On 26 November 2022, three classes of the Business School Class of 2020, led by Assistant Professor Yutian Shen, visited the headquarters of ZTE Corporation (hereinafter referred to as ZTE) for a corporate visit and practical study of the strategic management course. During the visit, the students interacted well with the instructors of ZTE Corporation and had an in-depth learning exchange, and gained a clearer, more intuitive and deeper understanding of the practice of strategic management.

Founded in 1985, ZTE Corporation is the largest listed telecommunications equipment provider in China, with operations in over 160 countries and regions worldwide, serving more than a quarter of the world's population, and is one of the world's top four mainstream telecommunications equipment suppliers.

First, the students visited the ZTE Museum, where Mr. Xing Guoquan, the senior interpreter from ZTE Telecom, explained the history, collections, culture and development process of ZTE to the students. The students learned that ZTE was established early in its history, and that its main focus was on the switchboard business in the domestic information and communications sector. In the early days, after a difficult start-up phase, ZTE launched its own switchboard and became an instant success. After nine years of development to 1994, ZTE established its leading position in the switchboard market. And in the subsequent development has been to communication, communication network equipment as the core all the way.

After fully understanding the history and business background of ZTE Corporation, the students came to the meeting room for a more in-depth dialogue on Strategic Management practices. The event was honored to have Director Zhan Shu and Director Miao Yu, Director of Strategic Cooperation of ZTE Corporate Development Department, conducted a strategic management corporate classroom for the students, sharing in depth about ZTE Corporation's strategic management practices and plans.

Through the in-depth sharing of corporate objectives and strategic deployment, students gained a more concrete understanding of ZTE's products, market strategies, and development layout, and were impressed by the vertical and horizontal strategic layout of ZTE based on its own communications and communications network equipment business, and the overall corporate business lines were of appropriate depth and clarity of thought, which are excellent attributes of an industry leader.

After listening to the seminar, students actively and enthusiastically asked questions about their doubts, including the challenges the corporate strategy are facing, strategic adjustments in the new era, industry-related strategic initiatives and a series of other issues. During the process of Q&A, students also gained a deeper understanding of the application of strategic management practices.

Finally, ZTE expressed its appreciation for the visit to the Business School and was impressed by the high quality and professionalism of the many questions posed by our Business School students with a global perspective and spoke highly about our students’ performance. Dr. Shen Yutian also expressed the sincere gratitude to ZTE on behalf of the SZTU Business School for their great support for this event. After the meeting, the two sides reached a consensus on further cooperation between the college and the enterprise as soon as possible and intended to carry out a serious of strategic cooperation activities such as technical cooperation, internship bases etc.

Text: Jintong Han, Xuan Chen

Photo: ZTE Corporation, Jintong Han

Review: Yutian Shen