The Estonian Business School (EBS) and Volkswagen Financial Services have signed an agreement that provides the students of EBS and its partner university, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, with an opportunity to draw up a project for the development of Volkswagen business activities in the Chinese market.
The project involves twelve EBS and six Hong Kong students, who are collaborating with the aim to come up with a business development plan for Volkswagen. In March, they are expected to present their plans for the company in Beijing.
According to Dr Benjamin Phillip Wille-Baumkauff, a representative of Volkswagen Financial Services and also a visiting lecturer at the EBS, this is the first such experience for Volkswagen. “It is clear that this is a learning curve for both parties – the students and the enterprise. It is not impossible that such a pilot project may be a basis for further and broader collaboration,” he said in a statement.
Wille-Baumkauff added that hopefully the joint project will enable to find young talented people, who the company may recruit after their studies.
Unique learning experience
Toomas Danneberg, the EBS vice rector for international collaboration, explained that the project will offer the students a unique and a very practical learning experience. “The students are divided into three groups, whereas each team will start to solve a real business problem set by VW Financial Services. In order to find working solutions to the problems, the students need to find out and work through the best available practices and present their own propositions.”
Established in 1988, the EBS is the oldest privately owned business university in Estonia. The university teaches entrepreneurship and business administration at bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels.
Volkswagen Financial Services supports the sales of all the brands of Volkswagen group and helps to raise the brand loyalty. The latest annual records show that the company had a revenue of EUR 158 billion.
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Cover: Classic Volkswagen van (the image is illustrative.)
