Diving into China’s Innovation Economy at Global Network Week
During a weeklong exchange at Fudan University in Shanghai, Selamawit Worku ’27 gained a new perspective on branding and marketing in one of the world’s largest economies.
When I first applied to Yale SOM, I never imagined that path would lead me to a classroom in Shanghai. But one hallmark of the MBA for Executives program is the opportunity to participate in Global Network Week (GNW), a weeklong exchange program that sends SOMers to study at peer business schools around the world. As a marketing director and creative storyteller with a background in the arts, I chose Fudan University for its focus on culture, technology, innovation, and marketing. Site visits to major companies like Freshippo and Nio gave me a firsthand look at the dynamic opportunities blooming across the Chinese economy. At some points, I genuinely considered what it might look like to build a life there someday.
GNW brought together more than 50 students from the top management schools worldwide, including nine Yale EMBA students, for a course called Dynamic China: Innovating in a Global Economy. A few takeaways stood out to me. I learned why so many Western firms stumble in China, where success depends on cultural fluency, not foreign models. The “Elements of Value” test, a psychological categorization exercise shared by Professor Sharon Xie, showed how Eastern cultures tend to group elements by “relationship,” while Western cultures often group by “category”—an insight that reframed how I think about storytelling and branding across cultures.
Our session with the CEO of the enterprise AI company OpenPie gave me a new understanding of this emerging technology. A group project with the grocery chain Freshippo showed how data and cloud technology can reinvent something as traditional as grocery shopping, sharpening how I think about innovation in my own work in the gas and convenience store industry. And a visit to the auto company Nio’s showroom demonstrated how fast China’s EV industry is evolving and how its growth will affect other countries’ development plans, as well as the oil and gas industry.
Beyond the classroom, the people made the week unforgettable! I put lessons from our SOM classes, like Global Virtual Teams and Power & Politics, into practice by starting a group chat days in advance to ease the awkwardness of meeting so many strangers. My EMBA classmate and friend Jackie Jiang ’27, who is from China, went far beyond what our group expected, sharing his culture with a generosity and care that I will not forget. Our days and evenings became some of our strongest bonding moments, from trying new foods to sightseeing in Shanghai to swapping stories and future aspirations. The Fudan program team, led by Sherry Feng, was incredibly welcoming and thoughtful. Our cohort maintains contact beyond GNAM, with plans to visit one another in different places in the near future.
GNW also inspired me to travel throughout China before and after the exchange. I kicked off my journey in Hong Kong and Macau, grateful for the one-on-one time with classmates in a high-energy place that reminded me of New York City. After classes ended, a small group of us went to Beijing, checking off bucket-list goals like walking the Great Wall, standing in Tiananmen Square, and taking in the history of the Forbidden City, moments that felt suspended in time. Before heading home, I gave myself an early birthday gift, setting off solo to the calmer, artistic city of Chengdu and the mountains of Zhangjiajie, where I visited art museums, walked through famous tea houses, climbed the 999-step “Stairway to Heaven,” and saw the mountains that inspired Avatar. Riding cable cars high in the sky and seeing robots across many public settings took some getting used to, but that discomfort yielded funny memories and personal growth. My GNW experience expanded how I think about technology, culture, and possibility, with friendships that will continue well beyond that one week in Shanghai.
