For many students, one major plus of the MBA programme at HKUST is the chance to match theory with practice. That comes, in particular, during summer internships with industry-leading companies, which give hands-on involvement in critical projects and an insider's view of how these organisations operate.
'I gained experience in hard analytics, such as business modelling and working with data that is not pre-formatted,' says Venisa Chu, who spent 10 weeks with the services department of GE Healthcare in Singapore.
'But most importantly, I learned how to navigate through an organisation, dealing with many different stakeholders and points of view, to decide what was relevant for my project and how to gain buy-in from everyone involved.'
Chu's basic assignment was to undertake a profitability analysis which was part of a three-tier market research project looking at corporate performance and prospects in the Asia-Pacific region.
Her specific task was to study historical data derived from around 20,000 client contracts and identify the key factors and attributes that make a contract profitable.
One initial surprise was that things were not set out in easy-to-follow steps. The parameters were clear enough, but Chu was expected to use her initiative: no one was going to hold her hand.