刘兵
管理与创新中心
PICM 1班

As the director of R&D center in my company, I had been always searching for a course which could help me improve the innovation management ability and broaden my horizon in the product research and development process, until finally I found the PICM (Product Innovation and Creativity Management) course in ICB, HKU SPACE last year. So, on May 23, 2014, together with the other 18 classmates, I started my journey with ICB.

I once was deeply convinced that I could balance my work and study easily and it was a piece of cake to get good grades as I had done when I was a college student several years ago. It was not until I finished the first module of the course that I realized that the study process was harder than imagined. The students in my class came from all over the country, and we had to go to one of the three teaching centers located in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen in turn to learn different modules. It was normal situation for me to catch the flight in Friday evening after a whole day’s work, and had no enough time to rest before the next two days of classes. When the classes were over in Sunday afternoon, I was exhausted, but had to rush out of the classroom to catch the flight again and prepared for the weekly meeting of my company which would be held in the next morning.

Now when we recall some anecdotes in the study process, some classmates may say: OMG, that time I arrived at the hotel at 3:00 AM on Saturday morning due to the weather conditions and just slept for less than four hours before the beginning of the classes. I just want to reply to them: Congratulations! You were in the classroom after all, I was not as lucky as you. I am not kidding. On May 8, 2015, when I was in Shenzhen International Airport and prepared for the last module of the course in Beijing, terrible things happened. I got the notification that almost all the flight were canceled or delayed because of severe thunderstorms, I changed the flight two times but still couldn’t depart. I was stranded at the airport for the whole day until the next evening, and then the plane was allowed to take off. I missed one day’s course, I knew that I could not meet the attendance rate required by ICB. I had to apply for learning that module the next time, which meant I would graduate several months later than my classmates. So I was facing the dilemma at that time, should I continue going to Beijing to take the next day’s classes, or go back home immediately? At last I made the decision, I would continue learning the module, although there was just one day left. After all, my study objectives were not for the certificate, not for the scores, but for the knowledge, for the skills, for the critical thinking ability through the process of learning, discussing and debating with my teacher and classmates.

The study was full of hardships, but I enjoyed the process very much. There is a consensus in the field of education, the rough meaning is: Whether a university is extensive and profound lies in great masters instead of large buildings. What impressed me most are some dedicated teachers in ICB. It was them who taught us how to create and test a great idea based on design thinking, how to use the latest theory and tools to solve the problem in the process of product innovation, and especially how to improve the critical thinking ability which is lacked generally by students from Chinese mainland. I remembered once a teacher could call out every student’s name before the classes began. And another teacher made a super detailed feedback to our assignments, which helped us discover our weak points in innovation learning and practices. Most teachers in ICB are guest lecturers, and they are very busy in their own daily works, so I really appreciate what they have done for us.

There were also some twists and turns in the learning process. We were the first phase students of PICM course, the students in my class came from different industries, such as IT, finance, consultancy, media, and so on. Every student’s expectation was not the same, and every teacher’s teaching style was different too. How to make sure what the teacher taught could meet what the students want is a kind of innovation itself. As the class monitor, I organized several meetings to collect feedbacks and advices from the students, and made communication with school. Through our mutual efforts we solved some problems, and I believe that the PICM course can become better and better in the future.

In ICB, we not only studied in classroom, but also organized or took part in a lot of activities. We visited some famous companies like Microsoft and Tencent, we attended some seminars and open classes. In July of this year, I attended Stanford innovation study workshop program in Silicon Valley jointly organized by The University of Hong Kong and Stanford University. Through the workshop, I learned a lot from the lectures held in Stanford campus, from the great companies I visited in Silicon Valley, from the dynamic place in San Francisco Bay Area where there are the best innovation ecosystem and innovation culture in the world.

To sum up, I do enjoy my study journey with ICB. Thanks for the teachers and staffs in ICB, I learned so much from you all. Thanks for my classmates, you are always full of enthusiasm and aspiration, I am much honored to be part of the team. Thanks for ICB, I believe what I have learned in the past year can help me closer to success in pursuing my passion in the future.