Asia Start Program

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Program Overview

Asia Start is a 5-day immersive program that takes you through a field learning journey in Beijing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. 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
24-28 March 2025

Location
Beijing, Shenzhen, Hong Kong

Language
English

Program Fee
$8,000

Program Benefits

In-depth 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 Tech Company Visits

Learn from behind-the-scenes dialogues with Asia’s top tech giants and digital ecosystems, including JD.com, Tencent, TOJOY, BYD and the unicorn SenseTime residing at the Hong Kong Science Park (home of 13 unicorns and 2,000+ tech enterprises), learning first-hand how they are shaping the future of the creator and shared economy, global e-commerce, AI, and electric vehicles.

Pitching to Potential Ecosystem Stakeholders

Present your business to leading venture capitalists, private equities, seasoned advisors, corporate executives, and active angel investors in Asia. This opportunity connects you with influential ecosystem players to access to new customer bases, manufacturers, distributors, and strategic partnerships.

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 and 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 6 thought-provoking lectures by world- renowned faculty

Economic Disruption, Digital Economy, and Market Expansion Strategies in/with Asia - TAO Zhigang, Professor of Strategy and Economics and Associate Dean for Europe, CKGSB; PhD, Princeton University
Cross-Cultural Management: How to Turn Differences into Advantages - JI Bo, Chief Rep. for Europe, CKGSB
Web 3.0 and the Omni-Channel Shift: The Future of Digital Retail - (Case Studies: Alibaba, Jd.com, TikTok, Temu, etc.) - LI Yang; Associate Professor of Marketing, Executive Academic Director of EMBA Program, CKGSB; PhD, Columbia Business School
Data-Driven Success: Digital-enabled Business Model - SUN Tianshu, Dean’s Distinguished Chair Professor of Information Systems, Executive Academic Director for Business Scholars Program and Director of the Center for Digital Transformation,; Senior Advisor to Alibaba CEO, CKGSB
Unicorn or Dragon? How to tap into Asia Market for Growth. - JI Bo, Chief Rep for Europe, CKGSB
Smart Manufacturing & End-to-End Supply Chain Integration: Harnessing AI, Cloud, and Big Data - ZHU Yang, Professor of Operations Management, CKGSB; PhD, University of Florida

Gain unparalleled access to 8+ industry- leading innovators shaping tomorrow

JD.com - Leading e-commerce giant, renowned for its extensive product range and efficient logistics network and with net revenue of US$152.8 billion for 2023.
TOJOY - Global business accelerator that connects enterprises with investment opportunities and resources to foster rapid growth. TOJOY’s BOSS Cloud digital ecosystem has 4.5 Million Users.
Tencent - Technology conglomerate known for its innovative digital services, including social media, gaming, and financial technology. The company operates popular platforms like WeChat, which boasts over 1.2 billion monthly active users.
BYD (EV) - A global leader in electric vehicles and batteries, producing over 1 million EVs annually and driving innovation in sustainable transportation and energy solutions.
Hua Qiang Bei - World's largest electronics market.
Invest Hong Kong - The government department dedicated to facilitating foreign direct investment into the hub of Asia Pacific-Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Science Park - Innovation and technology hub, home of 13 unicorns and 2,000+ tech enterprises and companies from 26 countries.
SenseTime - Leading artificial intelligence unicorn company, developing scalable and affordable AI software platform.

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

TAO Zhigang

Professor of Strategy and Economics, Associate Dean for Europe, CKGSB

LI Yang

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

SUN Tianshu

Dean’s Distinguished Chair Professor of Information Systems, Executive Academic Director for Business Scholars Program, Director of the Center for Digital Transformation, CKGSB

ZHU Yang

Professor of Operations Management, CKGSB

Program Schedule

Taichi

9:00-9:15
Orientation

9:15-10:00
3i Pitch workshop
JI Bo, Chief Rep for Europe, CKGSB

10:15-12:00
Economic Disruption, Digital Economy, and Market Expansion Strategies in/with Asia
TAO Zhigang, Professor of Strategy and Economics and Associate Dean for Europe, CKGSB

12:00-13:00 Lunch Break

13:00-14:00
Cross-Cultural Management: How to Turn Differences into Advantages
JI Bo, Chief Rep. for Europe, CKGSB

15:00-16:30
Company Visit: JD.com (B2C)
Understanding China's largest online retailer by revenue. JD.com's net revenue for 2023 was $152.8 billion, which is a 3.7% increase from 2022. JD.com is China's largest retailer by revenue and is ranked 52 on the Fortune Global 500.

17:30-18:30
Pitch
Closed door pitch for customers, suppliers, distributors, investors)

18:30-20:30
Networking Dinner with Chinese Chairman/CEOs (CKGSB Alumni)

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

CKGSB Asia Start Program

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