Article Sharing: Fostering talents in global operations
Students looking to hone a career in global operations have a unique opportunity to apply to one of the finest postgraduate programs in operations management in the region.
The MSc in Global Operations (MSGO) program at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has been rated the number one program in Asia Pacific according to the newly launched QS World University Rankings for supply chain management 2021.
The primary aim of the one-year fast track program is to equip students with the most practical business knowledge and corporate exposure so that students can scale their careers in more ways than one.
Prof. Qing Li, Academic Director of the program, highlights that global operations forms the cornerstones of businesses today. Whether it’s foreign companies wanting to go to China or Chinese companies looking to expand overseas, there is a demand for qualified talents in an industry that is responsible for the creation and delivery of goods and services.
“They are looking for people who are trained in global operations and can work effectively in a multi-cultural environment,” he said.
As such, the HKUST MSGO program is perfectly suited to meet this need. It has the right combination of teaching staff, research capabilities and access to corporations to provide students with a well-rounded operations management education. Students who have attended the program have seen their careers take off once they graduated.
“The HKUST MSGO program has laid a very good foundation for my current job at a freight forwarding distributor, Flexport,” said graduate Robianesar.
He attributes his career success to the fact that HKUST is situated in an international financial city with strong connections to China and the rest of the world, which puts it in a prime position to offer abundant exposure and bridge networks. Additionally, the program puts great emphasis on international exchange, business exposure, close collaborations with overseas universities as well as business community.
“When I decided to do a master’s degree, I figured that the HKUST MSGO program had the most experienced professors, and a lot of enrichment talks through which I was able to go and build relationships with corporations,” said Daniel Xie, class of 2015 who now works as the Head of Trade / Steel & Metal Trade Manager at Hilti Asia Pacific.
The program is famed for its expert teaching staff who hail impressive careers in the industry. Heavyweights include Professor Joseph Phi, Group CEO and Executive Director of the Li & Fung Group.
“He was able to share with us all the latest industry information as well as his hands-on experience in solving real-life business problems with operations management knowledge,” said Stone Shi, class of 2017, who is now a Senior Supervisor at LF Logistics.
On top of these, the program’s three core values are what make it so unique and stand out.
Firstly, the program does a brilliant job in striking a balance between breadth and depth. Students are exposed to core and required business foundation courses that make them generalists. Then they are able to deep dive into specialist areas like operations management or operations analytics in the following semester.
Although we had already taken Macroeconomics in our undergraduate studies, the class at HKUST MSGO was a totally different experience. I was so surprised to find out that Macroeconomics could be taught in such an interesting way, it was totally mind-blowing and we learned so much,” Stone said.
The HKUST MSGO program is also constantly updating its curriculum in response to market trends. So, this year, with the realisation that there is a growing market demand for both operations-related knowledge and analytical skills, the program has further updated its curriculum to introduce a new concentration on Operations Analytics.
Yet another unique quality of the program is the fact that it has placed great importance on both academic rigor and practical relevance.
“This is a career-focused program, students spend a year with us and move on to get a job, that’s why practical relevance is so important,” Prof. Li said.
For this reason, the program offers a variety of enrichment activities to collaborate with other corporate partners to organise talks, company visits and study tours to Mainland China or other parts of Asia. This provides students a great platform to network with business practitioners and senior executives, as well as ample opportunity to put theory into practice in the real-life business world.
Lastly, another strength of the program is its focus on developing hard skills and soft skills amongst its students. While hard skills like machine learning, analytics and organisational skills are clearly important, soft skills such as communication, team-building and leadership are also essential, and the program pays close attention to both.
“We want our students to make friends, enjoy the outdoors and get to know the city,” said Prof. Li. “10 years from now when you look back on this, you want to say: I had a good time in Hong Kong and that experience is also important besides all the knowledge and skillsets.”
