How does the professional career of post-90s entrepreneurs look like and what are their most valuable recommendations to achieve success? To answer these questions, the Bosch Chair of Global Supply Chain Management organized a field trip to the ShaiMi Inc. office, located inside WeWork, and attended presentations by the two post-90s entrepreneurs Judy Q. Zhu and Lindsey Michelle Williams.
The class with Chinese and German students of CDHK’s Social Practice course, supervised by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Hans-Christian Pfohl and Johannes Kern, first met at the Sino German house at Tongji University to learn about Judy’s entrepreneurial journey as the founder and CEO of ShaiMi Inc., an international company dedicated to the right of fulfilling education by offering cross-cultural education programs. Judy engaged the group with an interesting discussion about the entrepreneurial spirit, emphasizing the importance of having a creative mindset, taking risks and living out one’s passions on the job. Inspired by Judy’s presentation, some students introduced their own understanding of entrepreneurship and what starting a business means to them. The class highly appreciated and very much enjoyed the opportunity to openly talk to a young and successful business founder.
After a short bus ride to West Nanjing Road and a subsequent lunch break, our class was welcomed to WeWork’s Weihai Road office by Kathleen, Office Manager at ShaiMi. Founded in 2010, WeWork builds and provides shared office spaces for small businesses and entrepreneurs. While enjoying the signature free coffee at one of WeWork’s cafés, the students asked many questions about the workplace structure and working atmosphere in a shared office. One student was particularly fascinated by the contrast of having a modern interior with stylish furniture and fancy recreational areas inside an old factory building.
Shortly after we were led into a meeting room, where Lindsey Michelle Williams, photographer and ShaiMi International Ambassador from Boston, held an inspiring presentation about her journey from academia to pursuing her dream and becoming a renowned, Vogue- and Forbes-published photographer. Our class was joined by several entrepreneurs who work at WeWork’s shared office space to facilitate one-on-one discussions between students and successful entrepreneurs. Lindsey encouraged all of us to think about our most distinctive qualities and how to incorporate them in living out our passion and follow our dreams. After the presentation, one student highlighted that Lindsey is such a great role-model since she has already achieved many of her dreams, despite her young age.
Before leaving WeWork to discuss our newly won impressions on the bus ride back to Tongji University, Prof. Pfohl handed over presents to Judy and Lindsey and thanked them for their extensive insights into the careers of young entrepreneurs. A fascinating experience for all of us thanks to ShaiMi and WeWork! (Pictures 1, 2, 5, 6, 7 with courtesy of Lindsey Michelle Williams – lensymichelle.com)
