New initiative to better bridge MNCs with China

ST. GALLEN, Switzerland — The International Institute for Management Development, a world-renowned Swiss business school, said its newly launched China Initiative aims at supporting multinational corporations in establishing their footprint and growing their impact in China.

"We are very much looking forward to intensifying our activities in China and also aim to bring Chinese companies to the world in a bid to build a bridge between China and the rest of the world," IMD President Jean-Francois Manzoni told Xinhua at the 52nd St. Gallen Symposium, the world's leading platform for cross-generational dialogue and collaboration.

"If you want to be a global school, you have to understand who is innovating and then try to codify these practices and explain them to everybody else," said the head of the institute, an independent business school with campuses in Lausanne, Switzerland and Singapore.

"Our activities in China are not just a distribution channel to other participants. They're also a way to connect with the incredibly vibrant innovation that is taking place there," Manzoni said.

The new China Initiative based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, led by CEO of IMD China Mark Greeven, will work with multinational corporations and top Chinese companies to provide insight into a thriving China.

Manzoni said the aim is to assist multinationals in demystifying China and improve their growth and impact in the country while enabling Chinese companies to thrive globally.

"We initially had activities in China that were mainly focused on State-owned enterprises, particularly banks, and those organizations were very happy to come to Switzerland occasionally," he said.

"There's also a vibrant tech and innovation sector in China which we had not yet touched. What we will do now is continue to have a few of us focused on State-owned enterprises, and have this new organization that will work more closely with tech companies," he added.

"We're also there to learn and document their practices and to explain to the rest of the world what's happening in China," he said.

The IMD has been ranked among the top three of the Financial Times' executive education rankings since 2012.

Xinhua