Prof Changqi Wu
Prof Changqi Wu joined the HKUST in 1991. He was one of the founders of the Department of Economics and Finance and taught both undergraduate and MBA courses, many of our alumni know him.
In 2000, Changqi was invited to teach an MBA course of managerial economics at Guanghua School of Management, Peking University and was greatly impressed by students’ hunger for economics and management knowledge. That was the time when Chinese economy started its rapid upward trends and Guanghua committed to lead the business education in the Mainland of China. Since then, he stayed in Beijing and took up various posts, including Associate Dean of Guanghua.
He was founding Chairman of the Department of Strategic Management in which he is a Professor. That was the first department designated for strategic management research and teaching as the target EMBA student demands training in strategy formulation and application for their leading state-owned corporation, private companies and multi-national enterprise in China.
The current goal and the way forward for Guanghua, according to Prof Wu, is to improve the curriculum and expand the strong faculty group. Since he was in HKUST, he switched his research area to more applied economics such as strategic management. To meet the needs of the Chinese executives, Changqi and his department emphasizes on frontier research of management strategies, and these theories need to link with businesses themselves. To meet this end, study results of the researches are incorporated into the curriculum. The positioning of Guanghua’s EMBA program is to inspire other similar programs to train business leaders to boost the competitiveness of the Chinese corporations.
The quality leader Changqi expects the EMBA students as learning leaders, they bring the life-time learning culture to their institutions. The more they and their institution learn, the more they know their shortfalls and they keep searching for knowledge and develop their own strengths. With this philosophy, the eventually the whole industry and more industries become ever-learning, more responsible and more competitive.
The spirit of Prof Wu coincides with the Chinese philosophy of establishing the self and serves the community. His advice to the Hong Kong students is to have a deep understanding of Chinese history and culture, on top of understanding Chinese economy. As for students in Mainland China, they need to know more about outside world and look at the world from broader perspectives.
Changqi has a happy family of three, his wife work is a banker. Alumni may remember that his wife’s Cantonese is better than Changqi’s.