have been able to serve. Companies’ leaders need to understand and navigate through the global complexities brought by technological disruptions and geopolitical instability.
Social Purpose and Social Innovation
Going beyond the boundaries of business schools, CKGSB strives to inspire business leaders not only to learn how to better compete and collaborate, but also to focus on why they do business and what to do with their wealth for the greater public and global good. We do so by integrating the humanities into business curricula, introducing mandatory community work and incorporating a prerequisite social innovation module across all degree programs
Global Unicorn Programs
Understanding how unicorns reach success and how their lessons can be applied to other enterprises is particularly important for founders and decision- makers of start-ups and large businesses alike, who are looking to build new revenue, bolster resiliency, and find growth opportunities.
CKGSB is the first business school, since 2015, to offer specialized programs tailored for unicorn and soon-to-be- unicorn founders.
We aim to build a global ecosystem that fosters a new generation of unicorns with a renewed and enhanced emphasis on global responsibility, social purpose and long-term perspective.
A Global Unicorn Ecosystem
In collaboration with esteemed institutions, such as Columbia Engineering, UC San Diego, Stanford, and SDA Bocconi, we are spearheading initiatives in AI, digital transformation, sustainability, healthcare and technology innovation, to offer founders of growth-stage startups the knowledge, network and strategies that they need to scale up.
1,188
founders of companies with at least Series A funding studied at CKGSB
151
founders of unicorn companies
41
unicorn companies listed on CB Insights (2017-2022)
70%
founders gained series A financing upon joining the program
Since 2015, we have been partnering with some of the most prominent Chinese and Global Fortune 500 companies, like Alibaba, Amazon, Baidu, ByteDance, JD.com, SenseTime, Tencent, Microsoft (China), and leading venture capitals, to develop unicorn and soon-to-be- unicorn companies.
Who Should Attend?
Designed for founders, CEOs, corporate executives, and investors, this program is ideal for those seeking the latest insights into Asia’s digital economy and economic shifts, expanding into new markets, adopting disruptive technologies, and advancing digital transformation strategies to achieve long-term, sustainable growth.
Typical profiles include:
Founder/Co-founder, CEO, Investors, Digital Transformation Leader, CTO, CDO, VP, Head of Strategy, BD Director, Director of Sales, General Manager, Advisor & Chief AI Officer