The U.S. Module of RBS CMPM+: Decoding the Innovative Spirit of Silicon Valley

On 26 September 2016, RBS CMPM+ (Chinese Master in Practicing Management) Program initiated the U.S. Innovation Module in Silicon Valley. In the following 5 days, Professor Song Yuanfang, the Module Director and Associate Dean of RUC Graduate School, and Professor Cheng Dong of RBS General Management Department, led the team of CMPM 1504 and 1604, 57 faculty and students, to quest for enterprise innovation on this legendary land.

They attended the lectures at Silicon Valley and Stanford University, and visited numerous outstanding innovative enterprises. Silicon Valley, the cradle of American high-tech, has been attracting high-tech talents over the world. What is innovation? How to keep it vibrant? Where is it going to lead us? The participants of CMPM+ stand on the Holy Land of innovation, trying to understand its core power from reflection, and from their own experience as well.

On the first day of U.S. Innovation Module, Professor Cheng Dong explained the condition and mechanism of innovation, inspiring all participants to focus on the models and approaches of innovation. Next, Professor Shai Bernstein and Professor Amir Goldberg, from Stanford University, introduced innovation models and the significance of angel investments by case study on development of high-tech enterprises in Silicon Valley. Professor Pedram Mokrian talked about the opportunity and challenges when solar power industry met innovative enterprises.

At the lecture

The company visits, in the theme of “Revolutionary Innovation”, were deliberately arranged between lectures. The CMPM+ team visited Hewlett Packard, Google, Draper University of Heroes, Plug and Play. On the Wall of Fame in Plug and Play, Professor Song Yuanfang signed “Innovation is the vigor of enterprises”. They exchanged th